Now You Are Light (Ephesians 5.1-14)

Introduction

 

On a stiflingly hot and humid evening, 13th July 1977, an electrical storm formed over New York City. Two bolts of lightning in quick succession struck critical electrical power lines which had the knock-on effect of massively overloading the rest of the grid. 

 

Staff at an electrical substation situated on the Hudson River reacted too slowly and failed to reduce the strain on the remaining working cables. 

 

So other main power lines burned out one by one until at 9.27 pm the grid was fatally weakened and electricity for the entire city was down. Subway trains ground to a halt. Elevators stopped mid-flight. Fridges, freezers, air conditioning units, TVs - everything suddenly stopped working.

 

All the lights in New York City flickered and died. Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn… Everywhere was suddenly pitch black. Within moments, looting broke out. Over 2,000 stores were pillaged as people almost immediately started smashing windows and ransacking shops, grabbing anything they could carry. 

 

In the Bronx, a crowd forced their way into a Pontiac car showroom and drove off in single file with 50 brand new cars. It was a feeding frenzy. 

 

There was not only looting. There was arson too. 700 stores in Brooklyn alone were set ablaze. Police had to use water cannon to protect firefighters who were trying to put out the flames. Soon, there was thick, acrid smoke hanging over the city. It was like a war zone or a scene from a film about the end of the world. 

 

4,000 people were arrested that night, which is only a fraction of the number of offenders. Police officers were soon instructed to stop arresting people because cells were at capacity. The cost of all this ran to hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

You could not have a clearer illustration of what the Bible means when it talks about the deeds of darkness and living in the light, which just so happens to be what our passage in Ephesians is about today.

 

Here’s what it says: 

 

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them. 

It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible – and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:

‘Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’

 

Prayer…

 

Imitating God

 

A few months ago, I attended the funeral of a family member. At the reception afterwards, not one but two strangers walked up to me and said, “You have to be Mike Lambert’s son.” I physically resemble him very strongly. And apparently, I unconsciously mirror some of his mannerisms too. 

 

As this photo shows. We both tend to walk on ahead of a group with our hands in our pockets. In addition, my facial expressions are very much like his. And that’s not all. My body posture. My tone of voice. The way I drum my fingers on the steering wheel when stuck in traffic. And I could go on… No need for a DNA test.

 

Chapter 5 of Ephesians begins with the thought that, just as children often subconsciously imitate their earthly parents, so should we, as sons and daughters of God, consciously imitate our heavenly Father. In fact, the Greek word Paul uses is where we get our English word ‘mimic’ from.

 

“Follow God’s example as dearly loved children,” says v1. And the first thing Paul points to as what we ought to reflect is being full of love and being always ready to give of ourselves. 

 

It’s not for nothing that imitating God starts with love. “God is love.” “God so loved the world that he gave…” Someone once said, “If I have all my theology right, but have not love, I have none of my theology right.” 

 

In one of his books, Francis Chan writes about a Christian couple, friends of his, who have adopted a severely disabled child. It is a huge disruption to their family life. Everything has had to change. Every routine has been disrupted. It is hard work; it is time consuming, and at times heartbreaking. They have had to put all their dreams on hold; some dreams have had to die altogether. 

 

But do you know what they say? “We don’t think about how much we will suffer if we take her in; we think only about how much she will suffer if we don’t.”

 

You might not be called to adopt a severely disabled child, but you are called to “live a life of love, as v2 says, just as Christ loved us.”

 

As Christian parents, Kathie and I tried to train our children to put into practice what Jesus said about loving our enemies as well as our friends. Once, our then eight-year-old son came home saying he had been bullied at school.  

 

I was heartbroken to hear that but, once I had worked through my indignation and anger, I sat down with him and spoke about what Jesus said about loving people who aren’t very nice. 

 

Then I took him to the sweet shop. I bought some nice sweets, gave him half of them to cheer him up a bit, and then suggested that he give the other half the next day to the kid who was picking on him at school. That kid was totally amazed and later became our son’s friend.

 

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.”

 

Living in darkness

 

Verses 3 to 6 then list a number of behaviours and attitudes that belong to the dark side, and there they are on the screen for you. I’m not going to go into forensic detail about each one, but I want to say that one of them lies at the root of most of the others. 

 

Impurity, which Paul describes as ‘improper,’ leads to sexual immorality, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking and deception. 

 

Let’s think about purity and impurity for a moment. What makes a precious metal - gold, for example - so valuable? What gives gold its worth? In other words, why will people spend enormous sums of money on gold bracelets, rings, and necklaces? Forty-three years ago, I proposed to Kathie and so I needed to buy a ring. I learned then pretty quickly that there are different grades of gold, or carats.

 

The carat system was devised in the 14th century to regulate the gold trade. Pure gold is 24 carats. That’s 100% pure gold. That’s what you’ll find in the vaults of the Bank of England or Fort Knox. 

 

The gold you find in jeweller’s shops is usually mixed with copper or nickel and is generally 18 or 14 carats.

 

When I lived in France, I learned that anything less than 18 carats (75% gold) cannot be sold as “gold” there, whereas in the UK the proportion can go down to just 9 carats (which is only 37% gold)! 

 

The more carats you have in your gold, the less money you have left in your pockets. My wedding ring, and Kathie’s, are 9 or 12 carats, because we were young and poor and in love.

 

The Bible says a lot about purity. It’s important to God. It’s why he said to the Israelites in the Old Testament to use only pure materials for the tabernacle and the temple. 

 

In Exodus 25 God says, “Make an ark of acacia wood… You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold moulding around it… The buds and branches… shall all be of one piece of hammered pure gold. You shall also make seven lamps and set them up on it… Its wick trimmers and trays shall be of pure gold.”

 

And in Leviticus 22 God says, “When anyone offers a sacrifice to the Lord… it must be without defect or blemish.”

 

Why does God require perfection? Because he himself is pure, flawless, blameless, perfectly perfect, without defect, and supremely holy. 

 

And since we are made in his image, we also value purity and quality. We appreciate it in jewellery, as we have seen. When someone has trouble breathing, we pump pure oxygen into their lungs, free from impurities in the air. We expect our holiday beaches to be spotless. Utility companies get heavily fined if what they pump into our homes does not meet established standards, because we demand pure drinking water.

 

But generally speaking, society doesn’t value purity at all.

 

In the workplace, integrity is not exactly the order of the day; lies, schemes, shady dealings, and worse. The media world—turn on your TV, you’ll see family entertainment shows proudly promoting sexual looseness, risky language, and “alternative” lifestyles. In the political sphere… need I elaborate?

 

In sports, fair play seems to belong to another era. Footballers feign injury, pull each other’s shirts, claim throw-ins they know aren’t theirs, or dive to deceive the referee. All to a chorus of choice obscenities sung from the stands.

 

Swearing and crude humour are so commonplace in the streets that we begin not to notice them. 

 

But all this is, Paul says, ‘out of place’ for followers of Jesus. It’s inappropriate. It doesn’t really go with who we are. It’s like orange juice and toothpaste. It doesn’t go.

 

That list on the screen summed up everyday life in Ephesus in Paul’s day. But the Bible is a book that not only tells us what used to happen, it tells us what always happens. So that list also captures pretty accurately everyday life in the UK in our day too.

 

In the late eighties there was a very violent overnight storm in the south of England quite near to where we lived at the time. The next morning, people woke up to fallen trees everywhere. The TV news highlighted one huge old oak tree, centuries old, that was found blocking a major road. 

 

It was one of many, but this one was different from most. A close inspection the following morning brought something to light. The trunk inside was completely rotten. It had been eaten away by small insects that had gnawed at its core for years. 

 

The real problem was not the storm; that tree was on its way down from the day the first insect burrowed into the bark and made its home there.

 

So Paul says, in v7, “don’t partner with this stuff.” Don’t let the insects in. Don’t let yourself slowly go rotten from the inside. 

 

The Bible is not forbidding, or even discouraging, interaction with unbelievers here by the way. Jesus befriended disreputable people and ate with them. 

 

But listen, sinners loved him, not because he joined in and became like them; but because he loved them and then offered them a way out. So contact and conversation, yes. Collaboration and companionship, no.

 

Verses 5 and 6 speak of the certainty of judgement. “For of this you can be sure,” it says: “no immoral, impure or greedy person… has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.”

 

It’s saying that everyone will give an account to God at the last judgement for the choices they have made. All of us. Unbelievers won’t have a place in heaven after a lifestyle like this; and believers won’t have a reward in heaven after a lifestyle like this.

 

Living in the light

 

So much for the dark side and what it does. What does living in the light look like? 

 

Ephesians 5 goes on to set forth a vision of life for us that is, by contrast, like a strong, solid, healthy tree, with deep roots, growing and bearing fruit. 

 

Here are the healthy elements listed in our passage, filtered out from the unhealthy ones. Hearts overflowing with love, not animosity or ill will. Thanksgiving on our lips, not grumbling and criticising. Goodness in our attitudes, not unkindness or bullying or nastiness. Righteousness in our moral stature, above reproach. And truth running through our values, not dishonesty and deceitfulness. 

 

The workplace can be a hostile environment for living truthfully.

 

A Christian called Andrew Gibson, when he was young, worked as a clerk in the head office at the London department store, Selfridges. One day, when the owner Mr. Selfridge himself was there, the telephone rang and Andrew answered it. The caller asked to speak to Mr. Selfridge. 

 

Andrew passed on the message and Selfridge replied, “Tell him I’m out.” Andrew held out the receiver to him with his hand over the mouthpiece and said, “You tell him you’re out!’ So Selfridge took the call, but he was furious with this office junior, this nobody talking to him like that.  

 

But Andrew Gibson said to him afterwards, “Sir, if I can lie for you, I can lie to you.” From that moment onwards, Selfridge knew he could absolutely trust that man.

 

“Live as children of light… in all truth.”

 

On the other hand, someone I knew when I lived in Paris was once instructed by his bosses to defend a dossier that he knew involved false accounting in order to secure a contract. He said, “I’m not going to do that.” They said, “Why not? We want that contract.” He said, “This is morally wrong and, as a Christian, I am telling you I will have no part in it.” They told him to clear his desk by 5:00pm that day.

 

Living in the light can come at a cost, but the Bible says, “Those who honour me, I will honour.” That man eventually found better employment following that stand-off.

 

Outcomes – fruitful or fruitless

 

Verses 9-11 tell us that there are two very different outcomes we can expect from the virtues on the left and the vices on the right.  

 

Verse 9: “The fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” Do you want a life with healthy spiritual growth, bearing good fruit like that?

 

Here’s what we mean by fruit… Pastor and evangelist Glen Scrivener did some research on life outcomes for one of his podcasts and he found that people who say that their faith is important to them tend to thrive. They have on average longer life, greater resistance to depression, better recovery from illness, quicker recovery from surgery, lower risk of suicide and lower rates of divorce than unbelievers. 

 

“If the government were able to put the magic potion of faith into the water supply” he says, “it could deliver longer life and happier, healthier people. 

 

So that’s fruitfulness on an individual level. What about in society generally? 

Christians give more money to secular charities than secular people do, they give more time to secular charities than secular people do, they give more blood than secular people give; all these things have been demonstrated with studies. Faith helps people flourish more and it makes society better.”

 

“The fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.”

 

Internationally, the picture is similar. Sociologist Robert Woodberry spent over ten years researching the effect of ‘conversionary’ that is to say evangelical, Bible-believing missionaries on the countries where they served. 

 

Here’s what Woodberry found: “Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in non-governmental associations.”

 

Verse 11: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.” 

 

There’s a dark and shaded corner of our garden where sowing grass seeds is an annual waste of time. Nothing grows, nothing thrives, without sunlight. That’s why Paul talks about fruitless deeds of darkness.

 

Don’t look back at your life when your time has come only to see a wasteland of barren fruitlessness. 

 

Jesus said it; “Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” That’s fruitfulness.

 

“Everything illuminated becomes a light” says v13. Our dark world needs Christians to shine more. 

 

Ending

 

Our passage ends with what seems to be a popular saying in v14. Bible scholars think it may have been part of a worship song that was already known to the believers in Ephesus. 

 

It doesn’t really matter; what matters is that Paul feels the need to say at this point, “Wake up!” Come on, sleepy heads! Have you been regressing and backsliding a bit? Get a grip! You’re resurrection people now. 

 

What if there was a 24-hour power cut in Darlington? Would our town spiral down into lawlessness and anarchy like New York did? 

 

Our world is spiritually dark, as Paul will point out in chapter 6, and we’ll get to that next month.

 

Once we were darkness, but now, we are light in the Lord. Is anyone slacking and letting their witness, which was once so vibrant, grow dim?

 

Let Christ, the light of the world, full of grace and truth, light up once again who you are in him and how you express it in your day-to-day life.

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 19 April 2026. 

The Greatest Day in History (Mark 16.1-6 and Corinthians 15.1-8)

 

Introduction

 

Over 300 years ago, a French benedictine monk called Dom Pierre Pérignon, developed a skill for producing white wine from red grapes. One day, he happened upon the creation of a previously unknown effervescent wine that came to be called Champagne. And when he made that discovery, he excitedly called everyone in the monastery saying, “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” Or so the legend goes…

 

Champagne is a drink we associate with success, with celebrations, with parties and with happiness. We open bottles of it at special occasions; weddings, birthdays, graduations and the like. There is nothing cheap or everyday about Champagne. It is a luxurious, high-end sparkling wine renowned for its finesse and subtlety and quality. Even the sound of the popping of a Champagne cork is evocative of exceptional events.

 

And I say this by way of introduction because the first Easter Sunday is surely by any measure the most exceptional event of all time. It is the ultimate special occasion. It is the most thrilling news announcement that the world has yet heard. It’s the greatest day in history; heaven's Champagne moment.

 

The First Witnesses

 

Whenever any newsworthy incident takes place, whether terrific or catastrophic, journalists and reporters are invariably keen to speak with those who were first on the scene. 

 

Mark’s Gospel is thought to be the first of four eyewitness reports of the events of that first Easter morning. And, according to Mark, there were four individuals on the scene; three women and a mysterious, unnamed young man. This is how Mark reports it. 

 

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 'Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.’

 

The three other Gospels all agree with Mark that Jesus’ grave was first visited by three women. They know the location very well, because they had been there at the burial just before dusk on Friday. They go together at first light intending to lovingly wipe the dried blood from Jesus’ cold, dead body and embalm it with costly spices. It’s their last act of devotion. 

 

It occurs to them on the way that they will struggle between them to move the heavy stone in front of the tomb, but they’ll just have to cross that bridge when they come to it. When they get to the cemetery, they find, to their alarm and dismay, that the stone has already been moved, the grave has been disturbed and the body is missing.

 

According to John, the emotion of the weekend gets the better of one of them called Mary Magdalene; it’s been a traumatic few days for her and now she can’t even have any closure, so she just wells up right there and begins to sob helplessly. 

 

She’s got tears running down her cheeks. She feels wretched. She’s been crying for three days and now it’s getting worse. Her eyes are wet and weary from constant crying. All she’s got are unanswered questions. Why did they all turn against him? How could they? Why is the tomb open? Who’s taken the body? Where have they moved it? What do I do now?

 

An ancient tradition says that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute. The Bible never says that, but some people identify her with an unnamed woman in Mark’s Gospel who had lived a sinful life and who had earlier poured perfume on Jesus’ feet. 

 

Luke’s Gospel tells us that Jesus had delivered her of seven demons. To have one was a living nightmare – she had seven of them. Just imagine the oppression, the constant torment, the heaviness, the darkness that she lived with… 

 

We don’t need to speculate what these demons were about or how she became possessed. All we need to know is that when she met Jesus, all seven had to go with a word of his command, and her living hell was over. 

 

No wonder she loved him! No wonder she was so devoted to him. No wonder she stayed to the very end, so he didn’t die alone. And no wonder she was first to arrive at the tomb and see to the embalming.

 

She and two other women, Salome and another Mary, peer into the burial chamber, hollowed out of a rock. They don’t know it yet, but this day will become for them the most wonderful of their lives.

 

Because as they squint into the shadows that morning, all they see is a discarded, bloodstained burial shroud lying on a cold stone slab and a young man dressed in white, who can see they’re freaked out – understandably. 

 

“Don’t be alarmed” he says. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.” Who is this? How did he know that? “He is not here,” he continues. They can see that. And as they try and take everything in, he says the most wondrous words. “He has risen! Look, this is where they laid his body.”

 

Sometime shortly before they arrived, the most momentous event in world history had taken place. The victorious and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

We don’t always realise this, but the New Testament letters were mostly written before the Gospels. So although Mark’s Gospel is probably the earliest eyewitness report of the day itself, an even earlier written reference to the resurrection, probably about 15 years after the events, appears in a section of a letter written by a former arch-enemy of Christianity, the Apostle Paul. Here’s what he writes:

 

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

 

This is, he says, a matter of first importance. Second to none in prominence and significance. It’s at the very top of the list of absolutely essential things in life. 

 

Here is the indispensable core of what all Christians believe. “I received it” Paul says. “I passed it on to you like a relay baton as my top priority. Now, whatever you do, don’t drop it.”

 

The former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright calls what we find here the ‘irreducible minimum.’ If you take this away; Jesus’ death as a substitute, in our place, his burial, and his physical, bodily resurrection from the dead, it’s no longer Christianity. If we don't hold onto this, we are not Christians, we are still estranged from God and lost for all eternity.

 

As J.John says, being a Christian is all about Christ and what he did. “You take Christ out of the word Christian and you’re left with Ian, and Ian isn’t going to help you.”

 

These events must have prominence and precedence and pre-eminence in our faith. This is the good news. Without this, we have nothing of value to say to the world.

 

If you’ve seen the film based on Homer’s Iliad called Troy starring Brad Pitt, you'll remember a scene where the armies of Greece and Thessaly are lined up against each other, armed for battle. And they come to an agreement. They decide that, to avoid massive bloodshed, each army should select a champion, a bit like David and Goliath, and they can fight it out between them and the victory will go to the army of whoever prevails. 

 

Thessaly select an absolute ox of a man called Boagrius. What a specimen! He’s about 7 foot tall, shaven headed, eyebrows joining together, all muscle, he’s hard. And he strides forward with a mean frown and a snarling mouth. 

 

Then the Greeks bring out their champion, Achilles. It looks like a mismatch. Achilles is muscular and fleet-footed by most people’s standards, but Boagrius is a monster. Everyone watches with bated breath. The two men advance towards each other. Boagrius takes a javelin and hurls it at Achilles. Achilles raises his great circular shield and swats it away like it is some kind of insult, and he continues to stride forward, completely fearless. 

 

Boagrius seems to find it amusing though and he hurls a second spear. The same thing happens. Then, as Achilles approaches, out comes Boagrius’ huge flashing sword but it is scarcely out of the scabbard before Achilles has athletically leapt towards him and he dispatches him in one move. Boagrius drops to the dust face first and with a mighty cheer the day goes to the Greeks. What a scene!

 

Then Achilles, unflinching, strides out towards the Thessalian army all lined up in rank and he looks up and down, and left and right, and he shouts out, “Is there anyone else?” No one moves. No one speaks. 

 

Listen, on Good Friday Jesus took an absolute battering at the cross. It was brutal. It was carnage. He took the full brunt of human wickedness; they beat him to a bloody pulp and gave him a complete hammering – literally. 

 

But sometime between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus faced off all the powers of hell and said “Is that all you’ve got? Is there no one else? Does no one else want to have a go?” Is there no other challenger? Is there no other adversary?” 

 

There was no one else! All the powers of evil cringed and shrunk off into the shadows of hell. Sin and death, like rats on a stricken ship, panicked and ran. Every evil spirit cowered and recoiled. And when he’d seen them all off, as the old hymn says, “up from the grave he rose with a mighty triumph o’er his foes.”

 

Jesus is always true to his word. He said he was going up to Jerusalem - and he went. He said he would be mocked, beaten, spat on and handed over - and he was. He said they would crucify him - and they did. He said after three days he would rise again - and the grave could not handle him.

 

The Buddah, Muhammad, Confucius, Patanjali and all the rest of them are dead. Every last one of them. Their followers don’t dispute it. You can visit their graves and pay your respects at the shrine. But Jesus is unique because he alive. That’s why he alone of all religious figures can bring real forgiveness, true freedom, transformational healing, new life, fresh hope and a bright future today to all who turn to him in faith. 

 

The Evidence

 

There are many reasons why we should believe that the resurrection really happened. But as I draw towards a close, I’m just briefly going to list twelve.

 

1. The resurrection of the suffering and death-defeating Messiah was clearly prophesied in the Old Testament centuries before the birth of Jesus.

 

2. On several occasions, as I have just referenced, Jesus himself predicted his own resurrection while teaching his disciples – who didn’t understand what he was saying until it happened.

 

3. According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the body was missing from the tomb. But Luke and John also note that the burial shroud and head bandage were still in place. Grave robbers stole linen, because of its high value, and left bodies in the tomb. Why would any tomb raider steal a dead body and leave the burial clothes?

 

4. If the Jewish authorities or Roman guards had secretly moved the body elsewhere, why did they not exhume it to put a stop to the public claim - in the same city just six weeks later - that Jesus was alive?

 

5. If the disciples removed the body and lied about it, why did they not go quiet when threatened with imprisonment and death? None of them backed down when facing the death penalty because they knew it was true.

 

6. How would anyone get past armed security guards at the tomb, shift the stone and remove the uncovered body unnoticed?

 

7. According to 1 Corinthians 15, over 500 eyewitnesses, “most of whom are still living”, saw Jesus alive after his death. The challenge of the passage is “If you didn’t see him alive yourself, go and ask someone who did.”

8. If reports in the Gospels of the resurrection were made up, why were women the first recorded eyewitnesses? Their testimony was not admissible in court in the ancient world so there was nothing to be gained by saying that they attested the empty tomb and the risen Jesus before anyone else. (That’s why incidentally, Paul doesn’t think to mention them in the second passage we read).

 

9. How do we account for the eleven surviving disciples all being completely transformed individuals with the resurrection at the heart of their message? These people had fled, fearing for their lives, when Jesus was arrested. What happened to them? Only something out of the ordinary accounts for such a dramatic and permanent change in their behaviour.

 

10. How do we explain the sudden conversion of hardened sceptics like Jesus’ cynical brother James and Saul of Tarsus, a former persecutor of Christians? Both conversions are attributed to personal post-resurrection encounters.

 

11. Why did the earliest Christians, who were all devout Jews, suddenly change their “holy day” from Saturday to the first day of the Jewish working week – Sunday? First Century Jews were obsessive about the Sabbath, but they started to meet for worship instead on Sundays at dawn before going to work. Something momentous must have taken place.

 

12. How is it that a thoroughly laughable story, originating from a motley band of unpromising losers in a back of beyond province of imperial Rome, became what is the world’s biggest movement and which is still growing today? How do you explain the improbable and rapid rise of what was a despised and illegal sect? 

 

Ending

 

In many ways, Jesus was just like anyone else because he was fully human. But the Bible tells us he is also totally different from anyone else who ever lived, because he is at the same time fully God. 

 

Jesus did something no one has ever done; he rose from the dead for evermore. His resurrection is proof of his divine nature.

 

So I urge you this Easter to turn to God and invite Jesus to be Lord of your life. Do it today. When you do, you’ll discover that God loves you and wants to make you his child forever.

 

That's why today, and every day, can be an echo of the greatest day in history; heaven’s Champagne moment. The day Christ rose from the grave and put death for all eternity under his feet.

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 5 April 2026.

 

 

 

Open Secret (Ephesians 3.1-13)

Introduction

Do you remember those moments of truth at school when the teacher was handing back marked homework? Do you remember how you felt? Some of you will have looked forward to once again being affirmed with your customary 10/10 mark. But if you were like me, there would be a knot in the stomach before opening the exercise book to see a forest of comments in red ink with the crowning insult of a 2/10 mark awarded. 

 

“Sloppy work, John. You didn’t follow the instructions. You haven’t demonstrated the sums. Were you not paying attention to the lesson?” Cross, cross, cross, tick, cross, cross, cross, cross. “See me after class. Where is your punctuation?” And, whenever I had to write an essay, “Sentence incomplete.”  

 

Well, our passage from Ephesians 3 today starts with an unfinished sentence – and, what is more, almighty God wanted it that way. Here’s the deal: Paul begins chapter three of Ephesians with the words, “For this reason I, Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles -” and then he goes off on a tangent and does not return to his original sentence until v14.

 

If only I could have said to my English teacher Mr. Cheeseman, “I know technically that my homework was sloppy and my grammar was careless Sir, but it was 100% inspired by God, and people will be reading it in churches hundreds of years after I’m dead!” 

  

Unfortunately for me, I was not writing holy scripture though. But when Paul gets to Ephesians 3.1 , it seems he is interrupted in mid-flow by Holy Spirit who whispers, “Paul, don’t forget to tell them about the mystery.” And so off goes Paul on a glorious and God-breathed digression. That’s our passage today. 

 

The Holy Spirit really wanted us all to know about a magnificent mystery, a seismic secret, which had been kept strictly under wraps for many centuries, but which God was now suddenly making public.

 

We’re going to see many great and wonderful things on Paul’s little rabbit trail. Let’s read the passage together. Ephesians 3.1.

 

For this reason [what reason? He’s referring to the fantastic truth at the end of chapter 2 that, because of the cross, God has made peace between previously bitter enemies. For this reason…] I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus [Paul’s writing this in prison because of relentless opposition to his faith] for the sake of you Gentiles – [and then we get the inspired detour]. Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, [he’s talking here about his special assignment from God to tell all nations about Jesus] that is, the mystery [no longer hidden away and inaccessible and cryptic, but] made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which [listen carefully now, please] was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 

 

Let’s pause it right there. Paul is saying that there has been an earth-shattering revelation about Jesus and it’s been kept quiet for eons. Question: why do you think God’s great and glorious plan was deliberately hidden away from all previous generations, that is to say everyone who ever lived in what we now call B.C? Why did God not reveal the gospel clearly before? 

 

Is it because God is a bit of a tease and likes keeping secrets from people? No. It’s because the unfathomably wise purpose of God was always to wait for the perfect timing. 

 

Galatians 4.4 says, “when the time had fully come, (or when the fullness of time had arrived, or when the proper time had reached its fulfilment) God sent his Son, born of a woman…” 

 

In the first century A.D., all the stars aligned to give the perfect conditions for the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus was born at a time of unprecedented political stability called the Pax Romana. 

 

In addition, there was a new and extensive Roman road network and safe shipping routes that allowed the early Christians to quickly spread the gospel far and wide to new nations. 

 

Furthermore, from the days of Alexander the Great, there was now a common language throughout the known world which enabled the gospel to be written down and widely communicated and understood. 

 

And finally, Jewish expectation was at fever pitch while, at the same time, spiritual emptiness in the Roman world left a God-shaped void in people’s lives. The gospel message was immensely attractive in these conditions.

 

So God’s timing was not a matter of chance; his wisdom pinpointed this providential moment to maximize the effective spread of the message of salvation.

 

Ephesians 3 continues in v6 with a drum roll, and the unveiling of the surprise… This mystery [here it comes, are you listening?] is that through the gospel [get ready…] the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

 

1) The secret is uncovered (v2-6)

 

If we’re going to grasp what the Bible is saying here, we need to understand that the ancient world was basically divided into two very distinct groups of people. (Michael very helpfully went over this two weeks ago, but I’ll explain it now for the benefit of those who weren’t here, and for those of you who were and have forgotten already, let me remind you). 

 

The ancient world was divided into two polar-opposite camps. First of all, there were the religiously observant types (otherwise known as the Jews). They liked to observe all the feast days, avoid certain foods, pray all day Saturday and keep all the rules. And they were obsessively strict and particular about all this; so much so that it became very exclusive. Access to their religion was seriously restricted. 

 

Secondly, there were the not at all religious types (that is to say, the Gentiles). They might have been superstitious, but they were irreverent and notoriously immoral. Jews and Gentiles were like oil and water. They did not mix. They did not get on. They did not like each other or tolerate each other.

 

So the big deal here is that the grace of God has been revealed to a strict and particular Jew called Paul to share with every irreligious Gentile on earth a secret that was kept concealed for many, many years. But now, with the coming of Jesus, the lid has been blown off the box and everything’s out in the open. 

 

Now, because of the gospel, the not-at-all-religious Gentiles and the obsessively pious Jews can become one group, not two, and share together in all God’s promises.

 

Three times in v6, notice, there is the little word “together.” People did vaguely know from the Old Testament that there was going to be some sort of future plan or provision for the Gentiles. Isaiah for example, said, “I will make you, [Israel], a light to the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” But no one ever imagined in their wildest dreams that this meant that Gentile and Jewish believers would become equal in one family, the Body of Christ.

 

It is hard for us to get a feel for how incendiary all this was in the first century. It was, to quote Vizzini in The Princess Bride, “absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable.” It was explosive.

 

It explains why everywhere Paul went his preaching immediately provoked a city-wide disturbance. It’s why they kept throwing him in jail. His message blew to bits an unchallengeable order that had firmly been in place from the time of Abraham to Jesus; 2,000 long years of history. 

 

In our day, 2,000 years after Christ, we sort of have the opposite issue. It’s common to hear people say, “God’s worldwide family in Christ is big and diverse, but sadly the Jews aren’t really part of it because they don’t believe in Jesus.” That’s not quite right though. Some Jews do recognise Jesus as their Messiah and, excitingly, their number is increasing. 

 

Last week, I was browsing the website of Jews for Jesus, which contains many testimonies from Jewish people who have discovered that Jesus of Nazareth is their long-awaited Messiah. Those faces on the screen are some of them. They’re all ethnic Jews, born and raised in Judaism, and who now bow the knee to Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. I wish I had time to share a few of their stories with you this morning. I don’t, but I recommend you visit the website and take a look for yourself. 

 

2) The news is out (v7-11)

 

Let’s read on. In the section from v7 to v11 Paul explains that the toothpaste is out of the tube. The news about this secret (or mystery) is now spreading, thanks to his call to preach the good news about Jesus to those who were never bothered about our God before, that is to say the Gentiles. Here’s what it says:

 

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. [In other words, God gave me the ability to communicate effectively and powerfully the good news about Jesus to profoundly irreligious people.] Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: [he’s saying, “without God’s help, God’s anointing, I would never have been able to do it] to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery [in other words the way God’s great plan is designed to be executed through the church], which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, [he’s thinking about angels and demons here] according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 

Here’s the thing; the gospel has to be announced. Paul says he has to preach it (v8) and make it plain (v9). If we don’t speak it out, it will never be heard. News has to be broadcast. 

 

If we all keep the gospel to ourselves, this generation of Christians will be the last. So whenever an opportunity presents itself, make yourself available to God as his servant. Because, as Paul says in v7, the good news of Jesus Christ is powerful stuff. There is nothing else like it.

 

In one of his conferences, Ed Silvoso told the story about Olmos Prison in La Plata, southeast of Buenos Aires. A few years ago, this establishment of 2,700 inmates, the largest prison in Argentina, was totally unmanageable. There were stories of homosexual rape and prostitution, protection rackets, murders and riots. The building was effectively controlled by the Mafia, drug dealers and gangsters of every type. 

 

There was not one Christian on the site. But if you fancied a bit of religion, there was a satanic cult, which offered animal sacrifices to the devil. The whole place was steeped in evil. Local people didn’t go anywhere near it, it was said to be haunted or possessed. Imagine the reviews on Trip Advisor…

 

This is how a First Century Jew would have thought of any Gentile, by the way. 

 

Anyway, in a neighbouring town, a local pastor was convicted of a relatively minor financial offence, and he was sentenced to spend some time at Olmos. The man repented in his cell and cried out to God for mercy, “Oh God, give me a second chance,” he said, “don’t abandon me. Don’t throw me away. Fill me with the Holy Spirit.” The Lord had mercy on him, forgave his sin and filled him again with the Spirit. The pastor had nothing to lose. He started to infiltrate the Satan cult, the Mafia and the gangs. He became, in his own words, a kamikaze for Christ. 

 

At about the same time, another Christian applied for an administrative job in that prison. The place was so evil that the interviewers, when they heard he was a Christian, said to him, “Get out of here. We don’t want you here. We hate you. If you take this job, we’re going to kill you.” Apart from that they were really hospitable! But nobody else applied, so he got the job anyway. 

 

Now, the prison had one believer behind bars and another behind a desk. They started to pray. First, they asked God for a slot on the prison radio. In the end, they were granted one and a half hours a week. It’s not much. But, if you forgive the expression, they did have a captive audience, because the broadcasts were relayed by loudspeaker all around the jail. You couldn’t switch it off. The two men prayed and prayed, and little by little they saw men turning to Christ. 

 

That’s when the backlash started. But the believers discovered that they had a constitutional right to be protected. The prison has five floors and is organized in blocks of cells, each holding 42 inmates. So the Christians claimed a block for themselves, so as to be protected from the violence threatened against them. 

 

True, they were given the worst block in the whole building, on the 4th floor. That’s where the Mafia and the black mass people were locked up. The believers formed a church, recognized a pastor and appointed a team of elders. They set up a rota where they prayed each night from 11pm to 5am. Two men read the Bible, two prayed and two others went from cell to cell, laying hands on the sick and praying for healing and blessing for their fellow prisoners and their families. Every two hours, the teams rotated so those who were reading the Bible started to pray, and so on.

 

Today, 1,500 men are disciples of Jesus Christ in that prison. You see what I mean?  When Paul speaks about “the working of his power” in v7, he's not trying to sell you tat on your doorstep that breaks after three days. The gospel is powerful. And it’s not for nothing either that the Apostle writes about the unsearchable riches of Christ (v8). 

 

“It’s unsearchable,” he says. You can’t scan it, you won’t get to the bottom of it, you’ll never really fathom it, it’s immeasurable, it’s like a diamond mine you’ll never exhaust. There are always more jewels, more perfectly faceted, more breathtakingly exquisite than the ones you’ve already pulled out of the ground. It keeps getting better. 

 

A transformation in the heart, like in that Argentine jail, like in my life, like in yours, is priceless. There is no limit to the mercy, and the patience, and the loving kindness and the grace and goodness, the blessing and the faithfulness and favour of our majestic, glorious, resplendent and three-times holy God. 

 

Hang down your bucket in God’s well of grace this morning! God’s supply of blessing has no bottom. There’s always more. 

 

3) Approaching God confidently (v12-13)

 

Have you ever had the experience of wanting desperately to contact somebody who is impossible to get hold of? He's not at home, his car is gone, and it’s not at the office either. His mobile is on answerphone mode, and at work you keep getting a pre-recorded voicemail message. His P.A. offers you a meeting for Thursday week. You phone and get an engaged signal. Finally, a sign of hope! That means he is on the line. Five minutes later, you call again but there’s no answer! Frustrated? 

 

Look at v12. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

 

I’m told the Greek work which Paul used, that we have translated as "approach" was used for the permission granted to come into the presence of a sovereign. So without wishing to in any way diminish or even qualify the truth about God (his holiness, his supremacy, his majesty) I want to insist as well that God is more accessible than your boss, your parents, or your spouse. 

 

You’ll never get God’s P.A. keeping you at arm’s length to protect him from you. God is waiting for you. His door is open and the line is free. God is accessible 24/7. He has no day off. He doesn’t even shut down at the weekend or for annual leave!

 

“In him and through faith in him you may approach God with freedom and confidence.” 

 

I once heard of a stay-at-home mum, whose life was a little mundane and not terribly full of action or surprises. But she said one day, “Whenever I am at the sink, doing the dishes, all I need to do is lift my old apron over my head and I’m in the Holy of Holies, in the satisfying and radiant presence of almighty God. She’s right.

 

It’s a phenomenal privilege to be granted freedom to approach God with full assurance. Most of us would be a bit nervous about entering the throne room of an omnipotent ruler. But don’t be afraid. By faith, you can enter directly into God’s awesome presence in prayer and in worship. 

 

I think that this verse tells us two very important things about our praise and worship. 

 

First of all, don’t be worried, cringing or anxious in approaching the Lord as we worship him together. He welcomes you gladly because he’s your Father and he loves you as his child.

  

But secondly, don’t trivialise the enormous privilege of entering God’s presence, as if it were something frivolous or mundane. Confidently doesn’t mean casually. 

 

Come before him with humility and with simplicity. But honour him as God almighty with fear and trembling, for our God is a consuming, holy fire.

  

Ending

 

So as I close, as Paul ends his inspired digression and sinks to his knees in prayer, will you draw near to God this morning? 

 

Maybe you never really have drawn near to him before. Will that change today? Is there a burden, or a weight, to drop at his feet? Pour your heart out. He promises to listen. Is there something you know he is calling you to, that you might have been resisting? Is there an area of your life you haven’t yet given over to him? His door is open and no appointment is necessary. Come! This is the time.

 

Draw near to God and, listen to the Bible’s promise, he’ll draw near to you. 

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 8 March 2026.