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.

...That You May Know... (Ephesians 1.15-23)

Introduction

Elvis Presley’s former home in Memphis, Tennessee, known as Graceland, is the second-most visited private home tourist destination in the USA. Only the White House attracts more. Graceland welcomes around 600,000 visitors every year.

 

Upon entering this impressive mansion, a smiling member of staff presents you with a glossy guidebook which says, “Graceland – Where Elvis Lives.” Not “lived” (past tense) but “lives.” I think they probably mean that the house kind of keeps his legacy going through his artefacts and his personal touch on that house. 

 

No doubt his former residence provides some kind of insight into the king of rock and roll. But it’s not a home, it’s a museum, and the stark truth is that Elvis has in fact permanently left the building, and since 16 August 1977 Elvis very much does not live at Graceland or indeed anywhere else. 

 

Saying “Elvis lives here” is a way of talking that clearly doesn’t align with reality. And I start with that thought this morning because I want to ask you how much does what you claim as a Christian truly match your lived experience?

 

How much, for example, would you say you know and experience the power of God? Be honest. The Bible claims that the power of God in us who believe is the same as God’s mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him on high. And it’s in today’s passage of scripture that it says it, as we’ll see shortly. It’s a fantastic truth and no wonder people marvel at it. 

 

But, truthfully speaking, how much is that just theory for you, just words on a page, and how much is it what you live and breathe every day? Is “the resurrection power of God at work in me” feel a bit like, “Graceland – where Elvis lives?”

 

The supremacy of Christ

 

We’re picking up today from where Michael left off last Sunday. He had the privilege of expounding one of the richest, lushest, most resonant and power-packed passages in the whole Bible. Ephesians 1.3-14 positively revels in how God’s grand and wise plan of salvation magnifies his glory. 

 

In brief, last week’s passage sums up God’s lavish grace in Christ as a sweeping cascade of blessings. It affirms that through Jesus’ saving death, you are forgiven and set free from sin’s deadly power, and that God chose you before time began, to be adopted as his child, because he loves you. 

 

It adds that if you are a believer, you receive a secure everlasting inheritance that showcases his glory. And it ends by asserting that the Holy Spirit seals you as God’s own, which guarantees the security of your eternal future. That’s the multidimensional beauty of grace and from it should rightly flow continual and grateful praise to God.

 

We could easily have spent months on end savouring the pleasures and delights of those twelve verses in a long preaching series and not said half of all there is to say about the Lord Jesus and all he has won for us. 

 

People speak of Alexander the Great, Napoleon the Great, Catherine the Great, Charles the Great and Peter the Great; but we never speak of Jesus the Great. Because the word “great” is inadequate to express his supreme excellence and magnificence. 

 

He is far above every human measure of greatness. He stands alone. He is unique. His majesty has no equal, his mercy has no bounds, his wisdom has no peer, his love has no limit, his authority knows no rival, his power has no match and his kingdom will have no end.

 

How do you follow that? How do you follow Ephesians 1.3-14? Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, follows it with a prayer. Not a prayer that God would give you new blessings, because there is no more blessing possible to get! You have been blessed in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Your cup is already overflowing! 

 

Rather, Paul’s prayer is that you would fully know, fully realise, fully appreciate, what is already yours. And this is what we’re going to feast on today.

 

As always with Paul’s writing, it’s very tightly packed together with lots of abstract nouns and long subordinate clauses all piled one on top of the other. 

 

Nehemiah 8 talks about the Levites who “read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood.” 

 

So I’m going to try and do the same now, doing my best to break it all down to make it plain… Here’s what it says, starting in chapter 1 and verse 15.

 

For this reason, [that is, what he’s just been talking about, the grace of God opening the floodgates of every spiritual blessing for you, for that reason] ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, [notice, this is not a quick, one-off prayer; it’s more like a lifestyle, it’s persistent] remembering you in my prayers. 

[And there’s not only repeated thanksgiving, there’s also continual intercession because he then adds…]

I keep asking that [firstly] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 

[That’s the first request – that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit will lead you to know him better. And then secondly…]

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order [again, notice these words] that you may know [know what? That you may know] the hope to which he has called you, [and what is this hope to which he has called you? It’s (a)] the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, [in other words, what is yours, fully yours as a child of God] and [b] his incomparably great power for us who believe. 

 

Let’s just pause that right there. Remember what I said earlier; Paul is not asking God for additional blessings, as if what he has done for us in Christ is insufficient or lacking in some way. Instead, he asks, in fact keeps on asking, for an eye-opening, soul-enlightening revelation of how much is already ours.

 

Knowing our God 

 

And, I’ve highlighted it on the screen for you, he asks God not once, but twice, that “you may know.” Know what? Firstly, know God better. Not know about God, not know of God, but know him… personally, as a friend, as one who is with you, who is for you. 

 

Actually, in Philippians 3.10, and we saw this last year, Paul said, “I want to know Christ.” Why would the great apostle Paul say that? Surely, he knew Christ already? I get the feeling he knew Christ far better than I do. 

 

But his relentless ambition was to know him ever more deeply. He was so aware of how far he still had to go. And he knew there is a clear difference between knowing about someone and truly knowing them.

 

Possibly my first crush was on a young woman called Jo. She was beautiful, blonde, and she had a perfect figure. She was the sister of a friend of mine, but I can’t say I really knew her. I might boast to my friends that I knew her but the truth is that I maybe said hello to her once and she ignored me. I knew of her.

 

I had no chance of really getting to know her closely as a friend. Firstly, she was a model and dating the guitarist of a world-famous rock band that everyone in this room will have heard of. And secondly, she was in her early twenties, and I was about nine.

 

In French, there are two words for the English verb to know. Savoir is what you say when you talk about knowing facts. But they have another word, connaître, to talk about personally knowing people. 

 

In John 8.32, Jesus says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” In a French Bible, you might expect it to be translated savoir because surely the truth is factual. But no, it’s actually translated connaître, because the truth is a person; Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And so he is talking about personal, intimate, relational knowledge. 

 

Some of us have known the Lord for a long time. Others have got to know him only recently. And perhaps still others among us don’t know him yet. Why don’t you step out and make the decision today, if that’s you, that you will open the door of your heart, let him in, and get to know him personally? 

 

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, saturate yourself in the Gospels, reflect deeply on Jesus’ life and humility and authority and self-control and prayerfulness and truthfulness, savour his teaching, and get to know him as you pray through what you read. Wait on him. The more you spend time with Jesus, the more you will become like him.

 

Knowing our hope 

 

And secondly, Paul prays for us to know, deeply know, that our indestructible hope (the gift of eternal life) is kept safely in heaven for us. The apostle Peter says elsewhere in the New Testament that this heavenly inheritance is like exquisite, refined gold that can never perish, or spoil, or fade. 

 

John Lennon imagined a world with no heaven or no religion. We don’t have to imagine. We already have a place on earth where there is no religion and no heaven called North Korea and people risk their lives trying desperately to get away from it.

 

It’s much healthier for your soul to imagine an eternity with heaven, where God will remove every aspect of weakness in your body. Your eyes will be sharper to enjoy greater beauty. Your mind will be brighter to perceive and remember deeper wisdom. Your ears will be clearer making everything sound more glorious. Your vocal chords won’t get hoarse and weary from singing. Your legs won’t get tired from dancing. Your arms will never become heavy from being lifted in praise.

 

C.S. Lewis ends his Narnia series with this brilliant, imaginative vision of the new heavens and the new earth: “The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

 

This is our inheritance, this is our confident hope; this is what is laid up for us, and Paul’s prayer is that we would know it and treasure it. 

 

Knowing his power

 

And in the meantime, in this earthly life, he prays for us to know the incomparably great power of God, which is more than sufficient to keep us from falling and get us to the finishing line. The power of God to keep us on track and bring us safely to our eternal inheritance, what is that like? Here’s how Paul describes it… 

 

That power [for all who believe] is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, [that is to say over all things] and every name that is invoked, [that is to say over all people] not only in the present age but also in the one to come [that is to say over all time]. 

And [just to make it abundantly clear, in case you didn’t get it] God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 

See how comprehensive and complete God’s resurrection power is! I’ve highlighted the alls and the everys on the screen for you to see. 

 

Nicky Gumbel, of the Alpha Course, talks about a young man at his church in London who worked in the library of a major national newspaper. The head office has a basement with an extensive archive of old cuttings, stories, pictures and quotes about every well-known person you can imagine. Entertainers, royalty, sportsmen and women, artists, politicians, criminals, war heroes, scientists, you name it… The files are kept in rows of long shelves and are separated into ‘living people’ and ‘dead people’.

 

One day, the young man was looking through the files of dead people and he came across a large file marked ‘Jesus Christ’. He glanced over his shoulder to check that no one was looking, and he quickly moved the file from the ‘dead people’ section to the ‘living people’ section. 

 

He was right! Jesus may have died in shame and disgrace, alone and humiliated. But on the third day, as his lifeless, breathless, cold corpse lay motionless on a slab of rock in a Jerusalem garden tomb, suddenly everything changed. 

 

Because his heart began to beat, and his blood began to flow, and his toes began to wriggle, and his lungs began to breathe, and his eyes flickered open, and he got to his feet – victorious – and now, forever he stands as heaven’s champion, sin’s conqueror and death’s master.

 

The great Methodist preacher W. E. Sangster lay ill in bed with a throat infection one Easter Sunday. He was able though to scribble a quick note to his daughter Margaret. “It is terrible,” he wrote, “to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout. But it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to.”

 

Amen to that. Because, as we’ll see next Sunday, it’s not that we were bad and needed to be improved. We were dead, in our sins, and needed to be raised.

 

God the Father raised Christ from the dead. The power, the might, to raise a man three-days-dead, to eternal and immortal and invincible life, having now dominion over all things… that’s exactly the same spiritual force that’s at work in you and me.

 

In 1835, Charles Darwin embarked on a journey to the south Pacific. Observing the aboriginal inhabitants of Melanesia, he thought of them, particularly the cannibals, as a kind of savage sub-species, a less advanced version of human, (especially ‘civilised’ Europeans like him), in line with his evolutionary views. 

 

However, years later, Darwin was amazed to hear of schools, churches and nice homes, now inhabited by these very same supposedly primitive people. How do you account for the rapid transformation of that society? It’s because, in the meantime, a Scotsman called John Paton had, at great risk to his own life, left his home and preached the gospel among them. 

 

Charles Darwin was not a Christian believer and he died an agnostic, but it’s said that reports of beautiful new life among those south sea islanders moved him and profoundly challenged his unbelief. He even began to generously support the London Missionary Society in its work of evangelising the world.  

 

That’s the resurrection power of God that softens hearts, changes lives, regenerates societies and transforms nations.

 

Well, I asked at the beginning, how much do you know the power of God? Is it what you experience every day?

 

I would guess that many of you listening to me now rarely feel that power at work in you. For many Christians it seems unrealistic. In all honesty, it does not correspond to everyday living. And if that’s the case for you, I get it. There are exceptions to the rule, but I often feel exactly the same way. 

 

A simple reminder of my critical tongue, my impatience, my self-pity, my prideful inflated view of myself… I have to admit it, I don’t display the resurrection power of God enough either. I feel it acutely at times.

 

My suspicion is that the Ephesians felt that way too. Even though people were coming to faith in great numbers there, as we have seen over the last few weeks, even though the gospel was impacting the city in dramatic and miraculous ways, there must have been days for them of lust and bad temper and jealousy and behaving badly. Otherwise Paul wouldn’t have to tell them what holy living looks like in chapters 4-6.

 

And here’s the key to today’s passage. That’s exactly why the Bible contains this prayer. It is designed to show us that we must contend on our knees for these realities to be our felt experience. Paul falls to his knees and prays - and keeps on praying, he says - because he knows, no doubt from his own personal experience, that we need to ask, and keep asking, God to open our eyes to see and perceive the spiritual realities all around us. 

 

We fail to see so much, our spiritual vision is blurred, because of our own spiritual dullness. Sin massively distorts our perception of reality. I mean, human depravity is the most easily provable thing on earth; just watch the news on any day of the year. But nothing is more resisted by the human mind than the assertion that we are all sinners who need a saviour.

 

So we need the grace of God to open our eyes to that. And our spiritual vision is dulled also because there is an attritional spiritual battle that rages around us, constantly grinding down the joy of our salvation. Remember what Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “the Christian life is a battle ground, not a playground.” There’s a spiritual civil war going on in every one of us. 

 

Paul will go on in this letter to speak of rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We need the power of God to open our eyes to that too.

 

Ending

 

So I’m going to end now by praying this pray over you, putting Paul’s thoughts here in my own words. If you’re able to do so, would you please stand.

 

Lord, knowing the trust these people here at King’s have in you and their genuine love for one another, I can’t stop thanking you for them. Every time I think of them, I’m just so thankful. Thank you, Lord, for this gathering of people you love so much.

 

But I want to do more than thank you. I want to ask you, God of glory, to give everyone here intelligence and discernment to know you personally and determination know you increasingly well.

 

I ask Lord, that our spiritual eyes will be focused and clear, so that we can see exactly what it is you are calling us to.

 

And Lord God, give us grace us to grasp the immensity of the glorious way of life you want for us, as followers of Christ. Help us see and draw on the utter extravagance of the power, the Easter power, the grave-busting power, you give to all who trust you. Amen, let it be so.

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

 

 

 

 

Impacting a City (Acts 19.23-41 and Ephesians 1.1-2)

Introduction

 

When I was a boy, I used to really love maps. I could (and in fact did) spend hours on end with an atlas, memorising continents, countries, counties, cities, mountain ranges, rivers and oceans. Even as a young adult living in London, I found the A-Z road plan of our capital city almost endlessly fascinating. I know, I’m a bit of a nerd…

 

When we moved to Stockton, after 18 years living in Paris, we bought a satnav. The upside of satnavs is that it eliminated the stress of navigating with a map, which Kathie will readily admit, is not chief among her many gifts. That little device vastly enhanced our marriage! 

 

The downside of satnavs though is that they don’t give you an overall picture of the route you’re taking. You just follow the pink line on the screen. You don’t really know if you are heading north, south, east or west. All you know is that at the next roundabout you have to take the second exit – or more likely in my case make a U-turn because I wasn’t paying attention.

 

We lived in Stockton for twelve years and, in all that time, I never really formed a mental picture of the town’s layout. 

 

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a bit like a map for the whole journey of Christian living. It’s not like a satnav, just telling you what’s next; it’s the big picture all on one page in grand scale. You might call it a bird’s eye view (or better still, a God’s eye view) of him, us, where it’s all come from, what’s going on, and where it’s all going. 

 

Ephesians, especially chapter 1, displays God’s wise plan and purposes from all ages past, before creation, before anything existed, into all eternity for you, me, the nations, your family, the world, my cat, everyone, everything, everywhere. It is God’s grand design. 

 

It was written, as we saw last Sunday, to the young Christian community in Ephesus, which was one of the three most influential cities in the Greco-Roman world (along with Corinth and Rome itself). Rome was the powerhouse of political might, Corinth was the commercial and economic epicentre, but Ephesus dominated as a religious stronghold with its hugely influential pagan fertility cult. It was a kind of Mecca of the ancient world.

 

In Ephesus and in Christ

 

Paul addresses his letter in v1 “to God’s holy people in Ephesus…” Ephesus is where they lived and breathed; this city perhaps three or four times the size of Darlington; well over a quarter million people, with its huge amphitheatre, its bustling markets, its monuments and its many pagan temples.

 

You live in Darlington. Or not that far away. God has placed you in this physical, geographical location and it is no accident you are here. 

 

Just as they were “God’s holy people in Ephesus” the Lord has set you apart in your locality. He sees you as special. He has chosen you, he has marked you out as different, and he has appointed you to bloom where he has planted you, the specific location where you live and work.

 

But though the original recipients of this letter were Ephesians, they had a kind of dual citizenship. They inhabited two places at once. And, if you’re a Christian believer, so do you. Because not only are you in Darlington; you’re in Christ as well. 

 

“To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

 

In the first 14 verses of this letter, the expression “in Christ” or “in him” or “in the one he loves” recurs nine times. We will never fully appreciate what it means to be a Christian until we understand what being in Christ is. 

 

Many of us talk of Jesus in my heart, or Christ living in me. That’s true, and thank God for that truth, but the New Testament speaks far more about us being in Christ that it ever does of him being in us.  

 

And what that means is this; God the Father says of Jesus, “this is my beloved son, with him I am well pleased, I’m so proud of him.” And if you have put your faith in Jesus, you stand in the exact position of Christ. So all the affection and esteem and love and favour that the Father pours out on his Son is the affection and esteem and love and favour that he lavishes on you. Because you are in Christ. 

 

You come into all the manifold blessings of heaven because you are in him. We’ll dive deeper into this next Sunday.

 

There's a scene at the beginning of the film The Bourne Identity, where Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) has had his memory totally erased. He doesn’t know who he is, where he’s from, or anything about his past. And he’s driven home by a new friend. They get to the door of his appartment in Paris and she says to him, “So this is it, right?” And he says, “I guess.” 

 

And then he rings the doorbell with his name - no answer, of course. She says, “You're home now.” And when they go in, she says, “You recognize this?” He looks around a bit vacantly and says, “I guess.” But he doesn't remember any of it. They look at some of the things, and she starts holding them. “Yours. This is all yours.” And once more, he just says, “I guess.”

 

And for some Christians, that's how it is with our Christian identity. We haven’t yet grasped what God has made us into, we just don’t see who we are and what's ours. It hasn’t sunk in what an awesome privilege it is to be a child of God, adopted into his family, the apple of his eye, and loved, so loved.

 

If you’re a follower of Jesus, God chose you before you chose him. And when God chose you – it was not an arbitrary decision. He didn’t just look at a crowd and absently pick one over the other (like picking teams blindfolded before a football game). His was a settled decision before time began. 

 

I’ll say it again, the Father decided from before the foundation of the world to pour out his favour on Christ for all eternity. And, if we are in him, we get everything that is his. He didn’t choose you because you are good. He chose you because he is good. 

 

So being in Christ is not a matter of performance, it is a matter of position! The reformer Martin Luther put it like this; “If I examine myself, I find enough unholiness to shock me. But when I look at Christ in me, I find that I am altogether holy.” Or as someone else has said; “When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.”

 

Well, Ephesians lays it all out in glorious technicolour, and we are going to explore that, line by line, over the next few months.

 

Every advance is contested

 

But first of all, we’re going to take a look today at how this church was birthed in the first place. 

 

Michael served us really well last week in describing this great city of Ephesus and its magnificent temple, one of the seven wonders of the world, and how Paul broke new ground, to establish a new Christian community there.

 

Where Michael left off last week, we saw a new church doing well. People were getting rid of their occult books and burning them in public. Acts 19.20 says, “The word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”

 

I’ve been involved in several church plants in my life, and the one thing I would say is that it never goes quite like you expect it will. And sure enough, some time into Paul’s time there, just as the young church plant is putting down roots and starting to get established, it all kicks off. And in Ephesus, being this dominant religious epicentre, it’s no surprise that the pressure it comes under is religious, in fact demonic, in nature, as we’ll see.

 

In 1908 James Fraser went to southwest China and northern Burma at the age of 22 to preach the gospel, plant churches and translate the New Testament into the local dialect of the Lisu people. He left these shores knowing it would be a lifetime’s hard work, but he was full of faith and bursting with optimism and zeal. His story is told by Eileen Fraser Crossman in the bookMountain Rain.

 

When he got there, he started to learn the local language and found, to his horror, that the Lisu worshipped demons. And here is what would happen: he would lead a family to Christ and, the very next day, one would become seriously ill, and a few days later another would die, and the family would reject their new faith in Christ and go back to demon worship. 

 

And it seems that the Ephesus church plant, in this city also dominated by dark occult practices and pagan cults, had similar issues of demonic resistance. 

 

The former bishop of Durham Tom Wright used to say, “Wherever Saint Paul went, there was a riot. Wherever I go, they serve me tea.” 

Let’s read of one such riot, picking up where Michael left off last Sunday in Acts 19.23.

 

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: ‘You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 

There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.’ When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s travelling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theatre together. 

Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theatre.

The assembly was in confusion: some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defence before the people. But when they realised he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’

The city clerk quietened the crowd and said: ‘Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.’ After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

 

Of all the letters in the New Testament, Ephesians is the one which speaks about spiritual conflict, the demonic and the armour of God in the greatest detail. It’s no wonder, given this background.

 

The great 20th Century preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones once said, “There is no grosser or greater misrepresentation of the Christian message than that which depicts it as offering a life of ease with no battle and struggle at all. Sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground.” Have you discovered that yet? If you haven’t, then you will. And it’s best to be prepared.

 

I mentioned James Fraser and the Lisu people just now. Unsurprisingly, he became really despondent in his mission. Nothing in his training had prepared him for anything like this intense spiritual warfare. I mean, people were dying! 

He brought it all to God. 

 

He told himself that he should not lose heart, because the battle is the Lord’s. That’s what the Bible says. So, he prayed and fasted and asked God for victory, and for hundreds of Lisu families to come to faith in Christ and be shielded from the demonic backlash. He wrote home and asked the faithful little prayer group in his sending church to labour with him and persevere in prayer. 

 

The Bible says that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Every tribe and nation and people… No exceptions. That includes this Lisu tribe. So he began to claim in faith the Lisu people for Christ. This went on for some time. 

 

Then God spoke to him one morning in his prayer time. Five simple words. God said to him, “The strong man is bound.” From that day onwards, whole Lisu villages and communities began turning to Christ - thousands - even some people that James Fraser had never met.

It’s in Ephesians that Paul says, “pray in the Spirit on all occasions.” It’s in Ephesians that he says, “Be alert and always keep on praying.”

 

Things aren’t always what they seem

 

On the face of it, this is a religiously motivated riot. Luke calls it “a great disturbance.” There is uproar that the great temple of Artemis, the city’s most iconic building, will lose its magnetic appeal. There is outrage that the goddess Artemis herself will be discredited and dishonoured. 

 

The mantra of this frenzied crowd is “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” But, as with all spiritual battles, there’s much more to this than meets the eye. Things aren’t always what they seem. There are hidden agendas. There are mixed motives. There’s crowd manipulation. Actually, it’s all about money. 

 

It starts with a silversmith called Demetrius. He has made a very comfortable living crafting idols of this fertility goddess. It seems he is at the centre of a growing industry selling little models, ornaments and nick-nacks. 

 

Two or three times a year, the city of Ephesus held a kind of fair for a whole month in honour of Artemis. It was a bit like the Edinburgh Festival, with live music and theatrical performances all around the city. Visitors came from all over and it turbocharged the local economy. Luke says that these Artemis souvenirs “brought a lot of business for the craftsmen there.”

 

But, because so many people are turning to Christ, this business is waning. Things aren’t always what they seem. Demetrius isn’t all that bothered about Artemis. But Demetrius knows he’s never going to be able to stir up a crowd to shout, “Great is the fortune we are losing by selling less of this religious tat to gullible tourists!” So he masks his real motive by whipping up the crowd into a religious fervour which spirals out of control. In fact, by v32, most of the people do not even know why they are there. But they are sufficiently agitated to shout and scream for two whole hours. 

 

Things aren’t always what they seem. This is no insignificant church plant like the little communities Paul

established in small towns like Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Ephesus is on the way to becoming a large a resource church which, as Michael explained last Sunday, will go on (it is believed) to plant daughter churches in Colossae, Laodicea, Pergamum, Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna and elsewhere. This is a significant church in a strategic city. And Satan knows it. That is why this attack is so heavy.

 

Ending

 

The battles we face are no doubt more subtle, more opaque, than full-scale public rampaging and running amok. 

 

In our day it’s things like an expectation, a pressure, to wear rainbow lanyards or add pronouns on your work email. In the UK in 2026 the spiritual battle is things like being singled out and harassed for non-support of unbiblical and unethical ideologies. Welcome to cancel culture.

 

G. K. Chesterton used to say, “A dead thing always goes with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

 

Two tribunals in just the last two weeks have centred on these kinds of pressures for Christians working in the NHS. Thank God, they won their cases but only after many months of suspension, gaslighting, criticism, shaming and being told they are the problem.

 

Paul would later describe getting embroiled in this riot as like “fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus.” That’s what being caught up in this uproar felt like to him. It was ferocious. It must have been terrifying. 

 

Christians are like tea bags; it’s only when we get into hot water that you see how strong we are. 

 

The devil’s strategy is always a variation on the same old theme; to frighten us into a subservient silence. Satan doesn’t bother with a church that’s tucked away in a corner, irrelevant and deferential. A Christianity that just affirms and recycles the values of the surrounding culture is counterfeit. It’s a false gospel, which is no gospel at all.

 

That baying mob in Ephesus - let it remind you of another crowd driven to madness, as I end. A few years earlier, one Friday morning in Jerusalem, another crowd is stirred up to shout, “Release Barabbas! Release Barabbas!” 

 

Things aren’t always what they seem. That’s not a compassionate campaign to get an innocent man off death row. 

 

“We have no king but Caesar!” they shout. Things aren’t always what they seem. That’s not a patriotic declaration of allegiance to the Emperor Tiberius. It’s a smokescreen for what they really want; “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Crucify him!”

 

And so they did. But things aren’t always what they seem. That death was precious because it saves sinners and we commemorate it together now as we break bread together with thankful hearts.

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 25 January 2026.