Don't Lose Heart

God has a masterplan for the world. And what a plan! As we have seen through Ephesians, God is driving all of history in one direction: “to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him” (Eph. 1:10).

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, spiritually dead people are brought to life and under Christ’s rule. Enemies are reconciled and made family. It is a plan of astonishing scope and significance.

And yet, sometimes our experience of church doesn’t look or feel much like that.

The church can seem weak, fragile and small. In Scotland, church attendance has more than halved since the turn of the millennium, and only a small percentage of the population are evangelical Christians. When we look at declining numbers, empty buildings and all the imperfections of local churches (including our own), it can be tempting to wonder whether God’s plan is real or is really working.

Ephesians 3:1–13 speaks directly into that discouragement. Paul says – “don’t lose heart”. God is working out his purposes, even when things don’t look the way we expect.

1. Don’t lose heart – The Plan Comes from God

Paul describes himself as a “steward” of God’s grace (v.2). His task is to make known the mystery of Christ—the gospel and God’s great plan to reconcile people to himself and to one another.

A steward is someone entrusted with something valuable. You might think of a curator in an art gallery, whose job is not simply to look after priceless treasures but to put them on display so that others can see their beauty. Paul has been entrusted with something far more precious: the grace of God.

And this is important: the plan comes from God. Paul didn’t invent it, and he didn’t work it out through superior intelligence. God revealed it to him.

The “mystery” Paul speaks about is not a secret code which only clever people can decipher. It is something which was once hidden but has now been revealed. Through Christ and his cross, Gentiles are “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise” (v.6).

So, when the church looks unimpressive, don’t lose heart. Our confidence rests not on what we can see around us but on what God has revealed in his Word. The gospel is God’s plan, not ours.

2. Don’t lose heart – The Messenger was Chosen by God

It would have been tempting for the Ephesians to look at Paul’s chains and conclude he wasn’t the real deal, (given the wonder and scope of the Gospel, surely God’s appointed Apostles would seem like superior specimens - high on power and prestige?)

No. the Lord has chosen Paul – one once radically opposed Christ – and demonstrated the power of his grace by using even him. Paul says that he was made a minister of the gospel “according to the gift of God’s grace” (v.7). Indeed, he describes himself as “the very least of all the saints” (v.8) – literally a “least-er”.

This reflects the Gospel itself – Christ trades the glory of heaven to take on flesh and become obedient to death. The Gospel of God’s power works through apparent weakness.

God uses the “least-ers” like Paul, and like us,

That should shape how we think about our own witness. We don’t know God because we are cleverer, morally superior or spiritually more perceptive than other people. We were just as dependent on God’s grace.

We are “least-ers”—but the message we carry is the “unsearchable riches of Christ”.

So, when people seem indifferent to the gospel, we need not become frustrated or despair. God can change people. After all, he changed us.

3. Don’t lose heart – Church Reveals the Wisdom of God

Perhaps the most astonishing statement comes in verse 10: “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known”.

Think about that.

Picture yourself in some great cinema - If God wanted to display his wisdom and power, what would you put on the screen? Creation? The incarnation? The resurrection?

God puts the church on display.

A diverse collection of people, saved by grace, forgiven by God, and reconciled to one another. People who might otherwise be divided are brought together through Christ.

When the church gathers, prays, serves, gives, perseveres and commits itself to Jesus and to one another, it becomes a small glimpse of God’s glorious new creation. An outpost of heaven on earth. A foretaste of the day when all things will finally be united under Christ.

So, Church - don’t lose heart.

God is working out his plans. His gospel is true. His messengers have been entrusted with a trustworthy message. And his church, despite all its weaknesses and imperfections, is part of the way he displays his wisdom to the world. So, let’s value the church, love the church, pray for the church and labour for the church.

Above all, don’t lose heart.

SERMON RESOURCES BELOW 👇

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