Confidence is an elusive topic. It’s hard to describe confidence to someone without putting skin or clothing on the subject. And if we aren’t careful, we can easily dress up this subject with very unhelpful illustrations that communicate a sense of just pulling up our bootstraps through self-reliance or self-help. Let me just head that off at the pass right now by reminding you that the Bible doesn’t encourage self-confidence or self-help anywhere.
The Bible does command us to give every ounce of our effort to living in a godly manner but God never calls us to rely on self-confidence or self-help. Instead, God calls us to rely on Christ as the sure and certain foundation for our confidence by which we give every ounce of our effort to living in holy and God-honoring ways. In other words, our effort must be rooted in who we are. Our doing must flow out of our being. What you do is a reflection of who you believe you are. And who you believe you are is a reflection of who you trust God to be.
If your view of God is that he is an angry God then you will believe that you are an unwanted afterthought. And the effect of that is that you will live out a begrudging or downcast legalistic kind of obedience to the gospel because you want to prove to God that you are acceptable or valuable. If your view of God is that he is a disengaged or passive or distracted God then you will believe that you can get away with certain kinds of sin just as long as you don’t commit the quote un quote big sins like murder or adultery. And the effect of that is that you will live out a halfhearted kind of obedience that excuses and glosses over your sin.
Both of these ditches cheapen the power of the gospel. Legalism and licentiousness both cheapen and disgrace the cross of Christ because they make you the center of your world either in your check marking of things done right to gain God’s approval or in your downplaying of your sin to demand God’s approval.
Do you see how your view of God affects your view of yourself, which in turn affects the way you live? The way you live is rooted in who you believe you are and who you believe you are is rooted in who you believe God is. For instance Paul encourages the Ephesians to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Eph. 4:1) In other words, God is worthy; therefore you are worthy, so walk in a manner that is worthy. Your view of God affects your view of yourself, which affects your lifestyle.
Paul also tells the Philippians that “as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12-13) In other words, God is at work in continually saving you, therefore you are a new person, so you can get to work at living like a newly saved creation in Christ Jesus. You can now work it out with fear and trembling. Your view of God affects your view of yourself, which affects your lifestyle.
So don’t get the idea that this series on confidence from Ephesians 3 is some weird way of calling you to some kind of man-centered, self-help effort at being a confident person. This series is aimed at helping you to see God for who he is, see yourself for who God says you are and then begin to live like the child of God that he calls you to be with all of the confidence of the cross and the empty tomb of Christ flowing out of you.
So where does your confidence come from? What kind of biblical coat hooks can you hang the clothing of your confidence on? When your parent is dying. When your friend’s marriage falls apart. When singleness is too hard to bear. When your sibling loses their job. When a child dies. When a friend suffers abuse. When your finances are in ruins. When your friend stabs you in the back. When your child rebels. When you give into that sinful pattern again. When your physical health fails. When you come to the stark reality that life on this Earth requires more confidence than you can muster up. Where does your confidence come from?
How will you look into the face of pain and hardship and uncertainty with real, lasting confidence? How will you not give into the temptation to throw in the towel? How will you encourage others to remain confident? Where is your confidence rooted? I want to answer those questions by working through Ephesians 3:1 – 13 over the next few moments while pausing occasionally to summarize what we’ve learned over the last four weeks so that we can grasp the big picture of the coat rack with all of its hooks.
One last word of introduction before we go to the text. We’ve taken this text a few verses at a time over the last four weeks. As we’ve studied each week we’ve asked how Paul could instruct the Ephesians to “not lose heart when you see me suffering for you”. (13) And as we’ve studied these verses, we’ve noted that what Paul is doing is he’s using himself as a portrait to paint the picture of confidence on the minds and hearts of his listeners.
Paul was not a man that was interested in trying to give his followers something he had not received. He wasn’t trying to bully his listeners into a contrived application of false confidence. Paul is simply saying “look at my life and examine my ministry and see my circumstances on your behalf but do not lose heart because the God who loved me enough to save me from myself loves you enough to save you from yourself therefore be confident in the midst of suffering.” Follow me as I follow Christ. Remain confident in him who saved you through great suffering at the cross. Oh how I wish more Christians could say the same thing. Here’s what Paul says about the coat hooks of confidence…
Ephesians 3:1 – 13…
In verse one (coat hook #1) Paul says… 1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. Paul remained confident because he knew that Christ had redeemed him and captivated him. Paul was no longer “Tall Saul” the big man on the block with all the power, prestige and fame. He was now “Small Paul” the man who had been cut down to size by the presence of Christ. Nothing captivated Paul’s attention other than Christ. He went from being an enemy of Christ who put followers of Christ in chains to becoming a follower of Christ in chains for the sake of the gospel. Paul was redeemed and captivated by Christ and that gave him great confidence.
In verses two through five (coat hook #2) Paul says… 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Paul remained confident because he knew that he was a steward of God’s grace who’d been given a great revelation. For Paul this gift of God’s grace wasn’t merely a religious experience to be kept to himself. The gift he had received was a gift that was meant to keep on giving. The revelation of the gospel uniting people of all tribes, tongues and nations didn’t make Paul into a mere consumer it made Paul into a contributor. God’s grace made Paul an active participant in building the Kingdom of God. Paul was a steward of the great revelation of God’s grace and that gave him great confidence.
In verses six through seven (coat hook #3) Paul says… 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. Paul remained confident because he trusted in the promises of the gospel, which made him a gospel-made man. Paul trusted that former enemies could become fellow heirs, members of God’s family and partakers or shareholders of the benefits of the cross. These promises are what shaped Paul into the man that he was. Paul was a promise trusting, gospel-made man and that gave him great confidence.
Now as we hone in on verses eight through thirteen for a few minutes I want you to see that Paul was an unimportant man with a big responsibility who remained confident and called others to remain confident because he had unhindered access to the Father.
Paul says… 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. When you know that you have unhindered access to your Father in Heaven you can walk in confidence and call others to the same confident walk. But how do we do this? What needs to change in our thinking so that we can become authentically confident people? I have three observations from verses 8 – 13 that I pray will be helpful today.
#1. You don’t have to be an important or impressive person to carry out a big responsibility… (8-11)
We have a tendency to attach big responsibilities to impressive resumes and important titles. We tend to be impressed by people with lists of accomplishments. We say things like “that’s above my pay grade” or “that seems like too much responsibility for me”. We think we have to be important or impressive to be entrusted with big responsibilities.
But if you examine the grand story of Scripture you’ll quickly find that God gives big responsibilities to extremely unimportant and unimpressive people. Murderers like Moses, back-stabbers like Peter, uneducated people like the disciples, womanizers and adulterers like David, prostitutes like Rahab, hypocritical cowards like Abraham, liars like Jacob, thieves like Zachaeus and terrorists like Paul all make the cut and get jobs with massive responsibilities in the kingdom of God. You don’t have to be an important or impressive person to carry out a big responsibility.
Paul was an unimportant man with a big responsibility. Think about his responsibility according to this text for a minute. Paul was saddled with the responsibility to “preach the unsearchable (or unimaginable) riches of Christ” to insiders and outsiders without prejudice. He had the responsibility of “bringing to light” the plan of God’s saving work for both Jew and Gentile. He carried the responsibility of being the guy that encouraged the church to live and walk obediently in the “wisdom” of the gospel. He had the responsibility of helping to tear down spiritual strongholds. And on top of all that, this responsibility carried “eternal” consequences. And I thought my day-to-day call to radical obedience was tough! This job description makes resisting sin look easy and enjoyable!
Think about the phrase “this grace was given”. That phrase precedes Paul’s description of the massive responsibility he has. “This grace was given to me”. Paul saw this big responsibility, this massive job description, this calling as a minister of the gospel, as the grace of God. When was the last time you saw your responsibility to live and to walk obediently to God as “a grace” that has been given to you? When was the last time you accepted the calling of God on your life to honor him with all that you think, say and do as his unique gift of grace to you? What would it be like, if Christians began to walk in joyful obedience to God rather than begrudging obedience to the God they wished would leave them alone? What would the world around us do if they witnessed joyful obedience in the church rather than begrudging obedience (which is disobedience) or excused disobedience?
And to top it all off Paul says that he is an unimportant or unimpressive person. He says, “I am the very least of all the saints.” He says, I have a huge responsibility of eternal proportions but I’m not impressive and I’m not important. Paul could list all sorts of resume qualifications. Best college. Accomplished in his career. Smarter than most. But to Paul, these accomplishments meant nothing in relation to his calling. Paul didn’t need titles or certificates or accolades to accept the big task set before him with steadfast confidence. All Paul needed was a deep understanding of who he used to be and who he was becoming in light of who had saved him and called him to radical obedience. You don’t have to be an important or impressive person to carry out a big responsibility. All you have to do is see God for who he is, see yourself for who God says you are and then begin to live like the child of God he calls you to be.
#2. You have unhindered access to the powerful presence of God… (12)
Think about what you could do with unlimited resources. Think about what could happen if you began to live like you had unrestricted, unhindered and unlimited access to unlimited resources. Now of course, if you’re tracking with me, then you know what I’m about to say right? You know I’m going to say that since you have unhindered access to the powerful presence of God that you also have unlimited access to unlimited resources. If you didn’t know that… then now you know that’s what I was going to say!
But let me press the button this way for a minute. We know conceptually in our minds that we have unhindered access to limitless resources in the powerful presence of God. But what happens to that knowledge when you are struggling with the rebellious kid? Or when there’s tension in your marriage? Or when you are facing physical illness? Or staring at your computer screen late at night? Or feeling lonely in your singleness? Or stepping into the pulpit to preach the hard truths of God’s Word? What happens to that knowledge of your unhindered access to unlimited resources then? Don’t you become a little more like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz than the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in those moments? Why is this? Why do we so easily lose sight of the unlimited power we have unrestricted access to?
I think the answer is that we simply don’t have confidence in Christ. And if we don’t have confidence in Christ then we can’t have confidence in who he says we are. We are left then to build up or prop up a false version of ourselves that is created in the false image of a god who doesn’t exist.
The word confidence is synonymous with words like trust, belief, faith, conviction, reliance, assurance, certainty and intimacy. We don’t just lack confidence in ourselves. We lack the confidence to trust or to believe or to place our faith in or to have the conviction or to rely upon or to be certain about or to rest assured or to be intimate with God because we struggle to believe who God is and who he says we are. This is why Paul says that in Christ “we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith” in Christ. Paul knew that he had unhindered access to the Father and that gave him great confidence to encourage the Ephesians to have great confidence too.
You and I have unhindered access to the powerful presence of God. Unhindered access to unlimited resources. What kind of boldness would that give you if you were confident in this truth? What kind of faith would that produce? What kind of confidence would that evoke? The next time you’re tempted to sin or the next time you want to tap out or the next time you want to hide out or the next time you want to blow your top… what would happen if you latched onto this truth that you have complete unhindered access to the powerful and unrestricted and unlimited presence of God in the cross of Christ? All you have to do is see God for who he is, see yourself for who God says you are and then begin to live like the child of God he calls you to be.
#3. You can walk confidently and call others to walk confidently too… (13)
Isn’t it interesting how obedience is a confidence issue and confidence is an obedience issue? For instance, when we are lacking in our confidence in Christ we begin to live disobediently to God. And when we begin to live disobediently to God we begin to lack in our confidence in Christ’s sufficiency. In other words, we project our weakness and lack of confidence onto God. He must be weak because we are weak. He’s not big enough to overcome that problem in front of us.
At the center of our problem with obedience and confidence is this little thing called the heart. We lose heart when the heart grows cold and hard. Sin makes the heart grow cold and hard. And do you know what the most fertile circumstances are for sin to grow in? Suffering. Suffering can easily cause a man or a woman to sin. Cause a man to suffer a little and you’ll see what he’s really made of right? Squeeze a grape and what comes out? Squeeze a man who isn’t intimately and confidently connected to Christ and what comes out? Sin. Suffering squeezes a man.
Satan knew this. That’s why he squeezed Job with painful circumstances and suffering beyond what most of us can imagine. He also squeezed Jesus during the temptation in the wilderness not to mention his suffering at the cross. Suffering can cause you to lose heart. It can cause your heart to grow cold and dim and hard with sin. I think this is why Paul confidently called the Ephesians to remain confident when he said “I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you.” To see someone you love suffering for you can bring a certain level of pain that most of us aren’t accustomed to. That kind of pain can shake a man to his core.
I often think about the things I’ve suffered in my life. Growing up in a single parent home. Near death experience, the effects of horrifying sin in my life, my mom’s death nearly four years ago and loss of friendship. All of these things pail in comparison with the thought of my wife or one of my kids suffering for me. If some enemy of Christ came in here right now and threatened to do unspeakable things to my wife or my kids because of my faith in Christ and my wife or my children looked up at me through their tears of fear and pain and said “daddy, I’m asking you to not lose heart over what I am suffering for you. Don’t give into sin right now dad. Don’t lose your heart for Christ dad.” I don’t know how I would bear that with confidence. Thinking about that level of pain and suffering (of which I hope to never experience) is scary. But it does give me the confidence to walk obediently in the midst of my momentary suffering while calling others to walk in confident obedience too. It’s the kind of head held high, full of joy amidst suffering kind of confidence that I see in Christ at the cross on my behalf. Jesus “for the joy set before him” went to the cross for me when I was his enemy. This is the kind of joyful, obedient, confidence that comes out of you when you see God for who he is, see yourself for who God says you are and then begin to live like the child of God he calls you to be.
Conclusion and personal application…
As I spent some time this last week praying over this message I was caught up with a picture that I believe the Spirit of God imprinted on my mind. I was praying for people by name and asking the Lord to help me preach something that would simultaneously rebuke and encourage many of you individually. And as I prayed I saw a picture of a fort with brick walls that was in shambles. The bricks were falling apart and the walls were beginning to crumble in many places. But at the macro view, from a slightly elevated and distant vantage point, I could see a single person huddled up just inside the walls of that fort. As I zoomed in I could see many faces in the face of that person but every face had a different look of emotion on it.
I saw fear, loneliness, insecurity, anger, sadness, mistrust and rebellion. And then from a different angle I saw some of the crumbling bricks in that fort wall. And there were words written on each brick like shame, guilt, pride, lust, selfishness, bitterness, resentment, despair, jealousy, hatred and enemy. And then my view shifted to the other side of the fort. And the bricks in the walls on the other side looked brand new. And they had words written on them too. Words like free, loved, cherished, beautiful, redeemed, forgiven, ransomed, priceless, member, heir, participant, family, son and daughter.
And then it hit me. This is the glory of the gospel of restoration. Paul’s final words are “my suffering is your glory”. In other words, Paul is saying, “It’s a glorious thing that I am suffering for you because my suffering is bringing about your restoration.” God takes broken people (like broken bricks in fort walls) and restores them little bit by little bit through the preaching of the cross. This is the picture of what God is doing in our midst. God is chipping away at the fort walls of your hearts through the preaching of His Word and he is creating in us a new structure. A new building with new walls like the one Paul spoke of back in Ephesians 2:20 – 22 where he says that “Christ Jesus himself (is the) cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
If you are a believer then you have every reason to be confident because you are not alone. And you are not left in the backyard like a broken down car. God has pulled you into his repair shop (it’s called the church) and he’s restoring you into a brand new person. You are being built into the home of the Spirit of God. Paul said this right before he launched into instructing the Ephesians to remain confident and to “not lose heart.”
God is chipping away at your heart through the preaching of his Word right now. He is actively working to rescue and restore you. He is tearing down the rotting walls of sinful self-promotion and self-protection. He is making you into a new man for his own glory. In that truth you can remain confident (if you are trusting in Christ) in the midst of your momentary suffering. Cling to Christ my friends. Open his Word and let it strengthen you. That’s Paul’s prayer in the next section that we’ll study in a few weeks.
The God who spoke all of Creation into existence, who marked you with his image, who sent his son Jesus to the cross for you, who left the tomb empty, who is returning one day to bring you to Heaven… this God, says that you are loved, you are accepted, you are valuable, you are mine. What does this understanding of who God is and who he says you are make you want to do? What you do is a reflection of who you believe you are. And who you believe you are is a reflection of who you trust God to be. Oh how I pray that you would see God for who he is, see yourself for who God says you are and then begin to live like the child of God he calls you to be.