The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: Your True Inheritance

Introduction

For several weeks now we've been working through the book of Ephesians, and there's one last teaching left before we move on. The big theme the preacher wants to put right in front of you can be summed up in one sentence: "Look at what God has done." Sometimes God moves in your life so powerfully that you're left stunned, amazed. It's important to mark those moments, to record them, to do something to hold on to the memory. Other times the Lord works gently, almost without you noticing, and you don't realize what he's accomplishing, but in his faithfulness he leaves you a photo, a conversation, a small detail that lets you look back later and say, "Huh, he was actually doing something, and I didn't even know it."

The passage you'll go through today is Ephesians 3:8-13. Paul is suffering an injustice (imprisonment), because he stayed faithful to his calling. But he's not the type to lose heart. He writes so the church won't lose heart either. Not just the church in Ephesus 2,000 years ago: he's speaking to you too. Three layers of his message will reveal why this Christ, whose "unsearchable riches" he proclaims, is your true inheritance.

Sermon Outline

1. Paul suffers injustice because of his calling

• The preacher recalls what Munir, Jean-Luc, and Jean-Pierre have explained over the past several weeks: Paul is a prisoner. That's not just a figure of speech. In Ephesians 3:13, when he says "I ask that you not lose heart at my sufferings for you," he is genuinely suffering, under literal imprisonment.
• In the first century, prisoners weren't kept long-term the way our incarceration system works today. The Romans had other, harsher methods for punishment. Prison mainly served to hold a detainee before trial. It was often underground. According to a historian the preacher cites, these prisons were designed to create psychological pressure and force confessions out of detainees, underground spaces, dark, filthy.
• That was Paul's daily reality. And yet he used every moment to share his faith. He knew he was there by God's will. It's strange, the preacher notes: "By the will of God, he finds himself in such an environment." If that happened to us, we'd probably say, "Lord, where are you?"
• But we have clues as to why. During that time, Paul had exactly what he needed to write perhaps a third of our New Testament. Look at what the enemy was trying to do: arrest him, set him apart, silence him. And today you're reading the very words he wrote from his cell. God willed that he suffer for that brief moment, and we're now reaping the blessings of what he was able to accomplish.
• Paul himself seems astonished by the privilege of suffering. Verse 8: "To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ." He had been a persecutor, a blasphemer. He is filled with deep gratitude that God chose him for this moment.
• Picture Paul chained to a Roman guard, in a room full of people, writing our New Testament. Picture the power of the Holy Spirit at that moment. Of course people were converted, Paul would later say that "those of Caesar's household" had heard the message (Philippians 4:22).
• He's not talking about a beautiful villa overlooking the Mediterranean, the kind everyone would have loved to own in Rome. He's talking about a person: "the unsearchable riches of Christ." That's his inheritance. That's what we're reaping here and now.

2. A new humanity: Paul's crime

• So what was Paul's crime, after all? It's simple: he revealed God's eternal plan, which is the church. The preacher returns to Ephesians 3:6: "That the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News."
• God created a new humanity out of people who had been divided: those of Jewish origin, those of Gentile origin. In Christ they are now one. This church, formed by God's own hands, has plenty of flaws, quite a lot, actually. But because God is the one who created it, it stands at the center of his plan for the universe. Through the church, God announces his plan of salvation for the salvation of souls, in spite of itself.
• The preacher points ahead to the end. Revelation 7:9-10 describes a heavenly scene: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" That's where we're headed. Bigger than a World Cup, because there's a winner who has already won: Jesus. And we're all standing before him, from every nation, every language, every possible human division, the division erased because we're all saved by the same Savior.
• Where's the crime in that? For the religious leaders who handed Paul over, there was indeed a crime: they taught that the only way to be saved was to become Jewish, to be circumcised, to follow the law of Moses. Paul, on the other hand, explains what Jesus explained: it's enough to come to Christ, to put your faith in him. That's revolutionary, and they can't stand it.
• Why would Rome even care? Because Paul is a Roman citizen. And if a Roman citizen goes around saying there's a Lord other than Caesar, that the center of the world isn't Rome but a God who is creating a new humanity to work in this world, that's high treason. That's why he's where he is.

3. The church, a lesson for angels: God's many-sided wisdom

• There's a second layer, and it goes beyond anything you can imagine. Ephesians 3:9-10: "and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places."
• What Paul is proclaiming (up until he's beheaded in Rome), is that the church (not the empire) stands at the center, not just of the world, but of the heavenly realms. God uses the church to teach the angels. What exactly this means, the preacher admits he doesn't know: "I have no idea. And nobody really knows. But that's exactly what Paul says."
• It's important for you to know this. Very often, you notice the church's flaws first, they're so obvious. Who else produced something as horrible as the Crusades? And yet, God has changed the hearts of men and women, given birth to hospitals, planted life throughout society. Because the church, in spite of itself, is a display, not of Paul, but of God's many-sided wisdom. That's why it's so complex, so difficult. It's a lesson bigger than you: it's not primarily for you, it's for the angels. But you're part of it. And since you belong to Christ, look at the impact of your life here on earth, and for all eternity.
• Someone might object that this is just an obscure verse. Except the apostle Peter talks about it too. 1 Peter 1:10-12: "Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you... To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they were serving these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into."
• Sometimes, during holiday seasons, you look at the empty seats and think, "This is so small." Don't listen to that voice. If you're in Christ, you're part of something far bigger than you can imagine. What you see here is only the beginning, it's going to grow far beyond anything any building could ever hold.

4. Free to draw near to God in Christ

• Here's a third layer of the message that cost Paul his freedom. Ephesians 3:11-12: "according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him."
• Think about this immense power of God, who creates a new humanity out of former enemies, and uses it to display his many-sided wisdom on earth and in heaven. That God is not distant. He isn't hard to reach. He's right there, in your heart, through the Holy Spirit. He wants you to draw near to him. He never grows tired of you.
• The preacher offers the image of a cell phone: we've all had calls show up on the screen that we're tempted to let go to voicemail. God isn't like that with you. He sees your name and he picks up. He wants you to draw near to him.
• And what's the proof? The Father sent his Son, who took on your humanity and lived the life you couldn't live. Jesus lived a perfect life, never sinning in thought, word, or deed, or in anything he failed to do. So why was he crucified? Because through your faults, your sins, you deserved God's condemnation. Jesus took that condemnation on himself, for you. It was always God's plan. And he didn't stay dead: he rose again to give you life, so that you could live in him.
• That's why he is overjoyed when you call on him. If he did that much to redeem you, do you really think he doesn't want to talk with you? Of course he wants to hear your voice. Try getting an appointment with the president. Try getting one with a head coach. Try getting one with your bank manager. Our God isn't like that. Every single time you call, he hears you.
• This message doesn't sit well with everyone, that God's people would be so free, so bold. That's why Paul is locked up. And still today, people who push back will often tell you, in conversation, "Fine, it's good for you to believe, but don't go giving people false hope." From their point of view, it's logical: they don't want people staking their lives on things that don't exist. You who know Christ know very well that he exists. Is it a false hope? No, because you live it out every day. It may be hard to put it into words for that person. So show them your hope through your life. They'll see what you truly believe. They'll see the result, and God will help you.

5. Don't lose heart: Bir Hakeim and the Kingdom

• All of this, Paul writes so that the Ephesians won't lose heart. Verse 13: "Therefore I ask that you not lose heart at my sufferings for you, which are your glory." These sufferings are real, but they're for a reason. When you hear the heartbreaking stories of Christians suffering around the world, you can lose heart in your own struggle. Paul writes precisely against that. That's why he talks about the new humanity, about the many-sided wisdom that surpasses everything. Because you are not on the losing side of this story. Jesus has already won. You're on the side of the victor. Never forget this.
• The preacher shares a small discovery he made recently. Do you know the Bir-Hakeim metro station? He's lived in the Paris region since 2002 and has passed through that station without knowing its history. It doesn't refer to the Eiffel Tower. It's a place, in Libya, during the Second World War. Rommel, the "Desert Fox," was encircling the British to drive them out of Africa. What was left? An oasis in the middle of Libya, held by a small French battalion that resisted for 16 days against Rommel. The British managed to escape, and eventually the French did too, since there was nothing left to defend. But the mission was accomplished.
• "We're almost like Bir-Hakeim," the preacher says. Looking through our own eyes, there's no chance at all. But that's not the real story, because God in you changes everything, absolutely everything. And it's not just about saving your life to escape. What did Jesus say? "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:3). The Kingdom of God is yours. Amen.
• This glory of a purpose fulfilled in the church is not a false hope: it is the future. That's the heart of what Paul wants to tell you today. You have a hope that has crossed the heavens in Jesus Christ. You are part of God's work. It is powerful. It is made of a many-sided wisdom that the angels themselves long to gaze into. And if that weren't enough, he calls you to draw near to him tenderly, in moments of crisis, the way you'd call out to a father. Father, that is our God.

Key Takeaways

• Paul writes from an underground prison, and yet he proclaims "unsearchable riches", not a place, not a villa, but a person: Christ.
• Paul's crime, in the eyes of Rome and of the religious leaders alike, was revealing God's eternal plan: a new humanity, one body, one inheritance in Christ Jesus, apart from the law of Moses.
• The church stands at the center of God's plan, flaws and all. It is a display of God's manifold wisdom, a lesson so vast it is even given to the angels, who long to look into it (1 Peter 1:12).
• In Christ, you have boldness to draw near to God with confidence. He isn't an unreachable president or a busy bank manager: every single time you call, he hears you.
• Don't lose heart over tribulations, yours or those of Christians around the world. You are on the side of the victor. Like Bir-Hakeim, the situation looks lost through our own eyes, but God's mission is already accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Personal Application

1. What "prison" are you walking through right now (health, work, a relationship, an injustice)? Can you, like Paul, see it as a space where God wants to work rather than a place of discouragement?
2. Has there been a recent moment when God worked "gently" in your life, almost without you noticing? Take time this week to write it down, take a photo, mark it in some way.
3. Do you look at your church first through its flaws, or through what God is accomplishing there in the very sight of the angels? How would that perspective change your involvement next Sunday?
4. When was your last real conversation with your Father, with no agenda, just to draw near to him? Take five minutes today with no other purpose than that.
5. Who around you could you show, through your life more than your words, that your hope isn't a "false hope"?

Scripture References

• Ephesians 3:8-13 (WEB)
• Ephesians 3:6 (WEB)
• Revelation 7:9-10 (WEB)
• 1 Peter 1:10-12 (WEB)
• Philippians 4:22 (WEB)
• Matthew 5:3 (WEB)

Further reading

• How to Delegate Without Losing Control
• How to Train Future Leaders
• Training a Volunteer Quickly: The Method

FAQ

What does "the unsearchable riches of Christ" mean (Ephesians 3:8)?

The preacher is clear: Paul isn't talking about a place, a villa overlooking the Mediterranean, or some estate everyone would love to own in Rome. He's talking about a person. The riches are Christ himself, his grace, his presence, his life given for you, and his Spirit in your heart. This is the inheritance Paul, though a prisoner, rejoices to proclaim to the nations: a treasure that never runs dry, because it is alive.

What does "the manifold wisdom of God," made known through the church, mean (Ephesians 3:10)?

Paul writes that through the church, the principalities and powers in the heavenly places now know God's many-sided wisdom. The preacher admits honestly: "What that means, I have no idea, and nobody really knows." But 1 Peter 1:12 confirms that "angels desire to look into" this salvation. So the church is far more than a local community: it's a living lesson given to the spiritual universe about who God is. What you see here is only the beginning.

How do you keep from losing heart in the face of suffering (Ephesians 3:13)?

That's exactly what Paul writes to address. His answer is found in the verses just before: remember who you are (a new humanity in Christ), what you belong to (a work the angels long to gaze into), who your God is (a Father who answers every single time you call). You are not on the losing side. Like the French soldiers at Bir-Hakeim who held out for 16 days so the British could escape, things may look lost through our own eyes, but the victory has already been given in Jesus Christ. You can hold on.