“Running into the Father’s Embrace”
Ephesians 3:7-13

I. Introduction
  a.    Prodigal Son painting
  b.    We all long for love’s unconditional embrace
  c.    We are in an extended sermon series, through the book in the Bible called Ephesians.  And this morning’s study passage reveals an almost unbelievable truth, that through Christ, we as a local congregation, and each of us individually, can discover this longed-for embrace in the arms of the heavenly Father, and we can be that embrace of grace to others as well.


II. Study Passage in context

Now there is a lot more going on in this short passage that just what we are going to focus on this morning.  So let me first quickly address the larger context, and then we narrow in on our main topic.

The Apostle Paul in this letter to the Church in Ephesus is revealing to the Christians there just how amazing and grand God’s plan is for humanity and for all creation, and that this grand, divine plan was being accomplished through the Church in Jesus Christ.  This grand plan is that in Christ the triune God is breaking down every wall between different people groups on earth.

Far more importantly, God has broke down every wall between humans and God so that now, through the grace found only in Jesus Christ, all people regardless of race, class, status, or sinfulness can have enter into God’s eternal kingdom.  This good news is the gospel that we are called and empowered to live and proclaim.

In our study passage today, Paul begins by saying that he “became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.”   

Paul goes to on to declare that this gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, which was kept hidden for thousands of years, but is now being made known through us, God’s people called the Church, is not only brining salvation to humanity, but is also revealing to every created being that God has ever made throughout the entire cosmos, what Paul calls the “manifold wisdom” of God.

You see what God is up to on planet earth, is not restricted to our small planet. The Bible, in our passage, and in other passages, tells us that the human race is on display before all God’s vast creation.  All these other beings are looking on and learning about God’s manifold wisdom, and the word manifold means multi-colored, many faceted, wisdom of God.  And what aspect of God’s colorful wisdom they are learning about the most is grace! 

We read earlier on in Ephesians that everything God does through the human race is for the praise of His glorious grace.  We are being fashioned to be trophies of God’s grace forever.  What is grace?  God’s absolutely undeserved blessings being poured out abundantly on those who absolutely do not deserve it!  

Now, if you were God, and you wanted to create a race of beings who could best demonstrate divine power through weakness, divine wisdom through stupidity, divine love through objects of violence, you could not find a better race than the human race!   

If they held a vote through the universe of what race of beings would be the least likely to be made co-heirs and co-rulers with Christ of the universe, the human race would surely win!  We are and will forever be, the race of beings that God points to and says, this is what grace looks like!

So the apostle Paul in our study passage declares all this, and then he reveals another amazing truth that will be the focus of the rest of our sermon this morning.  In verse 12 we read, “In him (Christ Jesus) and through faith in him (Christ) we may approach God with freedom and confidence.


III. Approaching God with freedom and confidence

Last week we talked about Christ tearing the wall of hostility that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles, and how Christ continues to tear down every wall that separates different races and people for any reason.  

Christ tore down another wall through His cross and resurrection that separated all humanity from entering into God’s presence.  That wall was the curtain in the holiest part of the Jewish temple that represented a barrier between us and God because of our sin.  

When Christ died we read in the gospels that this curtain was torn in two thus opening up a way into God’s presence for all humanity through Christ!  

When we cast all our sin upon Christ, he takes it away, and gives us instead his holiness so that all who are in Christ can now approach God with freedom, with boldness, with confidence that we will always be embraced by the Father in unconditional love.  

There is a familiar illustration of this access to the father through a son that perhaps you’ve heard, but it’s always worth hearing again.  During the Civil War, there was a young Union soldier who had lost his father and older brother in the war. He went to Washington, D.C., to see if he could get an exemption from military service so that he could go back home and help his mother and sister with the spring planting.

When he approached the White House and asked to see the president, he was turned away.  Totally disheartened, the soldier sat down on a park bench nearby. A little boy approached him and said, “You look unhappy, soldier. What’s wrong?”

After the soldier shared his story, the little boy took him by the hand. He led him through the back door of the White House, past the guards, and into the president’s office itself. President Lincoln looked up and asked, “What can I do for you, Tad?” Tad said, “Daddy, this soldier needs to talk to you”—and the soldier was not turned away.

You see, this same word, “freedom” or “confidence” is also found in Heb 4:16 –“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  

Every time we run to the heavenly Father, Christ takes us by the hand, leads us right into the holiest place in heaven, the throne of God, and at this throne of grace we find help in our time of need.  We find a Father who looks at us and says, what can I do for you my child?”

I want us to consider now three major truths that arise out of this reality of our having free and bold access to the heavenly Father.

  a. Our heavenly Father longs to embrace His wandering and wounded children

Why did the Father send the Son to planet earth in the form of sinful flesh, to live a sinless life, and to die a cruel, shameful death on a criminal’s cross?  Because the Father longs to welcome back into His family all His lost, wandering, wounded children!  

Christ tore down the wall the temple curtain, the barrier of our sin and rebellion, so that every one of God’s children, regardless of how far he or she has fallen, regardless of how sinful, even wicked they’ve become, could hear the gospel, the good news of God’s forgiveness, come to their senses that they’ve been settling for playing in the pig’s mud when all along they were meant to be living in the King’s palace, and turn and run home only to be met by the Father on the road who hugs them, places His royal robe and rings upon them, and throws a wild party celebrating their return!

And the Father wants His Church universal, and each local congregation like ours here, to be a place where the worst of sinners, the hardest of hearts, the least, the lonely, the forgotten, those most hurting can walk into our worship time and encounter the Father’s embrace of grace!  

Through a video clip, let’s hear such a testimony from a young man named Gabriel.

Video clip… Gabriel's Story

What can we learn about becoming more fruitful in reaching the lost from Gabriel’s story?
   First, and of key importance to us, is someone invited him to church.
    - We are a welcoming congregation, but we are not an intentionally inviting congregation
    - Once in worship, it wasn’t how polished the sermon or praise was, or how nice the building or programs were that mattered.  What mattered is that Gabriel encountered the saving, healing, welcoming, transforming presence of God!
    - He also encountered a safe place where he could be real about his sin and struggle, and a place where he could continue to work out the sin in his life with a people who knew that some sin is so deeply rooted it takes years of receiving abundant grace and unconditional love to get the victory over.

And why did that happen?  Well, there are many factors that at least increase the odds the God’s presence will be in our worship services.  But for sure our next two points are key:   


  b. Our heavenly Father longs for us to worship and pray in transparency, boldness, and confidence  

Now in our study passage today, this is one of those times when doing a word study really does bring out the deeper, magnificent truths of a verse.  The word “confidence” in verse 12 includes the meaning of trust. We can always approach the Father, Son, and Spirit as a beloved child in a posture of complete trust that they will always embrace us in unconditional love.  

You will only open up and share your hardest questions, darkest struggles, and deepest secrets with someone who you absolutely know you can trust will both move toward you no matter what you share and pour grace and acceptance, who will treat your heart as the sacred ground that it is, and who you know will never break confidence and tell others what you share if you do not want it shared.  Well our passage reveals that we have just such a friend in Jesus.

Now the even more powerful truth here is discovered as we mine the depths of this other word in verse 12 that describes how we can approach God, namely with “Freedom.”  This word includes the meanings of “courage,” and “boldness.”  

It reveals that our heavenly Father longs for us to approach Him with total freedom in our speaking, being open, frank, without concealment, without ambiguity, with a free and fearless confidence.  

Time will only allow me to just touch on this critical topic.  This is truth that I have found to be more life changing that just about anything that I share with people in times of trial or sorrow, or simply in all seasons of life.  That truth is this: We are invited by God to worship and pray in a posture of absolute honestly before God of what is really going on in our hearts.  

I have found repeatedly that so many Christians some where along faith’s journey have picked up this dangerous and mistaken idea that they cannot be honest with God regarding all their dark feelings and difficult questions.  

So when they worship and pray, they put on a façade before the very face of God that life isn’t as hard as it really is, that God isn’t as confusing, even infuriating, as He really is sometimes, and so they never really open up and wrestle with God, or express their deepest sorrow, confusion, disappoint, or anger in their prayers or worship.  

This kind of false reverence of God fosters weak prayers and passionless worship!  I call this false reverence, because what do you think is more respectful of God: Going to Him pretending that things and you are better than they are, when God sees right through your words into your heart anyhow so He knows what you are really thinking and feeling, or going to God and crying screaming if you have to, and being raw, and vulnerable and absolutely transparent before the Father?  

Our triune God of unconditional love, grace-full acceptance, wants us to worship and pray out of our sorrow and struggle, not as an escape from them!  Just look as the Psalms, the worship hymnal for most of the history of God’s people through the centuries.  “O God O God, why have you forgotten me when I need to have you near me the most,” prays Jesus Himself!”

Personal testimony…


  c. Our Lord Jesus longs for us to be a people who model life in the Father’s embrace

You see, when we worship and pray out of our struggle and sorrow we become more a people who are also real and transparent before one another, and so we become more a people who model God’s grace in the face of our ongoing sin, and God’s power in our weakness.  

Then this authenticity becomes more of the defining character of our corporate worship and fellowship, so that when people who are still stuck in their sin or sorrow come into our gatherings, they encounter an authentic group of people who are real not religious, who are humble and welcoming.

Then the predominate energy that flows out of our community and each person will be one of: “We are all a mess, but come discover what we have discovered, that life’s a whole lot more tolerable when we struggle together!  That we have discovered in Christ, in the gospel, in God’s Word and presence a grace that forgives and changes us, a hope that sustains us, and a love that empowers us to love!”

When that becomes the core identity of who we are as a local people of God, we will become irresistible to those outside the walls of our building who are so deeply hurting, because we become a temple of the irresistible presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!