This evening, our Scripture passage will come to us from Ephesians chapter 3. If you would turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3, we'll be looking at verses 7 through 13. Ephesians chapter 3, but I'll begin with verse 1 just so we have the context. Let us hear the word of the Lord. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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. 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. 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. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this gift, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be shown to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Ascends the reading of God's Word. May He bless it to our hearing. We hear this phrase today that what goes around comes back around. That you reap what you sow. So goes the logic of this age. You know, too often in our day we wrongly consider justice. We think of the bad guy at the end of the movie. He gets his comeuppance. Overcoming this scenario, the good guy wins against the evil forces. And we think this is what true victory looks like. By the end of the day, in our world, even when justice seems to happen, someone is always harmed. Unjustly, there's shame that's involved. Even when there's justice that happens by those who we think are good. We quickly go to war with this corporation or people riot in the streets going to war with this country, dispensing justice in the name of maybe God and country. And at the end of the day, we maybe even feel a deep kind of satisfaction because this is how life seems to work. This is the logic of life that we see around us. Our neighbor or spouse, teacher or co-worker or friend, they harm us. only later to receive that kind of same ill treatment. And we think, yeah, you know, they got what they deserved. They had it coming. They deserved to get into that car accident. Didn't you see how badly they were driving? And this is how we think. We think according to terms of vengeance. We think in terms of karma. There was a recent Newsweek article that even said that all Americans whether they're religious or Christian or not are becoming Buddhists thinking according to karma that if we think good thoughts we had good feelings towards people if we do good things good things will come back to us and yet the opposite is just as true when we act badly when we smile at others' misfortune we do not realize that it's impossible to get out of that vicious cycle this vicious cycle of what goes around comes back around shame and dishonor always produce repercussions that we cannot foresee that the one who sows according to the flesh will from that flesh reap corruption you know Paul mentions these rulers the rulers of this age, who are dwelling in the heavenly places. And it's as if they laugh, smiling as these little ants wonder about trying to get even with this person or that person. And we think that we're so wise with our little schemes, and yet this is what true blindness is, according to Paul. And yet we all commit such actions. We all think those kind of thoughts. We all fall prey to our own devices like the fool in the psalmist who lays a trap for somebody else but gets caught up in it himself that our lies always catch up with us in the end. These actions, they seem to trap us by the consequences of our deeds and even things that we could not foresee. Often denying us that existence in life that we so desperately want. And yet these works These are the very works of the devil, the father of lies, that Jesus came to destroy. For some of us, we may have had some horrible trauma happen to us in our life. It might have been an accident or some death in the family. Some people may have been physically or verbally abused by one of their parents. These kinds of things lead to all kinds of actions and thoughts and deeds that fill us with great shame and fear. And we don't even whisper to another soul. All these things get us caught up in this cycle of true pain and suffering that just leads to further and further anxiety. I'm sure for some of you that some days it may be difficult to even just get out of bed as we cycle through the memories of things that have happened to us, wondering if that will happen again, wondering if we get hurt again by just going out our front door. So our memories internalize all these things that happen to us. It's kind of like a bank storing up how we imagine reality to be, whether it's in vengeance and fear or goodness and peace. it's like our life story can be seen in our very flesh and bones internalizing the evil and injustice that maybe we have done or that has happened to us unfortunately in Christian circles we kind of downplay this kind of suffering that goes on in the church we may not have that kind of basic anxiety that third world countries may have where they wonder where their food is going to come from the next day to the next. But we are faced with a daily neurotic anxiety that seems to scrape our souls over the broken glass of our memories. And Satan loves to deal with us like this. We can be left at night awake, wondering when this cycle, When this cycle of shame and vengeance and injustice, karma, what seems like injustice at one point, seems like justice at another, we can be trapped by our own decisions and the voices in our head. We can wonder, when will this ever end? Trapped by this fear of death, we wonder, how can we have such boldness that Paul is talking about? How can we have such boldness in the face of these rulers over this present age. Well, Christian, for such an end, Christ came into the world. For such an end, Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. Only through this lens of understanding the ascension can we see why Paul can say that his chains are our glory. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, these things put an end to this cycle through God's manifold wisdom. His ascension broke that cycle of fear and shame. Mercy and compassion, goodness are now God's instruments for His right hand and His left. He's undoing the injustice that we have committed and also that has been committed against us. Giving us this new life of freedom and peace that we never thought possible. And so the manifold wisdom of God that we'll look at tonight is seen when the church has this love of Christ as it begins to shine forth in our lives in the midst of suffering because of Christ's ascension. Because the guilt of sin has been done away with. Its power in our lives has been broken. But right now, Paul says, it looks like suffering. This is the wisdom of God. As tonight, we see that Christ, Christ's ascension, it means something so much more for our daily existence than we even realize. Christ triumphed over the principalities and powers that Paul references in verse 10. And he put them to open shame. But how does he do this? That is the question, how does he do this? Not by getting even, not by retributive justice. No, had he acted as we would act, no one would be saved. Jesus had to remove his glory and he had to descend to the lowest parts of the earth, to hell itself, to undo death, before he could ascend as the Lord of glory. Before he could ascend as the Lord of glory, he had to descend to bear all that shame and guilt. Naked before the absolute justice of God. The justice that we deserved. In Christ, on the cross, nothing could be hidden. Nothing could be hidden before God. In the recesses of his memories, no bruise could be covered by a long-sleeved shirt. Naked with all these unjust wounds happening to him. And he bore it all. Yet Jesus arose the next day. He got up when it was finished. He rose Easter morning and he ascended. In his ascension, he breaks that cycle that we were talking about. He breaks the cycle of what goes around comes back around. And Paul says it's by this new thing called grace. This new way of existence that he hints at. This mystery that has now been revealed that Paul preaches. That the church has been given in the Word of God even when he's in chains. This new existence can come about by grace. Grace is the opposite of vengeance and karma. It is this free gift, a rich, abounding gift that keeps giving and giving and giving. By suffering for the guilty, Christ broke Satan's power. He ascended in the highest heavens. And he brought that sacrifice of true, sacrificial love and vulnerability. Now, I think that this word, vulnerability, it kind of scares us. We don't know what to do with it. As Western Americans, vulnerability is not something we're very good at. This word scares us, and yet it's the thing that we actually want the most. It's the thing that we actually desire the most. And this is what we have in Christ. His flesh, torn and pierced, is in heaven for you now as this lamb that was slain. in the presence of God as our advocate. He, He alone received the eternal affirmation of His good Father and now He gives His Spirit without measure and He pours it out upon us on our weary and bruised limbs, on all flesh, on women and children and men, all gripped by that cycle of shame and fear. That death produces in us this fear of death, the injustice. And yet he brings us to his side even now. We are seated in the heavenly places. It's as if we're lodged in the very wounds of Christ. Paul is working with this in his mind that we already participate in the victory of Christ. And yet Paul says here that this shape of that participation in Christ's work is very weird. It looks odd according to this age. It doesn't go according to the logic that we believe and look out and see and that we watch in the movies. Even to the rulers that he's talking about in the heavenly places, it's kind of weird. Paul says that suffering is now our glory. That we show our union with Paul and our communion with him through our suffering. That this is the manifold wisdom of God. But at this moment, we might say to ourselves, wait a minute, I thought you said that cycle of shame and fear and suffering was broken. Suffering sounds like what we should no longer have. Well, this form of suffering now and glory later has to happen in this way. The author of the Hebrews in many ways could comment on this passage saying, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood that He, Christ Himself, partook of those same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through the fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make the propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. So the suffering that remains that Paul is picking up on here, the suffering that remains is love. Love in the face of death. Love in the face of maybe an abusive parent that they might be throwing verbal abuses at us. Love in the face of that, and able to love our enemies, even unto death, as Paul surely thought he was going to. Because Christ did. And so Christ had to be like his brothers in all things. He had to ascend before God into his presence. Before the Gentiles, like us, could even pray to God. This is the great wisdom that he's talking about. The mystery revealed that before the Gentiles, before we could have this boldness and access, Jesus had to ascend into the heavens so that we could enter into the court of the Lord, passing into what Christ has already purchased. When Christ descended into the world, he had to take Satan on in his own game. For we in this whole age had been relegated to the prince of darkness and the rulers in these heavenly places that Paul is referencing, Subjected to this age of fear and death. Moses describes that in Deuteronomy 4 and Paul in Ephesians 2. That the ruler of this age blinds all the men and women of this age by fear. Creation itself is being subjected to this futility, crying out. But Christ knew. He knew that if he answered the law's demands, that the power of death itself would be undone. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the great mystery hidden before the ages began, that God would undo death by death, and He would bring the children of the devil He would raid His camp and He would bring Him into His kingdom. He would send His Spirit into our hearts, even the hearts that are constantly filled with shame and fear, not knowing how to act or feel, often living according to the rules of this age. Yet with Paul we can proclaim that among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages began for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. Christ ascended above every rule and authority and power and has given that name above every name to redeem us from all the power of the devil. He ascends on high and He gives all these good gifts to us, namely this Holy Spirit who sheds the love of Christ abroad in our hearts Christ's passion and His love is poured out into our hearts from His heavenly throne room so that we can have boldness now. Boldness in the midst of fear. Boldness in the midst of our own sins and the devil's accusations. Confidence through our faith in Christ. His person is so united to us even in all our sufferings that Paul says that our words, our very words, can impart grace to our hearers. That we can literally redeem the time for the days are evil because we are in Christ. This is exactly what Paul is doing in prison. Through the church, this manifold wisdom of God is now revealed. We, in our midst, this great mystery that's happening upon us in our midst even this evening. The rulers of this age are being put to shame. Verse 10 to 13, we read again, that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. As I was thinking about verse 13, I was quite puzzled by how it made sense in the whole structure of what Paul was saying. I was thinking about it for months, and it finally dawned on me. I can be kind of slow like that, but it kind of dawned on me when I realized that in the ancient world, in the ancient world, one of the ways that a deity was seen to be victorious or powerful was in the wealth and prosperity of the family or the city that worshipped it. But if a warring city or faction or family would come by and make war against that city, It was seen as those two gods doing battle. Very much like what we're hearing in Exodus. These two gods doing battle over each other. If a city lost, it was as if that god or deity was vanquished. But so was the identity of everyone in that city. They were all made slaves. They were all not even considered human. You no longer had a family. You no longer had a name or identity. You were nothing. if your God was dead and you were enslaved in chains. So Paul is saying to these Ephesians, he's saying they might forget their first love. They might forget how different Jesus actually is from the rulers of this age, from the gods of this world. They might forget Jesus. The ancient world balked and they squirmed and they got angry at the idea of a weak God. People even today, I'm sure you've heard, they even say, look at the Christian God, so weak on the cross. His ambassador and his apostles, they're in chains. Look at the church, so full of weakness, so full of sinners and hypocrites. How can such a God save? Do you not hear this today, those very words? Maybe you've even thought them. Paul, how in the world do we have such boldness when you are in chains, when the church seems to be in turmoil? Paul says, through the gift of God's unsearchable grace that is in Christ. God is eternal in the heavens and He shows His power not by asserting Himself over everyone else, Not by singing what goes around comes back around. No. There may be a day of judgment coming. But salvation is the day that we are now experiencing. He shows himself in his proper work as a king. As a good king. To give away his greatest possession. He gives his only son. The person that he could be most vulnerable with. who's in his bosom and side from eternity. And the Son willingly takes that shame upon him, despising it for the glory of you and me that is set before him. And he endures that, even the death on the cross. He opens heaven's doors and he pours that same love in the midst of suffering into our hearts. Only then is this cycle broken. only then is the cycle of retribution and vengeance, hatred and disobedience to parents, sexual immorality, lying, stealing. Only then is that shame and fear broken. We're removed from that horrid kingdom of evil. Like the Israelites making bricks without straw. And we are transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. And so it's not that we are removed from suffering. We may be, we may be, but this cycle of vengeance, this cycle of guilt and vengeance is specifically broken in us when we love, when we love our enemies, when injustice occurs to us, like Paul in this prison, suffering with Christ outside the gates. That we can give, that we can give our lives away, Just like Christ did. Even in the face of death. That is what glory looks like. That is the wisdom that God is unfounding the world with. So that by any means, we too now may attain the resurrection of the dead. We have to start bearing in our bodies the mark of Christ. The family trait of our elder brother. And it's happening right now in the church. As we come together, he's, by his Spirit, healing and mending all those things that the world causes to have war and strife and hatred. God is giving us new memories, new ways of imagining this world as we come to the Lord's Supper. As we hear his word proclaimed, as we go through the liturgy, having our sins declared forgiven, hearing his law. All of those things God is using to fashion us in Christ's image. Giving us peace and freedom even now. As I was reading verse 10, there's this kind of irony that I kind of saw when I was looking at it. It's almost as if the rulers, these demonic powers of this age, they're starting to smirk. They're seeing Paul in prison in chains. But then their smile turns to a quizzical look. It's like they have an uh-oh moment. It's like a Scooby-Doo moment where they're just totally unfounded what's going on. By faith in the Savior who has won, our chains, our slavery fall from our hands and feet. They burst asunder and God laughs in the heavens. He holds them in derision as He smiles upon us. The guilt of sin is done away with and now its power is breaking. Satan is the one who has been bound. And we have been freed. We are given the very power in the mind of Christ by His Spirit. Even maybe when we're in chains, just like Paul. This is the ascension, my friends. Christ bearing all our shame and guilt so that we can bear it no more. He builds us up by His Spirit that He's poured out so we no longer walk in the former ways of our life so that we can go out with Paul outside the city, being ruled by Christ through His Word and His Spirit, outside the camp, overcoming evil with good, fighting and battling the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we can put on now the whole armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. For he says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against those rulers and authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. So yes, we may suffer in the process, But Christ says to the one who gains the victory and remains in faith till the end, that person, that person will have eternal glory in life. Our futures, our futures are secure and hidden in Christ's side. Even when the world tells us differently, when this age clouds our minds and seeks to draw our hearts back to the logic of vengeance, what goes around comes back around. This world sows in vengeance. But what God has done, God is starting something new. He's sowing something in grace. We can sow now in grace. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so through the ascension of Christ, the fate that we had is undone. And we are given freedom. We're given freedom through this truth of Christ that we hear proclaimed by the Apostle, this mystery that's been revealed, hidden from the ages, and that goodness of God, the Holy Spirit, dwells in our hearts. God is breeding that true hope and peace and love, waking us up from our apathy, waking us up from our cynicism and indifference. And the Lord is filling the desire of every living thing. So through Christ's ascent into the heavens, the heavenly door is open and we can have that boldness that he's talking about, that confidence to enter into the holy places because Christ has poured out his good gifts upon us, filling our hearts, causing us now to spread that around to those around us. And yet it's through, as Paul says, this path of suffering, that His chains are our glory. For the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men. This is the manifold wisdom of God that's now revealed to us. And so while past failures and fears that have robbed us of hope and possibly even action, those things cloud our minds and our memories believing we cannot escape and that our future is taken from us God's grace is greater not only redeeming us in the present but reaching back in the past and saving us giving us the life that we fail to attain by indecision and fear for as Paul reminds us the one who sows with the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life this is the new logic of god's kingdom this is the new thing and the wisdom that he has born in our hearts killing the fatted calf seeking the one lost sheep moving one moving the whole house just to find one coin selling all we have for this great treasure that we have in christ sowing in abundance excessively to reap in overabundance in life that we have in Him. And so in conclusion this evening, our shepherd King Jesus, He sees us with all our shame and fear and yet He seeks us still. Even now from the heavens, He comes to us through His Word and His Spirit clothing us, washing us with the water and the Word, making us this community of sinners, a hospital for sinners, mending us and healing us. Without His Word and sacraments, we would not have the power of this ascended Lord and Savior. We would succumb to the powers and rulers of this age, living by that injustice and by fear, the fear of death. yet God has made us heroes and heroines in the face of that death we no longer have to give others what they deserve that cycle has been broken we think more highly of others than ourselves instead of heaping justice on others we can heap kindness long-suffering patience, mercy, compassion self-control so in peace and when the church is filled filled with the spirit of this wisdom with such goodness we can proclaim in this world this mystery that's now revealed to us the manifold wisdom of God that's seen in the church the church is now this place where we can voice our fears and our frustrations and yet see this feast that has spread before us and yet whenever the logic of this age seems to have us singing the tune of this world of the theme song of this world we know that we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous to whom we can pray to whom we can pray for that cleansing that we need Amen let us conclude this evening with prayer O Lord we bow our knees before you this evening before you oh Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that you according to the riches of your glory might grant us to be strengthened with the power of your spirit in our inner being so that through Christ you may dwell in our hearts through faith being rooted and grounded in that love that we may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, being filled with the fullness of God. As we go out from this day, let us know our Christ is ruling and reigning. In his name we pray. Amen.