In this enlightening episode of Expository Truths, Dr. John Kyle guides us through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, emphasizing the profound doctrines that lay the foundation for the Christian way of life. Paul, once a persecutor of the church, has become an ambassador for Christ, emphasizing unity between Jewish and Gentile believers. As we dive into Ephesians 3:8-9, we explore the authentic humility of Paul, a transformational figure who viewed himself as the least of all the saints, despite his monumental contributions to the faith. The discussion shifts to the stark contrast between pride and humility. Through biblical examples
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 8 through 9. Ephesians 3, 8 through 9. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in the city of Ephesus, whom he hadn’t seen for over five years. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers, chapters 1 through 3, so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God, chapters 4 through 6. If you remember, Paul began by giving a great amount of praise to God. He then gave a great prayer for the Ephesians, and then he went on and reminded the readers more than once… of what they once were before Christ rescued them, so that they would then be captivated by Christ and by what He’s done for them in saving them from the eternal wages of their sin. The call now is to respond accordingly. How? By loving Him and others. By doing good and godly works that glorify His name. And by being good stones in the temple that God is building. Lately, Paul’s been stressing the amazing fact that both believing Jews and believing Gentiles now make up the church. And as Paul wanted to begin chapter 3 with another wonderful prayer for these Ephesian Christians, remember what happened? Paul got sidetracked for 13 verses before he finally got to that prayer. What sidetracked him? The amazing mystery that’s now been revealed. What? That both Jewish believers and Gentile believers, people who once hated each other, look… they would now be the ones who would make up the church, the people of God. See, praise the Lord, it doesn’t matter your race or your background or how bad you’ve been or anything else. No. Everyone who believes in Christ as Lord and Savior is saved and is part of the eternal family of God. How good is that? Right? Right? And while Paul had the general calling that every Christian has of glorifying God with his life, battling sin, pursuing Christ-likeness, obeying the Lord, and so on, look, Paul also had the specific calling of not only being an apostle and laying down the foundation of the church, but even more, Paul was called to give out the gospel to the Gentiles, to the non-Jews, people who had once been despised and cast out. But guess what? Not anymore. Clearly, that’s good news. Not anymore. Look what Paul says next in Ephesians 3, verses 8 and 9. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints… This grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. Now here as we begin looking at these verses, we can note the two considerations by Paul. First look, Paul considered himself to be the least of all the saints. Say what? I mean, we’re talking about Paul here, right? I mean, we’re talking about Paul, Paul the Apostle. Paul the man of God, right? Paul the man that God used to turn the world upside down and to upset entire cities for Christ. Paul the missionary who started a bunch of churches. Paul the man who gladly and willingly suffered for Christ. Paul the one whom many would consider the greatest of all the saints. How can he call himself less than the least of all the saints and actually mean it? Because that’s how he actually viewed himself. See, this isn’t a false humility thing going on here. No, this is how Paul truly feels. It’s very interesting because here, Paul basically makes up a word to describe this, to describe how he feels. Look, he takes the Greek word for least or smallest, elakis, but he then adds an ending that makes the word impossible linguistically so that he ends up with the word leaster or leastest. Some people think that Paul’s playing off his Latin name, which means little. So it’s as if he’s saying, I’m little by name, little in stature, and I’m the littlest of all the saints. I am more than the least of all the saints. I am small Paul in every way. It’s amazing. And again, this expresses Paul’s honest feelings about himself. It’s interesting to note that the longer that Paul was a Christian, the deeper Paul’s feelings about this became. Look, in AD 55, when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, Paul says, “…I am the least of the apostles.” A few years later in 61 AD when Paul wrote Ephesians, Paul says here, I’m the less than the least of all the saints. And then a few years later in about 64 AD when Paul wrote 1 Timothy, he said, I’m the foremost of all sinners. I’m the chief of all sinners. And so… As Christ increased in Paul, Paul decreased. As Paul matured in his faith, his estimation of himself became lower and the estimation of Christ became higher. And really that’s the key because when you truly see Christ in all His glory, you will then realize your own sinfulness. You will then realize your own unworthiness. See, true understanding of the depth of of God’s truth, of God’s word, doesn’t give a person a big head. No, it gives him a broken and contrite heart and also a more intense love for his good God. And even though we are forgiven, praise the Lord, and even though we’re loved by a holy God called saints, have an eternal inheritance, are a part of God’s eternal family, and have immense and undeserved blessings from the God who created us, hey, who gets all the glory for that? Not us, right? No. It’s all Him. It’s all Christ. And please note that Paul isn’t wallowing around in this in any way. Oh, I’m so bad. I’m the least. I’m a terrible, no good, very bad person. And I just walk around depressed all the time when I understand that. No, no. Instead, this reality caused Paul to love God all the more. to exalt Him and to catapult Him forward in His quest to glorify God with His fading life. See, it energized Him in His faith. That’s what true humility does. It doesn’t depress you and cause you to wallow around and do nothing. No, it propels you forward in love and in adoration and heartfelt obedience to the God who saved you and to the God who set His love on you. As Charles Spurgeon noted, look at the corn in the field. It holds its head erect while it’s green, but when the ear is filled and matured, it hangs its head in graceful humility. Look at your fruit trees, how their blossoming branches shoot up toward the sky. But when they begin to be loaded down with fruit, since the riper the fruit, the greater its weight, the branch begins to bow until it needs oftentimes to be propped up and supported, lest it break away from the stem. He says this, weight comes with maturity and lowliness of mind is the inevitable consequence. And he’s right. Another note of this, the more grace, the more the need of grace is felt. And as we’ve said before, the longer you’re a Christian and the nearer you grow in your faith and the closer you grow to Christ, the more you see your own sin and how great His grace towards you truly is. J.C. Ryle said the true secret of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility. We have nothing we can call our own but sin and weakness. Surely there is no garment that befits us so well as humility. And that’s what the Bible teaches. Look, pride is common to all men, all of us, and there’s nothing into which the heart of man so easily falls as pride, and yet there is no vice which is more frequently, more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture. Pride is the thing that brought Satan down and it will bring you down if you’re not careful. God hates pride because it exalts self and lowers God when we should be exalting God and lowering ourselves in His mighty presence. Remember prideful Jezebel, 1 Samuel 25? Her boastful words, her lying tongue, how she out the window flung, her body then reduced to dung.” Pride, bad. Remember prideful Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel chapter 4? He said, this is the place I built. His heart with ugly pride was filled. God intervened. His pride was killed. Again, pride, very bad. Remember prideful Herod Agrippa in Acts 12? Now look at him so richly groomed and listen to him, but he’s doomed. His body, by the words, worms consumed. Pride, bad. It’s very bad because God doesn’t like it when we exalt ourselves when He alone should be the one that we exalt. Biblically, the person that God gives grace to, the person that God comes to, the person that God is pleased with is the humble person. Not me, Lord, but you, Lord, all you. See? As Proverbs 16.18 says, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. So again, pride that exalts self is bad, but humility that lowers self and exalts God and then others is good. The Lord regards the lowly, Psalm 138.6. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will exalt you, James 4.20. And clearly, Paul knew this. And clearly, Paul meant this. Not me. No, not me. Christ. Christ alone. Some might look at this and say, yeah, I get it, but Paul, man, he once persecuted the church. I mean, that’s serious. That’s why he sees himself as the leastest of all the saints. And that’s true, and Paul mentions that in 1 Corinthians 15. But I truly don’t believe that Paul’s past life of sin is what made him truly humble. No, I think it’s his high view of Christ that made him truly humble. We’ve all sinned. We’re all spiritual adulterers. We’re all spiritual lepers. We’re all spiritual prostitutes who have left God at times for way lesser loves. We’re all terrible sinners against our great and mighty God. But He’s forgiven us. Amen? And He has washed us clean as Christians, white as snow. The past is done and the past is gone. And He has made us new. And humility doesn’t keep coming to us and it doesn’t keep growing in us unless we are continuing to see His greatness more and more and more. And when we see His greatness more and more and more, loving humility is the proper response. You are everything, Lord. You’re everything to me, Lord. See? See? Do you feel that way? Look what John the Baptist says, and note that these are his last recorded words. Christ must increase and I must decrease. The order here is significant because that’s a natural order. Because again, when we truly see Christ in His majesty, beauty, perfection, glory, and so on, we can do nothing but see ourselves for who we truly are with the result being true humility before our all-glorious One. Many times in Scripture, those who saw the glory of Christ just part of Him were soon on their faces on the ground. Him. See, Him. I believe that kind of godly humility was a key thing that made Paul so useful for his master. And it’s a key thing that will make us useful as well. Hey, how about this? Just be humble. Let others brag about you. Not yourself. Let others. May your only boast be in the Lord who alone is worthy. Stay low and exalt Him, for God loves this quality in His people. Second, Paul considered it all God’s grace that he should preach Christ to the Gentiles. He said, I am the leastest… But this grace was given that I should preach Christ among the Gentiles and I’m absolutely blown away by that incredible privilege. Now remember, grace is God’s unmerited favor and while Paul was saved by God’s grace alone and not by anything in himself, no, it was all grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Look. It was also all of God’s grace that God should call him to not only be the apostle and help lay down the foundation of the church, but to also be the apostle to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people. Now think about that. that Paul, once a Gentile-hating Pharisee of Pharisees, that now because of the supernatural power of the gospel of God’s amazing grace, that Paul actually considers it a privilege to preach to the once despised and hated Gentiles. Think about that. And while Paul never forgot his own countrymen, the Jewish people, his main focus was on giving Christ to the Gentile people. And as God changed Paul’s life and his heart, Paul now has this passionate heart of love for the many lost Gentile souls around him, knowing that they’re lost and knowing that they’re miserable in their idle worshiping and empty ways, and that Christ is their only true answer. And guess what? Paul had what they needed, right? Christ. And so he gladly goes out to the needy ones, the needy souls, even at the cost of his own life. Years ago, there was a criminal who was set to be executed for his terrible crimes. That man was a wretched man. The man didn’t care about God. He didn’t care about anyone else either. He only cared about himself. On the morning that he was sent to be executed, the prison chaplain came to him. And as they were walking, the chaplain was very routinely reading the Scriptures to the man. Very, very rotely. Very routinely. The chaplain read about hell and also about sin and the terrible consequences of sin. And then he read about the good news that’s found in Christ. And then he read about heaven. But it was all rote. It was just empty ritual. I mean, there was no tears coming out of the eyes of this chaplain. There were no feelings at all coming from the chaplain. And even though he knew that this man was soon going to die and surely he was going to go to hell, the chaplain was unmoved at that reality. Finally, the condemned criminal couldn’t take it anymore. And so he said, Sir, if I believe what you say you believe and what your scriptures tell you, then even if this nation was covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it. And if I had to, I would do it on my hands and knees just to save one soul from a hell like that. And he’s right. He’s right. What can you give in exchange for a soul? And even though we can’t personally save any lost soul, God is the one who saves. Hey, every Christian is called to care. And God uses means of bringing the lost to saving faith. And so every Christian is called to go and to share Christ with the lost with love and with passion and with heart. How could we not? But Paul cared. He cared. Very clearly, He cared. Very deeply, He cared. And He’s a great example for all of us in Christ today. Look, this world around us is dying and going to hell. And here we are. And we have Christ. We have true good news. We have what this world desperately needs the most, whether they realize that truth or not. We have the medicine for the sin-infected souls all around us. And we should all care deeply and passionately about these souls, even about the worst of them. They don’t know any better. They’re lost. Hate won’t win them to Christ. No. The good news lived out. And the good news spoken to them. And loving truth is the means that God uses. Paul cared. And so Paul went to the Gentiles and he gave them the truth of God. Again, even in the midst of pain and even in the midst of possible and certain death, obeying God was worth it. And so were the souls of those that he went to. In Acts chapter 17, Paul found himself in the pagan city of Athens. And he’s waiting for the rest of his team. Now Athens is in Greece, and while the city reached its high point 3, 4, even 500 years before, when people lived here like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, along with Epicurus who founded the Epicureans and Zeno who founded the Stoics, while that was true, the city was still a very prominent city in Paul’s day. See, Athens was the intellectual, philosophical, and religious center of the day. But note this, they didn’t know the one true God, but they instead worshipped a whole bunch of false gods. In a place called the Pantheon, they had a God for everything. Every public building in Athens was a shrine to a god. All of its art had false deities in mind. The great monuments and the beautiful buildings were built as tributes to the false gods. So Athens was cultured, and they were educated, and they were philosophical, and they were utterly and entirely lost. And in Acts 17, Paul’s here in Athens, and he’s strolling around the city, and he’s observing what’s going on. Paul quickly saw that idols were everywhere. It’s been estimated that there were about 30,000 idols in the city. And as Paul observes them, Acts 17 says that his spirit was provoked within him. Provoked means to be sharpened, to be incited, to be irritated. The word describes a convulsion or sudden outburst of emotion or action. And clearly Paul’s deeply stirred by what he is now seeing. See, the sin and godlessness around us should stir us up. It should agitate us in a God-honoring way. Note how Paul sees well beyond the mere external to the spiritual reality. He didn’t really care about the beauty of the place, not really. And he didn’t care about the great architecture. And he didn’t care about the great artwork. No, he looked beyond all that superficial stuff to the spiritual issue. This place is full of idols and all these people are lost. So Paul’s provoked. He’s disturbed and for good reason. Why? Why? Because Paul knew that idolatry was demonic. And therefore, the many gods of the Greeks were tools of Satan to hold these lost souls in his grip. And as Paul’s walking around Athens, he’s seeing all these worthless idols that are seducing and ensnaring these lost people’s souls. This happens every time we go to Myanmar. The pagodas there are absolutely beautiful, truly amazing, but to us they are reprehensible. Why? Because this is where the devil is unknowingly worshipped, and this is what 95% of the nation worships, idols, demons. Should that not provoke our hearts? It’s happening here too, though. Right here in Vacaville, here in America, all around us. Hey, bowing down to idols of the heart is just as bad as bowing down to a statue of Buddha. An idol is anything that we put ahead of the one true God and it’s rampant in our society. And while people aren’t bowing down to statues, they are indeed bowing down to their money and to self and to other people and to man-centered philosophies and to made-up religions, to sex, to power and to sin. Everyone worships something and if it’s not the one true God, then it’s idolatry and it’s wicked and it will land you in hell. And this reality should provoke all of us. It should disturb us. It should stir us up so much so that it compels us in love to do something about it like Paul. So what did he do? He went and he preached the good news of Christ to the lost and desperate souls in that city. Yes, it was His calling, but it was also His privilege. And He was very passionate when He did it. And note that all Christians have this same general calling on our lives. To show and to share Christ with the many lost souls around us. How are you doing? We’re all salt. We’re all light in this dark world and our call is to shine it brightly. Lord, help us to see it not as a burden, but Lord, help us to see it as a great privilege. I get to share Christ with those around me. I get to be used by God to tell people the good news that can save their souls from wrath. I get to be God’s ambassador to the lost. I get the honor of giving out the medicine that the sick people around me so desperately need. What a privilege. Everybody listen up. You’re lost, we say. You’re lost and desperate for Jesus to rescue you. You’re a sinner, aren’t we all? And your sin has tragic wages. Hell. Banishment from heaven. Eternal wrath. But I’ve got good news. I’ve got soul-saving news for you. This. For all who believe on Christ as Savior and Lord in His person and in His work… They will be saved from wrath and given heaven by grace. Jesus is God the Son. And He left heaven. He took on human flesh and became a man. 100% man and 100% God at the same time. And He lived a perfect life. And He died on the cross in the believer’s place. And three days later, He rose up from the dead. And it means everything to those of us who believe. Why? Because when He died, He paid the full wages of our sin. He paid the full wages of every sin of every believer in all of history so they could then be cleansed of that sin, forgiven of that sin that banishes them from heaven, and given heaven eternal life instead of eternal wrath because of Christ and what He did in their place on the cross. See, your sin that condemns you is given to Him. His perfect righteousness is given to you by grace through faith in Him. Result? heaven eternal life with god eternal glory so yeah i mean i’ve got some good news for you today see paul’s a very good example for all of us let’s pray heavenly father thank you for your wonderful word of truth thank you for dying to save us for the unfathomable riches that we have in you We only see in part and we are blown away. Help us, Lord, to see more clearly day by day as we draw closer to you. May we be humble and may we lift you high, putting you first, then others, and then ourselves after that. Because we love you and we see you and we glory in you. May we be a bright light to those around us, we pray. Use us for your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety, as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor, and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
