Ephesians 1:18-23 • Better Than Heroes 2007 General Assembly
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Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask if you would look in your Bibles at Ephesians chapter 1 as we will be looking at verses 18 through 23. And as you're turning my thanks to my longtime friend and long-term pastor in Memphis, Billy Spink, in my mind a model of friendship and faithful service to God. Long time, one place. To covenant presbytery and to the arrangements committee also my thanks. It's a privilege to be able to speak to my church in my hometown and I thank you for extending that kindness to me. Thank you all. And young people, you did great. Privilege to be able to follow you and to rejoice in God's worship in your voices. It so thrills us to see you worshiping God and extending the gospel to another generation. Thank you for singing to us and participating in all the work this week to get ready for this night. Just a word in preparation for what Paul will say here in Ephesians 1 and verse 18. It's been said that every true Christian leader must go through a second conversion. Not to Jesus Christ,
but to an understanding of the beauty and the value and the power of his bride. There comes a time in the life of Christian leaders when they are thinking past career and reputation and their own church and they begin to sense the value, the importance of the church corporate. Surely sharing with Paul that that he expressed to the Corinthians the concern that he felt for all the churches. Here in Ephesians he wants those who are gathered in little house churches throughout a great metropolitan area to also sense the beauty and the value and the power of the church. He knows it. He wants them to see it and so he says in verse 18, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power." For us who believe that power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
everything in every way. One voice tried to rise above 50,000. He said it once, "For Christ's sake, stop." But those 50,000 voices grown shrill by wine and bloodlust drowned him out quickly. So the little monk from North Africa ran to the floor of the Colosseum and stood among the gladiators and their weapons and said it three times, "For Christ's sake, stop. For Christ's sake, stop. For Christ's sake, stop."
And they did. Just for a moment, suspended in disbelief that the little monk in his simple robe would stand before the gladiators with their weapons and tell them to stop in the name of Christ. It seemed incredible, impossible, and ultimately intolerable. How dare he stop their sport? The crowd began to cry again for blood. This time, not for the gladiators, but for the blood of Telemachus. A stone flew, it stung him. Another stunned him. He fell to the ground. A hail of stones followed and he died. It seemed so worthless, so useless. The gladiators resumed their combat. The blood of some mixing with the blood of Telemachus and the crowd had its sport that day. It was for nothing.
Except that it plagued the conscience of the Emperor, who could not sleep at night and three days later outlawed the gladiatorial combat in Rome forever. One voice standing for Christ rose above 50,000. One man standing for Christ turned back the evil of an empire. One man standing for Jesus Christ set in motion events that not only overturned an empire but led to the conversion of millions ran across continents and time to touch the souls of every one of us who sit here tonight. The agnostic historian Will Durant, no friend of Christianity, nonetheless wrote about what happened that day. This is what he said, "Caesar and Christ met in the arena that day and Christ won." It was an amazing story of how the insignificant can be used by God for great glory, but the Apostle Paul speaking against cynicism and frustration speaks of something even better than the glory of a single hero. He speaks to the saints of Jesus Christ in the corporate church with a very simple message simply saying, "The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the hope of the world." If it seems impossible to you today to believe that, think of how difficult it was for those at Ephesus. There they were. Those Christians gathered in little house churches in the fifth largest city of the ancient world, a city that was immersed in materialism and paganism, pluralism, sport diversions, eroticism to make a difference amidst all of that with these little bitty churches of insignificance. It's foolish to even think so.
And so the Apostle prays that the eyes of their hearts would be open, not what could be seen physically, but by faith in the heart they would see the reality of what God would do through them. Remember the words, "I pray," verse 18, "that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you." There's the message. It is a message of hope. It is our message. It's always the message of the church and every preacher who would make a difference in his time.
There are commands to give. There are laws to speak about, but ultimately our message is the message of hope.
And the Apostle begins to spell out the dimensions of that hope. What does he want these Ephesians to see? First, the riches of God's glorious inheritance in the saints. It's a pickup of a thought earlier in the chapter. In verse 7, the Apostle has spoken of what we have in Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Here's the simple message of the gospel, that by the blood of Jesus Christ we have been redeemed, the penalty for our sin fallen upon him, and we are forgiven. As we place our faith in him. Now what you expect Paul to be saying later in the same chapter is something similar, but it's actually quite different.
He wants the Ephesians to see the riches of God's glorious inheritance in the saints. He's not speaking of our inheritance, God's inheritance.
The understanding of the Apostle that by our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, God has purchased us at so great a price, we are so precious to him that we are his inheritance.
Some of you have seen the videos of Tim Hoyt, that father-son combination that runs marathons and triathlons together. A wonderful story in itself.
But made extraordinary by the fact that the son, Rick, 40 plus years ago, as he was being born, had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and was deprived of oxygen for vital minutes. He was born with the effects of cerebral palsy. He still participates in the marathons, hundreds of them by now. Because his father, as he runs, pushes his son in a wheelchair. If it's a triathlon, when the father cycles, there is a seat that's attached to the front of the cycle where Rick rides. And when the father swims in the triathlon, he pulls his son in a boat behind him.
The amazing thing to watch is the finish line. As Rick, the son, raises a twisted arm in victory and the father embraces his son. The glory of the son is the victory of the father, but the glory of the father is his son. He has done so much, he knows it is his finest thing to have done so much to capture the glory for this son of his, the son who writes, "I am never more alive than when my father carries me."
Something even more precious has been said by an apostle, that when we were so disabled that we were dead in our transgressions and sin, we were carried to a cross, washed in blood, raised in newness of life, seated in heavenly places. And the heavenly father so much treasures us now that he says, "You are my inheritance. I love you that much." To be such a treasure, it is the answer to the world's pain and shame and loneliness. To know, "This shall all my glory be. My father is not ashamed of me." By the work of his son, he has made me precious to himself. And the apostle prays that the Ephesians would see it, that they are the inheritance of the father who so treasures them.
But the Lord who so treasures them does more than simply treasure them. Verse 19, the apostle also prays that these Ephesians would see God's incomparably great power for us who believe. Not only love for us, but power for us from heaven itself.
And the apostle begins to describe the nature of that power. It is not just incomparably great. It is greater than death. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. We are too accustomed to the resurrection. Yes, it is the conquering of sin. Yes, it is our spiritual victory, all of that. But do you recognize what is being said? There has been an overturning of the cosmic order. The physical laws of the universe have been suspended. God has worked in the spiritual realm, but there has been an effect upon the physical realm. The God of all power has rescued his son from the dead. And that power is at work in us who believe in comparably great working for us so that the apostle can continue that this Jesus now was seated at the right hand of the father in heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and dominion. The commentators tend to agree that this is Jewish language for the ranks of demons. That the apostle looks across the spiritual opposition that could be faced by Christ and his people and he says Jesus is greater than any opposition. If it were the Lord of the Rings and if you've seen the movies, it's almost as though the battlefield has been laid out by the apostle and he has said, I know the power of the Easterlings and the Southrons and the orcs.
That he is above every title that can be given. Kings and Caesars, presidents and premiers, everything that has title, everything that can hold sway in our lives. Jesus is greater. Anything that has title and influence that could hurt us. What would it be?
President or parent, oppressor or molester. Influence of Jesus is greater and it's not just for a moment. For the apostle says he is over these things not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.
Death cannot hold him. Satan cannot defeat him. Kings cannot rule him. Time cannot contain him. He is Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord and he is using his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Surely it was impossible, hard at times even for the apostle Paul to realize that. Here he is as he writes languishing in prison for four years at this point. And still he says, God is at work. He's not limited by time. Satan will not overwhelm him. Can it be true?
Times we wonder. A few years ago I was part of a study tour where we went to southern France and looked at the Huguenot history. Those wonderful French reformers who in less than ten years with the teaching and help of John Calvin established more than 3,000 Protestant churches in France.
Until the Catholic monarchy had enough of that. And in a series of murders and massacres destroyed them by the thousands drove out tens of thousands. They went into hiding worship still in caves and barns in their houses and secret as they could. But if they were caught.
The minister was killed on the spot.
The men gathered together and shipped as slaves to the galley ships for life.
And the women, their children were taken away and they were put in prison for life.
Surely they wondered.
Where is the incomparably great power for us who believe?
I wonder too.
I went directly from that study tour to an opportunity to minister in Hungary.
And as I ministered in Hungary to pastors from Hungary and Romania and Bulgaria, so many of them who had tried to minister under communist oppression, I felt unworthy of being there.
I ministered to men who had lost their positions under communist rule. I ministered to men who had lost their children. I ministered to men who had been imprisoned for years.
I remember just sitting across the table from a man who as he drank from a soup bowl and lifted his arms, I could see the scars from the shackles that had been on his wrists. What was I doing teaching them?
And yet as I was there and began to learn their stories, where they had come from, I learned that these men considered themselves to be the great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of the Huguenots, the ones who had been dispersed across Europe by the persecutions of the French monarchy.
And suddenly I recognized what I was seeing.
Kings and kingdoms had passed away, but the Church of Jesus Christ had endured.
Murders and massacres, time and tanks could not destroy the work of Jesus Christ. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena again and Christ had won again.
It is His promise, it is His work, that He will apply His incomparably great power for us who believe and for us who serve in places where we think we're insignificant or places very visible but we feel very vulnerable.
It is the message of the Gospel still to us. Our God is at work. Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always be about the work of the Lord knowing that your labor is not in vain. He is at work. He's not constrained by this age. He is at work by His Spirit to accomplish His great purposes for His people.
But how? What's His means?
The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians and tells us. Verse 22, he begins to describe the instrument. Remember, God placed all things under Christ's feet, appointed to be head over everything for the Church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. There's the extent of Christ's rule. It's meant to fill everything in every way, but how is it being expressed?
By His body. And what is His body?
The Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.
The power of the heavens is coming to help the Church. But the way in which that power is being expressed is through the Church.
The incomparably great power is for the Church, but it's expressed by the Church. It's the filling of all creation. We already know what that's supposed to be about. We remember the words of Abraham Kuyper that there is not one square inch of this world over which Jesus does not stand and say, "This is mine. This is mine."
But the way in which that extension of His Kingdom is occurring is by His body, the Church, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Every now and then we get just a glimpse of what it would mean that He who controls the cosmos says even the stars run in their courses for the Church. The world turns on its axis for the Church because the Church is the means of His expressing His power in the earth.
I remember as a child here in Memphis having a South American missionary come to our church and talk about what happened when a church had been established in a village and the gospel began to work its way through the community, saying you could tell even as you walked into a town that as you walked into one of those South American towns the streets would be clean, the gates would be repaired, the children would be clothed, the water would smell different.
I wondered back then, is it really true that the gospel can have that kind of effect, physical as well as spiritual upon a people?
I've traveled enough now to see it myself. I have been in villages in Africa that are still controlled by animism and seen the filth and the anarchy rule and go two miles away to another village where the Church has been established and see children clean and clothed, the streets swept clean as people simply honor the Scriptures and do unto others as they would have them do unto themselves as they raise their children and the nurture and admonition of the Lord as they take care of one another.
For the love of Christ, it changes absolutely everything as the Church enters and by doing so Christ and Caesar meet again and Christ wins again in village after village throughout the world and home after home, suburb after suburb.
As God's people live faithfully to Him there is the fullness of Christ that begins to fill all creation. How does it happen? How does the Church fulfill its obligation? What's the plan?
Of course remarkable for its absence is any military strategy or political plan or franchising agreement.
The plan is for the Church to be the Church. That's how the fullness of Christ spreads. It's the glory, it's the goodness, it's the wonder, it's the hope to the local Church. To be reminded again, you are the plan. How is that done? We know the message has already been given to us in the verses that precede this promise and follow it immediately. To have the message clear among our people that before the foundations of the world were laid you were loved.
God wasn't waiting for you to be good enough. God wasn't waiting for your accomplishment. He and His sovereign will loved you.
And even when you were dead in your transgressions and sin, He made you alive, lifted you to Himself.
So now already you are seated in heavenly places so united to Christ, His righteousness your own, that God looks at you as precious and holy as His own child.
And from that positional sanctification, knowing I am holy before God by the work of Jesus Christ, all the blessings of grace now flow. As we seek to live out the reality of having already been made right with God. It's what Paul does through the rest of the book of Ephesians, right? It's the plan for how the Church will be the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. We who are united to Christ recognize we're therefore united to others who are united to Christ.
And so the walls of race and class and region begin to come down as we are told the dividing walls of separation between Jew and Gentile are gone.
And even as the dividing walls come down, the walls of the Church where the Shekinah glory now dwells by the Spirit among us begins to grow.
As we love one another, maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace as we begin to respect differing gifts for the sake of that unity. Bring the reality of the grace of God, unconditional love, sacrificial love into our homes as men and women relate to one another according to the Scriptures.
As fathers love their children according to the Scriptures.
As employers become masters as though even a slave were their own brother for the sake of Jesus Christ.
And knowing that Satan will oppose us at every turn, we put on the full armor of God by the Spirit with the Word making known what is to be said.
And by the Church, by its proclamation and by the vocation of its people moving out into society so that everything begins to change. If that sounds somehow not enough or novel, that somehow the Church being the Church is God's plan to take His dominion across the world, it's simply because we have not paid enough attention to our history.
Will Durant, again the historian I mentioned at the beginning, no friend of Christianity, nonetheless made it clear that when the Church faces the world as the Church, the face of the world changes. Here's what he wrote.
"There is no greater drama in the human record than the sight of a few Christians scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, burying all trials with a fiery tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the Word, fighting brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state the world has ever been."
Caesar and Christ had met in the arena and Christ won.
Christianity swept the Roman world. You know the history and how it happened, but it was not always even the excellence of our arguments or theology, it was the world witnessing the Church.
With loving relationships, with sacrificial giving, with the Church being the Church, it became the attraction to the things of God and it needed to be.
Because ultimately as we know we are the means by which our God will fill this earth with the fullness of Christ, we understand more clearly our mission.
It is to live the little story faithfully. It is to recognize these words of Ephesians are written for us to live, to actually believe that as we love chastely, are faithful in marriages, as we do the things that turn the eyes of the Roman world to Christ, so it is our duty.
Yet again we look of course to the devastations of paganism among us. But the answer is not mysterious, it's not magical, it's not unachievable. It is the Church being the Church and believing not just the little story that I can make some difference, but to believe the big story that as we are faithful in our churches, in our homes, that that is God's plan.
Fulfilling this world with the fullness of our Savior. We can forget, but we must recall that our Lord has already set his banner on the mountain. It is his, it is all his, and if we forget that, we will not choose our immediate steps wisely or well.
Just a few months ago, a man said to me from one of our churches, "I don't know why our church should support mission to the world. What have they done for us? When was the last time Paul Coistra spoke in our church?"
The missional church does not ask, "How can you serve me?" But how can we unite as the people of God for something larger than ourselves to believe what our Presbyterian principles are that we can do far more corporately as a church than we can do individually to believe that deeply and profoundly.
To actually believe the big story that God uses faithful people daily to build churches who by witness and faithfulness in their communities will change absolutely everything.
It will happen. It does happen as we continue to believe it. We will struggle. Surely we will struggle.
I think of the wisdom of the fathers of this church when they tried to identify our core values that we would be faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed faith, and obedient to the Great Commission. As wise as were those words, they could not have known they were being prophetic about our future.
In order, we have basically walked through each of those core values as a church. Within days, maybe even moments of our founding, we identified clearly what it would be to be faithful to the Scriptures, to uphold the inerrancy of that which was inspired by God.
But the next core value, being true to the Reformed faith, we spent 30 years battling what it meant to hold each other accountable for that.
We wrestled through that. Good men doing what they could as well as they could to uphold what they believed was right for the church. And for the last five years after so much of those battles, we have had wonderful peace, challenges, of course, but a different place, a different spirit. So what's before us now?
You know, don't you? It is our church becoming obedient to the Great Commission.
It is to believe that we maybe have learned, even by the difficulties of our debates, how to talk to one another. It's been glorious this week. Some of you who are new to this assembly in the debate that we had yesterday said, "Oh, that was so hard." And I thought, "Oh, if you'd only heard it before."
If you only knew how different this was, if you were able to go to the Overtures Committee and hear brothers argue well and respectfully and cordially, and what a wonderful spirit it was. And to recognize what I think God may be doing is to say we've had to learn from some of our difficulties about how to hold each other accountable. So now that we will be able to talk about what may be more difficult, how we corporately move forward in mission together.
We cannot believe that the high water mark of the church was 500 years ago.
We cannot believe that because we are small and insignificant that God cannot use us.
We have to be about the work of the Gospel to believe that God can use his people. Our discussions cannot simply be about the propriety of our sacraments. They cannot simply be about the security of our families. They cannot simply be us waiting to talk about the latest controversy in our ranks. As important as all of those things are, we said we would be obedient to the Great Commission. And we have an opportunity to talk about that now in a way that would say we understand what it means. It's the church being the church, how can we unify and move together for that grand and glorious purpose to which God is calling us.
We have wonderful resources. We do. A church that has institutions that sometimes form only over many decades. And yet we have educational institutions for our future leaders. We have mission organizations that are well supported by our churches. We want to do more, of course.
But we struggle sometimes because our debates have shaped the way we think about one another and talk about one another. What we have to make sure is we are being shaped by what God intends for us. And it is wonderful. How do we know that?
Because more compelling, perhaps, than anything I have said is the reality of the age in which we live. Do you recognize we have the privilege of ministering at the time of the greatest expansion of Christianity in the history of the world?
There will be 4,000 new Christian churches in the world this week.
This week alone.
There will be 16,000 new African Christians today.
And another 16,000 tomorrow and another 16,000 the next day. Everyone knows the story of China. 10 million Christians, at least in China, knew each of the last four decades. But we are just learning about Indonesia. 40 million new Christians in the last half decade. In India, 50 million new Christians in the last half day.
God is doing a tremendous work. I want to be a part of this, don't you? I want to believe God can use us, has called us for such a time and such a purpose. If we believe it, not just the little story, but that God is saying you are part of something larger than yourselves, then it is time to be biblical. It is time to be reformational. It is time to be Presbyterian and hold together for the mission to which we are being called.
In 1983, Francis Schaeffer spoke to this body.
It was the celebration of the coming together of reformed and Presbyterian bodies from the north and from the south. His final words were these, "I plead with you concerning this. We are to be reformed and Presbyterian, but that must not be the limiting circle of our responsibility.
There is a call to be something to the whole church of Jesus Christ, and out beyond the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to the whole society and to the whole culture.
If we do not understand this, we don't understand either how rich Christianity is, nor do we understand how wide is the call placed upon all of us.
As he left the podium, Schaeffer spoke almost desperately to those who accompanied him.
Do they understand? Do those 700 men understand that they are perhaps our nation's last best hope for the gospel?
They are the beacon of hope. Do they believe it? I do. Do you believe it? Do you believe that the church of Jesus Christ is the world's greatest hope?
I pray you do. We are not the totality of the church. We know that. But there is no better expression of the church than Biblical Presbyterians united for the mission of filling the world with the fullness of Him
and everything in every way. This is our calling. God gives it to us to be that beacon of hope. We are insignificant in number, but we are more than we were then. God can use us. God will use us. Will we be opposed? Of course.
We will be opposed by some within us who continue to wonder if we are going right directions.
We will be opposed by the society that will call us bigots that will say we are intolerant because we point to the banner of Jesus Christ as the hope for the world and Him alone.
But all the opposition that we will face is but Caesar entering the arena again with pluralism and with paganism and with materialism. But recognize as he enters the arena our champion is already there. And he will conquer.
The question is whether we shall be His means. I believe we shall. I believe we must because the mission of the church is the majesty of our King.
I want Him to be Lord. You do too. We must find a way to talk and be about the great purpose of filling this earth with the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. And Biblical Presbyterianism is a wonderful way to do it. May God give us the heart for it as He opens our eyes to see the incomparably great power.
For us who believe. Pray with me. Father would you give us eyes in the heart to see by faith what you are doing even as you redeemed us not by the work of our hands but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can use us by work greater than our hands as we living faithfully are made powerful instruments for the gospel.
Father for the glory of Jesus help us to believe the big story that heaven has showed us what shall happen and showed us how we may be a part of it. Bring the belief the faith and the power to our hearts we pray that we might see the incomparably great power for us who believe and act upon it. We pray in Jesus name.