God's Plan for the Ages (Eph. 1:7-10)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
· Before our family moved out to YV, we lived in Santa Clarita. It was a beautiful, master-planned community. Housing tracts were interspersed with parks, schools, gyms, restaurants, and shopping centers. Large industrial centers were placed near freeways and railway lines. Trees lined every street. A system of bike paths and running trails called “paseos” wove through town so it was possible to travel from one side of town to the other on scenic pathways without using a single crosswalk or busy intersection. Streets were designed to widen and to connect different parts of town as the city grew. Today, SCV is a beautifully built, though crowded and congested, city that has near reached capacity. But there was one type of building that seemed to be left out in the master planning - churches. It was very difficult for new church plants to find any space that was available or affordable. The church that Natalie and I attended were blessed to already have our own property that dated back several decades in a quiet canyon off one of the main streets. But main churches continue to struggle in finding space to meet.
· Some cities have a master plan. Every building has a blueprint. Every movie has a script. Every computer has a program. But did you know time has a blueprint too? God has ordered a special plan, and you and I are part of it.
· Paul describes this plan in Eph. 1. Read vv. 3-10 again.
· Prayer: All flesh is like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Help us now as we study your word. In Christ’s name, Amen.
· We have been considering a number of blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. Today, we will focus on vv. 7-10. redemption, forgiveness, and God’s overarching plan for creation. In the Greek, these verses begin and end with the phrase, “in him.” Like bookends, they hold the entire section together.
God’s Generous Gift
God’s Generous Gift
· Redemption – The payment of a price for deliverance (NBD). The price to release a person from bondage. In hostage situations, it’s called a “ransom.” We most often hear the term redemption today because of how metal is recycled. You can collect cans and then take them to a recycling center where they will redeem them, or buy them back from you. The funny thing is they are buying your cans back with money you already spent when you paid your CRV fee. In OT times, one of the first appearances of the word “redemption” (goel) was when God promised to deliver his people out of Egypt. “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment” (Ex. 6:6). In NT times, a redemption price was often paid to free a person from slavery. Either the slave would earn save up enough wages to pay the price, or someone else might pay the price on his behalf.
· All of us were once prisoners in the slavetrade of sin (Rom. 6:6).
· Have you trusted in Christ? If not, then you are still a slave to sin. You are under its control and deception. Sin uses you. It controls you. It deceives you. Like salt water, the more you drink, the thirstier you get. Like poison oak, the more you scratch it to escape the pain, the more it spreads. Like a boa constrictor, the more you try to wrestle free, the tighter it wraps itself around you and squeezes. Sin is a cruel master. It allures, but never satisfies.
· Radio host Paul Harvey once explained an old Eskimo tale of how to kill a wolf. “First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!” That is what sin does to us.
· And what was the purchase price. Christ’s own blood. 1 Peter 1:18–19 … you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
· No wonder our Lord said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:28)
· Paul goes on to explain this gift of redemption in other terms – forgiveness. The washing clean of a stain. A covering or removal of guilt.
· Forgiveness is hard. Anyone who has ever been mistreated knows how hard it is to turn the other cheek. I don’t want to forgive! I want to make them pay! I want to nurse a grudge! But we are told to forgive, because God has forgiven us in Christ. We will revisit this theme later in Paul’s letter (4:32).
· All of this happened “according to the riches of God’s grace” (7). That is, God’s infinite grace became the measuring cup for our redemption. God did not give you just a tiny portion of redemption or forgiveness, but he lavished it upon you. He gave up what was most precious when he gave you his own Son.
· And why would he do all of this? Because he loves you. Because he chose you and adopted you. But there’s something more. God is moving toward some great purpose for redemptive history.
God’s Perfect Plan
God’s Perfect Plan
· Read vv. 9-10
· Have been watching The Hobbit with my kids – There is a point in the story where the dwarves enter a place called mirkwood. It is a forest that is gloomy and cursed by evil. As they go deeper into the forest, they become lost and confused, disoriented and hallucinating. Bilbo sees a ray of sunlight far up above the trees. So he shimmies up a tree until he gets above the forest. It is beautiful. He takes a deep breath of air. This air is clean and the sun is warm. He sees the edge of the forest, and the lonely mountain, and he says to the dwarves down below, “I know where we are!”
· God’s plan for the ages.
· Created us to know God and rule with him. Genesis 1:27–28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
· Adam and Eve sin against God, but God will not give up on them. God reveals that he has a rescue plan, and one of the main people he will use to accomplish it is a man named Abraham. Genesis 12:1–3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
· God narrows his blessing and covenant promises from Abraham > Isaac > Jacob > tribe of Judah. Centuries later, he makes a promise to one of the descendants of Judah, King David.
· 2 Samuel 7:13–14 …I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
· 400 years later, Israel is Exiled into Babylon for their sin. But God gives Daniel a vision in ch. 2. This vision lays out the rest of human history in highly vivid language. “The head of this image was of fine gold (Babylon), its chest and arms of silver (Persia), its middle and thighs of bronze (Greece), its legs of iron (Rome), its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. (Rebuilt Rome) …As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces… But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Kingdom of Christ).
· God is sovereign and working out everything according to his plan. Daniel 2:21–22 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.
· Arrival of Jesus at his first advent. Galatians 4:4–5 ..But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
· His substitutionary death. Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Acts 2:22–23 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
· His return and glorious reign. Acts 3:21 heaven must receive [him] until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
· At that time, Eph. 1 will be fulfilled. To “unite all things in him” (v. 10). Rare word, to sum up, to bind everything together. Cf. Romans 13:9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Lit. to head up all things in Christ, who will rule over all.
· Cf. Colossians 1:18–20 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
· Christ is the bonding agent that holds all of the universe, and all of history, together.
· Ultimately, the earthly kingdom of Christ will conclude with the destruction of this present earth, a new heavens and a new earth will be created, and Christ will be supreme for all of eternity, to the glory of his Father. Christ’s reign will be sweeping as a gift to God the Father and will glorify him forever. 1 Corinthians 15:22–26 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Conclusion
Conclusion
· Different views on history. Meaningless? It is random chance, makes no sense. Cyclical? History consists of a series of cycles that repeat over and over - war and peace, life and death, good and evil, that never end. Like a song on your CD player that is set on repeat. Hindu reincarnation. Linear? That is, history is steadily moving in a forward direction. It is building momentum, and moving toward a grand climax. Not toward utopia by us, but a utopia by God himself.
· Christ is the purpose for which we were made, the lover of our souls, the object of our affection, the finisher of our faith. Christ is the fountain of life, the deliverer from death, the captain of the Lord’s Army, the prince of peace.
· We are not to set dates on the calendar. Acts 1:7 Jesus said “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority Matthew 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. But the day is fixed and certain.
· John Stott: “how blinkered is our vision in comparison with his, how small is our mind, how narrow are our horizons! We [easily] slip into a preoccupation with our own petty little affairs. But we need to see time in the light of eternity, and our present privileges and obligations in the light of our past election and future perfection. Then, if we shared the apostle’s perspective, we would also share his praise...”
· Yes, that should be our prayer. Help us, O Lord, to see time in the light of eternity.