Created as Demonstrations of the Complex Creative wisdom of God
Ephesians 3:1-13
Turn to Ephesians 3 at this time. We will be in Ephesians 3:1-13. I will primarily be reading from the NASB, and the ESV. While you are turning there, I want to remind you that God created everything for Himself. It is a wonderful thought. What is just as wonderful to think, is that in everything that God created for Himself, His wisdom, which is an attribute of Himself, gets expressed to the beings that He created. In other words, at one time, God was the only intelligent being, but then God created beings to have intelligence. Those beings you and me--people-and so, we, in turn, recognize the wisdom of God. It is as Athenasius said in the fourth century,
"So by the order of the universe one ought to perceive God its maker and Artificer, even though He be not seen with the bodily eyes ... for often the artist even when not seen is known by His works."--Athenasius
The wisdom of God, though not always understood to be "wisdom" by the natural mind of sin, is expressed in His eternal plan of creation, and further in the unfolding plan of His New Covenant with those whom He elects. This morning we are going to explore this wonderful truth from Paul's letter of Ephesians, in this sermon titled,
"Created as Demonstrations of the Complex Creative wisdom of God"
[prayer]
Paul says, starting in verse 1 of chapter 3,
"For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His set apart apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the very least of all set apart ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
From the beginning of this great epistle, Paul has been revealing to us the wonderful riches in Christ that Gentiles, and all who think they are ethnic Jews today, experience in salvation. Paul has just stated, at the end of chapter 2, that the Gentiles that God has elected are fellow citizens, and are of God's household. All of God's saved people, in Messiah, are growing together into a set apart temple in the Lord. God made each of us individually to corporately be a temple of His Holy Spirit. You are a temple that God dwells in. So, Paul starts out chapter 3 by referencing what he just said, and he is going to go on until verse 9 with this kind of recap of all this wonderful plan of salvation and blessing that God had hidden as a mystery in ancient past. God had all the details of His eternal plan hidden in His mind way back when nobody else understood it. Paul calls it a mystery, and so he starts out his reiteration by saying,
"For this reason ..."
Paul is talking about the reason of the fact that Gentiles have been elected as fellow citizens, and are of God's magnificent household. Paul is talking about the fact that individual people (outside of any ethnic covenant-right according to older covenants) are cared for personally in their election. Further, Paul has been saying that they have been fore known since before the foundation of the world, which means that God elects all who are saved (even before being conceived and born). They were determined to exist in each and every atom, molecule, movement, time measurement, and aspect. Before coming into existence, all those whom God elects, He determined to create, and in His determination, even before actual existence as living beings, God cared for His people that He made sure would come into existence. This is a beautiful revelation, and Paul presses the point. I think it is necessary for us to press this point too. You are cared for, and even in the little details of God's purpose, His care for you is even demonstrated in Paul's calling and ministry. God's care for you is why you were determined to exist, created, and elected for eternal spiritual salvation in what Paul calls God's "eternal purpose." God's care for you is not arbitrary. It is a care that God had for you in His predetermination, before you were ever actuated into existence. Paul recognizes that this is why he was personally drafted into service to be a warring, serving bondslave of the Lord. Paul says, so for this reason,
"I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus ..." Ephesians 3:1
In the next chapter, in 4:1, Paul says,
"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, ..." Ephesians 4:1
Paul is not saying that he is a prisoner of Rome, though Paul wrote this letter from prison. The genetive case is used here by Paul to denote that he is the personal possession of Christ the Lord--of Christ the Head. Paul is possessed by, and owned by, Christ. Every truly saved person is owned by Christ. God owns whom he cares for. But, Paul is talking about more concerning himself. What Paul means is that Paul must necessarily preach this amazing revelation of the mystery. God cares enough for Paul to elect Paul according to His eternal purpose, save him, and then forge Paul into a tool that God uses to do His will. Just as we are all possessed by, and owned by, Christ, we are also, all prisoners of the Lord. There is a principle here that you and I absolutely must recognize. It has to do with our own lives. You and I, and anyone who is actually spiritually saved, are prisoners of the Lord. You were individually created by the Lord. You were effectually purchased on the cross by the Lord. You were redeemed by His precious priceless blood. At the proper time, you were saved by grace through faith. You were drafted into His service as His slave. You were inducted into the body of Christ to be His servant. All of this is true, and we can not take it for granted, but we must recognize something very specific about this relationship that Paul describes concerning Himself as a primary apostle. Paul's unique incarceration as a prisoner of Christ means that Paul was God's chosen apostle to the Gentiles, just as Peter's was to the Jews. Paul says he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ according to this unique calling, or, we may even say "unique" apostleship. Paul goes on to say that it is
"... for the sake of you Gentiles--2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief."
Keep in mind that Paul is retelling much of what he mentioned in his outburst of praise to God in his introduction, and in His prayer that follows into chapter 2. Notice that Paul is making a specific reference here concerning what he wrote about beforehand in the introduction to this teaching letter, in brief. Paul is talking about the progressive revelation that God was giving within that first generation to the apostles. Here, the revelation is to Paul, and it is Paul's specific revelation of the mystery. The question we need to ask is,
What did Paul just say about the mystery that he mentioned before in brief?
What Paul said in the introduction, in reference to Himself and other apostle was,
"In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth." Ephesians 1:8-10
Paul does not give us a lot of details in this brief mention. He gives us this much though: that the mystery is the summing up of all things in Christ. In the introduction in chapter 1, Paul starts out talking about being an apostle by the determination of God. He talks about being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He talks about being elected in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be set apart, and blameless in Christ. Election is unto being set apart to have Christ's righteousness imputed to His people. Paul talks about being adopted by God through Christ. Then just before saying that the mystery of God's will was revealed to the Israelite apostles, Paul says that in Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. All these points have to do with the revelation of the mystery where the summing up of all things is in Christ. But I want you to notice that Paul gives us more details about the mystery of God's will in the promised Messiah. Paul comes into chapter 3, and here in verse 4, sharing the details, and so he says next,
"4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,"
Let me just quickly say that this is a stark declaration of the importance of reading the word of God. First, I want you to notice that it is expected. Paul says,
"when you read."
Paul does not say,
"If per chance, you just so happen to read some of these things that I am jotting down to you ..."
No, he doesn't say that at all, because this is God's word we are talking about. And you are expected to be reading it. If you don't read the word of God, you don't have any idea what Paul is talking about when he says, by referring to this--meaning what I wrote about beforehand in brief. The point is that God elected people, before the foundation of the world, to be saved. God did it so that His grace would be praised. He created people in Christ to be His church. All of that is the fundamental point of Paul's flow of thought that you and I need to learn and digest. But along with this fundamental truth. Paul is declaring another fundamental truth that is simply expected to be recognized by God's church. It is not a mystery. It is not deep and hard to understand. What I am talking about is that God gave the church His word. God created the written word as a demonstration of the complex creative wisdom of Himself. He preserved it in readable form for you to consult, study, proclaim, and live. But, you and I are not going to consult, study, proclaim, and live the word, if we do not first recognize that we, as God's children, are expected to read it, consult it, study it, proclaim it, and live it. We certainly aren't going to understand the wisdom of God, the revelation of the mystery, and all the wondrous truths that change our lives, if we don't study the revelation of all these things. If Paul was here today in bodily form, ministering to the church, he would expect you to be reading, studying, and consulting the word. So, we recognize that Paul expects Christians to refer to what he has written. Now notice that Paul indicates that he is talking about something called, "this." He says,
"4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,"
Paul wants this scripture he is writing, to be preserved and used as the Bible. God wants you and me to preserve this and use it as part of our Bibles. Both history, and the fact that we are studying it as the Bible, are demonstrations of God's providential hand in giving us His revelation for us to refer to in understanding His will. But, when Paul speaks of "this" Paul is specifically referencing his statements about the mystery that are contained in this Scripture. The mystery has been revealed to Paul, and Paul is revealing it as a prisoner of Christ, and so technically, what that means is that it is no longer a mystery--right? It has been revealed to us, so now it is revelation. But, it was a mystery once, as Paul says next,
"... the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now [in this generation] been revealed to His set apart apostles and prophets in the Spirit;" Ephesians 3:4-5
An important question for us to ask, is the question of what exactly is Paul's Holy Spirit revealed insight into the mystery of the Messiah? His brief mention of it in chapter 1 is that it is,
"... the summing up of all things in Christ," Ehesains 1:10
That brief little statement that Paul expects to be referenced in reading His letter, has the beautiful term in it that Paul likes to use in practically every one of His epistles. It is the foundation of the revelation of the mystery, and it applies to you in every sense of your salvation. The term is "in Christ." There is another statement like this one that Paul likes to use. The other statement is coupled with being in Christ as the essence of the mystery. The other term is Christ in you. This is the mystery stuff of the true Messianic kingdom, which encompasses New Covenant grace, and Messianic Headship for God's predestined surprise-group in history. The surprise-group are Gentiles. We find Paul explaining the revelation of the mystery in Colossians, using both terms together; Christ in you, and you in Christ. He speaks of,
"... His body, which is the church, ... 25 Of this church [Christ's body, Paul says,] I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit [Paul is speaking to the Gentile Colossian church as the body of Christ. Now be listening for Paul's reference to the revelation of the mystery], so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His set apart ones, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, [OK, now Paul is going to use the terminology. He says,] which is Christ in you, the hope of glory [Right there is our first term--"Christ in you." Now we find the next term in the next verse. The term is "in Christ," and so Paul continues, saying,] 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ." Colossians 1:24-28
This was a mysterious thing for people to have revealed to them within that generation. Actually it is a mysterious thing for anyone in any generation to have revealed to them. But, in Paul's life, and generation, this was a completely new exposure to something that was very well hidden, from human understanding, by God. In Messiah, with Messiah in you, is God's plan revealed to gather in people from all over the world according to specific election. Rather than the Jews being the central focus of the Messianic kingdom, God's elect people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, are His central focus, but they are only God's central focus because of the main central focus, and that is Christ Himself. The mystery of the body of Christ is that Christ is the all in all who is the fulfillment of all that God requires for salvation, reconciliation, righteousness, obedience, and triumph. This mystery truth was shocking to the Jews of Paul's generation. What this means, is that your salvation, in one sense, is a surprise. This is why Paul calls it a mystery; because it is one big surprise with all kinds of deep theological implications of the importance of things concerning Messiah that people just didn't get at first. The reason is because the promised Messiah-king, came to surprise everyone by coming to be the Savior of the world through personal sacrifice and resurrection from the dead. The mystery goes on, in that Christ established a newer, and better, covenant than the Old Mosaic covenant engraved on stones, 2 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 8. Now, you have got to keep in mind that in this chapter, Paul is reiterating and expanding upon the facts, and so, Paul goes on in more precise detail concerning the mystery that he briefly mentioned beforehand. He says,
"6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Jesus through the gospel," Ephesians 3:6
The body of Christ is mysterious in that it is the expression of the covenant where anyone outside of genetic Israel is saved in the two primary identifications with Christ. In other words, you are saved because you are in Christ and Christ is in you. It is
22... the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22
Gentiles, and anyone who claims to be a Jew today, are fellow heirs with the first born heir because of being in the body of Christ. If you were to share this aspect of the mystery with the typical hard hearted Jew of Paul's day, they would be livid with anger at such a prospect. They would try to kill you. In fact, most people who claim to be Jews today, also reject these facts. But, this is mystery stuff, and so Paul says in Galatians,
"14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Galatians 3:14
All of this ministry to preach the unfathomable riches of Messiah, Paul says, was entrusted to him. Paul says, concerning the specific revelation that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Jesus through the gospel,
"7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. "
Paul is referencing his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. It was there that Paul, the Israelite, was kicking against the Goads in complete ignorance of the mystery of Messiah. He was persecuting the resurrected Messiah in persecuting the church, which is the body of Messiah. Paul experienced a blinding event that gave him a dramatic personal realization of the working of God's power. Paul starkly knew what it means to be God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them, Ephesians 2:10. Paul was made a minister, as all ministers are made by God. It was all according to the working of God's power, and Paul is taking no credit for making a wise decision to follow Christ and serve Christ in ministry. What does this mean for you? Well, you were made a minister too. And you were made according to the working of the power of God according to the mystery. Paul was intently on his way to murder Christians according to his bound lost nature's free determination. On his way, he was violently hurt by God. God blinded Paul, but God blinded Paul out of love in a cosmic rescue. Paul announces his commission next,
"8 To me, the very least of all set apart ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ," Ephesians 3:8
We notice that Paul says that the grace was given; not offered; not merely made available, but given as an appointment. Paul did not merely think he was somehow worthy to serve the Lord as an apostle, and preacher, but rather was completely at the mercy of God's sovereign grace. None of us is worthy, in ourselves, to serve the Lord. You are made worthy in Christ, by Christ, for Christ. Paul was humbled and thankful, beyond our imaginations, that he had been effectually called, and inducted into commission, to be the tool in God's hand to preach the mystery of the one new man of the body of Christ. Paul was made worthy, and so he says,
"9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;"
This is Paul's ordained career. Paul's job, is to be a full time prisoner of Christ who brings the mystery to light. It is his preaching goal and message, and when we look at the Damascus road rescue in the desert, we see the commission given by our Lord in this way--speaking of Paul,
"15 ... he is an elect instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake.'" Acts 9:15-16
"... the Lord said to me [Paul], 'Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.'" Acts 22:9
"21 And He said to me, 'Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" Acts 22:21
"16 '...for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; [which is mystery revelation] 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.'" Acts 26:16-18
OK, all of this is what Paul reflects upon in Ephesians 3, in reiterating the details of the mystery. This is what Paul means when referencing how he received specific revelation concerning the mystery, and in asserting his appointment to preach the mystery to the Gentiles. Paul has said all of this to lead into a really big, so what? The so what, that I am talking about, is a really big "so that" concerning what Paul is talking about. Paul references all of what he just said concerning details of bringing to light the administration of the mystery,
"so that ..."
The really big, "so that" starts in verse 10, where he says,
"10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,"
Notice that God has done all of this amazing creation of the body of Christ of the New Covenant, in saving millions of people through the centuries; in saving me; in saving you; by sending Messiah to do the mysterious, which was to die, and resurrect, and then to elect people in Him to be saved, which really means that God elected people to be the body of Messiah as the church, which means that we are His eternal temple. All of this was done for God's own reasons of glorifying Himself, and as we have been seeing throughout our Ephesians studies, God uses the church for this same purpose. What God is expressing through His church--through you--is His manifold wisdom. Manifold wisdom means, multi faceted, diverse, and varied wisdom of God. In a few more verses in verse 20-21, Paul wraps up these beginning comments in Ephesians with a kind of doxology and Amen, and Paul repeats the big "so that" glorification that comes through God's church, which is the body of Christ, which is you, saying,
"20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
Glory is to God in the church and in Christ Jesus, because this is the manifold wisdom of God expressed now and forever. What we need to recognize here is that you are designed to be God's focus in His creativity. In other words, God wanted to express His wisdom and creativity, and then He made the universe. He made our planet. All of this is a show of His obvious genius, as Athenasius of the fourth century says, that God the great master artist is known by His works. God in His great creative wisdom put Adam and Eve here. They sinned and fell, and God ordained that it should happen. We all inherited their sin, and God ordained that it should happen. Generations upon generations of people came into existence and lived and died, either under various covenants of God, or outside covenants that God made, and God ordained that it happen. Then came God's advent of the New Covenant, which in His eternal wisdom, He ordained to happen. The summation of the manifold wisdom of God, is the mystery truth of 1:8-9, that Paul expects you and me to reference--the one he mentioned briefly, where Paul says that
"In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth." Ephesians 1:8-10.
All of this is what God is declaring through you in accordance with His eternal purpose, (because you are a primary part of His plan in His eternal purpose), which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is Christ in you, and you in Christ, and so Paul finalizes the awesome point of us being created to be a demonstration of the complex wisdom of God,
"12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory." Ephesians 3:12-13
There is so much blessing in what Paul is revealing to us, that he says that in comparison, to not lose heart at his tribulations on the Gentile's behalf. Remember, Jesus said this was going to happen the day he blinded Paul. He said,
"15 ... he [Paul] is an elect instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake.'" Acts 9:15-16
Paul's suffering is worth it, and God ordained it. Its part of how he displays His glory through us in Christ. All of it was for the purpose that God had in mind in His wisdom,
"10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through you to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
OK, this is where you and I need to keep our thoughts when it comes to personal actions. It is your responsibility, as the body of Christ, to display the manifold wisdom of God to God's enemies. That is what the rulers and authorities in heavenly places are; they are God's enemies. You and I are the church that makes God's manifold wisdom known. You absolutely must recognize your importance in God's eternal plan folks. Sometimes we take our existence for granted, but you need to understand how special you are. You can trace your lineage to the last Adam, which is Christ. You are not like anyone who claims to be physical Israel anymore. Such people don't really know if they are true decedents of Jacob. They might think they are, and claim that they are, but the do not really know for sure. But you can trace your lineage, and you can do it quickly. You and I can do it with complete surety. But other people, who claim some special standing before God, are not part of this manifold wisdom of God unless they are followers of Christ by grace through faith, or elect to do so. Further, such people, since they can not trace their lineage anyway, are not like us. Their claims are voided--our claims are validated. Turn to Ezra 2. It is right after Chronicles, and right before Nehemiah. I want to quickly show you how Israel according to the flesh is supposed to be discerned. The context of Ezra 2, is that people have come up out of Babylonian captivity, and they have returned to Judah, and Jerusalem. Most of the people claimed to be true decedents of Israel, but the problem with many of them was that they could not trace their lineage. They could only claim that they were descendants of Israel because they assumed their lineage. You and I can trace our lineage to Christ. But, back then, for there to be a true priesthood according to Levi, the sons of the priests must be able to trace their lineage. The problem was that over time, Gileadite wives were taken by many of the sons of the priests, and what happened is that eventually decedents of the priests were unable to verify that they were truly Levites, as we read in Ezra, 2:62,
"62 These searched among their ancestral registration, but they could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood." Ezra 2:62
People who claim to be Jews today face the same exclusion. But you and I are now God's holy priesthood, 1 Peter 2:5. You and I are His royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2:9 according to our Royal Priest Jesus, in which God made us a kingdom and priests, Revelation 1:6. We are God's focus and expression of His manifold wisdom. What this means in practicality for you, is that through you--the church, God displays how unpredictable He is concerning His eternal plans. Through you, His church, God displays how wise He is in fulfilling His own desire to come as a man to express Himself in all the ways He did as Jesus in the flesh. Through you, His church, God displays that He has a grace-relationship with you as your Father. The manifold wisdom of God is expressed in you and me, in our eternal forgiveness. It was His wisdom to express righteousness in people who are totally unrighteous, by imputing His righteousness to us in His Son. You and I are God's trophies of what He predestined before the world began, but the evil forces of wickedness did not know this. Now the wicked forces know this. God expresses a conversation with us, in a real relationship with us. He does it through His preserved word. In it He talks to you. The wicked forces know this. Even Muslims call Christians, the
"people of the book.'
Even atheists and liberals use a slur word for us that brings glory to God's wisdom. They call us
"Bible believers."
The fact that God has given us His word, and we know His word, and we believe His word, and preserve it, is a demonstration of the complex wisdom of God. You were created, by His Spirit, to express it. Every time you pray, you are demonstrating that you are created to be a demonstration of the complex wisdom of God. Every time you take a stand for righteousness, you are demonstrating that you are created to be a demonstration of the complex wisdom of God. As true Christians, we look at everyone in the world as an evangelistic opportunity of God's grace. We don't know who God will save, but we don't pass judgment upon people and say that they will never be saved because of how bad they are. We are all bad, and we all rely completely upon God's grace. This is God's wisdom, and not ours, and so do you see how you demonstrate God's wisdom to the world when you demonstrate the grace of the New Covenant?--when you demonstrate your regeneration, and the seal of God's Spirit upon you? You demonstrate the wisdom of God in your church-family connection that goes beyond ethnic, and national borders. The body of Christ blends instantly among everyone that is a Christian as soon as they meet. Over and over again we see this demonstrated, where in God's saving work, the members of His body love one another and relate to one another in Christ. It just comes naturally. It comes naturally because it comes supernaturally. This is God's wisdom that he accomplished in the body and expresses through the body. When we die, we will resurrect according to God's wisdom, and we will still have that special family connection where we will all recognize each other forever.
Now, back to Paul's day, his time, and culture--Certain Jewish leaders believed in a resurrection. On the other hand, certain Jewish leaders did not believe in a resurrection. But, nobody understood that God's eternal plan was to resurrect people in Christ who fills all in all so that they would be perfect forever. This is all part of God's manifold wisdom, and He demonstrates it through you and me.
I want to edify you this morning with the fact that I know that our lives today easily fill up with what I call "the trivial." We are so swamped with non-issues, and so many things that just don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, that what happens is that the grand scheme of things just disappears from our focus. The foolishness of the world will get you off of recognizing, (on a moment to moment basis), that you really are the wisdom of God. And not only that, but that you were created to be a demonstration of the complex wisdom of God, to the foolish, trivial world around you. You need to know this, because sometimes you might think,
"So what's the use? I work all the time. Sometimes I read my Bible. I fellowship with other Christians, but it seems like I am just biding my time till I die."
The truth of the matter is that if you are thinking that way, then you have been infected by the foolishness of the same consistent lie of the spiritual forces of darkness. You are not thinking with the bigger picture of the fact that God has called you specifically to be His person in this age so that the manifold wisdom of Himself might now be made known. This is why the church, as a local body, is so important. This is why Bridgeway is so important. Bridgeway exists as God's providential creation to demonstrate His wisdom. The church is the center of God's purpose in this world. So, what this means is that you and I need to be about focusing more upon the center of God's purpose than upon the world's purpose. Ask yourself,
"How important do I consider my church?"
Are you appreciating it as God's wisdom, or are you taking it for granted as something as trivial as the rest of the world? The church fellowship is not a hobby, or a website, or a blog, or a forum, or an e-mail list. The church community is God's center of fellowship, love expression, face to face accountability, worship, and preaching of His word. Through your biblical church fellowship, you are demonstrating God's wisdom the way he wants it demonstrated. Everything may not be perfect, because the body of Christ is made up of a bunch of people in desperate need of God's grace. But, that is part of God's wisdom. You and I function as imperfect people who function in the church as having love and grace with one another as those who realize how imperfect our own self actually is. It is the grace of Christ, and it is the wisdom of God, so express it by being forgiving. Finally, I urge you to be thinking of how short our lives are here on this planet, and I don't mean to think that way so that you can say that you are just biding your time till you die. No, you need to be recognizing that your life today is the beginning of your life tomorrow as it goes on through eternity. You are not trivial. You were created to be an eternal being who is God's wisdom forever, and ever. So I urge you to look at who you are according to the way God looks at you. Created as a demonstration of the Complex Creative wisdom of God.
