©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

09/14/03

The Manifold Wisdom Of God Pt. 2

Ephesians 3:10

9/14/03 The Manifold Wisdom Of God Pt. 2

Our study of the book of Ephesians

brings us this morning

to the statement that forms the pivotal point of all that Paul is seeking to communicate to us in this letter.

It is the statement that contains the central truth

for which this book was written,

the truth that Paul prayed the eyes of our hearts would see.

But it is even more than that.

It is the truth that reveals to us

a crucial insight into the way things are.

And let me see if I can explain what I mean by that.

We human beings talk a great deal about freedom.

We like to believe we have,

or at least that we all SHOULD have a kind of absolute freedom in life -

freedom to determine our own futures,

freedom to select our own life priorities,

freedom to determine our own lifestyles,

freedom to express ourselves honestly, openly,

freedom just to be ourselves in any way we choose to do that.

As a society we strongly criticize and even condemn

any other society or group

that restricts or inhibits the freedom of the individual.

And it is certainly true

that, when God chose to give the human race free will,

with that free will He gave us a tremendous amount of freedom

in which we can exercise that free will.

But what we so often fail to realize

is that our free will

and the freedom that comes with it

does not

and cannot alter the basic truths about life

that form the God-designed framework in which we exist.

I can explain what I’m trying to say here most easily

by illustrating it with the physical framework given to us by our God.

We can tell ourselves that we have complete freedom

to do anything we choose to do.

And in one sense we are correct in that belief.

But if you choose to plunge your head into a large tub of water,

or if you dive to the bottom of the swimming pool

and then try to breath

you’re going to run into problems.

The human lungs do not operate correctly under water.

We certainly have the freedom to stick our heads under water and inhale,

but that freedom does not alter the basic physical framework of life

that has been predetermined for us by God.

And just as there is a physical framework in which we live,

so there are governing principles predetermined by God

that establish the framework of life for us in every other aspect of life as well -

emotionally,

psychologically,

mentally,

spiritually.

I’ll mention just a few of them

so you can get an idea what I’m talking about here.

1. We are created beings, brought into existence by our Creator first of all, and most of all for friendship with Him.

That fundamental truth is an inalterable “given” of our existence.

We can try to pretend it isn’t true.

We can choose to deny the very existence of our Creator,

or deny that we have any obligation toward Him.

We can choose to live a life

that is totally self-absorbed, and self-centered,

running and hiding from the very existence of our God.

But it doesn’t change the framework.

And just as the lungs cannot breath under water,

so the human spirit cannot inhale life - true, deep, fulfilling life

apart from the presence of the person and the love of God.

And without the submission of our spirits to God

we will live our entire existence

with a deep emptiness at the very core of our being.

Even our greatest accomplishments,

and our most intense thrills,

and all the accumulated words of praise and affirmation from those around us

cannot bring us peace with ourselves

or fulfillment in life at the spirit level.

We can choose to approach life any way we want,

but we cannot alter the basic principles of human existence established for us by the God who created us.

2. Another example of this predetermined framework of life is found in the fact that

we are created in the moral image of God.

By that I mean

that our entire mental, emotional, physical, and psychological make-up

has been designed by our Creator

to function in harmony with the moral character of God.

Now, it is absolutely true

that we can choose to violate that Divine moral imprint within us

any way we choose to.

We can even choose to deny

that any such thing as moral absolutes exist.

But to the degree we violate that Divine moral imprint within us,

to that degree we will create for ourselves

mental, emotional, and psychological tension,

and even generate far greater stress on our physical system as well.

We will find that our relationships with others do not work as we would like

and even our relationship with ourselves

will be polluted by a sense of shame and self-disgust.

I was talking with a friend of mine recently

who shared with me some major steps toward greater moral integrity he’d taken in his life.

And do you know what he said?

He said, “I’ve never felt so free!”

His life had become so much less complicated,

so much less stress-filled

because he’d chosen to order his life in a way that was consistent with his own moral design.

We can live any way we want to live within the limits of our human societies,

but we cannot change that predetermined framework of life established for us by our Creator.

I mention this truth this morning

because the statement we are going to look at here in Ephesians chapter 3

gives us one more insight into God’s predetermined purposes for us, His creation.

And before we finish this morning

I’ll bring us back to this and show you what I mean.

But let me take us first of all to the statement itself.

It’s found in Ephesians 3:10,

and it comes at the end of Paul’s two and a half chapter description

of the recreative work that God accomplished in us through Jesus Christ.

You know, most Christians really do live most of their Christian lives

with such a pathetic concept of what God accomplished for us

and in us

as a result of our union with Christ.

Mostly we just think of ourselves

as people who, by the grace of God,

have had our sins removed from us through Christ’s death for us.

We’ve been forgiven.

And I’ll grant you that is a big thing.

It’s huge,

and if that’s all there was

it alone would be incredible.

But, as we have moved through the book of Ephesians,

we have seen Paul telling us

that God’s redemptive work within us

goes far beyond just His forgiveness of our sins.

From the very first chapter of the book

we heard Paul telling us

that what God was after,

what He predestined us to from before this world even existed

was not just a Creator/creature relationship between us an Himself,

but an eternal Father/child union between us and God.

EPH 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will...

Then, as we moved through chapter two,

we listened to Paul describe for us

the way in which God took us from where we were,

“...dead in your trespasses and sins...”,

and moved us from there

into the grace,

and the kindness,

and the redemption of God,

seating us ultimately with Christ Himself in the presence of God.

And then, after describing what has happened between us and our God,

Paul then describes what God accomplished between us and one another

as he goes on in the second half of chapter two

to trace our pilgrimage from isolation and exclusion

to entrance into the family of God.

In fact, he tells us that we have been recreated into a living, growing dwelling place of God Himself

with each of us being perfectly shaped and fitted into that place in the whole

that fits us perfectly

and fits the needs of this remarkable structure of God perfectly.

Now I know that may sound rather doctrinal and theoretical to some of you,

so let me simplify it.

What Paul is saying

is that the work of Christ in our lives

has accomplished three things for us.

1. It has transformed us at the spirit level

so that we fit with God.

We can and in fact now do live with Him,

in His presence on a daily basis.

But that still doesn’t say it well.

The truth is, to our conscious minds,

trained in hostility and suspicion toward God,

conditioned to believe He is dangerous in all the worst ways,

the thought of living in His presence on a daily basis

seems like a rather frightening thing.

So let me try this.

Vickie Tinker passed on to me the words to a song this past week.

They come as close as anything I’ve seen recently

to describing what we have been recreated for in the presence of God.

“There's a place where I love to run and play

There's a place where I sing new songs of praise

Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace.

There's a place where I lose myself in Him

There's a place where I find myself again

Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace.

There's a place where religion finally dies

There's a place where I lose my selfish pride

Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace.

I love my Father, my Father loves me

I dance for my Father, my Father sings over me.

And nothing, nothing, nothing can take that away from me.”

Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace...

That, my friends,

is what we have entered into with God through Christ.

So what are you afraid of?

Why do you keep fighting Him?

Why do you keep pushing Him away?

Why do you continue to peak at Him

through the closed curtains of your mind?

Do you think He doesn’t understand you?

Do you think union with Him will somehow destroy your masculinity

or require you to deny your femininity?

Do you think He doesn’t know what it means to be 13 years old?

Or 16?

Or 25?

Or 55?

Or 80?

Do you think friendship with God

means the end of happiness?

Do you think He has a “favorite personality”

and it’s not the one He gave you?

Do you think He has a “favorite age”

and you’re way too old, or way to young for Him to really delight in you?

Do you not know

that the human spirit has no age

and God alone can teach your spirit

how to dance with Him in fields of grace?

Would you like to hear His heart?

Would you like to hear the heart of God toward you?

ZEP 3:17 "The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

So what has Paul said to us so far?

1. Well, first of all he has told us

that God has recreated us at the spirit level

so that we can now dance with Him in fields of grace.

Maybe that dancing doesn’t work for you.

OK, He has recreated us at the spirit level

so that we can march with Him in unending victory...

so that we can hunt with Him in fields rich with Caribou...

so that we can fly with Him in cloudless skies...

so that we can fish with Him in rivers filled with King Salmon...

so that we can walk with Him in gardens always in bloom.

Take your choice.

2. And then he has told us that here, now, on this earth

God has given us a purpose.

Not a religion.

Not a system.

Not a list.

Not a one-size-fits-all program that we must fulfill,

but a purpose in this life

designed just for us,

a purpose matched perfectly to our unique design,

a purpose that we alone can fulfill,

and a purpose that fulfills us in the process.

I’m not going to allow myself to get way off track with this,

but I will make one comment here

just to help clarify what I’m talking about.

I believe the two greatest enemies

to our understanding and fulfilling that purpose

are, first of all, the messages given to us by the world around us

telling us what it is we must have in order to find fulfillment or happiness in life,

and, second, the expectations of others

that, if we allow them to, can force us into roles we were never designed to fulfill.

OK, and just one more comment before I move on here.

The purpose He has for you

will in some way involve your learning how to love and care for the people He has placed around you.

So, He calls us into union with Him,

He designs for each of us a special purpose in life,

and then, third, along with the purpose He gives us a place,

a place in His family,

and a place in His plan that allows Him to live out His life through us.

There’s lots more we could say about that,

but I’m running out of time

and I want to be sure I get us to this statement in Ephesians 3:10

because it is in that verse

that Paul finally reveals to us

why God has done what He has done for us

through this amazing redemptive plan that has come to us through Christ.

For, in Ephesians 3:10 Paul tells us

that God has done what He has done...

EPH 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

And to appreciate what Paul is saying here

it will help you to know

that this word “manifold” used by Paul to describe the wisdom of God

actually means “many hued” or “many colored”.

If you think of a rainbow it may help.

And here is what I see Paul telling us.

He is telling us

that from the very beginning of creation,

and, in fact from before creation,

God has been seeking a means by which He could clearly, effectively demonstrate His true nature

in all of it’s manifold aspects

to the world He brought into being.

The physical creation alone could never do that for us.

It could tell us about His power,

about what He could do,

but it could not reveal to us His thoughts,

and His heart.

It couldn’t show us what brings Him joy,

what brings Him pain.

It couldn’t give us a view into those things He wanted us to know most about Him.

And so, in order to provide Himself with the perfect means

by which He could display Himself to us in a way that would show us Himself perfectly,

He brought His church into being.

And here is the image Paul is creating in this verse.

It’s as if he is comparing the wisdom of God

to a brilliant beam of light moving throughout human history,

a beam that pierces the darkness,

a beam that reveals clearly whatever it hits.

But then, when that beam of light hits the church, the people of God,

the church affects the wisdom of God

as a prism affects a beam of physical light.

And just as a prism turns a beam of light into a brilliant display of colored beauty,

so the church reveals the wisdom of God,

the heart of God,

the true nature of God

in a glorious display unlike anything the created world has ever seen.

And this is why Paul went into such depth

in his presentation of what God has accomplished in us through Christ.

He’s done so because it illustrates for us aspects of our God

that we could never have known any other way.

What does the church,

the body of Christ,

Christians on this planet reveal about God?

The church reveals God’s longing to be kind to us.

It reveals His delight in our presence with Him.

It reveals His desire to honor us

and His determination to do whatever He has to do

in order to remove whatever barriers exist between us and Him

so that we can dance with Him in fields of grace.

Now, let me take you back to that prayer Paul prayed in chapter one.

Do you remember what Paul asked?

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know ...what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

What did God inherit as a result of the death of Christ?

What great wealth came to Him

as a result of the death of His Son on that Cross?

As a result of the work of Christ

for the first time ever

He had a means by which He could reveal to His creation

aspects of Himself -

His true nature,

and the deep workings of His heart and mind,

revealed as never before through what He accomplishes in the lives of each person who comes to Him.

Do you remember when we started this morning

I told you that this verse 3:10 gives us greater insight

into the way things really are?

Well, what I meant was simply this -

a major part of our purpose for being on this earth

is to reveal to the entire created world

aspects of the nature of God that could never have been seen any other way.

And don’t let that scare you.

I’m not talking about something you are suppose to do.

I’m talking about something that God Himself is already doing though you

as a result of your presence in His family.

And here’s the way it works.

I don’t know if you noticed it or not,

but the audience that is mentioned in that verse

for this display of the wisdom of God

is not primarily the human race.

Certainly this demonstration of His wisdom goes our way as well,

but the primary audience is ... the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

He is talking specifically about both angels

and especially Satan and the demonic forces the inhabit the unseen world around us.

It is those forces that have written the script for this world in which we live.

They have determined for us the rules of life as we know it,

rules that tell us it’s all about strength,

and popularity,

and beauty as defined in a very narrow way.

And it’s all about wealth,

and important people,

and achieving success,

and gaining power and control over others.

We know how the world operates, don’t we?

There are a few who have power,

a few who have remarkable beauty,

a few who have great talents,

a few who have great intelligence,

a few who have great wealth.

And we know from the day we are born,

or at least from the day we enter school

who wins,

and who loses,

and where we fit in the whole plan of life.

And, in truth,

by the rules written for us by Satan,

most of us don’t matter much at all.

Our very existence seems to be of no significance whatsoever.

And then look what God does,

in full view of all who inhabit the unseen world.

He comes to you and to me,

to people who hold no great significance whatsoever by the rules of Satan,

by the rules that govern this world,

and God begins to work in our lives,

calling us to Himself.

Do you know what that is?

That is the king in his royal robes

crouching down next to the beggar child in the street,

and then picking the filthy little urchin up in his arms.

EPH 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins...

God Himself steps into our lives

and calls us to Himself.

And when we hear

and then respond to His voice

He rejoices over us with singing,

GOD celebrates His union with us.

And it doesn’t stop there.

He then places His Spirit within us,

and He begins to literally live out His life through us each day

in a way that begins to touch

and then transform the lives of others who have also been rejected or passed over by this system of the world.

And every time He does that

He proclaims to all of creation the truth about Himself

and the way things really are.

He proclaims His value system,

the only one that has ever really mattered,

a system that proclaims the eternal value,

the great worth of every person who has ever lived,

a value rooted most of all in the fact that we have eternal value to God Himself.

...in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.