Fresh Speaking
(Nancy's notes from Lord's Day, July 25, 2010)
The triune God issues into the church.
Remember diagramming sentences? We use modifiers to modify the main point. We've been in the book of Ephesians. Sometimes we are distracted by the modifiers and miss the main point. God has a plan. That is the main point. You hardly hear this anywhere, but it is the main point. We are distracted by "love one another" and many other modifiers, but miss the main point.
Ephesians chapter 1
We need to go back and read the whole thing, but what are the main points?
v. 9 "Making known to us the mystery of His will...."
v.10 "....to head up all things in Christ"
v.22 "And He .... gave Him to be Head over all things to the church,"
v.23 "Which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all."
Did you ever hear that the church is the fullness of Christ? The Bible speaks quite clearly. God has a plan (will) to head up all things in Christ, causing Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
Christ - means the anointed One - to carry out something - anointed to do something. We all are Christians. What does this mean? Christ is the anointed One to carry out a work, a plan, to accomplish something. This is the One we believe in!
It might be good to find out what the plan is!!! He is commissioned with a plan. He made known to us the mystery of His will. He has the Christ, commissioned to carry it out. He gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. Sometimes we are distracted by so many modifiers, but what is the plan?
Chapter 1 ends with the church, which is His body. God has produced something.
Chapter 2 starts with v.1 "And you, though dead in your offenses and sins...."
Ch.1 - Head over all, to the body. You have the Head and the body.
Ch.2 - And you, dead - we started lower than the lowest. When we started we were dead.
v. 1 - "And you"
v.4 - "But God"
Wonderful!! We were dead in offenses and sins. BUT GOD.
v.5 -"....made us alive together with Christ...."
God stepped in - we were dead and He made us alive together with Christ.
v.6 - and raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
v.7 - That He might display...the...riches of His grace in kindness toward us....
v.10 - For we are His masterpiece...."
God wants to have a display. Not just God but He wants to do something in us. God is glory in Himself. What really glorifies God is to take dust and glorify Himself through it! We are His masterpiece. Shouldn't Christ just be His masterpiece? It seems almost offensive to say something else. But here it says we are His masterpiece! He infuses Himself into us, transforming and changing us within, so His glory can be manifested through us. God's desire is that we could be a display of Himself. How glorious is this?!!!
Satan caused man to fall. Christ came and captured man back. God shines forth out of the church. This called out people become His masterpiece. He takes some so low and without hope, and makes them His masterpiece. What Glory! He is such an artist!
v.14 - "For He Himself is our peace, He who has made both one..."
v.15- "....that He might create the two in Himself into one new man...."
Romans 9:25 - "As He also says in Hosea, "I will call those who were not My people, My people,"
Hosea 1:10b "And in the place where it will be said to them, You are not My people, It will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God."
That the Gentiles would be fellow members of the body - this was new. This is now the church which is His body. Paul said this mystery was made known to him.
Eph.2:15 "....that He might create the two(Jews and Gentiles)in Himself into one new man...."
In Genesis we have the story of creation. Did you know there was a second creation? On the cross Christ created in Himself one new man. No more Jews. No more Gentiles. No more you. No more me. No more teenagers. No more age 50 and over! No more Chinese. No more American. No more black. No more white. (ETC.) !!!!! ONE NEW MAN!!!
Christ created something on the cross. Circumcision, uncircumcision, doesn't matter! A new creation! Today He is working on His new creation. Many are waiting for something in the future. God is doing something in this age, right now. He has His new creation, His body, His fullness.
Paul's prayer in chapter 3:14-22 is a building prayer.
There are 4 "that"s
Jesus died on the cross, not just for redemption. He had a goal in mind. Redemption was the process. On the cross, every negative thing that would keep us apart from God was taken away. We can come to God with boldness, and God is anxious to come to us. We can have fellowship with God. Christ took care of every problem.
v.16 - "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man,"
You need a lot of strengthening, even after the Spirit comes in.
v.17 -"That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,"
This is not the initial coming in, but the spreading out in us.
v.18 - "May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are"
To apprehend is to grasp with all the saints. Christ is so broad and so high and so deep. We need all the saints in order to grasp all that Christ is. Some have gone deeper than I. I need them to take me deeper. Some have gone higher, and I need them to take me higher.
v.19 - "And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."
Are you waiting for the pearly gates someday?
May we all have our eyes opened. "Lord, strengthen my inner man. Make home in my heart. Strengthen me to apprehend with all the saints." All that the Lord did issues in the church. Now He is producing the church. Maturing His church. Causing the church to express Him. (Just as our children express us). What God has done issued in the church. Now He is causing Christ to mature in us. To present every man full grown takes time. How does this happen?
ch.4 v.7 - "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ."
How does He do what He is doing? The body is growing not by one imparting all. The body is growing by each one of us. To each was this grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Each has a portion and a function.
v.8 - "Therefore the Scripture says, "Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men."
These gifts are people.
v.11 - "And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, "
v.12 - "For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ,"
Don't be deceived by the misuse of the word ministry. Every one of us is a minister. Every one of us has a measure to impart, for the nourishing and growth of the body.
What is God doing right now in this age? He is building up the body. How? By each one of us ministering according to our measure for the growth of the body. All of us have to function. All of us need to be perfected. All of us need to speak and perfect others. The way God is working out, in this age, right now, the perfecting and building up of the body of Christ, requires our function.
"Lord, open our eyes to see Your plan. That You are doing something right now and You desire to bring everyone of us into this plan."