Chapter 3
Apostolic Purpose: The Church
Let us pray;
Great grace we pray, Lord, upon us all. Close us in with Yourself and establish even the atmosphere of this hour. Give us a true expectancy of faith and may our eyes be turned upward and may we see the things which are invisible and eternal. May You be pleased to reveal this morning in the measure that it shall please you, that which up until now has been hidden, that we might see and fulfil Your purposes in our seeing to the glory of Your Name, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
...."So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being build together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles - if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 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. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, 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. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him".... Ephesians 2:19 - 3:12 NASB
I am experiencing a remarkable sense of liberty this morning, all the more remarkable in that I do not really know where I am going. No message of such, just a radical leaping in, an abandonment to the book of Ephesians. There is a reason why it must be this way. The Lord has an intention with us beyond instruction, and something must come to us by the Holy Spirit's revelation, given on the spot by the Lord Himself. That is the way that Paul speaks, even of himself and his own ministry in the third chapter of Ephesians. In verse two he talks about:
.... "the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery"....
and then he speaks in the forth verse about:
.... "the insight which he received into the mystery of Christ"....
This whole thing is bathed in mystery. In the ninth verse Paul speaks of it again. He speaks of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, "that is now to be made known by revelation through the Holy Spirit by the grace of God" and we need something of that operation today. There is something so holy and so sacred about these mysteries that man, in himself, is not allowed to "pry" into them. They will not submit themselves to an intellectual examination. It is something which is hidden in God until the hour that He is prepared to reveal it. And it is revealed to a certain class of men and women only - holy apostles and prophets - that they, by the grace which is given, might bring to light the unfathomable riches of Christ. Paul speaks about the grace that was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.
We have already repeated the word "given" several times; "the grace that is given", "the stewardship of grace which was given to me for you". Everything here is opposed to human pride and arrogance. Everything is totally subject to that which is "given" and that is exactly my position this morning. I can plead with God. I can stamp my feet petulantly and say, "Lord, don't you know that I have responsibility. I am going to be standing before an audience of Your people and some have come from quite a distance to attend. Don't You realize that I can be embarrassed if I have nothing clear to say? You must give me this in advance! I must know what I am to speak!" - SILENCE - .
We have come full circle after two thousand years and if we are going to understand the mysteries of Christ, the mystery of the Church, that is, the apostolic glory, it is going to be solely by the grace which was given. Even now, that I might preach to you by the grace which is given to me who is a steward of these mysteries - the unfathomable riches of Christ. This is an historical moment in this room this morning. It has waited on this hour for the coming forth of men like myself, and the coming forth of the maturity of the Body for the conditions again to meet by which the mystery can be revealed which until now has been hidden in God. I would rather choke and splutter and remain silent for the rest of our time together than I should seek by some kind of operation of mind or intelligence to present something "credible". God is after something more than information or instruction. He seeks the revealing of the mystery and I pray that you have an appropriate spirit and disposition of heart for the unfolding of such things.
If God shall give us the grace, we shall be most privileged and most responsible:
...."For to whom much is given, much is required".....
This grace is given to His holy apostles and prophets, and yet we have not been "fitted" by our religious experience to accept them. We think of this only as something past in the historic church and this has been our conventional, evangelical teaching -"the apostles and the prophets are a past phenomenon". "They have laid their foundations and now we can go on independent of them." But I do not believe that! For the scripture states in Ephesians 4:13:
.... "till we all come to the unity of the faith and the fulness and the stature of Jesus Christ unto a perfect man"....
God has for that "coming" apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we "all" come. Until we have all come, then we shall always be in need of apostles and prophets, for the perfecting of the saints comes even before the work of the ministry. There is already something which needs to be restored to the Divine order in which it was given - for the want of apostolic insistence by men and women of that authority, we have already erred against God by elevating the work of the ministry above the perfecting of the saints. Jesus said "you shall be witnesses unto Me" - not "do" witnessing for Me. The "being" precedes the "doing". But as those of us who have sought to walk in this know, "to be" is infinitely more difficult than "to do". And so, this is an hour of restoration. God is bringing us back to His original vision and purpose - that which was given at the first and it is a difficult time of adjustment from things conventional and institutional to things apostolic. We know how powerful things become by virtue of time and tradition. We need again to see the restoration of apostolic and prophetic men and women who come to us in the authority of God to restore the vision which has been lost, and to build according to the pattern that is given on the Mount for the Tabernacle of God, for the House of God.
Paul concludes this third chapter of Ephesians with this very pungent scripture:
...."to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever"....
We need to repent before God that we have dismissed such words as a kind of "biblical poetry". So therefore, the first thing that needs to be restored is a profound appreciation for the glory of God. This is altogether contrary to the "utilitarian spirit" of our age. What is the criterion by which We have measured successful church in our own generation? Were the meetings good? Did you like it? How did you like the preacher? Are you being fed? How was the worship? the attendance? the budget? - these are all pitiful and earthly criteria. There is only one apostolic criterion and it needs to be jealously and burningly held: "unto Him be the glory in the Church!" - not just in our own generation, but world without end throughout all ages. We need to lift our "seeing" and see the Church as something more than an agency for "our" purposes. It is true that we receive great benefit through our participation, but that is not its first purpose, and until we see the first purpose and give ourselves wholly to that purpose - we ourselves shall lose the "benefits". What is the first purpose for which Christ gave Himself for the Church, and washes it with the water of the Word - that it may be a beautiful bride? "Unto Him! unto Him! unto Him!" I shall keep repeating it until the wall falls down because everything that is in the spirit of this world is "unto us". Do you remember what Peter said on the Mount of Transfiguration when they beheld Jesus in His transcendant glory with Elijah and Moses, the prophets of God? It slipped out of his mouth without even thinking, and involuntary reflex action, a universal statement of the church in its carnality: "it is good for us to be here". It has at the centre of all its consideration - it is good for "us". Something needs to be turned. There needs to be a massive wrenching and turning on an apostolic pivot, and it is our foremost task in this generation to move the Church from its deep seated egocentricity - "our programs", "our purposes", "our benefits". For the most part the activity of the church has been with a view to "it is good for us!" We must devote ourselves to one single thing, in single-eyed absoluteness, whatever the sacrifice or the cost to our traditions and our practices - unto Him! unto Him! unto Him! be the glory in the Church, not just in our generation, but world without end throughout all ages. I just want to simply announce that we are called to be part of an eternal masterpiece in God. Do you understand how jealous God is over this, and why it is He would not allow us to come with our briefcase full of messages? And why it requires an unfolding by the Spirit of grace and of revelation? Because if it is to be a glory unto Him - it must be a glory by Him and through Him if it is to be unto Him. It is the grace which is given. This is not good news for our denominational pride. Paul says in the eighth verse of the third chapter: "to me" the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all thing." We need to raise the question: if this great apostle was totally dependent upon the grace which was "given" to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ by what means shall we fulfil them?
I love the apostolic scriptures - "those that believed were together and great grace was upon them all". Task number one is to break the power of the deep "egocentrism" of the church. Task number two is to break the more powerful deep-seated individualism of the saints! "Those that believed were together" is more than a statement of sitting alongside each other in pews. As God looks upon the modern church today, with all of its "charismatic", "well met", "back slapping" and "bear hugs", He sees a conglomerate of individuals, who primarily live for themselves, not an organic, tempered body together in Spirit and truth. Paul was dependent upon a grace to preach the riches and we are equally dependent upon a grace to fulfil it, and it is a grace which is given to us "all" and not individually! It is through the Church that God wants to make manifest His wisdom to the principalities and powers, not some kind of institutional religious arrangement of individuals gathered together in a conglomerate, but the Church as an apostolic organism, established by God through His Spirit - men and women who are in "authentic relationship" with each other with a quality of life and attitude and perspective - and whose very presence is a statement against the principalities and powers! How interesting that Paul should begin this chapter by introducing himself as the "prisoner of Christ". In verse 8, Paul calls himself "the very least of all saints". This is not a false modesty. Paul saw himself, and deeply believed himself to be the least of all saints.
This is a remarkable phenomenon of which the world knows nothing - that as you are granted this stewardship of the mystery, and much grace is given that you may see, you see not only the unspeakable riches of Christ, you see also by that same light your own terrible inadequacy apart from Christ. God is waiting for "prisoners" in this generation - "bondslaves" of the Lord Jesus Christ. How interesting that Paul always put this credential before the fact that he is an apostle. This is an apostolic requirement. This is not for amateurs or "dilettantes" but for "bondslaves", not just servants, as we understand the word modernly speaking. We need to come more deeply into a biblical and more apostolic seeing. Paul was a slave. He had no rights of his own. He had no life of his own. He could not, in himself, determine his "coming in" or his "going out". He could do nothing and speak nothing other than that which was given him. All of his attainment, his brilliant Jewish theological background (the prize student of the Rabbi Gamaliel) -all of that was to be counted as dung. He had no certain dwelling place and said, "we apostles are counted as last. We are the offscourings of the earth, poor, but making many rich, unknown, yet known." How many of us have a taste for this kind of identification? We itch to be known, it is our religious reputation and what "we have spoken" and what we have "published" that counts the most! The Church is waiting for a certain kind of man whose life is not his own, who lives only for one purpose - the glory of God! You say brother, "Why is that so important?" Because the true Church is built on that foundation, the Church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, ever and always, not just what they preach, what they teach, what they reveal, but also what they are in themselves as men and women. What is an apostolic Church? It is exactly what Paul is in himself (in Christ), made manifest in a corporation body, the same passion, the same boldness, the same authority, the same relevance with Jews in synagogues or Greeks on Mars Hill, the same appropriation of the things that are invisible and eternal, the same indifference to the world and its rewards, the willingness to suffer "for righteousness" sake and the recognition that there is a suffering which precedes the glory. That is why Paul could say, "Imitate me -I am the model. Follow me as I follow Christ". You want to know what God wants in His true Church, if it is to be His presence in the Church? - "Look at me", says Paul. Many times he speaks of himself as "blameless" and he exhorts the new believers in Thessalonica to walk worthy of the manner to which they were called, to the glory and the Kingdom. This is why our walk has been so defective. We grimly seek to resist sin and temptation and if we do, it is more because of the fear of being found out before men than offending God! What a pitiful and wretched way to live! To wonder so many of God's children are unhappy, just wanting to "get by". They have not come to understand the standard to walk worthy of the manner to which they were called, to the glory and the Kingdom. You will not find the true definition of glory in the dictionary and yet it is imperative that we find it not by referring to the world's definitions, but by seeking that revelation from the Holy Spirit. It is a grace which is given. It lies beyond words, but when it comes into your heart and soul, you are made a "fool" for Christ's sake. You will love the Church and you will suffer for Her. You will be patient with the Church and you will bear Her carnalities and Her immaturities because you know that it must be a glory unto Him. We need to pray for the restoration of these words (unto Him be the glory) or we have nothing! We have technique. We have methodology. We have nomenclature and forms, but the glory of God must be all. And if we have not a sense of it, we have nothing.
What is this principle mystery that God now wants revealed? - to bring to light, it says in the ninth verse, the administration of the mystery. This would better be termed "the application" or "the fulfilment of" the mystery. A mystery is not something that we just spiritually enjoy - it is given to us now to be fulfilled, which for ages have been hidden in God, Who created all things 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. This is too much to hear in a single statement, and this has been our mistake. It is the large reason for missing the glory of what has been spoken here in this passage. We are not just reading an ordinary literature. It is even distinguished from other epistles in the Holy Scripture. This is something which lies too deep for words. Human vocabulary cannot contain it. There is something here that is burgeoning and palpitating, waiting to break out of the confinement of language. This is beyond minds - beyond intellect. It is something which needs to be intuitive, something which needs to be apprehended. And we need to be apprehended by it. It needs to capture us and take hold of us in such a way that we are ruined for anything less, so that we will never again settle for "programs", or for institutional religious requirements in an attempt to meet the needs of the people. We are ruined once and for all because something is being brought to light - that God has created all things! Even as we let that single statement sink in it will boggle our mind and shatter our every category. Many seek to dismiss this and accuse Paul of exaggeration and say, "No it cannot be. It is among the purposes, but it is not THE single purpose for which God has created all things -IS IT?" Do we dare believe this? This is what God's word says through His holy apostle; that God has created all things - the whole of this planet earth, the nations and their boundaries, the resources of this earth, the atmosphere that makes human life possible, the whole interplanetary galactic structure of the universe - He has created all these things in order that "through the Church". We need hear no more. This is enough of a reason to prostrate ourselves before God. This is too staggering. Does He behold the Church in that kind of importance? Is it that exquisite to Him? - to the exclusion of all other things that are only supportive and secondary, and which the world has disdained and ignored and shuttled off into the corner as some harmless Sunday phenomenon. Can He mean that? All of this for THE CHURCH!? -Yes! And we are the last to see it. We have been so quick to accept the world's definition of our church - a pleasant little religious and cultural entity that exists as a supplement and support to the important purposes of the world, something that provides pleasant and complimentary services, some religious instruction and some moral value, and which produces a more responsible people and more adequate employees. So long as you accept that definition and timidly confine yourself to it in the limitations that the world has established as a Sunday phenomenon -in that same false lying spirit that was expressed by the Greek philosophers in their tribute to the "unknown god", that "pseudo-spirituality" that throws God a bone, needs to be repudiated and repented of! And we need to see the Church as God Himself sees Her. "All" of our seeing needs to be brought into conjunction with His. We must accept God's statement as being true, however much it boggles our mind and disturbs our categories. It was said of Israel of old, that the prophets prophesied falsely and the Levites profaned the Covenant of God. And thus was a whole religious system predicated upon a lie and the people, for the most part, love to have it that way. What we must all admit to, deep in our cowardly hearts, is that we love "Sunday" Christianity, and harmless midweek Bible studies compared to the "apostolic involvement and commitment" which will assuredly bring upon our heads "apostolic persecution". There is much to be repented for! For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - even in our so-called "spiritual" exercises.
Paul says in the 11th verse:
...."this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord"....
Praise God for the apostles! Hallelujah for their seeing - for the grace of the revelation that is given them to preach this and to bring it to life and to let us know that we are called to the eternal purpose of God, not to be deferred to the time of eternity, but it is to be brought now into our present consideration.
Eternity must be brought into time. It is not just the luxury of an intellectual contemplation of the future, but if our present life is to mean something in this age, we must deeply embrace and take into ourselves what is the eternal purpose of God for the Church. I am not satisfied that we have even yet begun to scratch the surface and communicate it, and yet I am completely conscious that you are hearing. But I shall tell you how insanely jealous I am about this, that I will not be persuaded that you have really understood that this mystery has been brought to light in your deepest consciousness until I see you prostrate on your face before God! You must recognize that this is the purpose for your salvation. It was not to save you from your sins and to make you a nicer person and to improve your marriage - although all these things are true - they are not the primary reasons. We need to reverse our priorities. We need to be saved from ourselves - our fears, our timidities, our apprehensions and the low level of our living and Christian perception - the struggle against sin not to fall, and God has given the very means that we might see that the eyes of our understanding might be opened that we might know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of His glory, of His inheritance in the saints - to grasp the eternal purpose and to recognize fully that we are called for it - for this will change everything. The revelation of this fact will bring about the end of all foolish and silly controversy - "Do I need to speak with tongues, or have other gifts?" The whole silly controversy of the charismatic gifts which we could think important or not - "maybe they need it and I don't". Our lives must be set in another context far above the issue of attending services or other religious requirements which are easy for one to perform in their own "natural abilities". The issue of the Holy Spirit and His ministry is an idle discussion until one has glimpsed and grasped the eternal purposes - there is a deep cry which comes out of your bowels - it is the apostolic cry that was ever upon the lips of Paul - "who is sufficient for these things?"! If you are living in a Christianity for which you are sufficient, I want to tell you this morning, "you are outside of the faith - the apostolic faith -which needs to be contended for". God has called us to the "impossible", to that which is beyond "us", that through Him, and unto Him, might be all things forever. We are so fixed in time. We are so narrow in our considerations that a career in "religion" is almost a corollary of a secular career. We have lost the whole apostolic sense of things - of a Church world without end throughout the ages and we have lost sight of the fact that we have been called to be seated with Him in the Heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the ages to come.
In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul repeats it again (vs.5):
...."He made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places....in order that"....
Whenever you see those words "in order that", take a deep breath, stand up on your tiptoes to hear what follows - for this is the purpose of it all!
...."for which reason He has seated us with Him in the Heavenly places, above all rule and authority and power, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus"....
Now listen children - this has nothing at all to do with any benefit that comes to us. It has nothing to do with even any purpose of God in the earth. It has nothing to do with His rule and authority and Kingdom in the earth - all of which is sublimely important. But now listen deeply for this goes beyond the earth and beyond the purposes of God in the earth, as desperate as the fulfilment of those purposes are none of them will be fulfilled - either His Kingdom in the earth or His purposes in the earth -except that we grasp the purposes of God that go beyond this age and are into the ages to come. It is difficult to explain this mystery, yet I know it in my spirit and I pray that through the Spirit of God it might be exuded upon you. It is beyond "sense knowledge". It must come directly into your understanding by the Holy Spirit, and except that we see and the eyes of our understanding are opened by the grace that is given, the eternal purpose of God and the purposes that go beyond this age to the ages to come, we will not be of any "value" in this age. That is the long and the short of it. Either we are going to apprehend and be apprehended by the transcendent and eternal purposes of God that even go beyond His interest in the earth and beyond His benefits to us or His purposes in the earth will not be fulfilled. For God is indivisible. We cannot take this part and separate that part. The garment that covered Jesus was without seam - it cannot be parted. Either we take the absolute and eternal purposes of God or we will not have Him at all, or we will have something else and we will call it "Christian". We will employ Biblical vocabulary and have impressive programs and activities. People will be happy with their pleasant religion but they will not be "unto Him"! God desires an eternal satisfaction, an eternal gratification. He wants to show something to the principalities and powers that have opposed Him time without end - the surpassing riches of His grace towards us. He is going to say:
"Look at this Jew, arrogant sensualist, dark in his mind, an enemy of God. And look at this one, he was a murderer and a persecutor and I made him the chief apostle of the Church. Look at these people. They were nothing in the world. They were torn and they were broken and they were scared and they were disfigured. They lived in the spirit of the world, in anger and vexation, in competition and striving. But look at the grace of My kindness toward them - what it has performed. Look at these Jews and Gentiles together who have been historically at each others throats, full of fear and apprehension toward each other. I have not brought them together in some kind of shallow ecumenicity. I have made of them "one new man". Look at these blacks and whites. Their whole continent was threatened with fire and flood and I have made of them "one new man". Have you ever seen anything more glorious than My Church? Look at the beauty of it - the truth of it - the purity of it - the authenticity of it. It is a Heavenly phenomenon. It is above culture and language and time. Look at it's authority and power. Nations are compelled to acknowledge it. It is a standard in the earth and I am going to exhibit it throughout all the ages and the ages to come to show My surpassing greatness."
God has purposes for us that go beyond "us". We must see them! Something must be revealed by the grace which is given that changes everything, that breaks our fetters, that looses us from our petty considerations and our small religious ambitions and gives us the motivation, the strength and the passion to "go on" in the fulfilment of this. I know that there are ministers in this room who are often discouraged, even as I myself sometimes am, and you say, "What is the point?". "It seems so futile". "We see no consequence of our speaking". "All things remain as they were". But I pick up the Book and I catch the sense of God's purpose and I know that He is going to fulfil it because He has said it and I am greatly encouraged and I can "go on". We need the vision of God for the purpose of God if we are to fulfil it "unto Glory", and for this reason God is now revealing, bringing to light, that which has been hidden in God, and it is now being revealed that through the Church, the apostolic Church, the true Church, that the eternal purposes of God shall be fulfilled. And when this takes hold of us, we will not need "charismatic" song leaders, if you know what I mean. For praise will not need to be simulated or effected, for we shall not be able to contain ourselves. For something shall always well-up that needs to "break forth" - an acknowledgement to God for the high calling which is ours in Christ Jesus, worth every sacrifice - "unto Him be Glory". Let us bow before Him this morning and thank Him, that He has elected us and called us to His eternal purposes in the Church. What is our exalted individualism now, those little petty distinctions by which we celebrated ourselves, our petty insecurities, our jealousies and striving, these fall away like the dead skin from a snake. We see our Christian brothers and sisters in a new light for we are not complete without them -until we "all" come. Now it is no longer a matter of obligation, of doing the right thing because we are Christian - but rather it flows and we find ourselves capable of a transcendant generosity, an ability to give and to sacrifice, that we might be one. We are lifted above the petty temper of the world for we have apprehended and been apprehended by the eternal purpose of God - not just for this age, but also for the ages to come.