The Eternal Purpose Of The Church

Introduction

I’d like to encourage you to be opening your New Testaments to the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter 1, we began in a recent lesson talking about the prayer that the Apostle Paul uttered for these saints and brethren that were at Ephesus. And I may mention then that I would think that it is a prayer that certainly is effective even for Christians today. In Ephesians chapter 1, in fact, where the apostle said, verse 15, After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, make him mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

1. That the Eyes of Your Understanding Be Enlightened

And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Particularly, I wanted to emphasize verse 18, where his prayer was that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. I believe involved in that is knowing more than just the facts. There are many of us who know the facts. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He was crucified. We believe that according to His will, we have obeyed the gospel. As believers, we have been baptized. And we’re members of His church. We’ve got the facts down. But are our eyes really enlightened to the full understanding that we would thrill at the idea that we are citizens of the kingdom of God?

What does it really mean to us? I know this week is a special week for most of us. Thanksgiving week. It’s a time when we look forward to coming together with family and friends and our young people have holidays out of school, and even some of us who are working at jobs have a day off or two. We look forward to a time maybe of the turkey and so forth on Thanksgiving Day.

But I wonder how many of us really understand the kind of thanksgiving that we should have that we can be called the children of God. Who are we that God would be mindful of us? That he would give his only begotten Son to die in our stead. We are the ones who have sinned. He was without sin. But the forgiveness that’s possible through his precious blood is not something to be just sort of taken for granted. And oh, I’m a member of the church, sort of like I’ve joined a social club. And you know, I come when it’s convenient. It’s more to being a Christian. That the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you have a broader understanding. Some of you who have been here through the years may recall how some years ago on a Sunday night, a man and his wife came forward to obey the gospel.

And as I baptized the woman first. As she came up out of the baptistry to the top of her lungs, she shouted, I’m saved, I’m saved. My first reaction in the Baptistry was, then I thought, no, that’s the wrong reaction. That’s worth shouting. I’ve been forgiven. Now we had had some home Bible classes, and I knew something about her past. That she had led a sexually immoral life. And in fact, even at that occasion was involved with the law because of violation of the law having to do with drugs. She understood what forgiveness meant. It wasn’t that simply, well, her parents were Christians before her and she was being baptized because they were. It wasn’t simply, well, you know, now my name’s on the roll of another social club called the church.

The eyes of our understanding were enlightened of what forgiveness really meant. I wonder how many of us truly understand the exceeding greatness of the power of God wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in heavenly places. How many of us understand what the church really is? And while this letter of Ephesians has to do with so much to do with the grace of God, how that we’re saved by grace through faith, it also enlightens our understanding about what the church is. I’m amazed at how many people think of the church as, well, it’s all right, but I don’t have to be a member of the church. It’s not all that important. And some in this audience even may say, Well, I am a member of the church, or I’m not a member.

2. The Household of God, Made One in Christ

So what? Are the eyes of your understanding enlightened that really being a child of God involves you being in the family of God. In our lesson last week from Ephesians chapter 2, we pointed out how the apostle addressed this church at Ephesus that was made up of many Gentiles. And he addressed them, and we in this audience are Gentiles in the flesh. So consider yourself as being directly spoken to. That before and without Jesus Christ, we were without hope in this world. We were without God. It’s the Jews that the law of Moses had been given to. It was the Jews that were in the special family of God chosen as a family through which the Savior should come. And that purpose has now been served, of course.

But that’s all the point of the apostle that had Christ not come, we would have been without hope. But in Christ Jesus, the point that was made was the fact that we’re part of a different family now. We’re joined together. The household of God, made one in Christ. It doesn’t matter what your background may be, what your race may be, what nationality you may come from. It doesn’t matter how sinful you may have lived. In Christ, there is forgiveness. In fact, in him we have a new law, not the law of Moses that was given specifically to the Israelite and kept men separated from the others. But rather that middle wall of partition has been broken down. And through the gospel, we’re privileged to come to a different understanding about God and his love for all and the salvation that is through Jesus Christ.

And that the church itself is built upon the foundation of Christ. He is the cornerstone that holds it together and makes us united as one family in Him, no matter what background we may have. Indeed, the church is the temple of God. That is individuals, God dwells in us. And as a collective body, we are the temple of the Lord, the dwelling place. Have you ever thought what that really means? Are the eyes of your understanding enlightened that you reflect God or else you bring blasphemy against the name of God? One or the other, by the way you live, by the way you talk, by the way you dress, by your companions. If we truly had the eyes of our understanding enlightened, we would do our best to live as a people who bring glory unto the Lord.

3. According to God’s Eternal Purpose

That our light will so shine before men, they may see our good works and glorify our Father who’s in heaven. What does it really mean to be a member of the Lord’s church? I suggest to you that there are those today who do not really comprehend how the church is so important in God’s sight. If you turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 3, in fact, this morning I want to continue with this line of thought. When the apostle writes in Ephesians chapter 3, I’m going to begin with about verse 8, where Paul said to me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given. That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose, which you accomplish in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

Wasn’t God’s eternal purpose? That’s interesting thought when I would say there are some in the religious world even today to talk about the rapture soon to occur, and you know, following that will be a seven-year tribulation and then a battle of Armageddon, and Christ is going to come back and reign on the earth for a literal thousand years in Jerusalem. And those same people believe that the church is just an afterthought of God. John Walbert, who was once the president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and you might say, from whom many of those who preach this doctrine of premillennialism today. Wolver said in his book that the church is really in a parenthesis period. That God intended to set up the kingdom when Jesus came in the days of the Roman Empire, but the world was far too wicked.

And for that reason Jesus was crucified. And therefore, in the place and until the world would be ready for him to come and set up his earthly kingdom, we have the church and in parenthesis. He claims the church was really never spoken about in the Old Testament. But this scripture says the church is important, so important in God’s plan that it was according to his eternal purpose. Back in chapter 1 and verse 4, there, the apostle spoke about how God had predestined that through Jesus Christ. He predestined the salvation through Christ even before the foundation of the world. How far back does the church and God’s plan go? As far back as the Christ and his plan and purpose for redemption through the shedding of his blood.

4. Prophesied Hundreds of Years Before

That’s how important the church is. In fact, I find it very important when we look at the Old Testament. How many times the, according to God’s purpose and plan is prophesied, hundreds of years before it came to pass. In Joel chapter 2 and in verse 28, for example, God’s prophet Joel said, It shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions, and also on my men servants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And then in verse 32, in that same line of thought, he said, It shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

In other words, he tied together when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would come, would also be a time that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That was spoken hundreds of years before we read in Acts chapter 2 of the Holy Spirit falling on the apostles and the first gospel sermon being preached for the forgiveness of sins. But not only did Joel prophesy of these days, in Isaiah, seven hundred years before the coming of the Christ, in chapter two and verses two and three. Isaiah said, It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains. And the Lord’s house is talking about his family, household, we would say today.

Walk in his path. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The word of the Lord would go forth from Jerusalem. How would Isaiah have known that 700 years earlier? I say to you that the fulfillment of prophecy is proof that this but the Bible is not the work of men. But rather men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit hundreds of years before could forecast what would later happen. In fact, Daniel is one of the outstanding examples of it. In Daniel chapter 2 is recorded how that Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, had a dream. And none of his magicians could tell him what he dreamed. They said, Well, if you’ll just tell us what we dream what you dream, we’ll tell you the interpretation.

Of course, he knew that ploy. And he said, No, no, you tell me what I dreamed, and then give me the interpretation. And at that point, about to have them all killed, Daniel, being a captive Jew, stepped forward or sent word that the Lord would give him the revelation of the dream. And so he did. And what Nebuchadnezzar dreamed was he had seen a great statue, a head of gold and arms and breast of silver and belly and ties of brass and legs of iron and feet of iron and marry clay. And then what Daniel said that it meant history before it occurred. The important is not only do our students in secular history and school know the truth of this, that following the Babylonian Empire came about the Medo-Persian Empire, followed by the Grecian or Macedonian, Alexander the Great, followed by the Roman.

But the point was not so much that God could tell history before it occurred and what the kingdom would follow, the other kingdom and so forth. The real point was in verses 40 and 40 through 45. In the days of the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire, God would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed. God’s kingdom established in the days of the Roman Empire, that fourth kingdom shall stand forever. But then in Jeremiah, even, in Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34, Jeremiah also spoke of a time in which God’s kingdom would not only be established, but there would be a new law given. This is quoted also in Hebrews chapter 8, where he said in verse, uh Hebrews 8 and verse 8, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. You see, Jeremiah even spoke about a different covenant, but a time where sins would be forgiven, no longer remembered. Now these are all from the Old Testament. And they’re all written, spoken hundreds of years before have they been fulfilled. I say to you that when you understand how God’s book, the Word, the inspired Bible, indeed puts it together for us. That not only did these men speak ages ago about things that were to occur, all according to God’s eternal purpose, we can see that even as Jesus said in Mark 1 15 when the scripture says he came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying, The time is fulfilled.

5. My Kingdom Is Not of This World

Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. How did the Lord know? What does he mean the time is fulfilled? What time? Well, that time the prophets had forecast. The time looking forward to. God’s plan is not something that just happened as an afterthought because the world was too wicked for the kingdom to be established. The church is not something that just happens as sort of accommodating sinful people. It’s according to God’s eternal purpose and plan. Even the coming of the Christ to die on the cross was according to God’s plan, not the devil’s plan. In fact, he died that we might have forgiveness, and through his blood, the church has been purchased. Furthermore, Jesus Himself said to those who look for an earthly kingdom. And that’s the fault of those today who are looking for a thousand-year reign on earth, as they’re looking for some kind of a material earthly kingdom.

But Jesus in John chapter 18 and verse 36, when Pilate asked him, Are you a king? He replied, Well, yes, he was, but my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. In fact, he identified the kingdom as spiritual. In Luke 17 in verses 20 and 21, he said, The kingdom cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here or lo there, for lo, the kingdom of God is within you. It is a spiritual kingdom of which we are citizens. We’re made citizens, though, Jesus said, by being born again. In fact, he said to Nicodemus, except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said, Well, how is it possible to be born again? Do we enter our mother’s womb and have physical birth again? That’s all he’s thinking about, a physical kingdom. But Jesus explained more. Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter or see the kingdom of God. There’s a spiritual birth. As one is baptized into Jesus Christ, so he is added also into the family of God, which is the church. You see, we can say these prophecies were fulfilled, and we can name the when. If the kingdom of God is to be established in the days of the Roman Empire, according to Daniel’s prophecy, was it? How do you know? Well, I say that very simply, we can come to the scripture.

6. The Kingdom Came With Power on Pentecost

First of all, Jesus Himself said in Mark 9 and verse 1, there’s some who are standing here, who will not taste the death till they see the kingdom of God come with power. Now you stop and ask yourself, if Jesus meant what he said, did he know? Did he know that there would be some there who wouldn’t die till the kingdom was established? If he knew that the time is fulfilled, did he not also know just how fulfilled that time is? And there’s some standing there that wouldn’t die until they saw the kingdom. How would we know? It’d come with power. What do you mean by power? Later in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, when his apostles were asking about the time of the kingdom, Jesus said, You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

With the coming of the Holy Spirit would be the power of God, which would announce the establishment of his kingdom. Then one would ask, Well, when did the power come? If we can understand when the power came, we know when the kingdom came. And we understand that by turning to Acts chapter 2 and verses 1 through 4. And there we read about how on the day of Pentecost, as the apostles were gathered together, and with others, the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles on that important day. They began to speak with tongues or with other languages. And the multitude that had gathered from all parts of the world at that time, Jews, that is, heard the gospel. You know, for the first time. As that spirit was poured out, just as Joel had prophesied in the last days.

And that Peter himself quoted Joel chapter 2, announcing, this is that which was spoken before. It was the time that even the Lord’s house, the family of God, would be established as Isaiah had prophesied. It fulfilled what Daniel 2 said of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. It was in the time of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that would never be destroyed. And furthermore, a new covenant is given. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the law of Moses nailed to the cross. I say to you, when you look at these promises and their fulfillment, it is astounding. The Bible is not the work of man. And in fact, the church of the Lord is so important that it has been in God’s eternal purpose and plan. Frankly, as we look at the scriptures, we understand that the church which is called the kingdom of God was established on that very day, on Pentecost.

Acts 2. In fact, even later, when Cornelius was baptized, and Peter is explaining to the to the to the disciples back in Jerusalem in Acts 11 and verse 15, he speaks about how that the same gift fell on them as it did on us at the beginning. And what he’s referring to as the beginning would be that occasion in Acts chapter 2. Indeed, the church began when the gospel was preached, and men and women who believed repented of their sins and were baptized on that day. About 3,000, in fact. Indeed, this is that. In Acts 2 17, Peter preached. This is that. What is he talking about, Peter? He quotes even the scripture from Joel. And a time in which he said, All who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Indeed, the scriptures quoted in the New Testament and applied. At a time when indeed the Lord’s church was having its beginning. Furthermore, it was in Jerusalem that the word of the Lord went forth. That’s where they were gathered on that day of Pentecost. The word of the Lord came forth as the Spirit was poured out upon them, and they spake the gospel sermon. More than that, it was during the time that Daniel had said. That fourth empire, the Roman Empire.

Amen. It’s no little thing or light thing. In fact, in Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, addressed to the Christians or the church at Colossae. He spoke about how those Christians had been translated out of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. They were in the kingdom. At the time the letter of Colossians was addressed. At the time the revelation was also written. Kingdom existed? Well, the scripture says it did. It existed because, as we’ve already shown, it was during the lifetime of some Jesus had said it would be. It was when the power came, when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the kingdom was established. Indeed, furthermore, it is at that time the New Testament was given.

Conclusion

And in Hebrews chapter 8, and I read really the main part of the scripture there in Hebrews 8, where there the writer not only quotes at length the prophecy from Jeremiah, but also speaks about here’s the time. Fulfilled, you and I are privileged to be in the kingdom of the Lord. Let’s not take it lightly. Let’s not just say, well, you know, it’s just another social club, and I can come when it’s convenient, and you know I’ll be there when when really I feel like it. But recognize how important it is. So important to God that Jesus Christ died purchasing the church with his blood, therefore purchasing the kingdom, as Revelation 1 and verse 6 would say. That the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you not just take for granted, but that you give a thrilling kind of response.

I can be a child of God. I can be in the kingdom of the Lord, and it’s the most important thing in my life. Because I have the hope of his calling. And I understand the riches of the glory of his inheritance. That it’s not just something that is commonplace, but it’s so very important to God that even before the foundation of the world, he chose salvation through Christ. And according to his eternal purpose, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the principalities and powers, even in heavenly places by the church. Perhaps even the devil himself understands what maybe some who call themselves Christians don’t understand. Who’ve never really thought about the depth of God’s eternal purpose being fulfilled. Fulfilled in the time of Christ and His apostles.

You and I are a privileged people. Let’s not take it for granted. Maybe there’s someone in the audience this morning who’s never obeyed the gospel. We talk about this because we want people to have that opportunity to serve the Lord and to have the hope of his calling, a real hope in our lives. That we come to know him, to serve him, to glorify him in our lives. Are you a Christian? If not, if you believe Jesus to be the Son of God, you can become a Christian this day. Repent of your sins, be immersed, baptized into the death of Christ, immersed for the remission of sins. Sins washed away by his blood. Our song, let him have his way with you. Would you live for Jesus and be always pure and good?

Would you walk with him within the narrow road? Would you have him bear your burden and carry all of your load? Let him have his way with thee. If you’re subject to that invitation, we plead with you to come even now, while together we stand as we sing this song.