God’s New Society

The heading in the version that I’m using has “The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed.” And from verse 1:

“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

“Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given [to] me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”

Amen.

The ringing of that bell is a reminder to turn off our cell phones. Thank you for doing that as I suggested to you.

And a brief prayer—my favorite brief Anglican prayer:

Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. What we are not, make us. For your Son’s sake. Amen.

Well, let me begin with a quiz as I turn to the verses that we just read. Apart from the fact that all of these people are now dead, what do these individuals have in common: Winston Churchill, John Lennon, Bill [Backer], and Michael Jackson?

Well, since no one is volunteering, let me tell you what it is. (Smart move on your part.) Each of them in their own way, one way or another, was hoping by earthly means to create a world of harmony, hope, and peace.

John Lennon, ’61:

Imagine there’s no countries
(It isn’t hard to do),
Nothing to kill or die for,
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people living [lives] in peace. …

You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.
I hope [you will] join us,
And [then] the world will [live] as one.[1]

That was actually 1971.

In the same year, Bill [Backer], who was an advertising exec, came up with a tagline to give to Coca-Cola which eventually became a number one hit: “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony).”[2]

Fourteen years later, in 1985, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and a group of people assembled in Hollywood late at night and into the early hours of the morning in order to create their own cry for the world, “We Are the World,” singing forcefully,

[It’s] a choice we’re making;
We’re saving our own lives. …

We are the world; we are the [people].[3]

Forty years before that, at the Yalta Conference—eighty years ago from now—Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt met following the end of the Second World War in order that they could envisage a world that would be vastly different. And although Roosevelt never made it to the founding of the United Nations, that was their focus when they gathered. And when the charter for the UN was created, this is what they were endeavoring to do:

To maintain international peace and security …;

To develop friendly relations …;

To [establish] international co-operation …;

To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of [the] nations in the attainment of these common [goals].[4]

Well, here we are. Here we are: in a broken world, fractured lives, more wars, more animosity, more segregation, more discrimination, more social trafficking, more of just about everything—pointing to the fact which Christopher Ash in his little book Remaking a Broken World encapsulizes so very well when he says, “All human community is fragile and must always be fragile so long … it is the project of human beings without God. [We learn a] great lesson from Eden to Babel [in] that until and unless God remakes his broken world, that world cannot be healed.”[5]

Two thousand years before all of that, a small Jewish man whose life had been absolutely transformed by realizing who Jesus is—that he was the risen Lord and that he was the King and he was the Savior—that little man provided a huge chunk of the New Testament for us. And this letter that he wrote to the church at Ephesus—which John Stott, when he did a commentary on it, called it God’s New Society[6]—gives us the endpoint of history. And the endpoint of history is not in question. Because as he begins his letter, he sets forward the eternal purpose of God set forth in Jesus “for the fullness of time, to unite all things in [him], things in heaven and things on [the] earth.”[7]

So the understandable longing of humanity in a fallen world for the reality of that for which we dream is perfectly—it’s a wonderful opportunity, actually, to speak to people about the very longings of the human heart. For that kind of thing is actually answered in the gospel itself. Because what God is doing is creating an entirely new multicultural community of people who have been redeemed, who have been reconciled to God, reconciled to one another, singing praises to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, now in heaven and eventually in a new heaven and in a new earth.

Now, since that is the promised future reality, here’s the question: Where, if anywhere, is it possible for somebody to catch a glimpse of that reality? If that is actually what God has intended from all of eternity, and the story—you could take it from Genesis 12 and his promise to Abraham, the call and promise of Abraham and through his seed and all the way through to the passage that we just read before we sang this—if that is the reality, then where are we supposed to catch a glimpse of that?

And the answer, staggeringly, encouragingly, challengingly, is in the church. In the church.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one [goal processes]
With ev’ry [hope] endued.[8]

And this is what is at the heart of this letter. At the end of chapter 2, he has referred to the people as the “structure” of God, picking up the Old Testament picture of the temple—2:21: “in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place … by [God’s] Spirit.” He says the church is the household of God. The church is the family that God loves. And the church is the place where he dwells.

Paul’s Self-Description

And so at the beginning of chapter 3, just as he is about to pray… You might notice that. If you look at the opening phrase (“For this reason I, Paul…”) and look down to verse 14 (“For this reason I bow”), what you have between the first “For this reason…” and the second “For this reason…” is a big, long parenthetical statement. It’s almost as if—and it probably is—that Paul is unable just to give voice to these things without being made painfully and powerfully aware of the fact that somehow, in the mystery of God’s promises and purposes and providences, somehow, that he has been included in this.

And so, just as he’s about to launch into prayer, he pauses to reflect on the part that he’s been given in the purpose of God—and begins by giving us, first, a description of himself: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus…” Humanly speaking, he was a prisoner of Rome. He found himself in the predicament in imprisonment because of the fact that he was absolutely clear about the story that he was telling. He was convicting men and women of the truth that he himself had been convicted by. And it was because he was prepared to be so straightforward that he set the cat among the pigeons.

For example, we won’t delay on it, but if you were to put your finger in Acts chapter 22, you would get the background to how it is that he finds himself where he is. Acts 22, and he’s describing his circumstances, and he says,

And I said, “Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and [I] beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.” And he said to me [that’s the Lord], “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

Verse 22: “Up to this word they listened to him.”[9]

Now, I don’t know whether you’ve had many bad Sundays lately. I regularly have a bad Sunday. But I’ve never had one like this. You know, people say, “Well, was there any reaction to your message?” Often it’s just like… No: “They raised their voices and [they] said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.’”[10] Now, I say that’s a good reaction to a talk. That is very good. Now you’re making impact right there.

And he goes on to describe the fact that they began to take their cloaks and tear them, they shouted abuse at him, and they flung dust into the air. What was happening? Paul was suffering for the truth he was proclaiming. He puts his life on the line for the nature of the gospel itself. The Jewish people could not stand the fact that the promises and the structure of their life and their regulations and their rituals would somehow or another be made available to these gentile people. And they don’t like what he’s already said in chapter 2, where he’s going to make clear to them that God is making “one new man” out of two.[11]

Now, can I just pause and say a word concerning Paul’s attitude here? First of all in describing himself in this way, but also in the way in which we don’t have what I might be tempted to write: “Dear Ephesians, can you please come and get me out of here? I hate being in prison. I wanted to be an evangelist,” and so on. No, he doesn’t do that at all.

He must have been reading Andrew Murray. You remember when he talks about the providence of God, when he finds himself in a circumstance that is untoward? And he tells himself regularly, “Number one, I am here by God’s appointing. Number two, I am in his keeping. Number three, I am under his training. And number four, I am here for his time.”[12] And that might be a word just for somebody already because of what you’ve left behind, and you’ve said, “Maybe now that I’ve left it behind, I’ll leave it behind forever.” No, let’s take a leaf out of his book.

“I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus,” he says—we’re still on his self-description—“and I am a steward of God’s grace.” A steward of God’s grace. He’s very, very clear that grace that was given to him was given for them. When he writes to the Corinthians, he says, “For what I receive from the Lord I deliver to you.”[13] In the Colossian letter he says, “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known.”[14] And when he writes, he says, “And this is the explanation how we should be regarded,”[15] he says: “as servants of Christ and [of] stewards of the mysteries of God.”[16] “I am a prisoner for Christ Jesus. I’m in his place. And I am a steward of the mysteries of God.”

Toscanini, who was a famous—Arturo Toscanini, who was a famous conductor who lived into the twentieth century quite a way, actually—was known for being very straightforward. He was known for making sure that as he prepared an orchestra for a symphony, they would stick to the score. He didn’t want any funny business: “Stick to the score. We’re playing the score.” And he pauses on one occasion as he prepares them for a Beethoven symphony, and he says this to them: He says, “I am nothing. And you are nothing. Beethoven is everything.”

That’s what Paul is saying: “What, after all, is Paul? What, after all, is Cephas? What, after all? Only servants through whom you came to believe. One plants; another waters; God makes it grow. Therefore, so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.”[17] Wow! So phone your wife and tell her, “Hey, I’m nothing!” She’ll say, “Oh, no, honey. Don’t listen to that man. Don’t. Don’t.” She’s like, “Maybe the next fellow will be a little more encouraging. Just try another one.”

The Revelation of the Mystery

We must move on from the description of Paul to the revelation of the mystery. The revelation of the mystery. He says it’s this “stewardship … that [has been] given to me …, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation.” Notice just three things, what he says here.

God’s plan was not Eden. His plan was Calvary. His plan was a new heaven and a new earth.

First of all, this “mystery was made known to me.” “Made known to me.” The open secret was not known to him by investigation. It was not known to him as a result of speculation. It was not known to him as a result of human instruction. It was made known to him by revelation. “I did not receive it from any man”—Galatians 1—“nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”[18]

Now, what he’s referring to here is the reality, the totality of the mystery of Christ, as he goes on to say. It includes all of God’s plans from all of eternity in the creation of the world. His plan was not Eden. His plan was Calvary. His plan was a new heaven and a new earth. And that’s why in the beginning of the letter, he’s laying all of this mystery out. It is a mystery of which Jesus is both the source and the substance. He is both its source and its substance. That’s the first thing he says: “It was made known to me.”

Secondly, in verse 5, he says it “was not … known to the sons of men in [earlier] generations.”

Now, when we read the Bible like that, especially in a small group, we need to just pause before we get on, because somebody ought to be bright enough to say, “Well, wait a minute! Didn’t you just quote Genesis 12—that God made a promise to Abraham? That’s a long time before this. Don’t we know that in Psalm 2, that the promise to the Son is the inheritance of the nations?”[19] Yes, we know that. “Well then, what does this mean that it was not made known?” In fact, when he writes to the church at Rome, he says, “the gospel of God … promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.”[20] That makes it even harder!

And the answer is actually in verse 5: “which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed.” All right? “It has now been revealed” through the apostles, the permanent foundation of the church, and the prophets, who were present spontaneously and for a while.

And what he’s saying is this: that God’s plan was foretold, but how that plan was to be accomplished remained a complete mystery until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the discovery on the part of these disciples, who had had such a hard time really grasping very much at all but now are on the streets of Jerusalem with a “waft of the supernatural”[21] and declaring the reality and the great panorama of God’s purposes. What has happened? Well, exactly what he says: It has now been revealed.

To Paul, of course—we know that story. If we had time, we could turn and think about what that meant for Peter. You remember Cornelius’s house and the sheet coming down.[22] We learned it at Sunday school. And we’re not sure we fully understood it then, but it was good that they taught us. And eventually, of course, in that encounter, Peter has to say, “Now I know! Now I know that God’s plan, it goes way beyond the boundaries of my Judaism, goes way beyond the boundaries of ethnicity. In fact, it spans the world!”

And what happened to these fellows is—and Peter in particular: He had to rethink his whole understanding of the Old Testament. Because he suddenly realized that the superstructure of Judaism, the scaffolding, the rituals—these things all found their fulfillment in Jesus. And fulfilled in Jesus, the story changes, and the covenant is brand-new. So he had his education upended, his training upended, his tradition upended. And he and Paul and the rest of them said, in Paul’s words, “that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness [of] God that depends on faith.”[23]

So he’s told us three things: that the mystery was made known to him; that it wasn’t made known in earlier generations; it has now been made known. But as I was reading this, I said, “But Paul, could you please hurry up and tell us what the mystery is? What is the mystery?” Well, there you have it—verse 6, just when you were hoping: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs.” “Fellow heirs,” along with the Jews, enjoying three great privileges.

One: “fellow heirs” sharing the same inheritance. The same inheritance. Remember, he writes to the church in Galatia, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to [the] promise.”[24] What promise? That through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Heirs.

Secondly, “members of the same body.” “The same body.” Now, this is very important for us to think out, especially when there is so much going around in our world about Gaza, about Israel, about Jewish people, and everything else. It’s important that we make sure that we read the news through our Bibles; we don’t read our Bibles through the news—and that we understand, because God is sovereign over human history, he makes no mistakes in this. So what is being described here is not a Jew-gentile merger. It’s not a merger. It’s an entirely new entity. That’s 2:15: “by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in [the] place of … two.”

The church is an international community. In fact, in the early days of the church, Christians were sometimes referred to as the third race.[25] The third race. There used to be people who were Jewish, and there used to be people who were gentile, and that was their identifying feature. In those early days of the church, the question was, “Will there be two churches? Will there be a Jewish church and a gentile church?” And God stirs up the apostles so that they can make it perfectly clear: “No, that is not going to happen. It mustn’t happen.” And God creates a whole new creation.

And this is where, again, our theology really comes into play. Because God creates the original humanity in Adam, right? Now, that original humanity in Adam is destined for outer darkness. “‘All flesh is like grass and the glory of man like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever.’ And this is the word which by the gospel was proclaimed to you.”[26] So what is God doing? Well, he’s created a new humanity within the world of the old humanity—that the promised seed (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:1–2), this would be the origin of an entirely new humanity, which would flow from the seed of Abraham—actually, Jesus. And that seed… Remember, Jesus says, “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will remain alone. But when it falls into the ground and dies, it will produce a reality such as has never, ever been seen.”[27] And it is this that he’s referring to.

“Fellow heirs, members of the same body, and,” thirdly, “partakers of the promise in Christ … through the gospel.” The promise—verse 7—of redemption: “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.”

“In him …, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of … salvation, and believed in him…” That’s the thirteenth verse of chapter 1. (I just noticed it in my notes, so I thought I’d read it. There you have it.) “In him…” He’s giving this amazing paean, this huge symphony of the eternal purposes of God by way of election, right? That God has purposed from all of eternity to put together a community that is his very own; that it is the utterly undeserved privilege of all who believe to be included in that community. And then he says to them as he writes, “[And] in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who [himself] is the guarantee of … inheritance” that is yet to come.

Can I just pause and speak a word to some of the young men that I bump into in my travels? I’m sure there might be one or two of you here, but, of course, you don’t have to put up your hand if you find yourself that this is apropos. What I’m referring to is what seems to me to be an increasing fearfulness on the part of some to proclaim the free offer of the gospel—to call men and women to faith in Jesus Christ so that in hearing the word of the gospel they might believe.

You say, “Well, are you not out on a bit of a limb on that?” Well, if I’m out on a limb, I’m out on a good limb, because this is John Murray of late, of Westminster. And he writes,

The passion [for the gospel] is quenched when we lose sight of the grandeur of the evangel [itself]. …

It is a fact that many, persuaded as they rightly are of the particularism of the plan of salvation and of its various corollaries, have found it difficult to proclaim the full, free, and unrestricted overture of gospel grace. They have laboured under inhibitions arising from fear that in doing so they would impinge upon the sovereignty of God in his saving purposes and operations. The result is that, though formerly assenting to the free offer, they lack freedom in the presentation of its appeal and [of its] demand.[28]

Well, Paul understood that. When the Philippian jailer said, “What must I do to be saved?” he didn’t say, “Well, hang on. I’m writing Ephesians. You could read the first eleven verses.” No, he was crazy enough, he said, “Believe [on] the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”[29] That’s what had happened to these Ephesians. And that’s why they are now reading this letter. You heard it!

Paul’s Ordination to the Ministry

Now, we must proceed. Because he then goes from this revelation of the mystery to what I want to refer to as his ordination to this ministry. Because this mystery that has been revealed to him is accompanied by a ministry that is received by him. Because he has been entrusted with the role of the servant of the Word.

He wasn’t in this position, as we’ve noted, on account of human ingenuity but by divine initiative. He was amazed throughout all of his life: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace [to] me was not in vain.”[30] Left to himself, he would have remained as a self-satisfied Pharisee. But he had encountered the greatness of God’s power, as he refers to it in 1:19. In the writing to the Corinthians, he speaks of it in these terms: “Necessity [was] laid upon me.”[31]

And you will notice that what strikes him—and this is no false modesty; it can’t be—what strikes him is that he is forcibly aware of the fact that he was not an obvious choice. Not an obvious choice! You think about it in the economy of God: He wants to reach the gentiles. “Oh, why don’t we get a monotheistic Jew who hates gentiles, and we’ll use him as our minister to the gentiles?” You can’t make this stuff up! “I’m the least of the saints.” In fact, his name in Latin means “little.” Paulus means “little.” So he says, “I’m a little person. I’m wee. And I’m little in so many different ways. To me…” Look at that. That’s why I paused at the comma. Verse 8: “To me, though I am the very least of … the saints, this grace was given.”

What a combination: apostolic authority and personal humility. There you have it. We don’t have apostolic authority except that we have the authority of the Scriptures. And if some of us took our task a little more seriously and took ourselves a little less seriously, we might be surprised. We might actually be rubbing shoulders with this kind of perspective. That’s why when Paul discovers in his own predicament and wishing whatever his thorn was would be taken away, eventually, when the Lord clears it up for him, he says, “Well then, fine. If dependence is the objective, then weakness must be an advantage. Therefore, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses. Because when I am weak, then I am strong.”[32] “I’ve been ordained to this.”

I saw a lovely quote from F. B. Meyer some time ago, remarking on Dwight L. Moody, who you know preached to thousands and thousands of people. Meyer said, “Moody, a man who had apparently never heard of himself.”[33] It’s good. It’s on the test.

He’s been ordained to do what? Well, “to preach.” “To preach.” “Though I am the very least of … the saints, [the] grace was given [me], to preach.” To preach like Jesus. To preach.

When you read the opening of Mark’s Gospel, you realize that comes across so strongly, doesn’t it? You have… He stands forward, and he says, “The time is fulfilled, … the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe … the [good news].”[34] Then he tackles the demons. He deals with a bunch of stuff. He heals a whole crowd of people. Then the people come to him when they find him early in the morning, and they say to him, essentially, “You’ve got it really going, Jesus. I think if we just keep this going right now, right here, this is going to be terrific.” You remember what he says? “Let me go. Let us go to some other villages in order that I may preach there. This is why I have come out.”[35] By the time the four fellows are bringing their friend—if it’s four fellows—bringing their friend because his legs don’t work, Mark records that he was in the house, “and he was preaching.”[36] “He was preaching.” Because, you see, the physical needs of that man and all men are secondary to the deep needs of the soul.

You’re a preacher. What a thought! That’s why when we think about it, we need to make sure that we understand what it is, who it is we’re preaching. In chapter 1, he refers to it as “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”[37]

The task is to preach, the subject is Jesus in all of his glorious person, and his audience he describes for us there: The “grace was given, to preach,” number one, “to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” So he goes to those who were, from the Jewish perspective, so far removed from things—without God, without hope in the world,[38] without any of the background that had been experienced by those who were now Jewish believers. And he is preaching to the gentiles. That’s verse 8.

In verse 9, he is preaching to “everyone”—so, if you like, first of all particularly to the gentiles and then universally to everyone. What is he to do? “To bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things.” God created the universe, and in Jesus he has begun a whole new creation. In this new creation, he plans “to unite all things … in heaven and … on earth” in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I came across—somebody sent it to me, actually—a quote from G. K. Chesterton at Easter. And I found it helpful then, and I kept it so that I could mention it to you now. This notion of “God has created the world—the physical world—and in Jesus, he now comes, especially in the resurrection, to say, ‘Here we go.’” And Chesterton writes when the disciples went to the empty tomb,

even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but [of] the dawn.[39]

“I’m to preach. I’m to preach Christ. I’m to preach him to the gentiles; I’m to preach it universally to everyone,” and, thirdly, you will notice, “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” So it is particularly to the gentiles, it is universally to the world, and it is cosmically to the realities in our world that are unseen to us but which, in certain ways, we may be seen to them.

Notice how this is going to take place. (So we know we’re getting close to the end.) Verse 10: “so that through the church”—“through the church”—“the manifold wisdom”—the variegated wisdom of God, the multifaceted wisdom of God—“might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

Now, you could spend a long time later on trying to work out just which of these he might have in mind. He doesn’t tell us. But power, grace, wisdom on display not just to the inhabitants of earth but, staggeringly, to the hosts of heaven. If he’s referencing the good angels, then we know, because we sang about it here: “Angels, help us to adore him.”[40] First Peter again: “Angels long to look into these things”[41]—around verse 12 of the opening chapter. There’s a wonderful old hymn that captures this, I think. It goes like this:

There is singing up in heaven
Such as we have never known
As the angels sing of victory
And the lamb upon the throne.

But when we sing redemption’s story,
They will fold their wings,
For angels never knew the joy
That our salvation brings.[42]

They “look in.” I mean, I shouldn’t pontificate, but, I mean, one of them says to his friend, “You’ve got to see this! You thought the incarnation was unbelievable. Look what’s happening right here! The one whose praise we sang and announced—‘Behold, the King is here!’—the King is dying on a cross!”

Now, if it’s the bad angels—if it’s Ephesians 6,[43] if it’s the demons and the folks that are committed to destruction and despair and everything else—well, that’s viewed in light of the fact that through death, Jesus went and destroyed the one who has the power of death, the devil.[44] And the fact is that at the cross, God was using all the forces of evil to bring his own purposes to pass.

God’s Eternal Purpose

So, full cycle: Where, then, is this glimpse to be seen? Answer: in the church. The church is the sphere in which God makes his wisdom known in earth and in heaven. This “eternal purpose,” you will notice—verse 11—is “realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is in Jesus that we have free access to him. This is how we may come to God. This is how we may come with assurance of acceptance: through faith in him. And what Paul is staggeringly pointing out here is that the church is God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future.

The authentic local church contains the DNA of a remade world. It is in there because it is Christ’s church and Christ’s people.

Now, contemporary culture may view the church in all kinds of ways: a hangover from the past, a redundancy, simply irrelevant. But Jesus already said that he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.[45]

Now, let’s go from big C to small c. ’Cause it’s okay; we go big C: “Yeah, the church…” Yeah. No, no. Let’s do our church, our little place, wherever we are. The authentic local church contains the DNA of a remade world. It is in there because it is Christ’s church and Christ’s people—the ones that he has chosen for himself, that he is building together. It is the place that he dwells. It is the family that he loves. It’s the unfolding reality of God’s purpose in all of history.

Essentially, what it is is that the gospel brings a little bit of the future into the present when in local churches there is a reality that transcends ethnicity, social class, culture, race, preoccupations with politics, and every other thing. And the people come in and say, “Oh, well, I never came across anything like this in my life! What is this?” It’s God’s new society. It’s a walk-through visual aid. It’s a gallery displaying little sketches. It might not be in glorious Technicolor in your place. It certainly isn’t in mine. But it may be charcoal sketches, little scribbles, little inklings that there is something going on here.

Not every local church is able to be marked by the vast diversity that is even represented in us here today—people from Scotland, Ireland, Brazil, Beijing, Croatia, Albania, India, Pakistan, all in this little place! And so people could come along and say, “Well, why would they come from all these different places? I mean, don’t they all have their own thing?” What is it? It’s Jesus! It’s Jesus! He’s building a new society. And he isn’t going to quit.

Now, let’s just end with a little realism from Don Carson, just to help us. I’m helped by this. Maybe you will be too. Because you’re thinking about your church, and you’re going, “Wait a minute. I don’t know about that.” That’s okay. I’m thinking about the same thing. This is Carson:

The church … is not made … of natural “friends.” It[’s] made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything … of [the] sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural coalition, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ …. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.[46]

That’s a challenge, isn’t it? But it’s also a huge encouragement.

And look at the lovely way in which Paul, this crusty old monotheistic Jew, has been softened up by the gospel. Verse 13: “So I ask you[: Don’t] lose heart over what I[’m] suffering for you, which is [for] your glory.” He couldn’t get over the privilege that “the Son of God,” as he says, “loved me and gave himself for me.”[47]

For homework, as a PS, some things to think about: What do you think this says, how does this direct us, in saying no to a number of things? One: Christian nationalism. Two: isolationism. Three: individualism (“It’s all about me”). Four: defeatism. Let the fearful look around, but let the Christian lift his eyes and look up[48]—because what he has promised here he is fulfilling. And what a mystery that any one of us should be given any little part in the vastness of his eternal plan!

Father, how we thank you that your word is fixed in the heavens,[49] that it is entirely reliable! And we pray that as we have the opportunity to think about these things, to listen as we are taught, to encourage one another, to stir one another up to love and to good deeds,[50] that you will, in ways that actually stretch our imagination, fulfill your purposes in these few hours that we have together. And we humbly pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[1] Yoko Ono and John Lennon, “Imagine” (1971).

[2] Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Bill Backer, Billy Davis, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” (1971).

[3] Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, “We Are the World” (1985).

[4] United Nations Charter, Art. 1 (1945).

[5] Christopher Ash, Remaking a Broken World: The Heart of the Bible Story, rev. ed. (The Good Book Company, 2019), 55.

[6] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians: God’s New Society (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1979).

[7] Ephesians 1:10 (ESV).

[8] Samuel John Stone, “The Church’s One Foundation” (1866).

[9] Acts 22:19–22 (ESV).

[10] Acts 22:22 (ESV).

[11] Ephesians 2:15 (ESV).

[12] Andrew Murray, quoted in W. M. Douglas, Andrew Murray and His Message: One of God’s Choice Saints (London: Oliphant, 1926), 162–63. Paraphrased.

[13] 1 Corinthians 15:3 (paraphrased).

[14] Colossians 1:25 (ESV).

[15] 1 Corinthians 4:1 (paraphrased).

[16] 1 Corinthians 4:1 (ESV).

[17] 1 Corinthians 3:5–7 (paraphrased).

[18] Galatians 1:12 (ESV).

[19] See Psalm 2:8.

[20] Romans 1:1–2 (ESV).

[21] James S. Stewart, A Faith to Proclaim (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953), 45.

[22] See Acts 10.

[23] Philippians 3:8–9 (ESV).

[24] Galatians 3:29 (ESV).

[25] Tertullian, Ad Nationes 1.8.

[26] 1 Peter 1:24–25 (paraphrased).

[27] John 12:24 (paraphrased).

[28] “The Atonement and the Free Offer of the Gospel,” in Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 1, The Claims of Truth (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1976), 59, 81.

[29] Acts 16:30–31 (ESV).

[30] 1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV).

[31] 1 Corinthians 9:16 (ESV).

[32] 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 (paraphrased).

[33] F. B. Meyer, introduction to Life of D. L. Moody, by W. R. Moody and A. P. Fitt (London: Morgan and Scott, n.d.), 4. Paraphrased.

[34] Mark 1:15 (ESV).

[35] Mark 1:37–38 (paraphrased).

[36] Mark 2:2 (ESV).

[37] Ephesians 3:8 (ESV). See also Ephesians 1:7, 18.

[38] See Ephesians 2:12.

[39] G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1926), 244.

[40] Henry Francis Lyte, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” (1834).

[41] 1 Peter 1:12 (paraphrased).

[42] Johnson Oatman Jr., “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing” (1894). Lyrics lightly altered.

[43] See Ephesians 6:12.

[44] See Hebrews 2:14.

[45] See Matthew 16:18.

[46] D. A. Carson, Love in Hard Places (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002), 61.

[47] Galatians 2:20 (ESV).

[48] G. T. Manley, The Return of Jesus Christ (London: Inter-Varsity, 1960), 27.

[49] See Psalm 119:89.

[50] See Hebrews 10:24.