WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.179 Jack is going to come read for us as we read our New Testament reading this morning, which 00:00:04.179 --> 00:00:09.939 is Ephesians chapter one, verses three to fourteen, which is printed in your bulletin, 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.339 if you'd like to join in the reading. 00:00:12.339 --> 00:00:20.500 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:26.179 with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:32.780 the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 00:00:32.780 --> 00:00:39.600 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:46.299 purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:49.340 us in the beloved. 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:55.320 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according 00:00:55.320 --> 00:01:02.980 to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making 00:01:02.980 --> 00:01:10.299 known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 00:01:10.299 --> 00:01:17.240 as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things 00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:18.799 on earth. 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:25.379 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:32.620 of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:37.259 first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 00:01:37.259 --> 00:01:43.659 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:49.939 in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance 00:01:49.939 --> 00:01:55.459 until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. 00:01:55.459 --> 00:02:04.219 If you're flying in a plane, which you've probably all done before, when you look down, 00:02:04.219 --> 00:02:07.819 you see the shape of the land in a way that you don't see when you're standing on the 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:09.319 ground. 00:02:09.319 --> 00:02:13.500 You see that the farmland is all in squares and rectangles, and if you're flying over 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:20.379 Paris, perhaps you see how constructed the city is, how its overall design and the air 00:02:20.379 --> 00:02:26.659 and disembolts through three cycles and cycles of circles, we're at Edinburgh's the same. 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:33.379 You can be the tallest man on earth who sits currently at eight foot, three inches, 252 00:02:33.379 --> 00:02:38.340 centimeters, and no matter how big you are, how tall you are, when you're standing on 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:42.900 the city streets, you cannot see the overall design of a city. 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:45.460 You can't see the overall design of a farmland. 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:46.980 You can't do it. 00:02:46.980 --> 00:02:48.860 And you're not vertical enough. 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:49.860 You're not tall enough. 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:50.860 You're not big enough. 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:52.620 You've got to get up above it. 00:02:52.620 --> 00:03:00.259 And the wisest person on earth, the smartest person that's ever lived, still sees everything 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:02.740 from their own perspective. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:04.980 We see horizontally not vertically. 00:03:04.980 --> 00:03:06.819 We just, we're not big enough. 00:03:06.819 --> 00:03:08.540 We can't see the overall design. 00:03:08.540 --> 00:03:10.219 We cannot see the grand plan. 00:03:10.219 --> 00:03:11.700 We're human being. 00:03:11.699 --> 00:03:12.780 And that's not a bad thing. 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:15.459 That's a part of our limitation as human beings. 00:03:15.459 --> 00:03:21.259 And Paul, in this very long sentence, which is one sentence in Greek that Jack just read 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:25.419 for us, is inviting us, is trying to sort of draw every single one of us out of that 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:29.620 horizontal perspective and say, do you know that you have a perspective? 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:30.939 You have a worldview. 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:32.939 You have a culture through which you see things. 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:34.780 You can't see the big picture. 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:36.739 You can't see the overall design. 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:41.939 And he's raising us up to the vertical and giving us ultimately what is God's perspective 00:03:41.939 --> 00:03:43.439 on everything. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:50.100 And so he's talking here about this big grand plan that God has for the world and saying, 00:03:50.100 --> 00:03:51.500 of course you can't see it. 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:53.180 You're human. 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:54.180 But God has it. 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:55.180 It's there. 00:03:55.180 --> 00:03:56.180 It's real. 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:57.180 It exists. 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:59.540 And you've got to, you've got to lift up your eyes and listen and hear what God says is 00:03:59.540 --> 00:04:04.500 the overall design of the shape of your life, of all of human history. 00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:09.180 Another way of saying it is he's saying every single one of us has to in this life as modern 00:04:09.180 --> 00:04:16.180 people get out of my story in order to conform to these story, get out of our personal lives, 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:20.579 get away from ourselves, out of our story, and realize our story is part of a much bigger 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:21.899 story. 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:26.660 And that's what this one long sentence is about, God's perspective on things. 00:04:26.660 --> 00:04:34.939 And because this is one long sentence in Greek, verses 3 to 14, and that doesn't work in English 00:04:34.939 --> 00:04:41.460 grammar at all, the English Bible has broken it down into lots of sentences. 00:04:41.460 --> 00:04:47.580 And so when that happens, one of the losses is that in every single English sentence, 00:04:47.580 --> 00:04:51.860 there's a subject and there's a predicate, you know, back to grammar school. 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:55.379 And you look for the main point, you know, what's the subject, what's the predicate of 00:04:55.379 --> 00:04:56.480 the sentence? 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:01.300 Well, because this is actually just one long sentence in Greek, we have yet to get to the 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:02.740 main point until today. 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:05.100 So we spent two weeks on this. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:10.819 And the main point, the central grammatical point of this one long Greek sentence is verse 00:05:10.819 --> 00:05:12.980 10. 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:18.980 And I now, preparing this week, see why Martin Lloyd-Jones preached 24 sermons on verses 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:20.500 1 to 14. 00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:27.459 He's verse 10 by itself has so much, we're only going to do one. 00:05:27.459 --> 00:05:31.579 But it's the center, it's the real centerpiece of what Paul's been saying to us in this long 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:32.939 sentence, it's the main point. 00:05:32.939 --> 00:05:41.180 Here it is, Paul teaches us here in this main point today of the plan, the plan of God, 00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:46.899 and then that that plan is about ultimate homecoming, it's about going home. 00:05:46.899 --> 00:05:51.219 And then finally, the road to home, how to get there, okay? 00:05:51.219 --> 00:05:54.879 So there is a plan, God has a plan. 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:58.500 That plan is to take you home, and there is a road to get there. 00:05:58.500 --> 00:05:59.539 That's what Paul's saying here. 00:05:59.539 --> 00:06:02.500 So let's look at it, the plan. 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:08.819 So if you look down with me at verses 9 and 10, Paul says, back from verse 7 really, that 00:06:08.819 --> 00:06:15.819 when Jesus Christ came into the middle of history and redeemed humanity by his blood, 00:06:15.819 --> 00:06:22.740 God verse 9 was making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose. 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:26.939 And then verse 10, which is his plan for the fullness of time. 00:06:26.939 --> 00:06:28.899 All right, what is he saying? 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:34.980 He's saying that when the time was right, the fullness of time, when time was right, 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:37.060 God sent Jesus into the world. 00:06:37.060 --> 00:06:42.100 And that in that moment, he unveiled his will, what he wanted to do. 00:06:42.100 --> 00:06:46.300 And when he unveiled his will, he was saying, if you want to know the big plan, the purpose 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:51.980 of all of history, look at Jesus Christ, who came to redeem us by his blood. 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:58.820 Now he uses one word to describe this big plan, and it's the word mystery, the mysterion 00:06:58.820 --> 00:06:59.980 in Greek. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:05.580 And this word mystery is not like an Agatha Christie novel. 00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:07.900 It's not like Alexander McCall Smith. 00:07:07.900 --> 00:07:09.900 It's not like Sherlock Holmes. 00:07:09.899 --> 00:07:14.179 The word mystery for Paul is different than a mystery novel, a crime novel or something 00:07:14.179 --> 00:07:15.179 like that. 00:07:15.179 --> 00:07:21.060 The word mystery for him means that you couldn't see from God's perspective. 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:26.939 You can't unless God chooses to tell you his perspective. 00:07:26.939 --> 00:07:31.899 And when he sent Jesus, he pulled back the curtain and says, you know, you're walking 00:07:31.899 --> 00:07:37.060 through this life in a horizontal dimension, in your own perspective, living your own story. 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:39.620 Let me tell you the story. 00:07:39.620 --> 00:07:43.819 And this story, the mystery came down in the middle of history. 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:45.100 And it's Jesus Christ. 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:47.259 He's the centerpiece of the story. 00:07:47.259 --> 00:07:53.420 And that every single human being exists to align their story to the story, the big story 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:56.899 that's happening, which is the story of Jesus Christ and his coming in the middle of the 00:07:56.899 --> 00:07:57.899 world. 00:07:57.899 --> 00:08:01.459 Now, one of the things we haven't said the past couple of weeks that's important is 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:06.340 that if you read the commentators on this, they will say this one long sentence in Greek 00:08:06.339 --> 00:08:12.539 has a ton of illusions and references to the Old Testament story of the Exodus, Israel's 00:08:12.539 --> 00:08:14.139 Exodus out of Egypt. 00:08:14.139 --> 00:08:19.099 And it's hinted at in little words all throughout, most especially when it says, we have been 00:08:19.099 --> 00:08:21.539 redeemed by his blood. 00:08:21.539 --> 00:08:25.819 That's a reference to the redemption that took place by the Passover lamb in the Old 00:08:25.819 --> 00:08:29.699 Testament and that Jesus is the new and better Passover lamb. 00:08:29.699 --> 00:08:35.419 No, the mystery, Jesus in the middle of history revealed the mystery, God's big plan for all 00:08:35.419 --> 00:08:36.419 of history. 00:08:36.419 --> 00:08:40.059 I'm going to try to rhyme as much as I can today. 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:41.740 That's the mystery. 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:44.819 And you think all the way back in the Old Testament to the Exodus story, what is the 00:08:44.819 --> 00:08:45.819 Exodus story? 00:08:45.819 --> 00:08:48.379 Even if you've never read it, this is it. 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:53.099 Humanity, Israel, God's people were in bondage to slavery. 00:08:53.099 --> 00:08:56.740 God came as their mighty redeemer and deliverer. 00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:58.019 And he took them out of Egypt. 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:01.579 He took them out of slavery, but he didn't leave them there. 00:09:01.579 --> 00:09:03.579 He said, now I'm going to take you home. 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:08.020 I'm going to take you to the promised land, the land flowing in milk and honey. 00:09:08.020 --> 00:09:12.780 The story, the mystery, the big plan has always been the same. 00:09:12.780 --> 00:09:14.620 You are in bondage. 00:09:14.620 --> 00:09:18.580 You need to be redeemed and you need to be taken home. 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:22.460 You need to come out of Egypt and you need to go to the promised land from slavery to 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:23.860 homecoming. 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:24.860 That's the big mystery. 00:09:24.860 --> 00:09:26.020 That's the big plan. 00:09:26.020 --> 00:09:28.140 And it's Jesus's story. 00:09:28.140 --> 00:09:31.820 And Paul is saying, have you conformed your life to that story? 00:09:31.820 --> 00:09:36.220 Are you still living horizontally merely according to your own perspective in your own little 00:09:36.220 --> 00:09:38.020 kingdom? 00:09:38.020 --> 00:09:39.140 Here's the lesson. 00:09:39.140 --> 00:09:41.300 There really is a plan. 00:09:41.300 --> 00:09:44.420 I know it doesn't always feel that way. 00:09:44.420 --> 00:09:45.780 There's a plan. 00:09:45.780 --> 00:09:46.780 It's a big plan. 00:09:46.780 --> 00:09:49.460 It's happening right now. 00:09:49.460 --> 00:09:53.820 But all of us have been affected deeply in a way that you might not know, you might not 00:09:53.820 --> 00:09:57.580 be aware of by one particular person. 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:02.700 And that person is a man by the name of Michel Foucault, a French philosopher. 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:06.300 Maybe you've never heard of Michel Foucault, but every single one of us are living in his 00:10:06.300 --> 00:10:08.259 world really. 00:10:08.259 --> 00:10:13.379 And in 2016, there was a really important study about this guy, Michel Foucault, this 00:10:13.379 --> 00:10:19.540 French philosopher that said that he is the most referenced, incited, and written about 00:10:19.540 --> 00:10:25.100 philosopher person in all of history with an academic study. 00:10:25.100 --> 00:10:26.620 Michel Foucault, who is this guy? 00:10:26.620 --> 00:10:29.700 He's a French philosopher, and this is what, don't worry about who he is, worry about what 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:31.940 he said because it's affected us all. 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:33.539 And this is what Foucault taught. 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:36.000 He said, there is no goal. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:37.980 There is no plan. 00:10:37.980 --> 00:10:43.980 And what that means is that every time a person writes a book about history, all they're doing 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:47.299 is giving you their personal opinion on something. 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:48.820 You know, there is no real history. 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:50.899 You can't really say there's history. 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:52.419 There's a unified history. 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:56.299 When you assess World War II, you can't say, this is good. 00:10:56.299 --> 00:10:57.299 This is evil. 00:10:57.299 --> 00:11:00.339 No, Foucault said, no, that's just your opinion. 00:11:00.339 --> 00:11:02.979 That's just the way you feel about it. 00:11:02.979 --> 00:11:04.259 Because there is no grand plan. 00:11:04.259 --> 00:11:05.379 There is no big story. 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:07.419 And that means there is no God above. 00:11:07.419 --> 00:11:11.740 There is no moral law or moral norms that we're meant to conform to. 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:14.299 Foucault wrote a book about sex. 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:16.500 And in it, he said, there's no norms for sex. 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:20.199 No sexuality is not something you conform to. 00:11:20.199 --> 00:11:21.740 It's something that you make up. 00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:26.259 Now, do you know that you're living in Foucault's world in many ways? 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:27.259 Foucault changed everything. 00:11:27.259 --> 00:11:30.340 And he coined this very famous line that you might have heard of. 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:35.220 He said, what all this means in one phrase is, there is no meta-narrative. 00:11:35.220 --> 00:11:36.220 The meta-narrative. 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:37.539 There is no big story. 00:11:37.539 --> 00:11:39.179 There is no grand plan. 00:11:39.179 --> 00:11:42.019 It's just you and your feelings and your desires. 00:11:42.019 --> 00:11:44.980 It's just you living in your own little world and your own little kingdom. 00:11:44.980 --> 00:11:50.620 And so he said, my role is to show people that they are free. 00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:52.539 Free from all norms. 00:11:52.539 --> 00:11:53.659 Free from everything. 00:11:53.659 --> 00:11:55.019 They're just them. 00:11:55.019 --> 00:11:56.899 You can do what you want and be what you want. 00:11:56.899 --> 00:12:01.620 Now, it's very important to know about him and his ideas because it's the world that 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:02.620 we live in. 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:07.740 But let's face up to the consequences of that for just a second in Foucault's ideas. 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:10.779 Foucault was at least bold enough, and other people have been. 00:12:10.779 --> 00:12:15.340 People like Friedrich Nietzsche or Bertrand Russell, they all said it. 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:19.579 They said, look, I'm willing to admit that if I say there is no God above, there is no 00:12:19.579 --> 00:12:24.740 law within, there is no plan, that there is no meaning in this world. 00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:29.259 Now if you're there today, if you're walking through life as a secular humanist, are you 00:12:29.259 --> 00:12:32.259 willing to be as bold as Foucault? 00:12:32.259 --> 00:12:35.980 To say, you know, there's no God above, there's no law within, there's no norms. 00:12:35.980 --> 00:12:38.700 Are you willing to go where the logic takes you? 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:41.299 Which is there is no meaning in this life. 00:12:41.299 --> 00:12:42.340 There's just your feelings. 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:43.340 There's just your pleasures. 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:44.779 There's nothing beyond that. 00:12:44.779 --> 00:12:49.700 The second consequence you have to live up to in that world is that there is no such 00:12:49.700 --> 00:12:51.580 thing as history. 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:52.700 Not really. 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:56.100 You know, you can write a book, you can read a book about World War II, you can say, well, 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:57.660 this was bad and this was good. 00:12:57.660 --> 00:13:00.460 But Foucault says you can't, there's no norm to conform to. 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:03.379 You can't really say that there are winners and losers, good and bad. 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:04.379 You can't really say that. 00:13:04.379 --> 00:13:05.980 There's no such thing as history. 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:07.340 There's just my story. 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:09.460 But look, here's what happened. 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:14.740 Foucault, others have written about this really well, and many like him, didn't understand 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:15.740 the Bible. 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:20.020 Because the modern world comes and it says, you know, there is no grand plan. 00:13:20.020 --> 00:13:21.300 There is no meta-narrative. 00:13:21.299 --> 00:13:23.139 God is not in control. 00:13:23.139 --> 00:13:29.819 It's just us living through our own perspectives, our own feelings, chasing our own desires. 00:13:29.819 --> 00:13:34.219 And one of the reasons that he wanted to say that was he said, look, anytime somebody tells 00:13:34.219 --> 00:13:39.500 you there is a great plan, there is religion that stands above you. 00:13:39.500 --> 00:13:42.379 He said that is nothing but people trying to sell you something. 00:13:42.379 --> 00:13:43.899 It's a power play. 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:47.419 You know, when somebody tells you there is a big plan and you need to conform to it, 00:13:47.419 --> 00:13:50.179 they're just trying to grab power for themselves. 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:53.059 And the failure in that, well, is that true? 00:13:53.059 --> 00:13:55.179 Of course. 00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:56.779 Religion often does that. 00:13:56.779 --> 00:13:57.819 Religion often has done that. 00:13:57.819 --> 00:14:03.939 But when you read the Bible, what Paul's saying here, he says the grand plan is that you have 00:14:03.939 --> 00:14:06.379 been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. 00:14:06.379 --> 00:14:08.379 Foucault missed something. 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:09.379 Foucault missed something. 00:14:09.379 --> 00:14:10.899 Because when you read about the gospel, what does it say? 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:11.899 The mystery. 00:14:11.899 --> 00:14:14.979 What is the mystery in the middle of human history? 00:14:14.979 --> 00:14:16.379 What did God unveil for us? 00:14:16.379 --> 00:14:23.220 It's this, that the God who hung the stars came to be hung on the cross. 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:28.779 You know, Foucault says every attempt to say there is a plan is just a power grab. 00:14:28.779 --> 00:14:33.500 It's just religion is just to attempt to sell people something and get money. 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:38.059 But the gospel, maybe religion, but the gospel, the gospel is that the God who hung the stars 00:14:38.059 --> 00:14:40.860 came to hang on a cross for you. 00:14:40.860 --> 00:14:44.980 It's the ultimate reversal of all seeking of power. 00:14:44.980 --> 00:14:48.220 Jesus Christ, the God who made everything came to die. 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:50.180 He came to be murdered. 00:14:50.180 --> 00:14:51.500 It's not a power play. 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:53.620 It's him giving himself away for us. 00:14:53.620 --> 00:14:57.420 It's the heartbeat of the gospel. 00:14:57.420 --> 00:15:00.019 God is the ultimate servant, the gospel says. 00:15:00.019 --> 00:15:02.980 And it disrupts every single sense of the modern world. 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:06.620 The way it views religion and says, you know, religion is there to control. 00:15:06.620 --> 00:15:08.100 Religion is there to seek power. 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:12.620 There is no plan, but boy, the gospel does something so much better. 00:15:12.620 --> 00:15:18.500 It cuts through and underneath all of that by saying God has become the ultimate servant. 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:19.659 He's come to redeem. 00:15:19.659 --> 00:15:21.179 He's come to set you free. 00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:22.700 He's come to release you from your bondage. 00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:23.899 Now let's move on. 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:32.820 Let me just ask you, do you see this that you are part of a grand narrative, a big plan 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:39.259 that in other words, this is God's world and you are just living in it. 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:41.700 But boy, he's including you. 00:15:41.700 --> 00:15:42.740 He's drawing you in. 00:15:42.740 --> 00:15:44.180 He's redeeming you. 00:15:44.180 --> 00:15:48.900 He's letting you and your story be a part of the grand story. 00:15:48.900 --> 00:15:53.580 And so have you conformed your life to that big picture? 00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:57.500 Are you still living in your personal subjectivity? 00:15:57.500 --> 00:16:03.379 Another more fancy way to say it is get out of your subjectivity and align to God's objectivity. 00:16:03.379 --> 00:16:04.580 That there is truth. 00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:06.100 That's the big idea. 00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:09.660 There's truth that stands bigger than our feelings, bigger than our little personal 00:16:09.659 --> 00:16:14.980 kingdoms and it's the gospel that is the key that unlocks the meaning of everything. 00:16:14.980 --> 00:16:21.299 The gospel is the meaning of everything, even history. 00:16:21.299 --> 00:16:25.539 Now secondly, what is the big point of the plan? 00:16:25.539 --> 00:16:30.659 And here's verse 10, the big point of Paul's long sentence, verses three to 14. 00:16:30.659 --> 00:16:36.139 And we learn here that the point of the plan is ultimate homecoming. 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:40.139 Every a way to summarize this long sentence of Paul is just to ask you the question, are 00:16:40.139 --> 00:16:43.299 you saved? 00:16:43.299 --> 00:16:44.299 Are you saved? 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:45.299 Are you redeemed? 00:16:45.299 --> 00:16:47.419 Are you experiencing salvation? 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:52.580 And whenever you ask a question like that, every religion does it. 00:16:52.580 --> 00:16:58.080 It's assuming that you're saved from something and also towards something. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:02.500 So we talked last week about how in Christianity you are saved by Jesus from what? 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:08.940 From guilt, from shame, from the bondage of sin and guilt and death. 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:13.980 But a lot of times we stop there and what Paul's trying to do is say, no, don't stop 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:14.980 there. 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:18.140 You've got to understand you're saved towards something as well. 00:17:18.140 --> 00:17:20.740 Now salvation is not just getting out of Egypt. 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:21.740 What is salvation? 00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:24.859 Salvation is getting to the promised land. 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:28.299 And that's exactly what he's talking about in verse 10. 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:29.579 What do you save too? 00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:31.619 And he tells us here, it's in verse 10. 00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:40.059 He says, in Jesus we are saved when Jesus Christ unites heaven and earth. 00:17:40.059 --> 00:17:45.619 Now ultimate salvation, do you understand Christianity this way? 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:52.739 Ultimate salvation is Jesus Christ uniting heaven and earth, that salvation. 00:17:52.739 --> 00:17:57.459 This verse really is one of the keys to understanding the whole Bible from Genesis all the way to 00:17:57.459 --> 00:17:59.899 Revelation 21. 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:04.580 It brings it all together and Paul uses this very special Greek word that you can't really 00:18:04.580 --> 00:18:05.700 translate. 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:10.500 It's got so many words inside of it that it doesn't come out as one English word. 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:13.980 You can see it there to unite all things in him. 00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:21.060 That's coming just from one word and it's a word that has the idea of summing things 00:18:21.060 --> 00:18:28.180 up, bringing what is fractured back together again, bringing together that which has no 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:34.539 harmony into glorious harmony and doing it all under a leader, under a king. 00:18:34.539 --> 00:18:38.740 So it's got a royal idea about it that under the kingship of Jesus he's going to take 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:47.060 all these fractured pieces and bring it all together and that includes heaven and earth. 00:18:47.060 --> 00:18:49.180 What in the world does he mean by that? 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:51.100 Here's how you think about it. 00:18:51.100 --> 00:18:54.539 Do you think about salvation as going to heaven? 00:18:54.539 --> 00:18:58.420 Do you think about your salvation as just going to heaven? 00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:02.899 And there's a lot of good in that and it's true but that's not salvation. 00:19:02.899 --> 00:19:04.859 That's not ultimate salvation. 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:07.259 That's temporary. 00:19:07.259 --> 00:19:12.539 And what he says here is ultimate salvation is the moment that Jesus Christ unites heaven 00:19:12.539 --> 00:19:14.019 and earth. 00:19:14.019 --> 00:19:15.740 It's not about dying and going to heaven. 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:23.619 No, no, it's much bigger and it's about Jesus Christ actually bringing heaven to this earth. 00:19:23.619 --> 00:19:25.259 It's ultimate salvation. 00:19:25.259 --> 00:19:29.819 That's what Christianity, that's what the blood of Jesus saves you toward. 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:32.379 And it's always been that way throughout all the Bible. 00:19:32.379 --> 00:19:36.219 We read Revelation 21 as our call to worship this morning. 00:19:36.219 --> 00:19:37.219 And what does John say? 00:19:37.219 --> 00:19:43.819 He says, I looked up and I saw a holy city, the new heavens and the new earth coming down. 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:45.979 He doesn't say that he saw all these people going up. 00:19:45.979 --> 00:19:46.979 No, no. 00:19:46.979 --> 00:19:53.299 He says, I saw Jesus bringing heaven down to earth and saving us in that way. 00:19:53.299 --> 00:19:54.299 And that's the big meaning. 00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:55.299 You know, what did God do? 00:19:55.299 --> 00:19:57.539 He came down in the Garden of Eden. 00:19:57.539 --> 00:20:00.019 He came down on top of Mount Sinai. 00:20:00.019 --> 00:20:02.139 He came down into the Tabernacle. 00:20:02.139 --> 00:20:03.740 He came down into the temple. 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.180 He came down in Jesus. 00:20:06.180 --> 00:20:10.859 And condescension, God's condescension, that salvation. 00:20:10.859 --> 00:20:13.659 Not human ascension but God's condescension. 00:20:13.659 --> 00:20:15.259 That's the real meaning of salvation. 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:16.259 What is it? 00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:17.259 It's three things. 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:18.259 Very briefly. 00:20:18.259 --> 00:20:25.379 Jesus is going to come again, bring heaven to earth and when he does that, he's going 00:20:25.379 --> 00:20:28.740 to wipe away every tear. 00:20:28.740 --> 00:20:29.740 What does that mean? 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:32.980 It means that the embodied world will not be destroyed. 00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:33.980 No. 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:38.259 You see, when Jesus comes and brings heaven to earth, he's going to come down to your 00:20:38.259 --> 00:20:42.940 very human resurrected body and wipe away all your tears. 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:47.619 And what that means is that he's getting rid of everything that causes tears. 00:20:47.619 --> 00:20:53.059 So a lot of times we think of the end of history as the destruction of the cosmos in Christian 00:20:53.059 --> 00:20:54.059 circles. 00:20:54.059 --> 00:20:57.979 We think of it as all things just being destroyed. 00:20:57.979 --> 00:20:59.939 And no, it's not all things that are being destroyed. 00:20:59.939 --> 00:21:03.739 The earth is not ultimately going to be destroyed, not at all. 00:21:03.739 --> 00:21:06.539 If you believe in the resurrection, you've got to believe that you're going to be resurrected 00:21:06.539 --> 00:21:09.619 into a physical space, the world. 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:10.899 That's not what's going to be destroyed. 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:18.820 That's going to be destroyed, everything that causes tears, purification, cleansing, 00:21:18.820 --> 00:21:23.300 the wiping away of sin, the wiping away of death, the wiping away of abuse, the wiping 00:21:23.300 --> 00:21:29.620 away of everything that's fractured a family, the wiping away of all grief, of all sorrow, 00:21:29.620 --> 00:21:33.300 of all disease, the wiping away of starvation. 00:21:33.300 --> 00:21:36.019 That's what Jesus is doing when he brings heaven and earth together. 00:21:36.019 --> 00:21:37.019 That's the first thing. 00:21:37.019 --> 00:21:43.819 The first thing is when he unites all things, heaven and earth, he's going to bring together 00:21:43.819 --> 00:21:48.619 everything that's currently separated by sin. 00:21:48.619 --> 00:21:52.299 So sin is this poison. 00:21:52.299 --> 00:21:53.299 What is sin? 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:54.500 Sin is not a thing. 00:21:54.500 --> 00:21:56.379 You can't touch sin. 00:21:56.379 --> 00:21:57.379 You can't taste it. 00:21:57.379 --> 00:21:58.379 You can't see it. 00:21:58.379 --> 00:21:59.379 You can't feel it. 00:21:59.379 --> 00:22:01.019 What is sin? 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:04.859 Sin is the absence of what should be. 00:22:04.859 --> 00:22:09.819 Sin is more like a hole in a sock than it is like this podium. 00:22:09.819 --> 00:22:12.099 What's a hole in a sock? 00:22:12.099 --> 00:22:13.779 It's nothing. 00:22:13.779 --> 00:22:16.019 But it ruins the sock, doesn't it? 00:22:16.019 --> 00:22:17.019 Sin is nothing. 00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:22.019 It's this power that takes away what should be, like holes in socks, take away what socks 00:22:22.019 --> 00:22:24.139 are for. 00:22:24.139 --> 00:22:25.740 What is the union of heaven and earth? 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:31.059 It's this moment when Jesus comes again and he rips sin out of the world so that everything 00:22:31.059 --> 00:22:34.579 that should be will be. 00:22:34.579 --> 00:22:38.859 Everything that has been broken and diseased, all these holes that have been put into our 00:22:38.859 --> 00:22:41.619 lives will be filled again. 00:22:41.619 --> 00:22:46.819 In other words, that means taking fractured pieces of life and putting them back together. 00:22:46.819 --> 00:22:49.579 Let me give you a couple of examples. 00:22:49.579 --> 00:22:55.339 One is, do we experience in this earthly life we're living right now the fracture of ethnicity 00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:58.539 in people groups? 00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:00.539 Racism that abounds. 00:23:00.539 --> 00:23:05.500 But when Jesus comes again, he says, I'm going to take every tribe, tongue, language, 00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:11.099 people, and nation and make them one city, one family, perfectly, harmoniously forever. 00:23:11.099 --> 00:23:14.399 He takes what's fractured, he makes it whole again. 00:23:14.399 --> 00:23:18.339 When Jesus comes again, he takes, you know, are you a city person? 00:23:18.339 --> 00:23:20.139 Are you an urban person? 00:23:20.139 --> 00:23:23.779 Are you a highlander or a rural person living in the city right now? 00:23:23.779 --> 00:23:26.899 And he said, man, I just wish I just want to get back to the green space. 00:23:26.899 --> 00:23:29.220 You know, there's always, it's always going to be this way. 00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:33.220 The urban people think the city's better, right? 00:23:33.220 --> 00:23:35.660 The people from the highlands think the highlands is better. 00:23:35.660 --> 00:23:39.339 The rural, the suburb people, we don't know what to say about them, you know? 00:23:39.339 --> 00:23:42.220 Now, they think the suburbs are better, right? 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:47.019 But when Jesus comes, it says he's going to bring the holy city into the green space of 00:23:47.019 --> 00:23:49.059 this world and make us all one. 00:23:49.059 --> 00:23:52.019 There's no fights between urban and garden. 00:23:52.019 --> 00:23:53.339 It's a garden city. 00:23:53.339 --> 00:23:54.420 It's all together. 00:23:54.420 --> 00:23:55.420 It's all one thing. 00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:58.019 It's just whatever there should be, that's what it is. 00:23:58.019 --> 00:24:02.220 I don't know exactly, but whatever should be, that is what it will be. 00:24:02.220 --> 00:24:04.420 That's what he teaches us. 00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:05.940 No more broken family. 00:24:05.940 --> 00:24:11.660 You know, is your family ruptured by heart, sin? 00:24:11.660 --> 00:24:12.660 That's gone. 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:15.740 All, all fracture healed. 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:16.740 Come back together. 00:24:16.740 --> 00:24:18.819 That's the union of all things. 00:24:18.819 --> 00:24:20.099 No miserable toil, you know? 00:24:20.099 --> 00:24:22.779 Are you, do you feel fracture in the workplace? 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:25.019 Do you not like your job? 00:24:25.019 --> 00:24:31.980 But when Jesus comes again, all toil will just be the glory of fruitful labor. 00:24:31.980 --> 00:24:32.980 All of it. 00:24:32.980 --> 00:24:40.139 It's our, it's our habit to say, it's our habit to say, this world is not my home. 00:24:40.139 --> 00:24:41.500 True in a way. 00:24:41.500 --> 00:24:47.019 But I think the more careful thing we need to say is this world is our home and sin is 00:24:47.019 --> 00:24:50.460 the nasty intruder that's come into our homes. 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:51.900 This world is our home. 00:24:51.900 --> 00:24:55.980 And when heaven comes to earth, he's going to kick sin out the door. 00:24:55.980 --> 00:24:59.580 And this world will be our home again in the way that we long for it to be. 00:24:59.580 --> 00:25:05.500 Lastly, thirdly, the most important, when Jesus comes to unite heaven and earth, that 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:12.140 means very literally that the spiritual invisible supernatural realm will be together with the 00:25:12.140 --> 00:25:13.700 visible physical realm. 00:25:13.700 --> 00:25:16.580 Meaning, you will see the angels. 00:25:16.580 --> 00:25:18.420 You will dwell with them. 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:21.540 You will be one holy society, one kingdom. 00:25:21.539 --> 00:25:25.859 The invisible world, the curtain will be pulled back when Jesus unites heaven and earth and 00:25:25.859 --> 00:25:27.819 all things will be visible to you. 00:25:27.819 --> 00:25:31.940 You will see the big plan and you will see the invisible powers. 00:25:31.940 --> 00:25:35.220 And the most important thing in the midst of that to know is that the union of heaven 00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:41.019 and earth and Jesus is that very good and holy moment when you will get what you were 00:25:41.019 --> 00:25:42.500 ultimately made for. 00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:47.180 And that is to see the face of Jesus Christ. 00:25:47.180 --> 00:25:48.940 Can you pray the prayer of Psalm 27? 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:52.900 David says, in the midst of all my fears, there's one thing I'm certain of. 00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:55.779 I will see the face of the Lord in the land of the living. 00:25:55.779 --> 00:25:59.660 I will gaze upon God's face. 00:25:59.660 --> 00:26:03.860 That is what you were made for and that is salvation. 00:26:03.860 --> 00:26:05.940 Salvation is not just the forgiveness of your sins. 00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:11.420 Salvation is getting through that by the blood of Jesus so that one day you can see the living 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:13.539 face of Jesus Christ. 00:26:13.539 --> 00:26:15.140 That is ultimate salvation. 00:26:15.140 --> 00:26:16.580 That is true homecoming. 00:26:16.580 --> 00:26:18.180 That is what we were made for. 00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:23.500 Let me just ask you and we'll move briefly to the final point. 00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:30.700 Is seeing the face of Jesus Christ in the land of the living, the heartbeat of your life? 00:26:30.700 --> 00:26:32.980 That is what you were made for. 00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:38.820 And your heart, your soul will be restless and will be discontent until the greatest 00:26:38.820 --> 00:26:43.259 desire that you have in your life is to see the living God. 00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:45.060 That's salvation. 00:26:45.059 --> 00:26:50.500 The land of the living, all broken relationships healed. 00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:52.539 Those are the bonuses. 00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:54.700 But seeing Jesus, that's everything. 00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:58.980 That's the real goal and you will see him if you follow him. 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:03.980 Now, Foucault, oh boy, he was so wrong. 00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:09.139 What makes better sense of our lives right now than this? 00:27:09.139 --> 00:27:13.379 Is there any story that makes more sense of life than this story? 00:27:13.380 --> 00:27:16.660 Let me just apply that in one simple way. 00:27:16.660 --> 00:27:21.060 Do you walk through life right now in your present circumstances feeling the struggles, 00:27:21.060 --> 00:27:26.700 the frustrations, the burdens, the anxieties and the fears of this life? 00:27:26.700 --> 00:27:32.500 Are you struggling with decisions in your life, with work, with fractured relationship, 00:27:32.500 --> 00:27:36.660 pain all the time, stresses, antagonisms? 00:27:36.660 --> 00:27:39.340 Are you struggling with that? 00:27:39.340 --> 00:27:40.980 Of course you are. 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:41.980 Right? 00:27:41.980 --> 00:27:42.980 Why? 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:46.460 Because you're not home. 00:27:46.460 --> 00:27:51.620 If you were made to see Jesus Christ, if that's true salvation, you are now living in the 00:27:51.620 --> 00:27:57.140 not yet and so of course you're experiencing a lack of fulfillment, of course. 00:27:57.140 --> 00:28:00.259 We can't expect anything else. 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:02.420 But you can have joy. 00:28:02.420 --> 00:28:04.259 And here's how, lastly, the road home. 00:28:04.259 --> 00:28:05.980 Are you on the road home? 00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:10.700 So the way you can have joy in the midst of a frustrating life, waiting to see Jesus 00:28:10.700 --> 00:28:15.539 Christ in the land of the living, is to know that you're on the road towards that. 00:28:15.539 --> 00:28:16.539 You're on the road home. 00:28:16.539 --> 00:28:20.259 And so let me just say what Paul says at the very end. 00:28:20.259 --> 00:28:24.420 I would love to have one more sermon on just this part, but we won't. 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:26.059 We'll move on. 00:28:26.059 --> 00:28:30.100 Verses 11 to 14, he tells us, are you a follower of Jesus? 00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:32.620 He says in verse 11, here's what it means. 00:28:32.620 --> 00:28:38.580 If you're on the road towards that homecoming, you verse 11 have obtained the inheritance 00:28:38.579 --> 00:28:40.819 and inheritance already. 00:28:40.819 --> 00:28:45.619 Now this is a legal language, very legal language, where he's told us, if you were in Egypt, 00:28:45.619 --> 00:28:52.179 the Egypt of your own sin and death, and Jesus took you out of that bondage by his blood, 00:28:52.179 --> 00:28:53.819 that means you've been adopted. 00:28:53.819 --> 00:28:57.419 You're a son or a daughter of the king. 00:28:57.419 --> 00:29:01.379 And Jesus, God has signed your paperwork. 00:29:01.379 --> 00:29:02.460 It's legal language. 00:29:02.460 --> 00:29:03.460 He's stamped it. 00:29:03.460 --> 00:29:06.679 It's that he sealed it with a signet ring. 00:29:06.679 --> 00:29:08.179 And you've got that inheritance. 00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:09.180 It's the inheritance. 00:29:09.180 --> 00:29:11.340 It's the coming union of heaven and earth. 00:29:11.340 --> 00:29:12.820 It's going to be yours. 00:29:12.820 --> 00:29:16.660 It's going to be yours because you're part of Jesus' family. 00:29:16.660 --> 00:29:21.180 And if you think about an inheritance in this modern world, when you think about an inheritance, 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:26.140 when we think it, we think, boy, I would love for somebody to leave that trust fund they 00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:28.380 set aside as my inheritance. 00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:33.740 We think about big wads of cash as our inheritance or big houses. 00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:38.779 But in the ancient world, in the Greco-Roman world, that's not really what an inheritance is. 00:29:38.779 --> 00:29:41.900 What did God say to Abraham was his inheritance. 00:29:41.900 --> 00:29:45.180 I'm going to give you land. 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:47.660 And I'll be with you in that land. 00:29:47.660 --> 00:29:49.660 That's the inheritance. 00:29:49.660 --> 00:29:52.500 In the Greco-Roman first century, what's an inheritance? 00:29:52.500 --> 00:29:58.299 It's a father saying to children, I'm going to give you sheep, cattle, goats, land, and 00:29:58.299 --> 00:30:01.180 you're going to have this family to be a part of and govern. 00:30:01.180 --> 00:30:02.539 That's inheritance. 00:30:02.539 --> 00:30:07.099 And when Paul says, you've got an inheritance, it's coming, he's talking, he's as serious 00:30:07.099 --> 00:30:11.299 as the promise to Abraham, the promise to Abraham, the land. 00:30:11.299 --> 00:30:12.700 It's real. 00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:17.019 And he's saying the land will be yours, the world will be yours, the earth renewed will 00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:18.019 be yours. 00:30:18.019 --> 00:30:19.180 It's that real. 00:30:19.180 --> 00:30:21.700 And you will see Jesus because he will be with you. 00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:22.700 That's the inheritance. 00:30:22.700 --> 00:30:25.220 Now, are you on the road towards that? 00:30:25.220 --> 00:30:27.220 Here's how you know. 00:30:27.220 --> 00:30:31.899 Paul says in verse 13, have you heard the word of truth? 00:30:31.900 --> 00:30:33.500 That's the language. 00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:36.180 What does that mean? 00:30:36.180 --> 00:30:42.580 Are you here today on this Sunday morning, having heard the word of truth? 00:30:42.580 --> 00:30:49.340 And the word of truth is simply this, the truth that you're encountered by the fact 00:30:49.340 --> 00:30:51.940 that this is not your world. 00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:53.860 It's God's world. 00:30:53.860 --> 00:30:55.259 But you're made for it. 00:30:55.259 --> 00:30:59.420 The word of truth is you're not just living in your personal story. 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:02.620 And you can't just live life according to the way you feel. 00:31:02.620 --> 00:31:06.740 That God exists and there are moral norms above that stand outside of you. 00:31:06.740 --> 00:31:08.980 And God's calling you to conform to that. 00:31:08.980 --> 00:31:11.019 And you feel the weight of that because you can't. 00:31:11.019 --> 00:31:13.180 That's the word of truth. 00:31:13.180 --> 00:31:18.620 And so, secondly, he says, therefore Ephesians and Edinburgh folk, have you heard? 00:31:18.620 --> 00:31:22.779 The second thing he says is the gospel and believed it, verse 13. 00:31:22.779 --> 00:31:28.220 You got to hear the word of truth, that this story is so much bigger than your story. 00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:32.420 And yet, there's the word of the gospel and faith. 00:31:32.420 --> 00:31:36.579 And when you hear that, he's saying, well, in the light of all we've said so far as 00:31:36.579 --> 00:31:39.740 we close, what is the gospel? 00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:41.500 What's the gospel in the light of verse 10? 00:31:41.500 --> 00:31:50.140 The gospel is that you were made for a harmonious, glorious life in the presence of God. 00:31:50.140 --> 00:31:54.700 And because we broke that with holes and socks and so much more. 00:31:54.700 --> 00:32:00.019 Because of that, Jesus Christ came in the middle of human history and was torn apart. 00:32:00.019 --> 00:32:01.420 Jesus Christ was ripped in half. 00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:03.100 Jesus Christ was undone. 00:32:03.100 --> 00:32:07.380 Jesus Christ was the one that became totally fractured. 00:32:07.380 --> 00:32:12.420 Jesus Christ lost everything so that we could be renewed when he comes to put the pieces 00:32:12.420 --> 00:32:13.920 back together. 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:15.019 That's the gospel. 00:32:15.019 --> 00:32:18.779 It's a big gospel, a whole gospel, a cosmic gospel. 00:32:18.779 --> 00:32:24.660 It's so much bigger than just the forgiveness of sins, though, man, we need that. 00:32:24.660 --> 00:32:26.420 And that's the big picture of the gospel. 00:32:26.420 --> 00:32:29.259 He was undone so that everything might be put back together. 00:32:29.259 --> 00:32:32.740 Now, Paul says, are you on the road home? 00:32:32.740 --> 00:32:34.860 Have you heard the word of truth in your life? 00:32:34.860 --> 00:32:37.620 That the story is so much bigger than you. 00:32:37.620 --> 00:32:42.820 And Jesus came in the middle of history to make you a part of it. 00:32:42.820 --> 00:32:44.460 That's the word of the gospel. 00:32:44.460 --> 00:32:47.380 And so he says, so believe it. 00:32:47.380 --> 00:32:51.340 Wherever you are in the journey of faith today, whether you're a 50-year Christian or you're 00:32:51.339 --> 00:32:58.579 exploring today, perhaps having been living just in a mere world of Western secularism, 00:32:58.579 --> 00:33:01.419 wherever you might be, Paul says, believe. 00:33:01.419 --> 00:33:06.619 And believe is something a little different than what the Ephesians would have understood 00:33:06.619 --> 00:33:08.659 it to be when they first heard that word. 00:33:08.659 --> 00:33:15.339 You see, in the Greco-Roman world, the way you related to a God, you didn't believe. 00:33:15.339 --> 00:33:17.579 It wasn't just saying, oh, that God exists. 00:33:17.579 --> 00:33:19.419 That's not what he means. 00:33:19.420 --> 00:33:22.300 Belief is not just saying, yeah, you know, God exists. 00:33:22.300 --> 00:33:23.940 There are moral norms. 00:33:23.940 --> 00:33:25.420 There's more than my eyes can see. 00:33:25.420 --> 00:33:27.460 I'm spiritual. 00:33:27.460 --> 00:33:30.220 That's not belief, according to the Bible. 00:33:30.220 --> 00:33:32.140 Everybody thought that in the Greco-Roman world. 00:33:32.140 --> 00:33:33.140 That wasn't belief. 00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:36.779 They would just come and practice religion, pay their tribute, expect things from the 00:33:36.779 --> 00:33:37.779 gods. 00:33:37.779 --> 00:33:45.500 No, belief, belief is when Jesus Christ cross is personal to you. 00:33:45.500 --> 00:33:50.420 It's when you trust Him. 00:33:50.420 --> 00:33:57.700 It's when you have relationship with the living God who wants to see you face to face. 00:33:57.700 --> 00:33:58.700 That's belief. 00:33:58.700 --> 00:33:59.700 Do you believe? 00:33:59.700 --> 00:34:04.339 50-year Christian, are you believing right now? 00:34:04.339 --> 00:34:06.940 Today's the day to renew. 00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:08.539 Today's the day to come back. 00:34:08.539 --> 00:34:12.860 And he says, if you do the very final word, you are sealed. 00:34:12.860 --> 00:34:16.220 That means you're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 00:34:16.220 --> 00:34:20.420 You're going to get the inheritance because he's already come and shown you that. 00:34:20.420 --> 00:34:21.420 And how do you know? 00:34:21.420 --> 00:34:24.140 Because the Spirit is in your life right now. 00:34:24.140 --> 00:34:29.140 So if God is with you right now by the Spirit, boy, he's going to come down and be with you 00:34:29.140 --> 00:34:31.660 in the homecoming of heaven and earth. 00:34:31.660 --> 00:34:33.780 You're sealed by the Spirit. 00:34:33.780 --> 00:34:40.740 Meaning, are you aware believer, person who's trusting in Jesus today, that the Holy Spirit 00:34:40.739 --> 00:34:43.819 is with you and in your life right now? 00:34:43.819 --> 00:34:44.979 Can you see it? 00:34:44.979 --> 00:34:48.139 Are you looking for it? 00:34:48.139 --> 00:34:51.459 Sin remembers separates, but the Holy Spirit heals. 00:34:51.459 --> 00:34:52.979 That's the way to look for it. 00:34:52.979 --> 00:34:58.939 So can you think of ways in your life where there was once very serious fracture, but 00:34:58.939 --> 00:35:01.859 now you can see things coming back together? 00:35:01.859 --> 00:35:04.059 The Holy Spirit comes to heal your soul. 00:35:04.059 --> 00:35:07.859 Is there a vice and idol, something you were desperate to have? 00:35:07.860 --> 00:35:11.260 And now you want that thing less than you used to? 00:35:11.260 --> 00:35:13.059 That's the Holy Spirit working in your life. 00:35:13.059 --> 00:35:19.539 Is there a relationship in your life where you could not bring yourself to forgive, but 00:35:19.539 --> 00:35:24.579 now you're in a place where you think because you follow Jesus that you're more able to 00:35:24.579 --> 00:35:25.980 forgive? 00:35:25.980 --> 00:35:28.240 That's the Holy Spirit at work in your life. 00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:33.019 Is there somewhere in somebody in your life that you need forgiveness from where you've 00:35:33.019 --> 00:35:35.860 done harm, but you weren't willing to ask for it? 00:35:35.860 --> 00:35:40.340 And now you're moving towards a space you have done that and you've asked for it? 00:35:40.340 --> 00:35:41.620 That's the Holy Spirit. 00:35:41.620 --> 00:35:45.820 Sin fractures the Holy Spirit brings back together. 00:35:45.820 --> 00:35:49.700 If you're experiencing that because of the gospel, you've got the Holy Spirit in your 00:35:49.700 --> 00:35:50.700 life. 00:35:50.700 --> 00:35:57.059 Now, the rest of this book of Ephesians that we'll spin through June on for now is going 00:35:57.059 --> 00:36:01.660 to say one big thing to us, and so I won't say it now except to glimpse it. 00:36:01.660 --> 00:36:05.579 The rest of the book of Ephesians is just about this. 00:36:05.579 --> 00:36:07.380 Choose the church. 00:36:07.380 --> 00:36:14.099 The church are the people, the living body in this earthly life that are meant to be 00:36:14.099 --> 00:36:19.699 glimpsing what life will be like when heaven and earth are one. 00:36:19.699 --> 00:36:20.819 That's the church. 00:36:20.819 --> 00:36:28.179 Are calling to be light, salt, witness to what it will be like when heaven and earth 00:36:28.179 --> 00:36:30.380 are one. 00:36:30.380 --> 00:36:32.779 By the power of the gospel, go and be it. 00:36:32.779 --> 00:36:33.779 Let's pray. 00:36:33.780 --> 00:36:41.700 Here, we thank you for the grand narrative, the big picture that we are made for the earth. 00:36:41.700 --> 00:36:43.140 Adam was made for the earth. 00:36:43.140 --> 00:36:45.620 We and Eve, we are too. 00:36:45.620 --> 00:36:50.740 So we thank you that you are not leaving this world just to be destroyed, but you're going 00:36:50.740 --> 00:36:54.060 to renew all things. 00:36:54.060 --> 00:36:57.019 We want right now, Lord, above all else. 00:36:57.019 --> 00:37:02.260 We want to want to see Jesus. 00:37:02.260 --> 00:37:06.540 Pull away the desires we have that are getting in the way of that. 00:37:06.540 --> 00:37:13.060 Lord, by the Holy Spirit, we ask now, rip out of our hearts. 00:37:13.060 --> 00:37:19.700 Do the surgery on us we need to get rid of the things we want more than to see the face 00:37:19.700 --> 00:37:22.020 of Jesus. 00:37:22.020 --> 00:37:30.340 We want, we long, Lord, to not be bored, but to be enlightened, awakened, thriving in that 00:37:30.340 --> 00:37:32.140 desire above all else. 00:37:32.139 --> 00:37:36.900 I pray that for many, many people here today, Lord, for those that might be watching the 00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:37.900 live stream right now. 00:37:37.900 --> 00:37:43.339 We just pray all of us would be invigorated to want to see Jesus. 00:37:43.339 --> 00:37:45.339 We pray that in Christ's name. 00:37:45.340 --> 00:38:03.340 Amen.