The Eternal Purpose, Eph, 3:11-13

This Ephesians 3 passage, Paul has been continuing to talk about some pretty big sweeping things, hasn't he? God's continuing revelation. God's revelation up through the time of the Apostles, and how in times past, God had revealed things. Now, through the Apostles and the Prophets, He had revealed truths with regard to the Church, previously unknown, previously undisclosed. And last week, we saw some interesting things as we looked at this passage. Paul had described how it was given to him to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches, riches of such a nature that human beings have no way to measure them, unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring this grand strategy that the Lord had put into place to the church, and here's the interesting part we brought up, and that is that the church would be the instrument of revelation to the heavenly angelic beings.

That we would be the very instrument that God would use to reveal His character, His grace, His glory to those who were given a place of authority. rulership in the heavenly realms this was the sequence that we've been seeing throughout these first verses of Ephesians chapter 3 God revealing to the Apostles and the prophets who then revealed things to the church the angelic beings watching us to learn about God's character that is phenomenal they're watching us to learn about God's character it's not that We are the focus.

It's that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That's the focus. Remember, because what they're learning about is not us. They're learning about God's character through us. That's what's fascinating. So, what we see here is, Paul says, this was in accordance with. This, what's this?

This is all of God's revelation strategy. all the things we've been seeing here, God's revelation strategy about who He is and what He is doing, all of this was in accordance with, or according to, the word katah is consistent with. Now at a human level, the truth is we don't understand everything about why God does and allows different things, do we? We really don't. But the one thing that is clear from looking at this, is nothing is going to happen that is going to thwart God's eternal purpose. It's consistent with.

And, as Mike mentioned here this morning, a key aspect of God's eternal purpose is your being conformed to the image of his Son. Yeah. Imagine that. This is a key aspect of God's eternal purpose, is your being conformed to the image of his Son. So, just what is God's eternal purpose? All right, glad you asked. Good question. Okay. This phrase here tells us that God's purposes are not short-sighted.

God didn't just kind of create things and say, good heavens, what am I going to do? Look at all those people are doing. I better think of something. God didn't just suddenly glom onto some idea out of a reaction, discovering what these people on Earth were doing. He didn't just cook something up at the last minute.

God is not working myopically with respect to time. He instead has an eternal sweep of view of time. God isn't reacting to random events, and the things that are happening on planet Earth are not just a series of meaningless, mindless, impersonal accidents.

Big things might hit us, have hit us, whether you're looking at a physical event or whether that's a little more symbolic. There are also small things that happen in our lives, aren't there? Things that happen here, things that happen elsewhere. There are relationships that are intimate and that matter, that really count. There are things that happen that maybe are not exactly what we had hoped would happen. Maybe you are shortly to have to head back to college.

But regardless, as we gather here this morning, there is nothing that is escaping God's purpose. Nothing is going to happen in your life as a believer that God looks at and says, oh my heavens, what am I going to do now? Or, land sakes, I had no idea that was going to happen. That's not the way God works. Everything that God has done to bring things to this point are consistent with His eternal purpose in your life.

Oh, here we go. I forgot the question. Sorry about that. Okay. Now, here is where we spell it out. God's eternal purpose to declare His glory, to reveal His glory, to share His glory, and to be glorified. Those four things. Let's take a closer look. Just what is this thing called glory? Glory, to define it in words, somehow words are a little inadequate, but is the radiant eternal essence of who God is.

As we were studying through the book of Revelation a few years back, one of the things we discovered is that there will be no night in the New Jerusalem. There will be no need for lights. because it will be the very person of the Lord himself who will light up everything. Very different kind of creation, isn't it? Even thinking of things like floors and walls, which usually we consider as blocking light, apparently that's not an issue. God's glory is so massively overwhelming and beyond anything that we see directly here on planet Earth that we have no way to begin to compare it absolutely. What we see is things that derive from God's glory. He is the ultimate source of all glory. To declare His glory, this is a truth that comes out in Psalm 19. The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. A couple other references are given there in the Psalms and Isaiah.

We could point out more as well, but this is good for starters. There's also to reveal His glory. The Lord is not just declaring it, but revealing it, laying it out for people to see. Paul has explained here in this passage that we've been looking at, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets. The Lord is a revealing God. We see that in the Old Testament, we see it in the New Testament. The Lord is revealing His glory, the character of who He is.

This is a chart we've looked at before. I think it's helpful, and you've got a copy of it also in your handout. By the way, if you're joining us for the first time, this is the page number on your handout over in the lower corner. And this chart lays out a couple of things.

One is we've got things that are general revelation. That's the little word that's off to the left side there. Nature, providence, and conscience. These are revealings of God. Scripture testifies to that, as we see in the Scripture passages that are referenced on the right-hand side of the chart.

What they do is they give us some information about God, but the information is not specific, and it's not the full revelation of what God intends to convey. That's why we have the next category, and that is special revelation, which comes in two forms. One is Scripture, that we study here each week, and then specifically and personally in Jesus Christ. Those are the two special revelations that God has given.

So we've got those ways that God reveals himself, reveals his glory. God has revealed the truth progressively over time, and Paul has made reference to that earlier. He has revealed things about the Church specifically in the Apostles and Prophets, and not before. And we saw last week, God is determined to reveal truth to the angels through the church.

We are the revelatory means, the revelatory channel for the angels with regards to God's character. Isn't that amazing? Now, that is God's sequence, as we saw last week, for revealing His glory. We also see that it is God's eternal purpose to share His glory.

2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. What is happening? You are, as a believer, beholding the Lord through His Word. In the process, in the process, the Lord is transforming you. Remember, it's being transformed. We don't work at it. We don't say, OK, I'm going to transform now.

It is the Lord doing it as we behold him through his word. But God is sharing his glory with us by his doing, not because we earn it, not because we think we're worth it or we happen to be of the right genealogical background. Further on in Romans, we also see a similar kind of message. so that we may also be glorified with Him, is the message that comes out there. It is the Lord's intent to share His glory with us.

Isn't that amazing? That is amazing. To think that the Lord would save us is phenomenal. The Lord says, wait, but you haven't seen anything yet. It is part of my eternal purpose, the Lord says, to share my glory with you. be transformed from glory to glory, that you be glorified with Him. It's one of those with Him passages that we see in the Testament. And finally, to be glorified.

You know, it's interesting. When human beings seek glory, we are often disgusted. Are we not? When human beings seek glory, we all kind of feel almost ill, if not uncomfortable with it. And there's usually some sort of a disgust when you see a human being pursuing that. It's because human beings are not worthy of that.

But God, who is the source of all glory, is to be glorified, and that is part of His design. And you know what? It's good for us. It's healthy. And it's a good thing. Unlike the human phenomenon, where humans seek to be glorified, it's not disgusting. It's eternally wonderful.

He has a glory and a grace so marvelous, eternity will be insufficient. reveal it all. Peter, the women who's been meeting on Tuesday evenings have had the privilege of studying through 1st Peter, completed that some time back here. 1st Peter 4 10 and 11, Peter ends up 11 with, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

This is the way the Lord is seeking to work, that he be glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ, through you. The idea that he may be glorified, we've got a listing here. You also have it in your handout on page 2. John, the Gospel of John, has multiple references to the Lord being glorified.

As we go through the New Testament, we find it isn't an exclusive teaching of just one apostle or the other. We find that John, in his gospel and in Revelation, talks of it repeatedly. We find that Luke, as he records the events in the book of Acts, makes reference to it. Paul writes about it, the author of Hebrews, and Peter as well.

The apostles well understood the importance and the priority of glorifying the Lord. When we went through the book of Revelation, we saw repeatedly that the elders would bow down and glorify the Lord. In Revelation 4 passage, the living creatures along with the elders would be before the throne and they would say, worthy are you, O Lord and our God, to receive glory. We saw that there as we move through in the next chapter of Revelation 5. It was a similar reference. Here are the elders and they're with the others and saying, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive glory, among other things there.

In Revelation 11, they praise the Lord for judgment and reward and for reigning. And finally in Revelation 19, several different passages fall out there of glorifying the Lord. Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. And finally there, let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him.

Repeated references throughout the book. And those who are going through major Bible themes, have just begun major Bible themes, will also see later on as you complete the major Bible theme study, a focus on other passages in Revelation that put the focus upon declaring, revealing, sharing His glory and glorifying Him. Let's see. Let's try something here.

This is a song out of Isaiah 61.3 and we'll give it a try here. He gave me beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for morning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. Why don't you stand and sing it with me, okay? Let's give it a try.

He gave me beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for morning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that we might be trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified have a seat all right See, it's a wonderful thing for us to rejoice in the Lord making changes in our lives. And sometimes we may even have been through such things in life that we see that as being, you know, I've got to be put back together again before I'm going to be functional. But ultimately, if the Lord brings about healing in our lives, if the Lord brings about great changes, if we say, ah, the Lord made a breakthrough here, Those are wonderful things. And what do they do? They glorify Him. They give Him the glory. All right. Then it says the eternal purpose which He carried out. And notice that the focal point there is God did it through Jesus Christ.

God doesn't have any plan B. God doesn't say, well, I'm going to try to pull it off using Jesus Christ, but just in case that doesn't work, I got this other thing in mind. No. It was his eternal purpose. That's why John could write in Revelation, he was slain before the foundation of the world. God had plan A and no plan B. This is it.

He's going to put all the eggs in one basket, so to speak. In Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that's a set of words we see in various combinations and orders throughout the New Testament. Christ is the Messiah, the Anointed One. He is the One of the Anointed Prophets, Priests, and Kings. So He is the Messiah, the Anointed One. He is Jesus, which means He is the Savior. That, by the way, is also a claim to deity.

I quote Isaiah 43.11 and Hosea 13.4. Why? Because there, Jehovah says, I alone am your Savior.

We see the declaration in Titus 2.13 as Paul is writing to Titus. is our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

There's also here our Lord. It isn't just He is a Lord or the Lord. He's certainly that, but He's our Lord. It's personal. He's the Lord of us. We have a personal relationship with Him, and that is why He is our Lord. There is personal relationship, and that He is our Lord focuses on His authority. But there is a connection there, and a relationship that we have, because He's our Lord.

Then in verse 12, He starts off with, "...in whom..." We've seen that phrase before. It is a way of putting with a pronoun the statement, we're in Christ. Paul's been telling us all along in Ephesians, and saying it some in Colossians as well, that we're in Christ, in Him, in the Beloved, in Christ Jesus.

It is in Christ, he starts off with Ephesians 1.3, that we've been blessed in the heavenly places. That's where we've been placed. God is the one who put us there.

You see, we aren't in Christ because we work really hard at it. We don't have little awards up here and we say, Bern's been working at it for 12 years now and he's finally in Christ because he got all his little brownie buttons lined up. See? That isn't the way it works, is it? God put us there.

1 Corinthians 1.30 is the first phrase there. By His doing, you're in Christ. You are in Christ entirely because of what He did, not because of what you did. I don't get the brownie points or the buttons or whatever. It's God's doing and His accomplishment. in whom we have."

Now, this sounds like a simple set of words, but it's a precious and choice set of words. It's the first person plural here is the form of the word echo. It's echo-men. And it isn't this, right? No, that's not what he meant by echo-men. So, what we have here is we have this word echo-men.

This word is used by Paul and the author of Hebrews about five times. And every time it's used, it either describes our position in Christ or the character of our ministry here on planet Earth. So when Paul uses this word, it may seem like a nice simple word, ecumen, but it's a pattern of usage between Paul and the author of Hebrews, where whenever he uses that word, he's talking about something that's true of the church, and he uses it here. And we'll see a little bit more about this in a minute. So here's more on ecumen, just so we make sure we have a full understanding. Now, here's Paul and the author of Hebrews. They use this word ecumen. It's present, active, indicative verb. And so it has this idea. We who are in Christ are now continuing to have as a possession of our position. Now, don't let your tongue get twisted on that one. as a possession of our position, we are having this.

He uses that here from Romans through 1st and 2nd Corinthians. The folks in the 2nd Corinthians class I think have already been through the instances there. We've seen it here in Ephesians three times and in Colossians, and then the folks that went through Hebrews got to study that as well. It's obviously these Ephesians and Colossians passages that have been relevant to our study here, and we're seeing it for the last time.

But that's the importance of that word. When he uses that, the believers are thinking, ah, this is true of us. This is true of us as believers. And unless it has to do with something that's in the nature of our practice here on planet Earth, it's typically describing our position, our position in Christ. What do we have? a part of our position. Now he defines it.

Boldness and confident access. Now as it turns out, there's a few words here that come out as pivotal. One of them here is this word for boldness. Now very interesting, every other place Paul uses this word has to do with his being bold in speaking the gospel. This is different in that he uses it uniquely here in this verse to describe boldness before the Lord. Very interesting. Boldness before the Lord. The other word that jumps out at us here that we want to take a look at is this word confidence or confident. It's a perfect tense word and what is that saying? It's positional. It's locked down certain.

See, we don't come before the Lord and say, boy, you know, I hope the Lord will accept me. Oh, I'm not sure. It'd be nice. Oh, I wonder what I've got to do. No. He says we have, we are right now continuing to have, as a possession, characteristic of our position, we are having done deal, perfect tense, this confidence. That is a part of your position in Christ. It's not asking what you feel. It is asking what is true. And it's locked down, nailed down, done deal, tight.

Confidence. Now, there's this word here, and I want to take a look at that too. But, the other thing that's characteristic of this phrase in the Greek, and it doesn't show up in most of our English translations, there's a definite article. THE boldness and access with confidence. That one, it's specific. It is something he wants to put an identification on. He wants to get a focus on.

It's THE specific boldness. this specific access with confidence. There's also a Hebrew character of expression, those in the Bible backgrounds class, we went through this a few weeks ago, and there's an idea in the Hebrew where you tend to restate things, and so what Paul has done is take this idea of boldness and then restate it, access with confidence, to give a full sense of how we approach the Lord. And then here's the word that we've seen before.

We saw it in Ephesians 2.18, prosagogae. We saw that word, and we'll take a look at it in a little more detail here shortly.

When we looked at it in Ephesians 2.18, this is a word here that crops up very similar between the two passages.

In Ephesians 2.18 and 3.12, there is, in both places, we have echelmon. And both places have a definite article. We both have the access. There is also in that, we both have the access, the specific access. It's definite. And finally, this word access is translated from that Greek word prosagoga in both places. Now we need to take a look at it. That one right there.

Going back to our time when we were studying Ephesians 2.18, you remember that well, of course, right? OK. You probably got the date memorized, I'm sure. All right. Let's go over it anyway, just in case. We said back then that there was a Greek historian who wrote about the practices of the Persian kings and their palaces in his time.

And one could not simply walk into the throne room of the king. You just didn't do that. In fact, the ladies on Tuesday night are studying the book of Esther. And that's one of the themes there is, boy, when I go to walk into the king's throne room, what's going to happen? It was a risky venture to just step into it.

And the typical thing instead would be to have an authorized person introduce you. That authorized person would make the introduction. And, excuse me, The Greek historian had a name for the person who would make those introductions, and that person was assigned. So you didn't just happen to go to somebody who knew the king, you went to this person who was especially assigned to make the introduction to the king.

And what we find here as we look at this, Paul uses a word that's derived from that. Prosagogaios was the name of the person who did the introduction. And so the verb that comes out of that, or the noun that comes out of that, is prosagogē. The person introduces you, and that introduction is the word Paul uses. The special person introducing you into the throne room.

Now, so this is what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2.18. Through him we both have our access. This is the prosagogē. This is the required authorized introduction to supreme royalty. So, a key word here in 2.18 and 3.12, we see that this word is not simply having an impersonal access. It doesn't mean the door is open. It doesn't mean God has an open door policy.

It means that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the one who introduces us and gives us authorized introduction. We have, because of who we know, and because of who we've been communicating with, we have that introduction to the Father. He is the prosagogaos, the one with the authorized access to whom we approach. This word comes up again here, Paul in Romans 5, 1 and 2, says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have, there's that word echelmon, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have, there's Ecclement again, obtained an introduction, prosogoge, by faith into this grace in which we stand.

There are other comparisons between this passage and the other one we don't have time to go into, but lots of comparisons that fit between the Ephesians 3.12 and Romans 5.1 and 2.

In Ephesians 2.18, when we studied it last time, there was a focus there. That focus was the point Paul was making. It is both Gentiles and Jews who equally have that introductory access through Jesus Christ on the same level, on par.

In 3.12, he uses the same word for access but has a different point, and that different point is the boldness and confidence that we have. So even though he uses the same word, different emphasis in each passage. In this case, it's the boldness and confidence that we have as we approach the Lord. Then he says, through faith, just like he did in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, this privileged access we have is not because, boy, I'm a pretty good guy, not because I've accomplished something or gone through the list of things that I have to check off the list. But by faith in Him, it's that simple. Do you have faith in Him to have you put your trust in Jesus Christ?

You've got the access. It's positional. And the confidence is not, gee, I wonder if I feel confident. It's locked down, nailed down, perfect tense, done deal confidence. Positionally, it's there. There is no basis in your position on which to be concerned about whether should I be confident. There isn't anything we can do to enhance it. It's God's doing. It's a done deal.

And then, Paul introduces verse 13 with, therefore, and what do you know, Paul's being logical again. Here goes Paul. Now, one of the things we find as we look at these verses here, 11 through 13, the first part, verses 11 and 12, is really addressing our position, isn't it? It's addressing what we have. consistent with God's eternal purpose. We have a position in Christ which includes an access that we can have with boldness and confidence because of where we are positionally. And that's why you can put confidence in the perfect tense. So then as we head into verse 13, Paul is appealing to them in their present condition.

He says, therefore, based on the position I just told you about, because of these things, he does a logical, but not an imperative, but a logical request. He could have given an imperative, couldn't he? He could have said, you've got to do this, folks. Instead, what does he do?

He lays it out as an apostolic request, but it's still, here's your position, And here's your condition. I appeal to you regarding your condition based on the position that you have and is fixed in the heavenlies. Now, he says, I ask you. And so King James has desire. And so you might be thinking, well, wait a minute. Is it subjective, I desire, or is it objective, I ask you? Well, based on the pattern of Paul's usage, the I ask you sense seems to be the request as an apostle with, the underlying idea that it is also his desire. So it is expressing, I ask you, with the assumption of desire. So, both.

Now, he talks about losing heart. This word carries the idea of being discouraged, as it's used in the New Testament. And in secular Greek, it was used of soldiers who would go out to battle and then get startled or just give up, you know, drop their post. Kind of the idea of being unencouraged, losing heart. And so I kind of have this sentence here where it's sort of like your heart sank. That's the sentence. It says, I don't want your heart to sink because of the trials that I'm going through.

OK, that's what he's laid out here. Or think of these Roman soldiers. Here they are, you know, in Paul's day. They're up there. They're getting ready to take on the barbarians. and maybe it's the first time they've been there, maybe they've never seen so many barbarians in their whole lives, and they look terrible. And so they start losing heart. The idea is that they give up. He does not want them to become discouraged.

Why? Because here is the apostle that told them about the gospel and now he's in prison. He's being chained to a praetorian guard 24-7. He's been that way for a few years now. And they're thinking, hey, this guy's the guy that brings us the good news.

How good is it for us? How well off are we? And he's saying, that shouldn't bother you at all. Not a problem in the least. Kind of amazing, huh? Paul certainly doesn't hold back the truth when he says, hey, as an apostle, I've gone through all sorts of things.

He went through all sorts of tribulations. You know where James 1, verse 2, he says, Rejoice when you encounter various trials. Boy, Paul had all kinds of reasons to rejoice, right? Plenty of trials, no shortage of them. As we think of Paul in Antioch, and in Ephesus, and in Philippi, and the different places that he went, Corinth, every place he went, he encountered some kind of trouble and opposition. different degrees, different kinds. Those who are reading through Corinthians get to read more of the details. But one of the things, no matter where he went, we find that he ran into all kinds of trouble.

He says, I was shipwrecked and stolen a few times. Lost count, right? I was out in the water, adrift. Night and day. By the way, he does it in that sequence too. So it's like you get out there, you're in the water, and you have to wait a few hours to figure out if there's even land anywhere. Okay?

Since I went through that, since I'm right now chained to a Praetorian guard, have been there for the last few years, now as I'm writing to you. I was in Caesarea Philippi there for a couple of years. That's just waiting. And now while I'm writing to you, I'm still chained to a Praetorian guard, but we'll go ahead and write to you anyway. But what's all that about? All those tribulations?

He says they're on your behalf, they're for your glory. Yeah, they're for your glory, for your benefit. Now, is he saying that you ought to be really glad I'm having a bad time? Is that what his point is here? Should we throw a party because whoopee, Paul is really having it rough. Is that his idea? Maybe not.

Paul is saying that in the course of ministry to him, which of course he's gone through all sorts of trials and difficulties, these that he's writing to have benefited spiritually. As a matter of fact, why is he getting time to sit down and write this letter? Nothing else to do, he's in prison, right? So he's writing to them. So what is Paul's tribulation? What is he telling them?

It's just a part of his ministry. Oh yeah, that's just a part of ministry. Keep that in mind if you ever want to be a pastor or something, right? Part of ministry is going to be some difficulties. Part of ministry is going to be these things, and he says, that just comes with it. That just comes with it.

As we look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, it revisits, in great part, what Paul has been telling them about the eternal purpose here. Part of what he's trying to tell them is keep this whole thing in perspective. He says, yeah, I've been chained up to a Praetorian guard. Yeah, I've been through shipwrecked and getting stoned a few times and some other things. But let's look at the big picture here. What's God's purpose in all this?

2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Here we find God's glory declared and revealed. This is the Word of God, the mirror, that we're looking at here this morning. We find in this passage the glory shared.

How? As we behold the glory of the Lord, the Lord says, hey, I'm going to do something with that. I'm going to use your beholding me through the Word. to transform you, to grow you from glory to glory. Transform from glory to glory. Why? It's not our glory, it's His glory. It's glory shared. And finally, in the end, what's the Lord going to do with that? He is to be glorified. He is to be glorified.

God's eternal purpose. It's what God has in mind. As we think of some of the events in the world of recent weeks, certainly the tsunami Tragedy from an earthly standpoint is tragic. But you know, there's nothing about that that's going to thwart God's eternal purpose. There is nothing about, as massive and singular a tragedy as this is, there's nothing about it that is going to stop what's going on here. And eternity to come?

He'll wipe away every tear. But we will spend forever discovering and learning the glory and marvelous grace that he is sharing with us. Let's pray. Lord, what a tremendous, marvelous truth here. Lord, as we go through the big and the small things, the events of recent weeks, the events of days to come, as we go through each of those things, you are not frustrated, your purpose is not thwarted. And indeed, Lord, you will use those things that to earth looks like a tragedy or a nuisance, and you will use those to conform us. That your glory is declared and revealed and shared, and that you be glorified. We praise you for it all. In Jesus' name, Amen.