This week, I came across a study about something we all can identify with: Television. EVERYONE has a TV in their house. It’s like standard equipment.
This particular study was on the continual trend to for BIGGER televisions. When it comes to TV’s - bigger HAS ALWAYS been better. The study gave some interesting statistics:
• In 4 years average screen went from 40” to 48”
• Close to half the tv’s being sold this year will be 60” or larger.
Researchers wanted to know: what is driving that? Especially since we don’t see the same dynamic in cellphones. Cell phones we have settled into two choices:
1) Standard: Approx. 5 inches
2) XL or Plus: 5.8 inches
But TV’s just keep marching onward to bigger.
What researchers found boiled down to 3 basic things that drives the size of television: Technology, Culture, and Social. Technology is the easy answer. We do bigger simply because we can. Culture, we are increasing our "screen time." There is an ever increasing availability of “streaming” (internet) from places like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube. Social is because we are becoming a 'staying in' society.
Studies have given hints on how this is manifesting itself in our social behavior: More people prefer drinking at home instead of going out to a bar or restaurant. Restaurants biggest growth area is that customers increasingly opt for home deliveries.
The social influence goes along these lines: If we’re all staying at home more, we might as well have the cinematic experience of a bigger tv.
I bring this is up because we’re in the third part of our series “Magnify the Lord.” This series is centered on a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the ancient church in Ephesus.
I identify with Paul because I get the sense he loved studying the culture as much - if not more - than I do. He paid attention to what was going on around him, and God used him to speak into that culture.
Obviously didn’t tweet text or email. But he did the only thing technologically available at the time. He wrote letters. What he communicated in this letter known as Ephesians is what we are working through in this series. The words are so timeless that they still speak into our culture today.
In this post, we are going to explore Ephesians 3 and the meaning of God’s grace. We
Ever heard or read the expression known as a “sidebar”? It means a short article in a newspaper or magazine, typically boxed, placed alongside a main article, and containing additional or explanatory material.
Verses 1 through 12 is a kind of sidebar. Paul starts into a prayer - but then diverts into an explanation. But rather than tell you, let me show you.
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Ephesians 3:1-12 (NLT)
When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles . . . assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me.
As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets.
And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.
Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
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Now let’s pause here at the end of verse 9 before we plunge into verses 10 thru 12.
Verse 9 introduces what we have all been waiting for. Drum roll please - God’s mysterious plan! It is telling us that verses 10-11 will give us what we’ve been longing for: The big reveal. The “Move That Bus” moment.
But the first 9 verses of this “sidebar” tells us about a progression of how God is revealing the PLAN to humanity. And make no mistake, it is a progression.
Verses 1 to 7 reveal that God gave Paul a special job as an “apostle.” It meant special task from God. Doesn’t make him better, just different. Verses 8 and 9 we see that we, as a church, receive God’s plan through Paul.
Now comes the moment we’ve been waiting for: The Church’s purpose. The plan for us. Our role in this life.
Verses 10 to 12 say this:
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God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
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Now if we just read that quickly and without much thought, it’s kind an outpouring of religious jargon. So let’s back up the bus and read that again slowly. Let’s MAGNIFY it. Let’s put it on the big tv so we can see the detail.
It tells us three important things.
The Mission: “God’s purpose in all of this…”
The Method: “was to use the church…”
The Message: “to display his wisdom in its rich variety”
We, as a church, are playing the role of a BIG tv. We are being used to magnify to others.
But who would is it directed at? Who is this pointing toward? Who is the “target audience” of the mission, method, and message?
In other words, who are we the BIG tv for? I’m guessing we’d say something like: to other people, to non-Christians, or to the world. But the answer Paul reveals is astonishing:
to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
God’s mission is to use the church (the method) to witness the message to the rulers and authorities NOT on earth.
Wait. What???
We have to unpack the two titles used here. In the other major English bible translations NIV - ESV - KJV all pretty much say it the same way...except they replace “Rulers and Authorities” with “Principalities and Powers.”
If we skip ahead to the end of this letter (ch. 6) we know it is talking about angels and demons.
Paul writes this in the final chapter of Ephesians:
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Now this should blow up our standard conception of our mission, method, and message. We always thought it was just to other people just like us, when in fact…IT. IS. SO. MUCH. MORE!!!!
We are witnesses, not only to the seen, but to the unseen.
We are not small tv. We are BIG GIGANTIC COSMIC TV
It is like we are called to testify…and raising our hand and taking the oath: Promise to tell the truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth.
But our witness is far more than our words, it is our lives. Our lives are telling a story. Our lives act out our testimony. It doesn’t just TELL the truth…it SHOWS the truth. And that testimony is being heard and seen not only by other people…but the powers and principalities. Angels and demons
It tells us that when it comes to God’s PLAN, the church is the most important instrument of that plan,
Ephesians 3 is magnifying our role as a church. We are the method to take the message to the unseen.
We suddenly see that the church…is WAY BIGGER than we thought in that plan.
It is bigger than any nation or politics;
It is bigger than any ethnicity or tribe or skin color;
It is bigger than any thought or idea.
We are the Body of Christ…and WE. ARE. BIG.
We are COSMIC big.
If we had kept reading our scripture passage, check out what Paul says how big. (Remember, he was just about to pray when he started into his sidebar.) He writes:
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
Why is he falling onto his knees? He suddenly sees how big the church is in God’s plan.
And he goes on to say this to us:
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Paul is trying to reveal how big God is, and how we - the church - magnify it by being witnesses.
John Piper writes this:
“Most of us live our lives with far too little awareness of the stupendous realities around us. Most of us go through day after day and seldom feel the impact of the magnitude of what we are caught up in by belonging to Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the ruler of the universe.
"And we don't take enough time to meditate on how our jobs, our home life, our leisure, our church involvement—how each of these fits into the cosmic significance of the church. And consequently our lives often lack the flavor of eternity and the aroma of something ultimate."
Love that closing line: our lives often lack the flavor of eternity and the aroma of something ultimate.
We were created by God - who loves us - who chooses us - who sets us apart and makes us holy - to have a life that reflects something mysterious and wonderful.
A life that has a cosmic significance - even if we are doing nothing more than SMALL GOOD.
Because that is what life with Jesus is like.
The apostle Paul recognized this and pursued it. Remember, Paul wasn’t some super-star popular preacher with his own mega-church. From his perspective, he was just doing his own little ministry. I am convinced that he was Holy Spirit inspired to write the letters that became the New Testament. But I’m convinced he didn’t have any idea it would become the New Testament.
And the same is true for us. We are not only a light to the world, we are a light to the cosmos! That is our mission.
But I want to circle back to our message and method.
Message: what Paul refers to as the “divine wisdom,” or the "mystery of Christ." But it is not really a mystery. Jesus - by the work of the cross - gives us eternal life for us individually…
But it is so much more than that. Jesus’ work of the cross unites us into a single body. A church composed of everyone. Heirs of the covenant because of his love, and beneficiaries of blessings because of his grace.
So how does God use us to make this divine wisdom known to the powers and principalities?
Here we are talking about method.
First off - angels and demons KNOW all too well what God wants. They don’t suffer from a lack of knowledge, they suffer from a lack of belief. They know the message (the “plan”), they just don’t believe it works.
From where I stand, the first and fundamental practice of Christians is putting grace into action. We are forgiven by God, so we have to forgive others - AND - we have to forgive ourselves. Jesus himself says none of this is effective until we do that.
Let me stop and dwell on this topic of grace and forgiveness.
I like to say that grace is the currency of God’s kingdom.
What does that mean?
If love is the culture of God’s kingdom (the product of heaven), then grace is the “money” (how it gets shared.) Love is what is needed and desired, and grace clears the path to make that happen.
So often people stumble right here.
It’s is a line of thought that goes like this:
• “God could NEVER forgive me for what I have done.”
OR
• “I could never forgive God for what has been done to me.”
Let’s take those 2 questions in turn.
“God could never forgive me”
I invite you to read the passion account. Jesus’ death scene.
Falsely accused - kangaroo court conviction - torturous death.
From that cross, Jesus calls out to God: “Father forgive them”
To get this flow of grace going - God says: I’ll go first.
God demonstrated his love for us by forgiving us for what we (humanity) has done to his son.
It’s not like God says: “I don’t care” OR “it doesn’t matter.” He does care and it does matter. But God has a power that we don’t. The power of redemption. He can redeem all things. He WILL redeem all things.
That allows us to engage in grace.
To forgive and be forgiven. And it is critically important because it is impossible to love without grace.
The flip side of that.
What if something horrible has happened to us, and our question is: WHY did you allow that God?
WHERE WERE YOU?
WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP IT?
That is not a pain that can be resolved by a few quick words in a blog post.
But start here: If you are placing fault and responsibility on God for what happened…then give him a chance to bring healing. Accept an invitation to start the process of forgiveness. Give God a chance to “recover” and redeem this wound
This will look strange to your eyes and sound weird to your ears - but so often there is a great gift inside of great suffering. Not trying to minimize or downplay what happened in your life. Nor am I implying that the healing will come suddenly, or overnight, or in week, or in a year. But it will start…and the place it starts is with grace.
Give God a chance.
Bottom line - we gotta do grace
When we MAGNIFY grace…
we are witnessing to the world AND the cosmos.
When we MAGNIFY grace…
Our witness is that the sacrifice of the cross was not in vain:
When we MAGNIFY grace…
Our witness is that the Jesus reconciles us to God, and to each other.
When we MAGNIFY grace…
Our witness is that the wall of hostility is torn down, and we share unity as the Body of Christ.
That is the call - the witness - the message that the body of Jesus, known as the church, is supposed to deliver. We show the divine wisdom of God to everyone by being the church Christ died to create.
This is a message that should stretch us. It is challenging, but it is also invigorating. But as always, we see that is more than just about us. It includes our task to witness to powers and principalities that God has been wise in sending his Son.
Because if we don’t - the message becomes
God's purpose is failing;
His divine wisdom is foolishness.
So let us do GRACE, it shines a light into darkness.
Not just the world’s darkness…
But the darkness of the cosmos.
Keep the Faith ~ Pastor Art
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