Past, Present and Future (2)

Ephesians 1:3-14

Beautiful Story

Two things shaped my week. One, recovering from camp. Last week many of us spent the week as counselors up at Camp Paul Hummel with Middle Schoolers. It was a great theme, talking about “I Am”: who we are right now, who we are in Christ, who we are created to be, and how we walk into everything He has created us to be. Our “I Ams.”

It was a great week, and great to see kids taking it in, thinking about it, applying it. But often I thought through the week: “Who are you? You’re 10, 11, 12; do you know who you are yet? So much of who you are is ahead of you. So many of the shaping experiences of life. So many decisions. Most of life is ahead of you.”

That brings me to the other shaping experience of this week. Wednesday we had a beautiful ceremony, a funeral, remembering and celebrating the life of Betty Moore: Linda and Wayne’s Mom. 93 years old! We heard bits of her story in snapshots. Born just after World War I, at Pearl Harbor in World War II, 4 kids, tons of grandkids, seeing her great-grandkids… that is an Epic life.

We misuse that word: epic. But this is the kind of thing it means. Exciting events and adventures. Extending beyond the usual, especially in size or scope. It doesn’t mean everything was easy or perfect… but Betty’s life was an Epic.

And we look back on the sweep of that life and think: her life is behind her.

But Wayne sang a song. “In the sweet by and by, we will meet on that beautiful shore.”

And I thought of the middle schoolers. And I thought of Betty. And most of life is still ahead. Most of their life is still ahead. Most of Betty’s life is still ahead… on that beautiful shore.

We lose sight of that. We lose sight of the epic scope of life… and we lose it in the minutia. We lose it in the details. We lose it in the immediate moments.

How can we keep that sense of scope, that sense of vision?

How do we live in the Epic instead of just the immediate?

Let’s read again the words of Paul because… he lives in the Epic.

A Psalm of Praise – the World’s Longest Sentence

Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

I know I said last week that this was a long sentence. I read this past week: this might be the longest sentence of continuous discourse in existence. Maybe they meant “in the Bible…” but maybe they meant longest period.

There is a density to what is here, layer upon layer, and so we are going to peel back the layers today, seeking the epic perspective that Paul writes with.

Summary

Last week we read this and pointed out that it isn’t about You, it is all about God. Blessed be God, it is a psalm of blessing, of praise, of thankfulness.

The whole Trinity is here: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You and I are the object being acted upon, a part of the gift that God the Father is giving to God the Son, summing up everything by the power of God the Holy Spirit.

Past, Present and Future

In addition to spanning the whole Trinity, this one sentence spans all of space and time.

It tells us a bit of what happened before the cosmos, before the Creation of the world, probably before time itself.

It speaks of the present reality of believers in Christ.

It tells us of the future, the goal of all things, the perfecting of all things.

Past

This sentence talks a whole lot about things that have already happened.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

He chose us before the foundation of the world

In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons in Jesus Christ.

He freely bestowed on us the glory of His grace.

He lavished (over abundance) the riches of His grace.

After listening, you… having also believed… were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit

So God has already been: blessing, choosing, predestining, bestowing, lavishing grace, and sealing us

And we, he is writing to the faithful in Christ, we have already: heard and believed and been sealed in the Spirit.

Present

But God is not only operating in the Past, He is active now.

We are to Bless God now...

In him we have redemption, forgiveness of sins

His is making known to us the mystery, the mystery of God.

We have obtained an inheritance. We obtained it, but we now, presently, have the firstfruits of that inheritance. The Holy Spirit is now a pledge of that inheritance, an ongoing present pledge.

And, verse 11, He presently is working all things according to His plan

God is now: God is blessed and is blessing, presently working, presently pledging in the Spirit.

And we are: to bless God, we have redemption, seeing the unveiling of His mystery, and enjoying first-fruits of our inheritance

Future

Finally, the Future is coming, and it is all wrapped up in the Purpose of God.

We will be holy and blameless before Him.

He purposed… to the fullness of times… the summing up of all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

We will be to the praise of His glory

We will be “redeemed as God’s own possession… to the praise of His glory.”

In summary: He is Summing up all things in Christ, all about His glory.

And our future looks like this: Holy and blameless, to the praise of His glory, redeemed as God’s own possession, come into full inheritance.

Epic Nutshell

We see the whole Epic scope in verses 11-12: Past, Present and Future all together.

Vs. 11-12

He predestined (past) according to His purpose who (presently) works all things to His will, to the end that we in Christ would be (future) to the praise of His glory.

Vs. 13-14

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, (past)

14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance (present, ongoing pledge), with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (future).

This is a divine perspective, the Epic perspective, on surging purpose that transforms all of time and space to His purpose. Blessed be God.

So we need to let this sink in, let it soak in, let it blow our minds, let it shift our perspective.

His past creates our present to bring about His glory. Blessed be God.

His past choosing and predestining of us, has already sealed us in Christ, lavishing His grace upon us, and He is even now working all things to bring about His purpose: all things as One in Christ Jesus to the Glory of God.

Our past belief and ongoing faithfulness in Christ somehow, by God’s action and not ours, result in our being united in Christ, destined then for a glorious inheritance.

God wrapping up the universe in Christ was always the plan.

He chose us back when

for His glory then

and He’s now working all things

We heard and believed,

Holy Spirit received,

to inherit as His glorious beings.

Not Resolving the Tension – Entering the Epic

Now there is a remaining tension in the text, and I have dodged it for two weeks now. This passage uses the word “predestination” twice, and it says God “chose us before the foundation of the world.” There is a tension there between that and saying that “you listened and believed… and so were sealed with the Holy Spirit.”

I am not going to help you resolve that tension this week. Next week may or may not help. But we damage this whole text by only mining it for minute details on the timing and inner workings of free will vs. God’s sovereignty.

It isn’t about you, it’s about God.

And the part that is about you should be pulling your focus up and out of the immediate into the epic.

Your Life in Perspective

This Psalm of praise addresses all of eternity. God has chosen and saved us in Christ, he is even now working all things towards His purpose, and that purpose is Unity of all things in Christ. Our past belief and ongoing faithfulness unites us in Christ now, sealed now with the Spirit towards our future glorious inheritance in Christ.

Thus, in every circumstance, from a jail cell in Rome writing to a church about to undergo a decade of persecution, we can say “Blessed be God.”

Seeing all that is the Past and how it has all been worked according to the Purpose of God. How it was chosen, how people were chosen, were destined, into the Purpose of God. And seeing the Purpose to which it is headed, heaven and earth united in Christ, all things, including you and I.

And that epic perspective, the weight of all the cosmos in the Past and all the beauty of the future press in on our current moment. That puts things in perspective.

I felt a little rough this week, coming off camp my throat seized up, my sleep was off, and that throws me all off!

But reflecting all week on these theological truths, Past, Present and Future: God’s EPIC purpose that He is actively, presently working out right now. Working it out in my sore throat, working it out in my fatigue, all of it headed towards glory.

You have stuff going on. And it is real, it is immediate, it may be urgent, it may be important! It cannot be trivialized or explained away… but it can be seen in a new perspective. In epic perspective.

God’s Temporal Wave of Purpose

This vision has been working in me the last few days, maybe it will help you. A little visualization.

Why do we call heaven: new life with God, resurrected life, new heaven and new earth… we call it a beautiful shore.

For starters… I love the ocean, I love the beach, so this speaks to me. But what I love most in the ocean is the waves. I’m not a surfer, I’ve been a few times, and I desperately want to do more. But I am a mean boogie boarder and body surfer.

The feeling of being picked up by a wave. You have to go as it is just cresting, building up, about to turn over. You are in front of it… and then you are on top of it. Powering through the water, rushing and flying, maybe skipping on the water. It is a bit chaotic, especially as the wave is crashing, but ultimately it is the huge powerful rush towards the beautiful shore… and you are on top of it.

And you crave the rush of it… so you run out and do it again and again.

Take all that we read, the purpose of God, the choosing of God, the plan of God as a wave. It started way out in the unknowable ocean, a timeless idea in the heart of God. And it surged forward. It was given life, and the plan, the purpose, the wave, swept up life with it. It gathered up Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It gathered up Israel. It rose and swelled and in the fullness of the time, in the perfect moment, perhaps with the shore in sight, the wave crests in Christ Jesus.

And then the wave starts sweeping up those in the water. Any who would turn in the direction of the wave, swept up in the purpose of God’s plan. And Christ pulls them to the top of His wave, sets them atop this wave of purpose…

He pulls you, as you turn in His direction, on top of His wave of purpose for all Creation.

and amidst all the chaos of flying forward through the water. The skipping of the water, the foam, the crashing, the noise… He says “look up.” And you see that the wave is approaching the beautiful shore. You feel the rush of speed, the spray on your face.

And you know that the chaos doesn’t matter.

You know that the details don’t count. The momentary struggle doesn’t matter, the persecution doesn’t matter, the drama doesn’t matter, the prison cell is nothing.

You are rushing, swept up by God’s purpose in Christ, you are surfing towards that beautiful shore.

We

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

And we surf together. Paul says we, and when Paul says “you” he says “y’all.” He speaks to us together. We bless God together, we take hold of God’s mystery together, God’s epic perspective and God’s temporal wave of purpose.

Let’s meet on that beautiful shore. And let’s enjoy the ride together on the way, watching Him working all things into His purpose, sweeping it all up in His wave.