God's Mysterious Will pt. 2

Introduction

Illustration:

Historical Context: Part of God’s mysterious will is that He had Jesus redeem, to satisfy God’s wrath. Jesus because a substitute and took on our sins.

Contextually:

The point is to the praise of God! We should be praising God for His provision of a redemptions.

God was the offended part, and God provided according to the riches of His grace

Proposition: Praise God because He desired to gather all things under Christ.

God gave us wisdom to understand His eschatological dispensation of Christ’s lordship.

I. God graciously gives us Wisdom and Insight v. 8

Eph. 1:8 Paul wrote on the manner of how God provided the grace. The verse that we have before has punctuation marks but verses 3-14 is one long sentence that speaks of the provision of God’s grace.

“which” (ης Gen. Fem. Sg.) points back to “grace” (χαριτος Gen. Fem. Sg.) which belongs to God. It is God’s grace.

“caused to abound” (ἐπερίσσευσεν Aor. Act. Indc. 3rd Sg.) – “α. be more than enough, be left over” (BDAG, s.v. “περισσεύω,” 805). God put grace on His chosen, adopted children grace that was more than enough!

This is a tremendous comfort to the believer because God knew the total sum of your sin and He gave over what was needed!

How has God lavished His graces on them? Paul mentions two things:

“all wisdom” (παση σοφια) – “1. the capacity to understand and function accordingly, wisdom.” (BDAG, s.v. “σοφία,” 934).

“insight” (φρονήσει) – “1. the faculty of thoughtful planning, way of thinking, (frame of) mind” (BDAG, s.v. “φρόνησις,” 1066).

IS God using all His wisdom to bestow the grace or is God giving the believer all kinds of wisdom and discretion?

The prepositional phrase does not mean that God had to use all His wisdom and insight to give grace,

Rather, on top of choosing, predestinating, redeeming, God graciously gave wisdom and insight.

I. By Graciously giving us Wisdom and Insight v. 8

How does one get this wisdom and insight? In the movie Pinocchio, there was a cricket named Jiminy Cricket. He tried hard to steer Pinocchio in the right direction, but Pinocchio just did not seem to listen.

In the old Tom and Jerry cartoons, there would be a “devil” Tom and a “angel” Tom. And they would try to persuade Tom to do either something good or bad.

How do we get this wisdom and insight? I am going to develop a theological thought, and not an exegetical because we are not at the point in the text where Paul will tell us about how we get the wisdom and insight.

A. God gave His Spirit

John 16:13-15 Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and told His disciples that when He left, He would send the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit will:

“He will guide” (ὁδηγήσει Fut. Act. Indc. 3rd Sg.) – “1. to assist in reaching a desired destination, lead, guide,” (BDAG, s.v. “ὁδηγέω,” 690). A good guide takes a person to get a full experience.

“He will glorify” (δοξάσει Fut. Act. Indc. 3rd Sg.) – “1. to influence one’s opinion about another so as to enhance the latter’s reputation, praise, honor, extol” (BDAG, s.v. “δοξάζω,” 258.)

The Holy Spirit is given to the believer to guide them on how to live so that their life will glorify Jesus.

B. God gave His Word

2 Tim. 3:16-17 tells us that the word of God has the purpose of making the believer perfect.

The Spirit of God, takes the Word of God, to glorify the Son of God for the praise of God.

Warning:

Knowledge of God’s Word does not equal wisdom and discernment. Wisdom and insight is a step past knowledge.

How should you read?

Read God’s Word to get to know God! This is His revelation of His person, character, attributes, purpose, and plan. Read to get to know God by practicing these three steps:

Observe the text: We are not in a dispensation where information in just uploaded into your brain. We are disciple individuals to teach them. So they need to look at the text. Notice the subject, verb, prepositional phrases, look at the sequence of events, consider the characters, plot, resolution, on and on, make lots of observations. The more observations that you have then you will able to better do step two.

Interpret the text: If you have not made observations of the text, i.e. what genre, etc. go back to step one. What did the author intend to communicate with this text to the original audience?! You are looking to understand the authorial intent.

Application: People do one of two things will application. They jump to this point before they have observed or interpreted. And when they cannot find an application to whatever they are going through they put the text down as if it were worthless. Or they skip this section. As in, they feel that they just need to know the text. But if you do not apply the text you have failed the purpose of the text. The text has the purpose of making your perfect.

This is where wisdom and insight come in to the picture.

You are to take ancient texts, and apply them to living in this present culture. There are a thousand things the Scriptures do not address that you must have wisdom and insight to live out in a way that glorifies God.

C. God gave the Church

Col. 3:12-17 Paul addressed the believers in a church setting. And they were supposed to be forgiving one another and admonishing one so that everything you do is to be done in the name of Jesus.

“In the name of Jesus” basically means doing things of which He would approve! As in doing things for His glory.

Many times we have blindspots in our sanctification. Other believers help us by being involved in each other’s lives. We model Christian living and we learn Christian living by doing life in community.

I. By Graciously giving us Wisdom and Insight v. 8 God gave us His Spirit, His Word and the Church

So what are we supposed to do?

Know that you have been blessed with wisdom and insight

Wisdom and insight work best when there is a pool of knowledge from which to make a decision.

Wise decisions are affected by the knowledge you have. So start gathering information know. Start learning more and more about God now. Do not wait until this is a crisis.

But you have been given wisdom and insight, and this should bring you a lot of comfort for yourself, and for you to help others to grow too!

Praise God for the wisdom and insight

Contextually, Paul is giving praise for the wisdom and insight. God has graciously give you wisdom and insight, praise God for His grace in your life.

II. God reveals His will to us v. 9

Eph. 1:9 One of the best reasons that wisdom and insight should be taken as being given to the believer is because God has revealed the ministry of His will. Paul wrote:

“making known” (γνωρίσας Aor. Act. Part. Nom. Masc. Sg.) – “1. act. to cause to know, make known” (The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, s.v. “γνωρίζω,” 437). As in God is making known something.

“to us” God has chose to make something know to the Paul and the Ephesian believers. This is an incredible act of grace. Please do not over look this grace that God has revealed. What does it mean that God revealed to them. Think about communicating cross culturally, how many have tried to learn the language of their pet so that they can communicate their will to their pet based on the pet’s language not on your language? No, we do not stoop down to speak their language. But God revealed to us!

The revelations was multidimensional both through written text in common language.

And through the person of Jesus Christ, that was then written down so that we can study and know Him.

“mystery” (μυστηριον – “1. the unmanifested or private counsel of God, (God’s) secret, the secret thoughts, plans, and dispensations of God” (BDAG, s.v. “μυστήριον,” 662). Something about the word mystery is that it is something that is previously not known. This word mystery is mentioned several times in chapter 3, so we will look at it in more detail then. But for know here are some examples of the use of the word:

Rom. 11:25 Paul tells them a mystery of the hardening of Israel for the “time of the Gentiles” which seems to be a time when the focus is on the gentiles.

Rom. 16:25 Paul tells them that the present Gospel message was a mystery, and is now revealed. This would go with the aspect that the Scriptures are revealed progressively. Something that was not known and then revealed and man is supposed to act according to that revelation.

1 Cor. 4:1 Mystery + Steward – Paul writing to the believers in Corinth tell them that they are stewards of the mystery.

“His will” (θεληματος) – will or desire.

“according to His kind intention” modifies “making know” so that God makes know according to His good will.

“which He purposed” (προεθετο Aor. Mid. Indc. 3rd Sg.) – “3. to have someth. in mind beforehand, plan, propose, intend,” (BDAG, s.v. “προτίθημι,” 889.) The “which” modifies the “kind intention.” God, Himself, purposed to show good will.

“in Him” – “to have ἐν αὐτῷ refer to Christ would mean that which God purposed in making known the mystery was in connection with Christ” (Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 216.)

Proposition: Praise God because He willed to gather all things under Christ.

by graciously giving us wisdom and insight

by revealing His will to us

Let me apply this in two ways:

A. Praise the Lord!

Had God know revealed this mystery to us! God choose, predestined, adopted, Christ redeemed us, and then we were told about it.

B. Share the News!

The most natural way for people to hear the good news of the gospel is when one person tells another person!

This message gets perpetuated by individuals who have believed and then share it with other people.

III. God providentially works towards a future administration v. 10

Eph. 1:10 Presents some information that is points to the fulfilled purpose.

“in dispensation” (οικονομιαν Acc. Fem. Sg.) – “1. responsibility of management, management of a household, direction, office” (BDAG, s.v. “οἰκονομία,” 697). The prepositional phrase modifies “purposed” (v. 9). It carries the idea of a steward who has been revealed the will of his master, and the steward manages according to the revelation of his master.

Luke 16:2 Jesus spoke in a parable of a steward who had been unfaithful to his master. He had been revealed the will of the master but he did not do it.

1 Cor. 9:17 Paul spoke of the Gospel and said that he was a “stewardship” of the gospel.

1 Tim. 1:4 Paul encouraged Timothy not to pay attention to myths because they will distract from the “stewardship” of the Gospel.

“of the fulfill of the time” (πληρωματος των καιρων). – points to a time in the future. Why is it future? because of the word “reunite.”

“summing up” (ανακεφαλαιωσασθαι Aor. Mid. Inf.) – “1. used of literary or rhetorical summation sum up, recapitulate” (BDAG, s.v. “ἀνακεφαλαιόω,” 65). The word is used only in one other instance which is Rom. 13:9 to say that all the law is summed up in “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul reduced the law down to loving your neighbor as yourself Rom. 13:9.

Paul reduced all creation to being in Christ. Both things in heaven and earth.

All will be “in Him” (εν αυτω).

God is working plan that is going to have Christ over all, both in heaven and on the earth. This will be an administration where the Father has given all over to the Son. We do not see the word kingdom here but if you are over everything then you are the sovereign.

So what kingdom is Paul referencing here?

There are many kingdoms mentioned in the Bible. To pinpoint this kingdom it would be worthless to search the scriptures for [God (Christ) + Kingdom] = because you will get a couple of different kingdoms:

Millennial kingdom

2 Sam. 7:8-17 God establishes the Davidic covenant and promises someone will sit on David’s thrown forever (vs. 13, 14).

Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45 Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue that was destroyed by a stone not cut by hands and is given power (Daniel 7:9-14).

Isa. 11 The prophet says that Christ’s kingdom will be one of righteousness where He will destroy the wicked!

Christ’s salvific reign

Col. 1:13 rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the king of His beloved Son.

Col. 1:14 we have redemption and forgiveness of sin. Contextually the two kingdoms seem different. WHY? Because in the Millennium there will be absolute rule of Christ and right now, only those saved are transferred into this kingdom.

Paul is saying that God is working a plan out to fulfill the Millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:1-3).

What is mysterious about this? The OT has written that:

Christ would reign,

gentiles will be saved (Amos 9).

So what is the mysterious will of God?

What had not been revealed before and is now revealed is that Christ is the that stone that will destroy all. Christ will be at the head of the administration/dispensation

III. By Providentially Working towards a future administration v. 10

Praise God because He has a plan and He is in control of the plan.

God is working to put everything under Christ, have you started practicing living with Christ as your head?

Conclusion

Proposition: Praise God because He willed to gather all things under Christ.

I. by graciously giving us wisdom and insight

II. by revealing His will to us

III. By Providentially Working towards a future administration v. 10

Is Christ your authority in your life?