God's Big Unity Project // Ty Gibson

hey storyline wherever you happen to be in the world and a special welcome of course to storyline in jasper oregon meeting there in that horse barn you know who you are i'm looking forward to connecting with you guys in person sometime soon and wherever you happen to be on planet earth tuning in for this time of study together in god's word i want to welcome you to part two of a series on the book of ephesians now we're calling this series power dynamics for reasons that will become obvious as we proceed today's subject is titled god's big unity project now i want to launch into the topic by asking you i guess it could be considered a personal question and it's a question that could arouse painful memories or maybe happy memories for me this particular question arouses both painful and happy memories here's the question have you ever been singled out have you ever been selected from among a group or a crowd have you ever been chosen for either a good or a bad purpose well for me i have this i don't know if it's a traumatic memory but it's definitely a memory that is deeply embedded in my consciousness so it must have had an effect on me i think i was probably in the fourth or fifth grade and we're on the playground and i think some of you can identify with this all the children were being selected chosen from among one big group to occupy two teams that would be competing in a game that we would be playing and as the selection process unfolded sure enough somebody had to be the last person standing there all alone not chosen not selected and on this occasion it happened to be me and i felt it i felt it for the rest of the day maybe the rest of the week apparently i felt it for the rest of my life because i remember it that was a negative experience of being selected from among a crowd to not be selected until last and then there was a positive experience i was 13 years old and i was at a dance it wasn't a glamorous dance it was alatines my mother had recently decided to become sober and she was in alcoholics anonymous and she knew that i was dabbling in drugs and she knew that i was also experiencing whatever it is that a child experiences in a home with drug abuse and alcoholism and so she put me in something called alatines and i'll never forget as we were in this big gymnasium and all of these teenagers were swarming around until finally the moment came when everybody was to take a seat and the dance was to begin by people selecting who they wanted to dance with now there was something going on in the room that all the boys were conscious of and that was that there was this one girl who was older than me for sure maybe older than all the boys and she was stunning she was the girl in the room that all the boys were hyper conscious of but there wasn't any boy who had the courage to go ask her to dance and so she was standing there kind of alone and suddenly out of nowhere she walked over to me and she took me by the hand and i stood up and we began to dance i mean she began to dance she began to move my body around on the dance floor as i just followed her moves the best i could and as this older beautiful girl with this 13 year old boy as we were dancing i thought something to myself like we're going to get married and i'm sure she was thinking something like i need to have compassion on this poor little guy that nobody is dancing with i thought there was passion in the air she felt compassion in the air for me i was nevertheless chosen i was selected by that girl to be her dance partner i don't know what your life's experience has been but scripture is very very deliberate in telling us that god himself has engaged in a selection process in a choosing process we're working our way through the book of ephesians and this is remarkable i want you to notice as we begin with chapter one that the language is extremely broad and inclusive for reasons that will become clear as we proceed so ephesians chapter one verses one through two by the way in part one we basically gave an overview of the book of ephesians and an introduction to the book so now we're beginning with chapter one of ephesians grab your outline have it ready to take notes and to fill in some of the blanks but check this out notice what paul does here paul he begins his letter to the ephesians an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god in other words paul is saying i have been myself chosen or selected for a purpose god has given me an assignment i have a job i'm an apostle that's my assignment now watch as the language builds and he says here i'm paul the apostle of jesus christ by the will of god and i'm addressing someone i'm addressing the saints who are in ephesus now pause right there and understand something the group to whom paul is writing in this historical context these are what are called in scripture gentiles basically everybody who's not a jew there had been a very strict demarcation between these two groups that was imposed upon the world by the jews themselves and that will become also clear as we proceed but i want you to notice that something is happening here if you put yourself in the historical setting the people receiving this letter or more likely hearing this letter read to them in an assembly are blown away right at the beginning because they gentiles greeks romans scythians whatever whoever paul the hebrew paul the jew is addressing them as saints paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god to the saints who are at ephesus i mean it's not quite flattery but you can feel in the crowd of gentiles that they're sitting up a little straighter they're feeling a little more dignified they're feeling like hey wait a minute saints we know that's a term that jews use to refer to their own people because the word saint means to be set apart to be selected to be chosen to be other than the rest and here they're thinking no doubt wow the apostle paul he's regarding us to be one of them one of the chosen group the selected group and he even says that they are faithful in christ jesus i mean no doubt at that point they're thinking faithful who me but paul does something very interesting here that is a signature of his understanding of the gospel and his language he says to the faithful in christ jesus this is an objective statement about the achievements of christ as the messiah because jesus you see has come into the world as the representative human who represents all humans jesus is in fact the eschatological man the eschatological human he is the final rendering of humanity in a single individual who now represents all individuals and jesus in his life and death and burial and resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the father to the position of favor jesus has achieved a faithfulness to the covenant that has not ever been achieved in human history and that faithfulness to the covenant is a done deal an accomplished fact in the person of jesus christ now that is not to say that god isn't seeking to elicit actual experiential faithfulness from you and me from human beings in fact he is and that becomes evident throughout the book of ephesians but we don't begin from a premise of rejection we begin from a premise of acceptance we don't begin from a premise of defeat we begin from a premise of victory we're already in in god's favor in among the saints regarded in christ as faithful and then his salutation grace to you and peace from god our father god our father and the lord jesus christ paul is speaking to a gentile audience he's writing a letter to a gentile audience and he says he says god's grace god's peace god yahweh of the hebrew people is your god too and his grace and his peace is for you and he is our father now gentiles are not accustomed to a jew talking like this speaking of them and the hebrew people as occupying a position in which god is our father our collective father this is groundbreaking this is a whole new pattern of thinking this is paradigm shifting this is the revolution of messiah jesus christ that later in the book of acts we read would turn the world upside down it would upend all power structures it would turn everything upside down inside out and the key idea is that christ is the new man that represents all men all humans you're in you're accepted well paul goes on in verse 3 and says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ hey you who are there in ephesus you who are not by birth genetically jews you who are not a part of the in group who are chosen people of god hey guess what paul says you're chosen to guess what god is our father and that includes you and the lord jesus christ is our lord jesus christ he's our messiah not their messiah but our messiah all of us who has blessed us that is all of us again notice the collective inclusive language with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places here's his language again in christ everything is accomplished achieved done finished in the person of jesus christ now an identification process needs to take place it is if god is saying in the simplest terms hey i love you will you love me back the hey i love you part is the objective accomplishment in christ the hey will you love me back part well that's the part where i reciprocate where you reciprocate that's the big yes that's the amen that's the wow god loves me too i'm in i'm chosen before i do anything to deserve it well that's the kind of god i can love and adore and worship and reverence do you see what's happening here there's a psychological dynamic in the gospel and the psychological dynamic is hey you're in so don't you want to be in hey you're accepted don't you want to experience the psychological wonder of that acceptance hey you are loved by god don't you want to consciously embrace that love as your own personal experience and identity because everything is for you and everything is done and it's literally every spiritual blessing and it's all achieved in christ just as note this language in verse 4 just as paul says he that is god the father chose us here again the us is very specifically referring to the universal humanity not just the hebrew people not just the jews but you gentiles too god the father has chosen us in him that's jesus chosen us in him when before the foundation of the world god has not undergone a change of mind it's not as if god had rejected everybody else except for the hebrew people and then changed his mind no god always intended that all people would be represented by the messiah in that and that the salvation of christ would embrace the whole world and it was the calling the mission given to them by god that israel was to make that known israel was called upon by god to basically say hey look how beautiful god is come on in israel was supposed to be an open door of invitation into fellowship with the one and only true god yahweh and notice that he says the apostle paul says that he chose us he selected us so that we would be holy that is set apart distinct a wonder to the world and without blame before him in love notice again that the apostle paul wants us to understand that the actuating principle and the pervasive reality of the gospel is the love of god god's love is the factor that constitutes god's posture toward us before we do anything at all to deserve it and then it becomes our own living reality god loves me therefore i begin to love like god loves this is so astounding it's groundbreaking it is again i will emphasize revolutionary this idea that god's love is a powerful force to elicit response and to produce holiness and blamelessness in a human being that is full of guilt and shame full of self-incrimination and self-blame as well as the blame and incrimination of those in our communities who know the wrongs we have committed and hold us at arm's leg length with condemnation and judgment well all of that is done away within christ there is in the person of christ a universal embrace an acceptance that is the premise of any person ever experientially coming to god we only come to him because he has first come to us we only choose him because he has first chosen us it would not occur to you and me to seek after god if he had not first sought after us now there's something else in this word chosen to be chosen as was my experience on that alatine dance floor many years ago to be chosen is to be wanted to be wanted scripture is saying listen god is choosing you has chosen you why because god wants you god has a particular specific interest in you whoever you are wherever you are in the world whatever your experience whoever you are sitting on some sofa somewhere watching this message whoever you are somewhere sitting in your room staring at your phone as we move through these ideas you are chosen that is to say you are wanted you are wanted by god he desires you your heart your life your fellowship your love in response to his love now this is remarkable because paul then goes on in verse 5 to say that not only has he chosen us but he's predestined us and the us here again is emphasized because it's all of us the human race as a whole jews and gentiles he's predestined us to the adoption to adoption as sons and daughters by jesus christ to himself god is saying i want you and i adopt you as my son as my daughter in christ in jesus christ god has enveloped the human race as sons and daughters when god looks on planet earth what god sees is sons and daughters his kids his children god sees you me and every single person you ever have eye contact with everyone on the planet is chosen predestined to a status of adoption into the family of god through jesus christ and this according to paul is all according to the good pleasure of god's will pleasure he's not doing this reluctantly he's not doing this begrudgingly he's not saying oh they've made such a mess of things let me just you know save them even though i would rather not what a pain in the neck they are no god has chosen us and there is pleasure in that choosing i am pleased with you i am pleased to call you my daughter i am pleased to call you my son to adopt you into my family and this is to the praise of the glory of god's grace paul says to the praise of the glory of his grace in verse 6 of ephesians 1 by which he made us here it is again accepted in the beloved now the beloved here is jesus christ the messiah and it is no wonder as you read the story of scripture that jesus would be the beloved of god but his beloved status is our status scripture is literally saying that god the father looks upon you and me precisely as he looks upon jesus god literally with no hyperbole i'm not exaggerating for a fact god literally loves you with precisely the same quality and passion of love with which he loves jesus you are accepted in the beloved and this is to the praise of the glory of god's grace because we don't deserve it it is by virtue of the fact that he is a god of grace a god who gives favor not because it's deserved but because he is a god of favor he is a god of grace now as paul goes on in verse 7 he says something that is even more remarkable if that could be imagined to be possible in him we that is everybody the whole human race jews and gentiles alike that's his context in him we have redemption through his blood the blood of the messiah of christ dying on the cross as the universal sacrifice for the human race as an atoning sacrifice for all of humanity in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace god's grace is rich he is he is wealthy with grace there is no lack of grace in god he is a god of lavish extravagant grace according to paul and this is this is a grace that moves god to redeem to give of himself to shed his blood to suffer and to die in order to save us to redeem us to capture our attention to allure our attention to bring us back into fellowship with him in him you also notice the language you also i mean paul is there more i mean seriously you've said so much are you just going to go on and on with with layer upon layer of extraordinary claims yes paul says in him you also all of you jews and gentiles alike in him also you trusted you gentiles trusted as well as some of us jews some of you gentiles some of us jews and it's going to expand and become a worldwide movement it's going to turn the world upside down but you also trusted notice the language paul chooses you trusted in christ after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation the gospel of your salvation notice that you hear the good news of your salvation you hear the truth of the salvation that you have in christ he doesn't challenge us to earn it he tells us of the fact that it already exists good news is not good advice the gospel is not good advice the gospel is good news it tells us things that are done already historically in the past in christ it doesn't merely challenge our moral fortitude to do better in the future remember the actuating power in the power dynamics of god is the power of his love he's seeking not to force to coerce to manipulate but rather to say you're in i love you i accept you i choose you your salvation is a done deal let me tell you about it as a done deal in christ in whom also having believed now there's the experiential part there's the subjective part in response to the objective historical part right you believed you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise the holy spirit comes in to the inner precincts of the human mind and heart to seal us in that salvation reality that is achieved for us in christ the moment we believe i say yes with belief with trust i trusted i believed these are synonyms for paul to trust is to believe to believe is to trust and when i trust when i believe in what has been accomplished for me for you for everybody in christ something happens inside of me something changes inside of me i have an encounter with the indwelling spirit of god that stabilizes and solidifies and makes secure that encounter with christ through the gospel who paul goes on in verse 14 skipping down who is the guarantee the holy spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance what is this inheritance well scripture is full of this idea that the inheritance that god has in store for all his children is the earth itself in a position of reigning and ruling over the entire cosmos the inheritance that god has promised down through the ages to the jews was promised through the jews for all and paul is pulling everybody in to this magnificent reality that there is an inheritance in the holy spirit in your heart sealing your redemption in christ the holy spirit in your heart is the guarantee as it were the down payment of your inheritance my inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory so there's something that happens now and then there is something that's going to happen in the future and the apostle paul in romans chapter 8 tells us what this is all about this current present tense redemption that we have in christ that is sealed in our consciousness by the holy spirit and then this future tense purchased possession redemption and in romans 8 paul tells us he's talking here about the point at which the body is transformed the physical material body is transformed into a glorious redeemed physical body that kind of you could say catches up with the internal psychological and emotional reality of god's spirit dwelling in our hearts so the apostle paul throughout his letters and epistles over and over again informs us hey i want you to know that i have a particular calling in mission and he says this particular this he articulates this mission in romans 11 13 with these words i am an apostle to the gentiles this is paul's position and you can fill in the blank there at the bottom of page one of your outline how did paul describe himself how did paul describe himself in his mission well according to romans 11 and many scriptures paul says i am an apostle to the gentiles my calling is to fling the door wide open to the gentile world my calling is to go to the outsiders that have been blocked from having entrance into the favor of god by misconceptions of the character of god that have been forced upon the world by the very people at that time who were supposed to open the door to everyone now there's a back story here there's a history that needs to be taken into consideration in fact you could say that the entire new testament the entire christ event and all the preaching of john and peter and paul and the entire new testament corpus of material the entire new testament is really the outworking of this promise in genesis chapter 12. it is the outworking of this single promise well this promise has its own history in genesis 3 15 but the entire new testament is the outworking of this covenantal promise that god made to abraham for the whole world note the language here he says god says to abraham get out of your country that is separate from the people and the culture and the situation you're familiar with get out of your country from your family even and from your father's house to a land that i will show you now that's kind of sounding separatist isn't it but notice that god is calling abraham out in order to deploy abraham and his posterity to a mission to go in notice verse 2 i will make you i will make you great a great nation i will bless you notice this i will bless you and make your name great and notice you shall be a blessing this is the crucial part that paul is is is locking his eyes upon in the new testament in his letter to the to the ephesians and everything else that paul is preaching to whoever else notice that the key idea here is that abraham is blessed to be a blessing blessed to be a blessing and then verse 3 i will bless those who bless you i will curse him who curses you that sounds pretty dire pretty dark but wait a minute and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed this is remarkable this is in fact the gospel this is the good news that god selected a people group not to make them a separated elite community of exclusion god selected a people to deploy them on a mission of proclaiming to the world of revealing to the world the beauty of god's character and his good covenantal principles so that people would find themselves attracted to yahweh and come in and become a part of israel so when we go forward in israel's history to exodus chapter 19 where the ten commandments are about to be given in chapter 20 well here god tells moses to tell the people something now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant that is operate by the principle of love in all directions in the way you treat one another in the way you treat your neighboring nations in the way you treat even the earth moses points out if you will live by the principle of covenantal love the the principle of reciprocal love if you will do that then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people why though for all the earth is mine check this out and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation now a kingdom of priest is different than a kingdom of monarchs it is a kingdom of revelation of witness of outreach in other words a priest is a mediator of knowledge and mediator of truth a mediator of the good news of the covenant and god says the whole reason i've selected you is because in fact i've selected everyone the whole reason i've chosen you is because in fact i've chosen everyone the whole reason i have said you're mine and i want you is because everyone is mine and i want everyone so i want you to be a kingdom of priest so the prophets are full of this kind of language this language of testimony and witness and revelation isaiah chapter 60 verse 1 says it this way god speaking to his people israel arise and do what shine that's what for your light has come and the glory of the lord is risen upon you yes the glory of god has risen upon you for behold behold contemplate think this through the darkness shall cover the earth that is there will be moral darkness among the nations and people groups of the world and deep darkness will cover the people but the lord will arise upon you check this out and his glory will be seen upon you and what will be the effect the gentiles shall come the gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising this is amazing this is god saying listen israel if you live out the terms of the covenant if with covenantal faithfulness you live in love one to another and conduct yourself with the principles of covenantal love to the surrounding nations they will be impressed with my character and principles and they will be drawn they will be attracted as it were in a dark night to a light that is shining so the whole world by the time that the apostle paul is writing to the ephesians by the time of christ the whole world from the standpoint of the jews had been divided into just two groups jews and gentiles now god himself had initiated that division but for a missional purpose what happened was that some of the jews specifically religious teachers and leaders had translated and transmuted the idea of jew and gentile into us and them and us and them became insiders and outsiders friends and enemies and this was the exclusionary idea that had overtaken the world by the time paul was writing to the ephesians and god called him to be an apostle to the gentiles to fling the door back open to invite the gentiles in because the fact is as paul fleshes out and we will discover as we continue in our study of ephesians when people are violated when people are ruled out when people are are oppressed or marginalized when people are wounded in relationships while that produces fear when those who have the position of power use their power dynamics to violate well that produces fear and fear produces one of two effects either retreat or retaliation and that's what we see taking place at the time of jesus at the time of paul and the apostles that's what we see taking place at our very time it's a very simple principle punch somebody punch somebody and then ask them why they're afraid when you lean in for a hug well it's nonsensical it makes no sense if you throw punches and then suddenly you want kindness in the relationship there's going to be reluctance there's going to be fear there's going to be a retreating or a retaliating this is basic human nature because all of us wield power all of us possess a certain kind of power and power can simply be defined as a person's full range of abilities and resources whoever you are you have power you have the power of your bank account whether it's great or small it has some kind of ability to get something done maybe keep your power on if you have abilities or resources these constitute powers that you can leverage so that we can expand our understanding of power as the exertion of any given ability or resource to produce an effect so if i possess some kind of ability or some kind of resource i can either weaponize that thing or i can turn it to benevolent ends every one of us are constantly as free moral agents standing with a responsibility to wield our power our freedom our liberty well any given ability or resource can be weaponized or it can be turned to a good and glorious benevolent end as well and we see today not just in paul's time two thousand years ago but we see today a a fracturing of society a hostility that is mounting that is sometimes characterized by what is being called identity politics and that is to say that if i begin to identify myself by any single characteristic and magnify that characteristic to take up the totality of my identity well then i may join with others who identify in a similar way and create a political block of power a political alliance if you will a a group that now will collectively use its power based on a limiting of identity the way the world is defining identity is to shrink that is to collapse that is to in some way limit identity the world operates on the principle of reducing limiting and therefore dividing people whereas in christ in christ human identity is expanded you guys as we shared in part one of this ephesians study you are more than your material resources you have material resources but you are more than your identity is not located in your money or your material resources you possess power but you're not defined by power every human being has a sexual dimension to their identity but sexuality sexual orientation is not the total identifying of myself in him paul goes on to say we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins we read that part but now notice what paul says according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us check this out in all wisdom and prudence what god forgiving human beings was an exercise of wisdom and prudence it doesn't even sound right to say god it would be wise and prudent of you to forgive me and yet paul says that forgiveness was an act of wisdom and prudence on god's part because forgiveness alone has the power you guys to heal wounds and to re-establish relationship connection of whatever sort forgiveness is a power that god wields or exercises in the world having made known to us the mystery of israel through that forgiveness through that acceptance through that large embrace of all of humanity god has made known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself because it's in his heart to do so god loves you he loves me and what is that mystery of god's good pleasurable will that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times that is when human history shall have reached its maturity when finally the world begins to come to its climactic point of fullness what we have in paul's thinking here is remarkable what follows the mystery of god's good will is that when time shall have reached its completion the world as we know it starts to come to an end god's purpose all along has been to gather together in one all things in christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him that's the messiah jesus christ this is complex language but what paul has done here is to open up our understanding to the fact that the atonement of christ the unifying act of christ at calvary has a cosmic scope a cosmic scope that includes not only earth jews and gentiles and all human beings but includes the heavenly realm as well when the bible speaks of heaven it refers to the inhabitants of heaven you can discover that in multiple scriptures such as revelation chapter 12 and verse 12 rejoice ye heavens and you who dwell in them heaven is populated and what jesus achieved in himself at the cross and the forgiveness that god has lavished upon you and me and the whole world was an act of wisdom and prudence on god's part because it unifies the entire cosmos if god had responded with raw justice if god had responded to fallen humanity with mere punitive action well he would have repelled the intelligent heavens and earth of rational minds observing god's actions so paul says it was an act of prudence and wisdom on god's part to forgive sinners because forgiveness reconnects us with god and with one another god's big giant unity project according to paul encompasses heaven and earth when all is said and done when finally human history shall have run its course to the fullness of time what we're going to find is that what god achieved in christ is a unifying of all heavenly as well as earthly intelligence says anybody who sees and contemplates and believes in the good news of christ will be brought into a unity with one another and with god and the whole world heaven included with earth will be as it were one big giant beautiful happy family united in christ which brings us of course to the conclusion and that is that paul according to verses 15 and 16 tells us therefore i also after i heard of your faith and your love your faith in the lord jesus christ and your love for all the saints do not cease to give thanks for you making mention of you and my prayers according to the apostle paul faith in christ generates love for one another the book of ephesians is telling a remarkable story about god's big giant unity project that is bringing together everyone in heaven and earth who thinks who ponders who believes the love of god manifested in christ all of us brought together in one big family unified in christ thank you so much for joining me in this study again i want to remind you the outline is available at storyline.church i look forward to exploring part three with you next week

Channel: Storyline Church

Views: 7,198

Rating: 4.884058 out of 5

Keywords: storyline church, ty gibson

Id: HCqVfAx8CSM

Length: 47min 15sec (2835 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 17 2021