The responsibility I've been given is to speak
to the question of the goal and purpose of God's creation. And in order to do that, first I would like
to read a brief passage from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus from the fourth chapter
beginning at verse 8, where Paul writes these words: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts to men. In saying "He ascended" what does it mean,
but that He had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended
far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things." Can we pray? Our Father and our God, when we contemplate
the question, "Why did You create this earth in the first place, and to what end have You
ordained it? For what purpose have You sustained it and
appointed it?" And we ask that as we think of these things,
not from the perspective of this world, but from the perspective of Your Word, You will
grant us understanding. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Very early in our conference, Dr. Mohler made
reference to the 1980 introduction of the television series called "Cosmos." It was hosted by Carl Sagan, and then the
subsequent book from the same title, in which, on the very first page, Sagan made the assertion
that "The cosmos as we examine it now, is all that there is, all that there ever was,
and all that there ever will be." But what few of us remember was that almost
twenty years before that assertion by Carl Sagan, a little book was released that had
been written by a Harvard professor that was entitled, "The Secular City." A title taking off from the classical work
of Saint Augustine called "The City of God." And in that little book—written by Harvey
Cox—Cox gave a theological/sociological analysis of the state of American culture,
and what he described in this book was a process that had begun earlier, that he defined as
the secularization of America. And he further defined that idea of secularization
as the liberation of the culture from the dominance of metaphysical and religious principles. I'd just like to take a moment to give further
explanation to what that secularization involved. In the definitions of it, Cox pointed out
that in the Latin language, there were two distinct words, both of which can be, and
have been, translated into the English language by the word "World." The first Latin word for world was the word
"mundus," from which the famous epithet that we've heard from Dr. Godfrey, with respect
to Saint Athanasius, where it was said of him, "Athanasius contra mundum." Now, that is "Athanasius against the world." But the word "mundus," the root there, refers
to this world in spacial categories. Meaning this place; the here of this world,
or this universe, as differentiated from the out there, or up there, of the heavenly world. But the other word for world besides the word
mundus, is the word "seculum." And the term "seculum" is also translated
by the English word "world," but it refers not so much to this world as this local place,
but rather to this world from a time perspective. Meaning this time. The "hic" and the "nunc"; the here and the
now, as being distinguished from the eternal. Now, herein is the collision of worldviews. What secularism does, is interprets all of
reality in terms of the now. The world in this time. And before Sagan said "The cosmos is all there
is, all there was, ever will be," the secularist was saying, this time is all there is. There is no eternity. Do you see the conflict? Because all of Biblical truth is given by
what the philosophers call "Truth that is subspecies aeternitatis. That is, under the auspices, or from the perspective,
of the eternal. So, when you get the question "Why is there
something rather than nothing? Why is there a world in the first place? And what is the destiny of the world in the
future?" you're going to get two radically different answers. If you look at the question simply through
the eyes of secularism, or through the eyes of the eternal. And therein is the difference. In the world in which we are called to live
in Christ, and this passing world in which we are called to minister. This world that is passing away—I don't
know who it was; one of the early speakers; it may have been Al—who talked about one
of the dilemmas of modern naturalism following the course of macro-evolution to discover
what they were looking for as the "alpha principle." I was in conversation with Carl Sagan several
years ago, of course, before he died. And we were talking about the opening seconds—yeah,
I don't involve myself in necromancy—and his appreciation of Big Bang cosmology, and
said that science can now take us back to a nanosecond after the Big Bang, and I asked
him a simple question. It was a simple question. I said, "If all of matter and energy were
compressed into this infinitesimal point of singularity that was in a state of organization
and inertia for eternity, then why was it that, on one Thursday afternoon at three o'
clock, the whole thing blew up and exploded into our present universe?" I said, "The most fundamental definition of
inertia is bodies that are at rest, tend to remain at rest, unless they're acted on by
an outside force, and those things that are in motion tend to remain in motion, like golf
balls, until they are acted on by an outside force." Forces of friction, and that sort of thing. So, I said to Sagan, I said, "What's the outside
force, here, that created this enormous change in all of reality that had been inert for
eternity?" And his simple and profound answer was, "I
don't want to go there." I said, "How can you be a scientist and stop
because you want to stop, instead of pushing for truth?" You see, they needed an alpha point, a beginning
point that would make sense of the whole process. Now, here's the problem with macroevolution
that assumes movement, a dynamic, always from the simple to the complex. From the single cell to the most complex designed
organisms that would come later. And the idea going back to social Darwinianism
with Spencer, and others, was that there was this movement of history, and of time, from
an alpha point to an omega point. And one of the other problems that we face
today once we embrace secularism is there's no possibility of an omega point. There's no possibility of an alpha point. We start with nothing, and we end with nothing,
and we say, "All there is, is this time now between those two poles of nothing and nothing." I've been screaming for decades that if we
start with nothing, and if we end with nothing, we are nothing. Albert Camus understood that when he said
in light of this worldview, which is really the worldview of nihilism, "The only philosophical
question left to ask, is the question of suicide." Now, over against secularism, there is a view
that we've been exploring that has an alpha, and has an omega. And not only an alpha, and an omega, but the
Alpha, and the Omega. And—that's OK, I'll wait. Is that all? There you go. Now, that is not embarrassing, because that
applause is for Jesus, who's the Alpha and the Omega. Now, at Saint Andrews, in addition to the
Sunday morning worship services, we have, once a month, a midweek teaching service on
Wednesday night. And, for the past year or so, I've been speaking
through Paul's letter to the church of Ephesus. And in our most recent gathering, I had to
lecture on the text that I just read for you this morning from chapter 4 where Paul says,
"When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men," and so on. And, as we explored that text together, I
found myself unusually intimidated by the text. I said, "There's so much here that I can't
grasp." It's too high, it's too holy, it's too wonderful
for my mind to fathom. And made me think of Calvin's axiom, "Finitum
non capax infinitum." The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Oh, I think I could understand part of the
text, and that's where I've spent most of my time in my lecture. The earlier part of the text where Paul said
that when He, that is, Jesus, ascended on high, He led captivity captive. Or, other translations read, "He led a host
of captives." Now, that's somewhat startling because when
we get the gospel record, and the record of the book of Acts by Luke, of the bodily ascension
of Jesus into heaven—you remember they went out from the city there to the mount of ascension,
and suddenly the Shekinah cloud came and enveloped Jesus, and He began to rise into the heavens. And the disciples were enraptured by this
vision. And they just fixed their gaze on the glory
cloud taking their Lord to His coronation. And the angel came and said to them, "Men
of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing into heaven? Do you not know that this One who has been
lifted up will, in the same manner in which He has departed, return in clouds of glory?" Now, what did they see on the mount of ascension? They saw the glory, and they saw Jesus, but
those who were standing there watching the ascension of Jesus, I'm sure did not see an
entourage accompanying Him on His ascension into heaven. But yet, here Paul is saying that when He
ascended, He didn't ascend alone, but He was leading captivity captive. That in His trail, in His wake as He rose
to the right hand of God, were captives that He had conquered. And the principle captives that were in that
entourage were not the kings and rulers of this world, so much as it was the powers and
principalities of evil. They came in chains behind Him. I don't know who all was in that group, but
I know among them was a serpent with a crushed head who was now a captive of the triumphant
Jesus. Paul, of course, was merely looking back to
the Old Testament to the Psalm of David, Psalm 68, where the psalmist, in verse 16, writes
these words: "Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that
God desired for His abode?" Why do the rest of you mountains here in this
world look with envy, jealousy, hostility, at the mountain God has chosen to be His home? Yes, where the Lord will dwell forever. "For the chariots of God are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands; and the Lord is among them; and Sinai is now in the sanctuary. You ascended on high," said the psalmist,
"leading a host of captives in Your train and receiving gifts among men, even among
the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there." Here the psalmist in the Old Testament is
celebrating the ascension of God to His throne at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Yahweh who has slain the kings of this earth
who had set themselves against Him, who had taken council together against Him, and against
His Messiah saying, "Let Us cast their cords from Us." But God had held them in derision, and not
only defeated them and captured them, but He led them in captivity to His holy mountain
and He received gifts from them. That's the little, tiny twist that Paul makes
between the psalm and his epistle where he mentions this—quotes the psalm, wherein
the psalm, Yahweh and His victory ascent receives tribute from His defeated enemies. Paul emphasizes in the ascension of Jesus
not what Jesus gets from His enemies, but what He gives to His people. There's no contradiction there. It's different emphasis. Because in this whole metaphor, this whole
imagery of leading captives in captivity, that in the ancient world, when you captured
your enemy, you received tribute from them, and you took that tribute then and distributed
to your people. Which is a wonderful motif we find in the
New Testament, that all of the tribute that Christ receives, He will distribute to us. In His mercy, and in His grace. But this is the part of the text that I said
isn't all that hard. It's what comes later, where we read in saying
"'He ascended,' what does it mean but that He also descended into the lower regions to
the earth?" Jesus Himself was quoted in John's gospel,
"No one ascends into heaven who is not first descended from heaven." We heard a wonderful exposition of Philippians
2 during this conference. How Christ took His glory and His position
in heaven not as a thing to be grasped that's to be jealously guarded, but He willed it;
laid it aside and became a slave, obedient even unto death. "No one ascends into heaven except the one
who descends." Now, other people went up to heaven; Elisha—I
mean, Elijah, and Enoch. But when Jesus said "No one ascends" He doesn't
mean no one else ever went up there, He means no one ever went there for this reason. To be coronated, to be crowned, to be invested,
to be seated at the right hand of God. And then we've heard on several occasions
in this conference Jesus' words in John 16, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the
world." Now, we sometimes, in our distress living
in a society that becomes increasingly more hostile towards us, our prayer is, "O Lord,
may you prevail, and may you overcome this hostile environment when you come back in
glory." The overcoming of this world is not a future
event. It's a past event. Jesus said, "Be of good cheer because someday
I'm going to overcome the world?" No. "Be of good cheer because I have overcome
the world." And so, Paul goes on here, and he says, "He
who has descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill
all things." And that's when I choked. What? Why did He ascend above all the heavens? Why did He lead captivity captive? Why did He overcome the world? And the answer that the Apostle gives us here
is that He might fill all things. Which He does now fill all things. Now, on my Wednesday night message, I spent
about twenty seconds on that phrase, "That He might fill all things," and then ran as
fast as I could to the next line. Because here, as I say, is where I choke. What in the world does Paul mean here when
he says that Jesus ascended to fill all things? Well, the first thing we think about in His
filling all things is that, in His divine nature, He shares with the Father and with
the Holy Spirit the principle of immensity, of ubiquity, of infinity, that there is no
place in heaven and earth where God, in His deity, is not present. That God fills all things. First of all, with His being. Nothing can be anywhere except as it is in
God. Now, here we have to not only be careful,
we have to be super careful. Because this brings us so close to the edge
of Pantheism, that confuses the Creator and the creature, and said everything in the universe
is God. All is God, God is all. Which is a wicked and pernicious blasphemy. It's the very essence of idolatry when you
identify the creation, or part of the creation, with the very being of God. Like the ancient idolaters would worship the
storm, the storm god. Or the sun god. No. In Biblical categories, God was in the storm,
but God was not the storm. God was in the wind, but God was not the wind. God is in the sun, which cannot shine for
a second apart from the power of God, but God is not the sun. We must never, ever obliterate the distinction
between the creator and the creature, yet nothing can exist unless it subsists in the
very being of God, and is filled by God, and touching His divine nature. There is no particle in this universe in which
Jesus is not present. He fills it all. The clouds, the flowers, the animals, the
stones, the buildings. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof," and the whole world is full of His glory. And there is our sin. As Calvin said, we are, as it were, people
who walk through this majestic theater where every part is displaying the beauty of His
holiness, of His majesty. But we walk, as it were, with men wearing
blindfolds that are willfully put there so that we may cover our eyes and hide ourselves
from His glory. Oh, I know sometimes we'll go and look at
a beautiful sunset, and—or go to the Grand Canyon, and say, "Oh, here we see a little,
mini portrait of the beauty of holiness, and of God's glory." But it's not just in the sunset. It's in everything! The whole world is filled with His glory,
and we walk through it, and we don't see it. Not because He's hiding, but because we're
hiding. Hiding our eyes from the glory imparted into
our Father's world and displayed by our Father's world. The glory is there. Filled by the glory of Jesus. But not only does He fill the world in His
essence, deity; but He fills the world with His authority, and His sovereignty. He rules over every rock, and over every tree,
not because simply He's in every rock and every tree, but principally because He made
every rock and every tree. We see in the Scriptures that creation itself
is a triune activity, but the principle actor of creation is the Son, by whom and through
whom all things are made. And now, we see that Jesus not only fills
everything, Jesus not only owns everything, Jesus not only rules over everything, but
everything that is there is for Him. We'll just skip over for just a second, to
another letter of Paul to the Colossians where he says, in the very first chapter beginning
at verse 15, "He" that is, Jesus, "is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created." Notice the preposition "By him." By the means of his creative power, all things
were created in heaven and in earth. There are creatures in heaven; there are angels. "Visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions,
rulers, or authorities—all things were created through him." Now, here's the kicker, and the answer to
the question of which I've been assigned: "And for him." Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does this world exist? Why do you exist? For Jesus. That's our raison d'être. That's our reason for being. That's why anything is, is for Him. That He may be all in all, and share His glory
with no man. Finally, before Harvey Cox wrote his book
in the early sixties, another book was written, a very small book that didn't have nearly
the wide distribution or fame associated with it. In fact, I'd like to make a confession to
you, and see if you have the same kind of problems I have. I can't remember the title of the book. And what's worse: I can't remember the name
of the guy who wrote it. Have you ever had that problem? You say, "I read somewhere, I don't remember
where, I don't know who wrote it, I don't know who said it, I don't know the name of
the book!" Do you have that? I go nuts when I get inquiries from publishers
where I've quoted something from Luther or Calvin, and they say, "You didn't give a source
for that." And I write back, and I say, "Do you know
how many pages of John Calvin I've read in my lifetime? Or Martin Luther? And you expect me to remember where—I don't
know. I don't know where he said that, I know that
he said it." And, again, this little book gave a new twist
to understanding Genesis 1, where he talked about the six days of creation, and, seeing
the culmination in creation on the sixth day, with the creation of man, male and female,
in the image of God. And then he goes on to say in Hebrew numerology
the number six is not ultimate, it's penultimate. In fact, if you take the number six and raise
it to the third degree, what do you get? Six-six-six. The ultimacy of imperfection, and of evil. But the sacred number, seven. So, if you want to look at the goal of creation,
you can't stop at chapter 6—or day six. You go to day seven. That's the day God blessed. That's the day God hallowed. On the seventh day He rested, and He hallowed
that day; He made it holy. Not just at the end of the seven days of creation,
but forever. Imparting a cyclical pattern of living in
this world, and in this time, and these days, that, at the end of that cycle each week,
would point towards our eternal destiny. Our entering into our heavenly Sabbath. Our Sabbath rest. And so, the author of this little book said,
"The goal of creation is Sabbath holiness." Which means the goal of creation is resting
in the fullness of Christ. Christ is the Alpha of creation. Christ is the Omega of creation. And the only reason you exist, and that I
exist, is for Him. For to live, is Christ. Let's pray. Father, help us to grasp even a little bit
how You have filled the glory of your creation with Jesus. Help us to rejoice in His ascension and in
the fullness of the One by whom, through whom, and for whom all things were made. Amen.
