Let me start by asking the question with which Lee ended last week, which is this: what is the purpose of the church?
Now, there are lots of right answers to that question. The church is lots and lots of things, but there's a very particular focus to that question in these verses we're looking at this morning.
Sometimes I meet people who are not yet Christians—they're still looking into the Christian faith—and they say to me, "I'm beginning to warm to this Jesus that you talk about, but I could never really see myself belonging to a church. That bit puts me off. Jesus—lovely. But the church? I'm still trying to be persuaded about that."
Sometimes I meet believers who say, "No, I have a real faith in God. I know and trust and love the Lord Jesus. I just don't go to church."
Last week, we had a number of baptisms, and there were some words that we said during that service which—well, which are lovely words. We explained that some of us come from a culture where we know that it takes a whole village to raise a child. And the Christian version of that is that it takes a whole church to disciple an individual.
Now, that is true. But is that all that there is to say? Is the purpose of the church to disciple individuals? Is that why we're here—so that each of us individually can become stronger, more mature Christians?
Partly, yes. But actually, could it even be the other way around? Could it be the reason why it matters that we become mature disciples is because that is the way that God will build a healthy church?
These verses that we're looking at this morning are key to unlocking the whole of the letter of Ephesians. And we looked at them briefly last week as part of a look at the whole of verses 1–13. Today we're going to slow down, and we're going to look at just two verses. And those two verses are verses 10 and 11.
So let me read them again:
"His"—that is, God's—"intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Let's break those two verses down into three topics that we meet there.
Spiritual powers
Number one: spiritual powers.
Let me ask you a question. Are we alone in the universe? What a fun question. A whole genre of science fiction has explored that question. Is there intelligent life out there? If we were to broadcast some of our music into space, would some alien creatures hear that music and come, like moths to a lamp, to find its source?
Well, sometimes it's really fun when the answer to that question is "yes". Even if you're young, you may have met the kind of the groundbreaking film on this, which is Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This lovely, cute little thing that can ride a bike across the moon, and its heart's desire is to phone home—just like every teenager that watched it; their heart's desire is to phone home as often as possible. You see, it's lovely. That's why the parents loved it as well—such a beautiful film.
And if only there were lovely alien beings out there who would come and just be all cute and fluffy—wouldn't that be great?
That's not the way it normally plays out, though. Often we end up wishing we'd never asked the question, because the beings that we discover are out there do come, but they come only to plunder and to destroy. And we wish we'd never invited them to join us. Films like Independence Day, starring Will Smith—great film—but the city of New York and all these people holding parties on the roofs of their skyscrapers to welcome these aliens who just come to destroy, and to zap, and to cause trouble—they're hostile.
Well, I'm not going to talk to you this morning about whether there is extraterrestrial life—whether there is intelligent life on other planets. That is something, by the way, the Bible has an answer for, and we could talk about that another time—but not today.
But what I am going to tell you today is this: we are not alone in this universe. In addition to the world you can see, there are living creatures that you cannot see. There are spiritual beings that can exert a real influence on life on earth. They're not make-believe. They really exist.
I mean, you're used to the fact that God exists, but he is just one God in three persons amongst actually an enormous number of unseen spiritual beings.
Now, it may be obvious to some of you that there are such spiritual beings. Some of us in this church come from countries where this is talked about a lot more than is the case here, and you know that there is an unseen world—that there are creatures that can have a real influence on business, on family life, on health. This is bread-and-butter stuff for some cultures around the world.
The Ephesian Christians—they knew this really well. The book of Acts tells us what archaeology and other sources have confirmed: that Ephesus was a centre for the practice of magic. People would spend a fortune buying books, parchments, scrolls containing magic spells that would enhance their family life, their business success, and all kinds of other things—others that might harm the prospects of a rival neighbour—and then you buy others to defend yourself against the harm that your neighbour might try to do to you. It was a huge, very superstitious—but very real—business for them.
Now, before you get too worried by all this, there is a lovely book written by C.S. Lewis—the guy who wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and those kinds of stories. He was an Oxford professor in English studies. He wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters, which is an imaginary conversation between a senior devil and a junior devil. The junior devil is being coached into how to try to derail and trip up a new Christian.
It's a really clever piece of writing in which, actually, he puts his finger on a lot of really practical stuff on how to be on your guard as a Christian—highly recommend it. There's a really mischievous thing in the introduction where he says he's not going to disclose how this particular correspondence came to be in his hands—that's a kind of lovely little touch.
But anyway, within that introduction, there's one more thing that he says. He says this:
"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them."
Now, we in this culture—in the Western culture—we've bought into a kind of rationalism that says, "If you can't see it, it doesn't exist."
But I'm not going to take us to the other extreme and say, "No, they do exist—I mean, to be so scared of them that we need to start looking under every rock in case there's a demon under there, and we come away frightened and worried and obsessed." No, that's not right either.
But neither is it healthy to kind of buy into this "doesn’t—can’t see it, so it’s not there" kind of mindset.
In fact, you only have to read the Gospels to see that that cannot be right.
As Jesus is born, angels appear to speak to Zechariah, to Joseph, to Mary—to explain what's happening. A whole choir of angels appears in the sky to speak to the shepherds and tell them what's happened.
Then, as Jesus is on earth, we meet demons who make the lives of those they possess a misery—until Jesus miraculously and wonderfully liberates those people.
And then he rose from the dead, and he's able to pass through his own tombstone, pass through locked doors, and translate himself—in just a few moments of time—a journey of 10 to 12 miles from one town to the next.
So no—just read the Gospels. You discover that there are spirit beings of various kinds.
And within Ephesians, this world of spirit beings inhabits what is called here the heavenly places—the heavenly realms.
Now maybe this confuses some of you—the idea that there are these malicious spiritual beings living in heaven. And that might confuse you because you might be thinking, "Hang on a minute, I thought heaven was where Christians went when they died, and that therefore heaven is a place which is only good."
Well, let's just unravel this a little bit, because that is the way that in casual English we talk about heaven. It's not the way the Bible talks about heaven. There are a few little confusions that I think would be helpful for us to untangle.
Now, the first thing to say is that heaven is not the final destination for the Christian.
When you die, you go to be with Jesus, if you're a Christian. And Jesus is in heaven, so you go and join him in heaven.
But that is not the end of the story. The end of the story is when the Lord Jesus returns to this earth and brings with him those who have died knowing and loving him. And then he restores and remakes this world into a beautiful place that is without flaw, without any problem. And he will live here with us, his people, in a perfect life forever.
That is the final destination.
So think instead of heaven as like the top deck of a three-storey house. So when you read the book of Genesis—Genesis chapter one—it starts, doesn't it: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." So there you go, you've got two storeys of your house. You have the heavens, which is the spirit realm where God and spiritual beings live, and you have the earth, the physical world where we, the animals, the fish, and other things live—the plants, the trees—the heavens and the earth.
Then you read other bits of the Bible, and they add a third storey, down in the basement: the place under the earth. That's the place of the dead. So if you read, for example, Philippians chapter 2, we're told that one day every knee will bow and worship the Lord Jesus—every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Three storeys of your house, and heaven is simply the upper storey, and it's where the Lord Jesus is now.
So yes, there are spirit beings. They live in heaven, and they impact life on earth. And the main thing Ephesians has said to us so far is: Jesus has got this. You are safe.
So, for example, chapter 1 verses 20 and 21: "That power is the same as the mighty strength that God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked." There's the reassurance for those in Ephesus who loved their magic—“not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
So there is Jesus, now raised from the dead in the heavenly realms. But where he is, is far above every other rule and authority, power and dominion. They're not gone yet, but there's no doubt who's in charge. And there's no doubt how the story will end. He's on his throne, and they are underneath. And he's in charge—that's him.
And then there's us. Chapter 2 verse 6: "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ." We—it's lovely. It's like there's Jesus on his throne, and next to him is another seat. He says, "Come and sit here with me. Don't worry, they can't touch you. You're quite safe. I've got you." We're safe. That's the picture so far of these spirit beings.
So there's our first kind of topic in these verses: spirit beings.
Universe united
Second topic is: Universe United. Okay, not Manchester United—it's bigger than that. Not GB United, not World United—Universe United. This is cosmic. God has a plan for the universe.
Now, I'm broadly going to be recapping here from earlier in the letter, but I'll bring it back and show us how it's what's going on in these two verses we're looking at this morning. So, God's plan is for a united universe. Let's go—chapter 1, 9 and 10: "God made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ."
So there's God's grand plan. We talked about this a number of weeks ago. We live in a world that is fragmented, divided. People are at war. People fight. It's a broken place. It's a painful place. We long for harmony—in the home, amongst nations, amongst friends. We just long for all the enmity to be broken down.
And when Jesus comes back—when the times reach their fulfilment—we will get that thing that we long for. Everything will be united, because Jesus will be over all. Now, not everyone will be pleased to have Jesus over them. But either because all rebellion is now squashed, or because people are overjoyed to see their Lord and King. But one way or another, everything will be under the rule of Jesus. And therefore, we won't be fighting anymore about who's going to be in charge—because we all know who's in charge. It's him. And we'll have a wonderfully united world with no hostility.
But notice what's covered by that future unity: "To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth." So this future will not just be human beings united under the rule of Jesus, but the stuff in heaven as well—united under him. And God has told us that this is the plan. He wants us to know where everything is going.
Chapter 1 verse 8: "With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will." And it's that phrase—wisdom—that brings us back to chapter 3 verse 10: "God's intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known." God wants his wisdom known. He wants this plan out there.
And this is God's eternal purpose. This is verse 11 of chapter 3: "According to his eternal purpose." God's eternal plan is for a united universe under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that was the eternal purpose. God also has a plan for now. "His intent," it says in verse 10, "was that now..." So if the plan for eternity is everything united under the Lord Jesus, what's the plan for now—for July 11th 2022? What is God's plan?
Beautiful church
Here's our third topic: Beautiful Church.
So, God's plan for now is to make his plan for eternity known—to the spiritual rulers and authorities. So, we're used to the idea that God wants us to know his plan, but he doesn't just want us to know. He's told us he wants them to know as well what the plan is.
How is he going to make them know? Answer: through the church. "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."
Well, how are we going to tell them what the future is? There's no mention here of preaching. Okay, so God's told us the plan, and I'm telling you the plan—by unfolding what's in God's word, the Bible, using speech. But it doesn't mention that here. So, we're not going to have a special event next Sunday, where we put out extra chairs and we get all the angels, demons, cherubim and seraphim to come and sit down, and we explain to them from Ephesians 1:9–10 that this is the future.
We're not going to hire out Unit 27 and, over the next five evenings, have 7:30 to 9:00 pm refreshments and then 8 o'clock we kick off with a one-hour lecture on the future of the universe. No, it doesn't say that. It would seem that God will make known to them where it's all going simply by the church existing. Just the very fact that we are here—who we are, how we live, the fact we exist—that proclaims the future to them.
As Lee said last week: we can't see them, but they can see us. And as they look at us, they see the future. We are a scale model of the future of the whole universe.
Now, you know how scale models work, don't you? So maybe you go on holiday, you visit some literally dusty archaeological sites, and they've got some little model made up of what it would have looked like 3,000 years ago or something like that. Or a building, maybe. So, it's university open day season for our family at the moment, and one—the Maths department—a lovely little campus building with different buildings dotted around a courtyard area, and it's obvious some architect had a lot of fun—designed something that's really quite nicely designed.
If you go in and you go downstairs, trying to find where the arrows that point you to the toilets eventually lead, you discover a kind of four-foot by four-foot model of the whole of the Maths department campus. There are all the little buildings, all laid out. What a funny thing to put for people to look at while they're queuing for the loo. What I think happened is this: before the building was finished, the architect wanted to show people who were interested what it would look like when it was done. So as part of their fundraising and their planning process, they built this lovely little scale model. The building was finished, and they thought: Be a shame to throw this away. Why don't we put it somewhere where people can still see it, and get their bearings around where they are, and how the different bits all fit together?
That's what scale models do. Or there are various places around Britain where you can go and see what they call a model village. So it is literally an entire village from somewhere else in the country, kind of reduced down to sort of Lego size. And you can go—there's a little post office, and there it all is: little buildings, and you can see at a glance the whole thing.
We are God's scale model of the universe. So the spiritual powers—they look at us. They look at how we worship. They look at how we relate to each other. They look at how we behave. And they see what will one day be everywhere.
So, chapter 3 verse 6: the mystery that God revealed to the apostle Paul is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. God has brought together Jews and Gentiles and other groups who would not normally get on, and He's made us into one body—one church.
And this is God's intent. Verse 10 starts, "His intent was..."—that all this stuff should happen. His intent in doing chapter 3 verses 1 to 9. So, why did God create a church? Why did God bring Jew and Gentile together? Why did God reveal His plan to the apostle Paul? Why did God have the gospel preached so that people could become Christians?
Answer: His intent was this—to create a showcase, to show His plan for the universe to the spiritual powers. And God's plan is beautiful. As I say, beautiful church—it's called His manifold wisdom. It is multifaceted, like a diamond.
Why does a diamond sparkle? It has lots of different faces that all point in slightly different directions and catch the light and make it sparkle with prism effects, to create kind of little bits of rainbow. And it's beautiful because it's all these different angles joined together. The word manifold—the root of it is the same word that is used in the Book of Genesis for Joseph's coat. Remember, Jacob (Joseph's dad) made him a multicoloured coat. Some of you have seen the musical—okay, the Multicoloured Dreamcoat. So that's the word for multicoloured, except that this is the same word but with a prefix on the front that kind of means many. So if you want to be excessively literal, kind of with the root of this word, it means the many multicoloured wisdom of God. Many multicoloured—that's why they put manifold, because it's got to be able to read the Bible in church and it does kind of vaguely scan. But many multicoloured—that's what it means.
A bit like a patchwork quilt—you met a patchwork quilt? So what you do is you get loads of little squares of fabric that are useless on their own—often they're little bits that remain from other things. And then what you do is you stitch them together to make a kind of tapestry of all these bits of fabric.
Now, if I tried to do that, a number of things would happen. First is, I'd never finish the project because it would take me too long to stitch two together—never mind the whole thing. But the other thing that happens, if I by some miracle did finish, it would just be an ugly mess. I have no eye for colour and pattern and what looks right next to it—none. And so it would just look awful.
But done with skill, somebody with an artistic eye can take all these random squares and put them together so that all the colours kind of work with each, and the result is just a beautiful thing—a lovely tapestry of colour and shape and texture that has found a new use for all those old squares of fabric.
The church is God's patchwork quilt—people from many nations, many backgrounds, many personalities: men, women, children, adults—woven together to make this thing that, in its diversity, is just beautiful. We often say the church is a foretaste of heaven. It is that (provided we remember that that's the loose, popular use of the word heaven). Okay, it is that, but it's even more than that. We're not just a foretaste of heaven—we are a message to heaven. We are a demonstration to heaven of the future of the universe: that one day, all things will be united under the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you studied history at school—some of you still do study history at school. I did not. When I got to the age of 14, I had to choose whether to do history or geography in my end-of-year exams, at that stage of school (what would now be called Year Nine). I did quite well in geography. In history, I got 17 percent and decided that I would probably do better picking geography rather than history. So, from then on, history was consigned to the bin.
But if you study history, you discover that it's all about the VIPs—kings and queens, presidents, army generals—the important figures who move and shape the history of the world. If you read the Bible, you discover that history is about His story. It is God's story. And the people to look at are not the VIPs—it's the church of Jesus Christ. That is where it's going.
And if you want a little spoiler alert—so you know how it is: a review for a film goes on Facebook and occasionally, "I've just been to see the new Thor film," and a spoiler review—spoiler alert—lots of empty line breaks, and then they write so you don't discover the ending if you haven't seen it yet. If you don't want to know the scores, they used to say when they're discussing the tennis on the TV, "Look away now." Then they'd flash up on the screen what the score was but not say anything. So if you shut your eyes, you haven't watched it yet—you don't spoil the ending.
Okay—God is saying to the spiritual powers in heaven: "If you do want to know the scores, look down there now." And what you will see, in the way this church conducts its life, is the ending of the whole thing.
So, these verses are the heart of the letter of Ephesians. They explain why the presentation of the gospel in chapters 1 to 3 is all about telling us that we have every blessing in the heavenly realms—why it's all about Jew and Gentile being united to God and to each other, and why Paul prays that we might know our blessings and know the details of our hope. And this—these two verses—also explain why the lifestyle in chapters 4 to 6 that flows out of this focuses so much on the way we love and serve each other, on maintaining our unity in various relationships, and on building a healthy church.
Ephesians is all about: how can we be an outpost of heaven? A demonstration of the future?
But these two verses are way more exciting than unlocking Ephesians—they unlock the church. The church is not just a club of people who like hanging out together. We're not just a chance for a bunch of Christians to spur each other on in our individual walks. We are the beautiful, diverse society that God is building. Each of us is a Christian individually so that this wonderful corporate reality of the church can exist.
We are God's showcase of God's entire plan for the universe. It is a glorious privilege—and a responsibility—to belong to it.
So, if you are not yet a Christian, come and join us. Be part of the future today. And if you are—embrace the awesome privilege it is not just to be a Christian, but to be part of that scale model of everything.