ASHBURNHAM SESSION 4 - PHILIP MOUNSTEPHEN
Ashburnham Session 4: Kingdom & Fulness
Ephesians 3
Cast your minds back a couple of months to Easter. What was the point of everything that Jesus did? The entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Praying in Gethesmane? The last supper? The trail? The cross? What was the point? What did Jesus enter Jerusalem to do, what did he come to make possible?
In a sense – even if it's not immediately obvious – that's what our passage today from Ephesians tells us. The first half of chapter 3 up to v. 13 spells out what Jesus came to do, and the second half, Paul's great prayer for the Ephesian church, spells out what he came to make possible.
We need, I think to be careful that we assume we know what Jesus had come to do in that last week in Jerusalem. Ask many Christians and they'll say something like: he went to Jerusalem so he could die on the cross so I can go to heaven when I die. But what Paul writes here suggests that that is too limited and narrow – and not say distorted - view of what Jesus came to do.
Imagine you're climbing up a high mountain, and it's hard going. But what sustains you is the fact that someone's told you there's a rather nice little tea shop at the top, so you press on. But when finally you've crossed the last ridge what you see is not a tea shop but range after range of breathtaking mountains stretching off into the distance. It rather puts the promised tea shop into perspective.
Well Paul in Ephesians is really concerned that we should get the big mountain top panorama view of what Jesus entered Jerusalem to do, of what he entered the city to make possible, of what the gospel is really about. He wants us to grasp – and be grasped by – the big picture.
Indeed that's what Paul's ministry has been all about – that's why there is that particular personal quality about what he writes here – look for instance at vv. 2 & 3[ ]. Paul has a particular personal calling to make this mystery know – and he's been given particular resources so he can make it known – v. 7 [ ].
And what is this message he's called to share? What did Jesus enter Jerusalem to do, to make possible? Essentially, Paul says, Jesus entered Jerusalem as King in order to bring in the kingdom, the reign, the rule of God. True Paul doesn't use the word Kingdom – but he uses the language of kingly rule all the time. He talks of Jesus as the Christ no less than eight times in this one chapter. 'Christ' as I'm sure you know wasn't Jesus surname. It's a particular title – it's a royal title. It's simply the Greek version of the Hebrew word messiah – a word which means anointed one. And who was the anointed one in ancient Israel? It was the King. To be the king was the be anointed with oil – to be marked out as God's ruler. And at the risk of being very monarchist and very British for a moment that moment of anointing – rather than the crowing – is what lies at the heart of the British coronation ceremony.
And what are the features of this Kingdom Jesus entered Jerusalem to bring into being? Well first of all it's an open Kingdom – that's to say it's one in which Jews and Gentiles can share together. Yesterday we looked at how Jesus through his death broke down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, giving them both the same access to God, through his cross. So the Kingdom he brings in through his death is one on which Jews and gentiles share together. The mystery God has given Paul to reveal is that v. 6 [through...]. Let's just unpack what he's saying.
First of all the gentiles – which I guess includes most of us – are heirs together with Israel. Now what does that mean? What are we to inherit? Actually it’s nothing less – and this is where we need to remember the fantastic mountain-top vista of all this – its nothing less than a promise that we – God’s people – will inherit the world. Think of Adam entrusted with stewardship of all God had made; think of the vision in revelation of God’s people enthroned with Jesus, think of Jesus promise that the meek will inherit the earth. It has always been God’s plan that his people will exercise dominion over his creation – and he hasn’t changed his mind. The promise is not of ruling with Jesus in a disembodied heaven, but of of ruling with and for him in restored, recreated heaven and earth – nothing less than that.
Second Jews and gentiles are members together on one body, the body of Christ. We gentile Christians have a full place with Jewish Christians in the body of Christ. We’re not second class citizens: we are part of his body, he makes himself present to us, and he makes his presence felt through us.
And thirdly Jews and gentiles in the body of Christ share together in the promise in Christ Jesus. The ancient promise to Abraham that he and his descendants would be blessed and would be a blessing to the whole world – those promises are one that the Gentiles too share: we will be blessed and the means of bringing blessing to God’s wide world, from mountain top to mountain top.
That’s what this Kingdom of King Jesus is like – and furthermore says Paul in v. 8 it is a Kingdom of extraordinary riches [ ]. And it is. It is. Christian faith to people outside church often seems like a very narrow, tedious humdrum thing. But sometimes Christians can make it so much less than it as well. A teashop on top of mountain, instead of a glorious panorama of a heaven and earth that is ours to enjoy. These riches that Paul talks about are nothing less than the joy and wonder of God’s people being fully and wholly alive – both now and for eternity.
And God’s people, fully and wholly alive – both now and for eternity have an extraordinary role to play. We’re a kind of trophy, a demonstration to the spiritual powers and authorities of what God can do: v 10 [ ]. We demonstrate the wise loving kingly rule of God to the whole universe. We may feel sometimes we’re practically invisible, but actually we are sign of God’s wisdom, of God’s purposes to the rest of the universe. Nothing less than that – and once again just note how highly God thinks of us his church, that he should use us to that end. He is proud of us, and wants to display us to the rest of the universe. Whatever we may thing of ourselves, we are wonderful in his eyes. And what he loves we should not despise but love and value too,.
So, Paul says, step into all that is ours. Step into all that Jesus went into Jerusalem to do, don’t hold back, but step into the kingdom, step into the presence of the king: v. 12 [ ]. And by the way, Paul adds in v. 13 – don’t worry about me and my suffering – it’s part of God’s plan for you, just as was Jesus going into Jerusalem to die. It was part of God’s glorious plan for you.
And this invitation to step into the Kingdom leads us onto the second half of the passage, and what Jesus came to make possible – and this marvellous prayer that fills verse 14-21. And in essence what Jesus came to do was to make an answer to Paul’s prayer not a pie in the sky home, but something wholly possible.
So what does Paul pray for? He prays essentially for power and love; those are the two dominant themes of the prayer, and Paul wants us to enjoy both in full measure – indeed that is our birthright as Christians, what comes from having God as our father. When Jesus who embodies in himself the power and love of God, rode into Jerusalem he rode in that through his death it might be possible for his followers to receive that same love and that same power in full measure.
And he asks for both love and power for us for one simple reason – that we may be ever more deeply rooted into Jesus, that we have both power and love to know his power and love – there’s a wonderful circularity in the argument, that speaks of an ever growing, and ever deepening relationship – with just one aim – v. 19 [ ]. Again isn’t an astonishing thing – such a glorious mountain top panorama – it’s certainly not on offer at the tea shop: that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
And when that happens – well then everything becomes possible; vv. 20 & 21 [ ]. It’s tremendously faith stretching stuff isn’t it?
Just imagine what God could do in us and for us and through us as a church – and then double it, and treble it, and quadruple it. All that and more God can do amongst his people, by the power which is at work in us. You see the only think we should expect is to be surprised. The only thing we should expect is to expect the unexpected – because God really can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
I said just now that the Paul’s prayer has one aim in mind for us: that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.. But there is another aim that we should have. To the one who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine glory is to be given. God is simply to be given his due; he is to be glorified.
When I was vicar in Streatham my prayer was ‘Lord fill your church’. It wasn’t a bad prayer, because it wasn’t just about numbers – it was also about knowing his presence in us. But it was to an unhealthy degree, I have to say, a bit ‘me’ centred. After all it reflects well on the vicar, doesn’t it, a full church?
But that’s not my prayer for St. Michael’s – my prayer is simply that the Lord will be glorified there, that there he will be given what is his right, that there he will be lifted up, praised, honoured, shared, known and loved – that he will be given his due. Because he is the Lord, he is the King, and we live in his kingdom, under his rule.
So where does this leave us? Here are two negatives for you, and I’ll follow them with too positives. First of all, don’t underestimate what Jesus came into Jerusalem to do. This business of the kingdom isn’t a narrow personal world denying thing. It’s actually about the transformation of all creation, starting with us. It’s not just about going to heaven when you die, it’s about the kingdom: God’s kingly rule being made known in his people and through his people to the whole of the universe. It’s not the tea shop but the mountain top vista.
Second, don’t underestimate what he can do. Because God is King, there is nothing he cannot do. There are no limits on him. The only limiting factor is our failure of imagination, of courage and of faith. So let’s not put any limits on what he can do, but expect – and ask for - the unexpected from him.
Those are the negatives – and here are the positives. Let’s heed the invitation to step into what is ours. Maybe you feel you’re standing just below the ridge, expecting the tea shop. Well don’t hold back, but take that step forward and be amazed by all that God has for you.
And secondly have the courage to pray this prayer and dare to expect the Lord to answer it amongst you – that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God – and that he may be glorified.
Here’s one tiny closing thought. Paul’s desire is not simply that God should be glorified in Christ Jesus – in all that Jesus did in his life, death and resurrection. Paul’s desire is that God should be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus. Not that he wants to detract from what Jesus did – not at all – but rather it’s because the Church is so directly the product of what Jesus did, and the demonstration of what he did, and the body which he now indwells and empowers, that the two cannot really be separated, so utterly does he love his church, and so deeply committed to it is he. He entered Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday to make his Kingdom possible, to make his church possible, to make us possible. Everything he did he did for us. Everything he did he did for his church. Let’s pray.
Time in groups...
If this prayer was answered in us, what might some of the results be?
Discuss and pray together.
What as a Church do you think God might be saying to you through these 3 chapters of Ephesians....?
Plenary
Ephesians 3
Cast your minds back a couple of months to Easter. What was the point of everything that Jesus did? The entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? Praying in Gethesmane? The last supper? The trail? The cross? What was the point? What did Jesus enter Jerusalem to do, what did he come to make possible?
In a sense – even if it's not immediately obvious – that's what our passage today from Ephesians tells us. The first half of chapter 3 up to v. 13 spells out what Jesus came to do, and the second half, Paul's great prayer for the Ephesian church, spells out what he came to make possible.
We need, I think to be careful that we assume we know what Jesus had come to do in that last week in Jerusalem. Ask many Christians and they'll say something like: he went to Jerusalem so he could die on the cross so I can go to heaven when I die. But what Paul writes here suggests that that is too limited and narrow – and not say distorted - view of what Jesus came to do.
Imagine you're climbing up a high mountain, and it's hard going. But what sustains you is the fact that someone's told you there's a rather nice little tea shop at the top, so you press on. But when finally you've crossed the last ridge what you see is not a tea shop but range after range of breathtaking mountains stretching off into the distance. It rather puts the promised tea shop into perspective.
Well Paul in Ephesians is really concerned that we should get the big mountain top panorama view of what Jesus entered Jerusalem to do, of what he entered the city to make possible, of what the gospel is really about. He wants us to grasp – and be grasped by – the big picture.
Indeed that's what Paul's ministry has been all about – that's why there is that particular personal quality about what he writes here – look for instance at vv. 2 & 3[ ]. Paul has a particular personal calling to make this mystery know – and he's been given particular resources so he can make it known – v. 7 [ ].
And what is this message he's called to share? What did Jesus enter Jerusalem to do, to make possible? Essentially, Paul says, Jesus entered Jerusalem as King in order to bring in the kingdom, the reign, the rule of God. True Paul doesn't use the word Kingdom – but he uses the language of kingly rule all the time. He talks of Jesus as the Christ no less than eight times in this one chapter. 'Christ' as I'm sure you know wasn't Jesus surname. It's a particular title – it's a royal title. It's simply the Greek version of the Hebrew word messiah – a word which means anointed one. And who was the anointed one in ancient Israel? It was the King. To be the king was the be anointed with oil – to be marked out as God's ruler. And at the risk of being very monarchist and very British for a moment that moment of anointing – rather than the crowing – is what lies at the heart of the British coronation ceremony.
And what are the features of this Kingdom Jesus entered Jerusalem to bring into being? Well first of all it's an open Kingdom – that's to say it's one in which Jews and Gentiles can share together. Yesterday we looked at how Jesus through his death broke down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, giving them both the same access to God, through his cross. So the Kingdom he brings in through his death is one on which Jews and gentiles share together. The mystery God has given Paul to reveal is that v. 6 [through...]. Let's just unpack what he's saying.
First of all the gentiles – which I guess includes most of us – are heirs together with Israel. Now what does that mean? What are we to inherit? Actually it’s nothing less – and this is where we need to remember the fantastic mountain-top vista of all this – its nothing less than a promise that we – God’s people – will inherit the world. Think of Adam entrusted with stewardship of all God had made; think of the vision in revelation of God’s people enthroned with Jesus, think of Jesus promise that the meek will inherit the earth. It has always been God’s plan that his people will exercise dominion over his creation – and he hasn’t changed his mind. The promise is not of ruling with Jesus in a disembodied heaven, but of of ruling with and for him in restored, recreated heaven and earth – nothing less than that.
Second Jews and gentiles are members together on one body, the body of Christ. We gentile Christians have a full place with Jewish Christians in the body of Christ. We’re not second class citizens: we are part of his body, he makes himself present to us, and he makes his presence felt through us.
And thirdly Jews and gentiles in the body of Christ share together in the promise in Christ Jesus. The ancient promise to Abraham that he and his descendants would be blessed and would be a blessing to the whole world – those promises are one that the Gentiles too share: we will be blessed and the means of bringing blessing to God’s wide world, from mountain top to mountain top.
That’s what this Kingdom of King Jesus is like – and furthermore says Paul in v. 8 it is a Kingdom of extraordinary riches [ ]. And it is. It is. Christian faith to people outside church often seems like a very narrow, tedious humdrum thing. But sometimes Christians can make it so much less than it as well. A teashop on top of mountain, instead of a glorious panorama of a heaven and earth that is ours to enjoy. These riches that Paul talks about are nothing less than the joy and wonder of God’s people being fully and wholly alive – both now and for eternity.
And God’s people, fully and wholly alive – both now and for eternity have an extraordinary role to play. We’re a kind of trophy, a demonstration to the spiritual powers and authorities of what God can do: v 10 [ ]. We demonstrate the wise loving kingly rule of God to the whole universe. We may feel sometimes we’re practically invisible, but actually we are sign of God’s wisdom, of God’s purposes to the rest of the universe. Nothing less than that – and once again just note how highly God thinks of us his church, that he should use us to that end. He is proud of us, and wants to display us to the rest of the universe. Whatever we may thing of ourselves, we are wonderful in his eyes. And what he loves we should not despise but love and value too,.
So, Paul says, step into all that is ours. Step into all that Jesus went into Jerusalem to do, don’t hold back, but step into the kingdom, step into the presence of the king: v. 12 [ ]. And by the way, Paul adds in v. 13 – don’t worry about me and my suffering – it’s part of God’s plan for you, just as was Jesus going into Jerusalem to die. It was part of God’s glorious plan for you.
And this invitation to step into the Kingdom leads us onto the second half of the passage, and what Jesus came to make possible – and this marvellous prayer that fills verse 14-21. And in essence what Jesus came to do was to make an answer to Paul’s prayer not a pie in the sky home, but something wholly possible.
So what does Paul pray for? He prays essentially for power and love; those are the two dominant themes of the prayer, and Paul wants us to enjoy both in full measure – indeed that is our birthright as Christians, what comes from having God as our father. When Jesus who embodies in himself the power and love of God, rode into Jerusalem he rode in that through his death it might be possible for his followers to receive that same love and that same power in full measure.
And he asks for both love and power for us for one simple reason – that we may be ever more deeply rooted into Jesus, that we have both power and love to know his power and love – there’s a wonderful circularity in the argument, that speaks of an ever growing, and ever deepening relationship – with just one aim – v. 19 [ ]. Again isn’t an astonishing thing – such a glorious mountain top panorama – it’s certainly not on offer at the tea shop: that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
And when that happens – well then everything becomes possible; vv. 20 & 21 [ ]. It’s tremendously faith stretching stuff isn’t it?
Just imagine what God could do in us and for us and through us as a church – and then double it, and treble it, and quadruple it. All that and more God can do amongst his people, by the power which is at work in us. You see the only think we should expect is to be surprised. The only thing we should expect is to expect the unexpected – because God really can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
I said just now that the Paul’s prayer has one aim in mind for us: that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.. But there is another aim that we should have. To the one who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine glory is to be given. God is simply to be given his due; he is to be glorified.
When I was vicar in Streatham my prayer was ‘Lord fill your church’. It wasn’t a bad prayer, because it wasn’t just about numbers – it was also about knowing his presence in us. But it was to an unhealthy degree, I have to say, a bit ‘me’ centred. After all it reflects well on the vicar, doesn’t it, a full church?
But that’s not my prayer for St. Michael’s – my prayer is simply that the Lord will be glorified there, that there he will be given what is his right, that there he will be lifted up, praised, honoured, shared, known and loved – that he will be given his due. Because he is the Lord, he is the King, and we live in his kingdom, under his rule.
So where does this leave us? Here are two negatives for you, and I’ll follow them with too positives. First of all, don’t underestimate what Jesus came into Jerusalem to do. This business of the kingdom isn’t a narrow personal world denying thing. It’s actually about the transformation of all creation, starting with us. It’s not just about going to heaven when you die, it’s about the kingdom: God’s kingly rule being made known in his people and through his people to the whole of the universe. It’s not the tea shop but the mountain top vista.
Second, don’t underestimate what he can do. Because God is King, there is nothing he cannot do. There are no limits on him. The only limiting factor is our failure of imagination, of courage and of faith. So let’s not put any limits on what he can do, but expect – and ask for - the unexpected from him.
Those are the negatives – and here are the positives. Let’s heed the invitation to step into what is ours. Maybe you feel you’re standing just below the ridge, expecting the tea shop. Well don’t hold back, but take that step forward and be amazed by all that God has for you.
And secondly have the courage to pray this prayer and dare to expect the Lord to answer it amongst you – that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God – and that he may be glorified.
Here’s one tiny closing thought. Paul’s desire is not simply that God should be glorified in Christ Jesus – in all that Jesus did in his life, death and resurrection. Paul’s desire is that God should be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus. Not that he wants to detract from what Jesus did – not at all – but rather it’s because the Church is so directly the product of what Jesus did, and the demonstration of what he did, and the body which he now indwells and empowers, that the two cannot really be separated, so utterly does he love his church, and so deeply committed to it is he. He entered Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday to make his Kingdom possible, to make his church possible, to make us possible. Everything he did he did for us. Everything he did he did for his church. Let’s pray.
Time in groups...
If this prayer was answered in us, what might some of the results be?
Discuss and pray together.
What as a Church do you think God might be saying to you through these 3 chapters of Ephesians....?
Plenary
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:02 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home