The King and His Kingdom: Understanding the Bible's Big Idea (1)

Ephesians 1:15-23

Intro:

=> Ever had to go somewhere you have no idea about, had no directions for yet you knew that you knew you simply had to be there?

=> That's kind of how we approach the Bible: we know that as Christians, we need to read it and study it, but we don't have a clue to how to go about it or (if we're frightfully honest) what it is all about?

=> This series of studies is going to ease up on some of the burden by giving you some tools to understand and apply the Bible's big story

Tonight we have three aims:

1. 2.

Explain how we read the Bible Explain one of the central ideas of the Bible we'll come to Ephesians 1:15-23

3.

Trace that idea throughout the Bible

I. How do we read the Bible?

When it comes down to it, there are only two ways to read the Bible:

Me as the Center: This is the default setting for so many Christians and it's not their fault. We are taught from the earliest point of our Christian lives by precept and practice that we read the Bible as primarily showing us how to live and how to 'do stuff'. We then read everything in that light.

Graeme Goldsworthy, in his classic Gospel and Kingdom, gives the hypothetical example of a Sunday school teacher who gets asked to talk to a bunch of kids on the theme of David and Goliath in 1 Kings 17. A couple of weeks before, the same Sunday school teacher had heard a talk on the same 'Bible study' the basic idea of that talk was that every kid has their own set of Goliaths to battle, and so like David, we need to conquer them with God's help, of course. Now many of us will read that and say, Well that sounds reasonable Dr. Goldsworthy, however, explains why that is the wrong way:

Every time we read the Bible we meet the problem of the right application of the text to us, the meaning of the ancient text to today's world.

The problem with the Sunday school talk with you as David and your problem as Goliath is that in the end, it's neither rooted in the original story or even in today's world.

How then do we connect an ancient text with today's world in such a way as to be both faithful to the meaning of Scripture?

Christ at the Center: The right way is to see the text first in its context and then to see how it points to Christ.

To do that, there are three basic steps:

1.

What did it mean then?

A lot of stupidness could be terminated if folks simple cared for what the text would have meant to those who originally would have heard it first. In our teaching, especially when we gets into the prophets in a few weeks' time, we will be aiming to answer that question first and foremost in a Biblical, Christhonouring way.

2.

How does that point play itself out elsewhere?

Put another way, What does the rest of the Bible say about what this means?

A lot more foolishness could get an early funeral if we simply asked, Where does the rest of the Bible teach that? Throughout our study, it's my hope that you overdose on Scripture. At some point, I will go into 'nerd mode' and the references will come thick and fast. My aim is NOT to show off you'll see plenty of moments where my brain refuses to work but it is my aim to present these truths from the pages of Scripture not because Calvin, Piper, MacArthur or I think it's true.

3.

How do we see Christ in this?

Now this can be done a right and a wrong way that's a whole teaching in itself and maybe one day, I might do it. I will say this do those first two things right and finding Christ will be a doddle. We're going to try and attempt this over the next few weeks and to do that, we're going to trace one idea. There are dozens but we'll pick just the one, and for that, let's turn to Ephesians 1:15-23

II. Tracing an Idea Throughout the Bible

In Ephesians 1, Paul begins with this great song of praise to God the Trinity for all the spiritual blessings we share in Christ (v.3-14). One of the longest sentences in the original Greek, it's a gripping passage of Scripture and I would gladly commend it to you.

After giving the Trinity due praise for who they are and what they do, Paul prays that the Ephesians would get the why of what they do. The why, I would argue, is found all through the pages of Scriptures.

Paul prays that the Ephesian believers would receive a Spiritsent understanding of four things:

1. 2. 3. 4.

That they might know God's person (v.17b) That they might know God's calling (v.18a) That they might know God's riches (v.18b) That they might know God's power (v.19-23)

Firstly, Paul prays that they and we would know God's person. (v.17b) Part of God's plan is that we'd grow in our knowledge of Him:

That starts at salvation: John 17:3 That continues in sanctification: Phil 3:8-10 That finishes (to a degree) in glorification: 1 Cor 13:9-12

Secondly, Paul prays that we would know God's calling (v.18a). He prays that they would know the reality that God has called out of darkness into His marvellous light and called us to glory and virtue. That calling comes with a hope a certain expectation.

Thirdly, that we would know God's riches (v.18b). Warren Wiersbe sums it up pretty well:

This phrase does not refer to our inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:11), but His inheritance in us. This is an amazing truth that God should look on us as part of His great wealth.

Finally, Paul prays that we would know God's power (v.19). Reading v.19, it is clear that there are a lot of power terms. The Amplified Bible:

And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength.

Why? (1) Because we, by nature, are weak and (2) Because we have an enemy.

And what is the proof of this? How do we know we know God, His calling, His riches and His power? We know this because:

He brought [this] about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

God raised Jesus from the dead, enthroned Him with all authority and has put all things under His feet under His dominion. But clearly we still in a life where sin and the Devil seemingly run riot, believers are the butt of the world's jokes and frankly, all things don't seem to be under the feet of Christ. How is God going to bring all things under the feet of Christ once and for all? Through building a Kingdom with His Son as the King.

Now when I say 'the Kingdom of God' in my work as a Bible teacher and all-round theology nerd, two things happen. Either Christians get mad excited as though they are the ones building it or they get very uninterested as though that's just God's concern and we shouldn't really care. I will confess that for a while, I hated the phrase 'the Kingdom' because it seemed like a lot of work and drudgery and generally being a pain in the neck of unbelievers who already hated our guts just because we were Christians on steroids being a pain.

But when we read the Bible, what we find is that the Kingdom of God involves three things: God's people those created by God and for Him God's place the sphere in which He and His people are God's rule/blessing the relationship that comes God and His people being in perfect peace

Time is not on my side to present a full basis for how we get to that conclusion but that definition helps us in drawing up a roadmap for how we approach the Bible.

I.

Seeing the Kingdom in All the Bible

We can basically trace the story of God's Kingdom in the same sort of way you can trace a storyline throughout a book one theme but constantly evolving and changing: The Pattern of the Kingdom the pattern for how this Kingdom was to work was the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve ruling under God in perfect relationship with Him. Man is given dominion over the earth The Perished Kingdom Sin enters the world and when it does, the relationship of God, His people is broken and the blessing of God is lost and that dominion is now warped by sin...but God promises to send a Redeemer to rescue man. The Promised Kingdom God begins to make a series of promises or what the Bible calls covenants declaring his intention to save and deliver man from his less-thangreat situation and ultimately to have a Man in dominion once again The Partial Kingdom In fulfilment of his promise to Abraham, his descendants inherit a land, are in covenant relatioship with God and soon establish a kingly line through which God's promise will be fulfilled.

The Prophesied Kingdom Soon this covenant people fall into sin and apostasy and get carried out of the land by divine judgment. Yet God in his mercies sends the prophets who call the people back into relationship with God and promises a great restoration The Present Kingdom Finally, the fulness of time (Gal 4:4) came and God sent His Son, the one who all the promises and prophecies spoke about, into the world. The aim is that this one will do what Adam failed at and even what Israel failed at. Through his life, teaching and works, Jesus shows that the Kingdom of God was really and powerfully present and that one day He would fully rule and reign The Prophesied Kingdom Jesus returns to glory and it is now up to His body, the Church to proclaim that the King is come, the Kingdom is here and to call men to faith in that King and in the good news surrounding His life and death. The Perfect Kingdom One day, the King will return, once for all deliver the death blow to sin and death and establish the Kingdom fully in a new creation in perfect union with His redeemed people for all eternity.

A lot to work through, but if we take our time, and in the words of the old proverb about eating an elephant, take it in bite-sized junks, we should build a competent picture of the Bible's storyline and begin to see just how fair it is to say that the Bible is a book about a King and His Kingdom