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Father it is very good and necessary
and right for us to still our hearts before you this afternoon. We've just sung from your holy
word about the necessity for us to lay aside fretting and
fussing, worrying which leads only to anger, anxiety of all
kinds and we are, our Father, called
to entrust ourselves to you because you grant the desires of our
heart. That is, our Father, we understand
you grant desires to be placed in our heart which match your
will, which match for the longing and aching of the spirit within
us, are things that you desire for us to be blessed with, you
place those desires there in our hearts. And those desires, our Father,
you then fulfil, that the righteous requirement of the Lord might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. And Father, we come to you in
prayer this afternoon because we know that that which is born
of the flesh is flesh and remains flesh unless the spirit comes. And our hearing of our own selves,
Father, would be no hearing at all unless we had the spirit
within us to open up our ears And we understand, our Father,
how clearly and how strongly there is a battle because the
world and the flesh, the evil one, all of the principalities
and powers would want us not to hear the word of your grace
to us. And we pray, our Father, that
this afternoon may not be a heavy afternoon on us, We give you
thanks for the beautiful lunches that we've been able to have
today. We give you thanks for the warmth of this room. We thank
you for the warmth of one another's company. But let not these blessings
stop our ears to hearing even greater blessings. Keep us alert
and awake by your Holy Spirit, that the light of Christ might
shine on us even as we listen. anoint our hearing as much as
our speaking, anoint our stillness as much as the action of assembling
and talking and sharing. Our Father, over this weekend
we have been given beautiful things to see and to experience.
You have drawn us in to Yourself or rather perhaps our Father
you've revealed to us more fully where we already are, hidden
with Christ in God. And we pray our Father that you
would give us an expansive vision this afternoon. to let us know
what you have planned and purposed for this creation and to let
us know what you have planned and purposed for your sons in
Jesus, to be filled unto all the fullness of God himself. And so Father we pray that you
would be gracious to us and in the hearing of your word fill
our hearts with hope and grant to us in the hearing of that
word faith and love so that by faith and hope and love we might
live before you in the liberty of the great sonship you've granted
to us in Christ. So bless us now as we turn to
your holy scriptures. We pray in the name of Jesus
our Lord. Amen. Now there's a number of passages
that I would like us to have in our minds. I will not be going
through all of these passages in detail this afternoon. But
I'd like us to take a couple of readings as we start. Firstly,
one from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter
15. We know of course that this is
the chapter where Paul is speaking about the great resurrection
of the dead and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 he speaks to us of
the resurrection that has already been accomplished from one point
of view in Jesus and the resurrection that we await because of Jesus'
resurrection. Verse 20, 1 Corinthians 15 verse
20. But now Christ has been raised
from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. Now, my translation there has
firstfruits, I'm not sure what yours might have. But the word
firstfruits is very helpful, it relates to the Old Testament
practice of bringing in the first part of the harvest, And the
word firstfruits carries with it a couple of very important
ideas. Firstly, that if the first part of the harvest is brought
in, that is the guarantee of the rest. They had a celebratory
gathering at the time of the firstfruits because the time
of the firstfruits indicated that the latter fruits, the rest,
would surely follow. Pentecost, interestingly enough,
was the time of the firstfruits. So, when we have all of those
multitudes who are hearing the Gospel on the day of Pentecost
and then from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts
of the earth, they are the firstfruits of the harvest of the nations
but there is another harvest yet to come and if you understand
the pattern of the Old Testament feasts, it was Passover, Pentecost,
three great pilgrimage feasts and then the Feast of Tabernacles.
And some people might suggest, and it has some merit to it,
that we've seen Passover fulfilled in Christ, we've seen Pentecost
fulfilled in the firstfruits and the coming of the Day of
the Spirit and now we await the great harvest, the great Feast
of Tabernacles yet to be fulfilled at the coming of the Son of Man.
But firstfruits means that if the first part of the harvest
is there, then the rest is guaranteed. If Jesus has been raised from
the dead, your resurrection is guaranteed. Second thing is,
the firstfruits indicated the quality of the harvest to come.
So if you took the firstfruits of the barley, when you went
back to the barley field, it was still all barley. In other
words, there was a consistency, a congruence, a matching, a sameness
between what came in the firstfruits in terms of its quality and its
substance and what came in later. So, if Jesus is the firstfruits
of those who are asleep, then those who are asleep will be
of the same quality and substance as the firstfruits. So, A, your resurrection is guaranteed
because of his resurrection. B, the quality of your resurrection
life, what it means for you to be resurrected to eternal life
in Jesus Christ is going to be the same as, one with, identical
in nature to the resurrection nature and life of Jesus himself. But now Christ has been raised
from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. For
since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection
from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own order, Christ
the firstfruits. After that, those who are Christ's
at his coming. Then comes the end when he hands
over the kingdom to the God and Father, This teaching weekend has been
about living as the Father's children. It has been about knowing
God as Father. We've been making much of the
Fatherhood of God and it has not been asked this weekend,
at least not of me or Hector as far as I'm aware, But it could
be said perhaps to us, are you not making too much of the fatherhood?
Are you not diminishing the role of the Spirit? Are you not diminishing
the role of Jesus as Lord? And Paul's answer to that is
no. Because in the end, Jesus the Lord hands over all things
to the God and Father when he has abolished all rule and authority
and power. For he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet. Now the pronouns there
might be a bit confusing. Who is the he who is reigning
and who is the he who is having all his enemies put under his
feet? And it seems to be this, he, that is God the Father must
reign until he has put all his, that is Jesus' enemies or God
the Father's enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will
be abolished is death. for he has put all things in
subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are
put in subjection, it is evident he has accepted who put all things
in subjection to him. When all things are subjected
to him, so the father is putting all things in subjection to the
son, and when all things are subjected to him, then the son
himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all
things to him. so that God, and there from parallel definition
of just a few verses before, God the Father, may be all in
all. So no, I don't think we are making
too much of the fatherhood. The goal of Jesus' sonship resurrected
as the firstfruits is that fullness of the Father for all of those
who share in the life of the firstfruits. It's very similar
in a way to what Paul says in another place in Philippians
chapter 2 where he speaks about every knee bowing and every tongue
confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord and you can finish the
quotation, to the glory of God the Father. So no, I don't think we are making
too much of the fatherhood, I don't think you can make too much of
the fatherhood. But notice this, that the goal
of Jesus' resurrected humanity, which therefore must mean the
goal of God in history and the goal of God before history, before
the foundation and the creation of the world, was that humanity
in Jesus Christ would be subjected to, but also, and we'll get this
from another reading in a minute, filled with the Father Himself. That's your goal because that
is the goal of Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Son. Take another couple of readings,
Ephesians chapter 1 and I'm not planning to exegete
all of these of course, I'm just trying to set out some of the
parameters for our discussion. Ephesians chapter 1. Now in verse 3 we are told this,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
be the God and Father. Fatherhood governs everything
that then happens in the rest of Ephesians and everything that
then flows in the rest of the sentence. Paul was like some
preachers who didn't know where to put in a full stop or a comma.
So, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 right down to chapter 1 verse
14, that whole big block is really in Greek just one sentence. and
the subject which governs the whole sentence is the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And everything in that big sentence
from chapter 1 verse 3 to chapter 1 verse 14 tells us what our
God and Father has done. There are a number of verbs in
there. He has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing. He has chosen us that we would
be blameless and holy before Him. He has predestined us in
love. He has adopted us as sons to
the praise of His glory. He has freely bestowed upon us
His grace. He has redeemed us through His
Son, that is the blood of His Son. He has given us forgiveness
of our trespasses. He has lavished on us that forgiveness
in all wisdom and insight. He has made known to us the mystery
of His will. He has given us an inheritance.
He has purposed to work all things after the counsel of His will
that we who have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His
glory. We, having heard this message, have believed and He
has sealed us in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise. He has
given us the Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance. Now I've
just run through those very quickly, but notice this subject of every
one of those verbs is God the Father. The direct object, that
is the blessee. Can you have a blessee? There
is a blesser, so the receiving of the blessing is the one who
is blessed. We could call him or her the
blessee. The one who brings the blessing
is God the Father. The one who receives the blessing,
the blessee, is us. The subject is God the Father,
but the object of every one of those verbs is us. It's a stunning thought, isn't
it? that God the Father should be
so fixed on us that his whole plan and purpose and intention
is, to quote the word that a friend of mine has used in a song, his
whole plan and purpose is us-ward. We use the word promeity last
night. God is pro-me, he is for me,
pro-us, pro-us-ity. And interestingly enough and
significantly that God the Father who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, God the Father
is the one who through the Son brings us that blessing by the
power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, though the Father
is the acting subject, He does not act alone. He acts always
in consort with and one with the Son and the Spirit because
it would be impossible for the Father and the Son and the Spirit
to act independently because they are members one of another. they love one another, they serve
one another, they are three persons in one divine essence. But it means therefore that the
Father in His action, by virtue of the love that He has, God
the Father primarily is love, the Son is the Son of His love,
the Spirit is the Spirit of love shed abroad in our hearts. God,
the Father in the love that he has for us, his children, his
erstwhile children, his rebellious children, his children who are
children of wrath, even as the rest, his disobedient children,
employs the whole, so to speak, it's not speaking theologically,
it's speaking pictorially, he employs the whole of the divine
family to bring redemption. He employs in that act of redemption
willingly, fully and completely, utterly one with the Son and
one with the Spirit who is one with the Son and the Father in
all they do. But that means, beloved, if we
could only hear this, we had ears to hear this and it seems
almost too bold to say it. God's plan and purpose is focused
on us. But that's always the way it
has been. From the very beginning when
he made us in his image, he made us so that we would be the recipients
of his blessing, so that we would live under his benediction, so
that we would live in the closeness of his fellowship. We have said
on many occasions this week, human fatherhood is always flawed. No human father is sinless. All
human fathers are sinful. But in that human fatherhood,
even we who are wicked know how to give good gifts to our children.
So how much more does our Heavenly Father long to give good gifts
to His children? The answer is, so much more willing
to give than we could ever imagine He's willing to give. And then, as Paul expounds this
great work of God, he utters this prayer which I guess we
were praying in a way last night and in a way which the Lord answered
us in the stillness. Verse 18, I pray that the eyes
of your heart will be enlightened, that you would know the hope
of his calling, the riches of his inheritance in the saints.
And he talks about what he's done when he brought Christ up
from the dead. But it talks about him being
seated at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
rule and authority and power and dominion, verse 21. Verse
22, and he put all things in subjection under his feet and
gave him as head over all things to the church. Just tucked away there in that
little verse is a marvellous truth. We sometimes think that
Jesus is the head of the church and from one point of view that
would be true. The church is his body, he is the head of his
body. But Paul here is saying something
different and more expansive. He's saying that he has been
given as head over all things to the church. So that means as Christ now at
the right hand of the Father, raised by the Father's will,
as the great high priest over the house of God with his hands
extended in the Aaronic blessing and benediction over the house
of God, he is working with every strength of his might to bring
everything for the blessing of the Church. which is his bride,
which is his body, which is the fullness of him, verse 29, who
fills all in all. Can you believe that the church
is his fullness? Not if you look with the eyes
of sight, Because if you heard Hector's wonderful message this
morning, you'd say the church always looks weak, beggarly,
it's a failure, it's full of sin from earthly eyes. But the
Church, in fact, because it is the beloved bride of Christ,
because it is the beloved family of the Father, because it is
the spiritual dwelling place of God in the Spirit, because
the Church is inseparable from Christ, the Church is the fullness
of Him who fills all in all. And He has given Christ as head
over all things to the Church, which means that the rise and
fall of nations, that everything that happens in this world when
the Lord touches volcanoes so they smoke and block up our airways,
no, our airlines or our airways if you're too close to the volcano
and you're breathing in. But when he touches the mountains
so that they smoke, he's doing that for the good of the church.
When he appoints the boundaries and habitations of the nations,
it's for the good of the Church. When he gives power to one of
the enemies of the Church that they might rule over the Church
for a season, he's doing it to bless the Church. Every fibre of Christ's being
is uswood. Every thought of our spiritual
head, every thought and intention and attitude and affection of
our bridegroom's heart is for us to bless, to love, to fill,
to inhabit, to pour himself in. There is absolutely nothing outside
of his sovereign control. and he has been given his head
over all things for the church. And then if we go a little bit
further into Ephesians chapter 3 on this occasion, Paul has been so caught up in
the wonder of many of these things that he's sort of tried to pray
two or three times He hasn't always got there because he keeps
seeing more and more and more. As it happens, as the Lord comes
to us, your mind just keeps opening up and up and up. But verse 14,
he comes to a prayer. For this reason I bow my knees
before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on
earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through
his Spirit in the inner man." Why does he pray that we, the
Church, would be strengthened with power in the inner man? Do you remember on two or three
occasions in the Old Testament we read the account of the glory
cloud coming? In Exodus chapter 40 at the filling
of the tabernacle and then at the occasion recorded in 1 Kings
chapter 8 and in Chronicles of the filling of Solomon's temple.
Glory is related, comes from the Hebrew word related to weightiness
or heaviness. After we've had a lunch like
we've had today, some of us are very glorious this afternoon.
Our tummies are full of glory. But the weightiness of the glory
means that the priests could no longer stand on their feet.
They could not stand to minister. And we just had last evening
the smallest touch of the edge of the garment of His glory and
it rendered us speechless. That's why we have to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man to bear the
weight of glory that God has revealed to us. So that Christ may dwell in your
heart through faith. And that's not even the end of
it. You being rooted and grounded
in love, who is Christ, who is the Father's Son, who is His
glory, who is brought to us by the Spirit in the inner man,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth
and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ
which surpasses knowledge. How can you know something that
surpasses knowledge? Can you remember those of you
who have been married a while, what it was like when you first
met and when you first decided you were going to be married
and when you first married? Like there was a love and still
is in your marriage, is there not? Which just goes on and on
and on and on and on and on and on. It surpasses knowledge but you're
in it, you know it. You can never come to the end
of it. But you rejoice in it, don't
you? That's why you have wedding anniversaries. Just in case you've
got one coming up this week, you better check the calendar. Know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge and this is the goal of it all, this huge
prayer, this huge description of what God has done from Ephesians
chapter 1 through to Ephesians chapter 3. Know the love which
surpasses knowledge so that you would be filled, that you
would be filled up, that you would be filled up to all the
fullness of God himself. Then Paul says, now to him who
is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. God blesses us, his children,
according to the riches of his glory. A friend of mine said
many years ago, he doesn't give something out of his riches,
he gives according to his riches. If you're a very wealthy person
and you put 10 pounds in the offering plate, you've just taken
a little bit out of your riches, probably very little, small change,
if that. But what if you give according
to your riches? What if the manner of your giving
is exactly commensurate with the riches that you have? And so we might think God might
give to us a bit. He might toss us a crumb. He
might glance, give us a glance in our direction and somehow
or other have a bit of mercy on us. But what God is doing
is beyond all that we could ask or think. His purpose to bless
us in Christ is far greater than anything we could ever imagine.
The nature of that blessing in Christ is far richer than anything
we could ever hope for. You could not even try to formulate
a thought about what it would be. You could only have it as
the eyes of your heart are enlightened and your spirit is strengthened
by faith in the inner man and Christ dwells in your heart by
faith and you begin to comprehend the incomprehensible love of
God and then you start to be filled with the fullness of God
and then you start to realise this is never going to end. Because you're never going to
come to the end of God. And so often in our Christian
life, do we not run to the great Atlantic Ocean with a thimble
and run back into our cottage with a thimble and say, look
what I've got. And we spend the next two generations
looking at what happened when we collected the thimble and
putting the thimble on the shelf and it becomes a thimble of our
false worship so to speak. We idolise what happened then
when we filled the thimble. And all the way along there is
an Atlantic Ocean rolling in on our very doorstep. And all
the time Christ is coming to us with the fullness of His hands,
open in blessing, no closed-fisted Christ, this open-handed, open-hearted
Christ. Christ is God the Father's gift. Everything that God the Father
has, to speak loosely, is vested in Jesus Christ. The Father's
whole purpose and identity has been poured into Jesus Christ. All of the fullness of deity
lives in this man, Jesus, in bodily form. And he has formed
him and fashioned him through the womb of the Virgin Mary and
given him to us and said, now you are one with him. He has
come and embraced you as a bridegroom embraces his bride. And you and
she are one. You are together in me, the Father. And so how misdirected when we
want to preserve what's in the thimble and when we worry about
whether we're going to bump it and lose it or what would happen
if we tipped that thimble full of blessing out, would we ever
get any more. and the ocean is there, constant,
rolling breakers, breaking on the shore of our lives, golden
waves of truth come crashing. Grace, mercy, love, peace, joy,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, because that's what the Father
is in himself. and in granting us Christ, he's
granted us his own heart that we might be filled unto
all the fullness of God. The Apostle Peter puts it slightly
differently. He puts it this way, 2 Peter
chapter 1, 2 Peter 1 verse 2, grace and peace
be multiplied to you. Notice that, grace and peace
be multiplied to you. It's not even added, it's an
exponential sort of blessing. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God, God the Father he means there,
and of Jesus Christ our Lord, seeing that his divine power
has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness
through the true knowledge of him who's called us by his own
glory and excellence. For by these things he has granted
to us his precious and magnificent promises." We spoke a lot about
the promises last night, beginning with Genesis 3 verse 15, that
promise of a redeeming seed, the promise of the Son who would
come. great proclamation of the Gospel to sinful Adam, given
because God's intention and purpose was to bless. By these things
he's granted to us great and precious and magnificent promises
so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature." That's a bold statement. I would not make that statement
but Peter did and we probably do need to be
a bit careful the way we think about it. It does not mean that we become
God. As a friend of mine said many
years ago, he is divine, we are the branches. We are always the
branches, we are never divine. We never become God. But in terms of what God is in
all of the fullness of the attributes and characteristics of his person,
In all of the fullness of the Father's love and grace and mercy,
in all of the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit which are
the manifestation of the Father's life, in all of that fullness
we become full participants and full partakers of the divine
nature. That is the goal. That is the
goal. Now, I want to take a step back
for a minute instead of thinking about some of these passages
as we've been reading them and think about the pattern of revelation
in the scriptures. And I want to suggest to you
this, that we have to read the Bible
backwards. We think we have to start with
Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 and read our way through until you
get to Revelation chapter 22. But God's plan and purpose from
the beginning has been Revelation chapter 22. God's plan and purpose from the
very beginning is to have his son as the first fruit. From
before the foundation of the world, God's plan and purpose
was to have his Son as the firstborn of many brothers. From before
creation, God's plan and purpose was that there would be many
conformed to the image of his Son. to come back into the language
of some of the passages we've used. God the Father's plan and
purpose was that we would be filled unto all the fullness
of God. God's plan and purpose was that
we would be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ, from before the foundation of the world.
God's purpose was that Jesus would be one, the elder brother
amongst many brethren and Jesus would not be ashamed of those
brothers but he would stand with them and he would say as the
writer to the Hebrew says, behold me and behold the children you've
given me. And Jesus in saying that is saying
to the Father, look at what you've done. Look at the redemption
you've won. Look at this family. Aren't they
magnificent? And God, the Father, looking
at the family in Jesus, with Jesus, says, Oh yes, my son,
they are magnificent. They in you are my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. and I love them and my blessing
is lavished upon them and my grace is poured out upon them
in measureless fullness and they live in my love and life and
participate in my nature like they live in an endless ocean. Aren't they a great family? And every one of that family
will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. and that whole family together
will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. To try and intensify that a little
bit more, we can put it this way. If, hypothetically speaking,
God the Father were to look at Jesus Christ, His Son, and God
the Father were to look at you standing next to Jesus Christ,
His Son, He couldn't tell you apart. But it's hypothetical because you never stand next
to Christ, you only ever stand in Him. You are one with Him. You are inseparably bound to
Him. He has loved you with an everlasting
love. He has redeemed you from all of your transgressions, all
the brokenness of your life. Everything that has been a ruinous
waste, He's made now a fruitful garden. So, Jesus Christ is the
new Eden, is the place in which we dwell. Jesus Christ is the
new temple, is the place in which we receive fully the Father's
glory and we cannot stand to minister because of the weight
of the glory that we know in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the new creation. Everything we have, we have in
Him. So, at the end, God's plan and
purpose has been to have a community conformed to the image of his
son, filled unto all the fullness of God, blessed with every spiritual
blessing, living in and comprehending the unsearchable treasures of
the bottomless ocean of the love of God, manifesting the glory
and the fullness of God to the uttermost parts of this universe.
God displaying through this family, redeemed through Christ, His
glory to all the principalities and powers, to all the angelic
hosts. God the Father in the midst providing
a banquet for this family, the family participating in the Father's
joy because they participate in the Father, because they participate
in Christ who's in the Father, because they participate in Christ
who's in the Father by the Spirit of the Father who's in them,
who teaches that family to cry, Abba Father, So the whole family
in Jesus Christ conform to the image of Christ, one with Christ,
sings the same song that Christ sings, loves the Father with
the same love that Christ loves the Father, is loved by the Father
in the same way that Christ is loved by the Father, has the
Father's joy in Christ, has the Father's peace in Christ, has
the Father's fullness in Christ, so that what could be said of
the man, Jesus could be said of us. Am I preaching heresy? I'm not talking about what can
be said of Jesus in His divinity. We are not the eternal logos. But as far as our humanity is
concerned, glorified in the risen humanity of Jesus, what can be
said of Him can be said of us. So much so that as we've read
in the book of Revelation, we reign with Christ. We rule with
Christ. We love one another as Christ
loves us. We love the Father as Christ
loves the Father. The Father loves us as the Father
loves Jesus. We are as filled with the Spirit
in that last day as Jesus the man is filled with the Spirit
now. We're as righteous as Jesus is
now. We're as holy and as pure as
Jesus is now. We have all of the riches of
Christ given to us and so we have to read history backwards. Because unless you start at that
end point, What you tend to get is this picture. God the Father
starts off with a good plan and intention. Human beings do a
very stupid thing. God comes up with a very clever
rescue plan and then he gets us back on track and then thinks,
what am I going to do with them? Well, I've sent Jesus so perhaps
he'll be a good model. and I'll teach them to follow
Jesus as a good example and then we get all bound up in the law
of discipleship. But what if God's plan and purpose
has always been that there would be sons and
daughters of a great multitude conformed to the image of his
son. The fall angelic wickedness, human sin,
the cross, the resurrection, the day of Pentecost, the final
resurrection are all part and parcel of God's plan and purpose
to conform us to the image of his son. I think that's the only
way you can read the scriptures really. Otherwise God's always
in the business of playing catch up. Oops, didn't foresee that
happening, oops. No, we are always in the business
of catching up to what God's already doing and what He's already
planned and purposed. So let me ask you this, if we
have to read the Bible backwards, And if that plan and purpose
that God has in Jesus Christ is what is really intended, if
that is God's intention. When God made Adam in his own
image, what does that mean? the great Scottish New Testament
scholar F.F. Bruce who many of you will have
heard of. In his commentary on Colossians
where he's commenting on Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 where it speaks
of Christ being the image of the invisible God. F.F. Bruce makes this comment. He, that is God, made man in
his image so that man might be filled with
the fullness of God. Now it's not an exact quote but
it's the thrust of what F.F. Bruce was saying. When God made man in his image,
he made us congruent, compatible one with Him, commensurate with
Him, so that all that He is can most naturally be poured out
into us, so that we might most naturally be filled out by that
receiving, so that we as His image might most naturally grow
and reflect all that He is. Your being made in the image
of God is not something that just gets you started in creation. Your being made in the image
of God is what the goal of the creation is all about. That that image which Jesus Christ
is in his flesh would be now filled out in every man and woman
in Jesus Christ. Probably sounds a little bit
of a strange statement. God can't fill a cow with himself. He can create a cow and a cow
can do lots of very clever things that God's given it the ability
to do. But that cow can't respond to
God in love in the way that a human being responds. That cow, beautiful
creature though it is, is a cow, it's not a man. Every human being has been made
for that destiny. That's why, by the way, we need
to honour every human being, be they Christian, be they not,
be they your enemy, be they your friend, be they your neighbour,
be the man who's just about to shoot you at the firing squad.
Every human being has been made in the image of God and by virtue
of that is to be honoured and to be loved. Because every human being is
made in the image of God, the fullness of that human beings
life can only be found as they are conformed to the image in
which they are made. Does that make sense? And so while Paul is talking
about the fullness of God and being filled unto the fullness
of God and receiving all of the blessings of the fullness of
God, we may think, oh that's something that belongs to superhuman
people, that's something that belongs to an unusual class of
people. Beloved, that is what God has
for every member of his church. He has destined every one of
us to be filled to that fullness. And we say, ah, I know it will
happen in the end. I know it will happen in the
resurrection. I know it will happen in the last day and my
answer to you is yes, you're right. But, but, it's on now. It starts now. Otherwise, Paul would not pray,
I ask that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened now, in
the present to understand. In the present, beloved, we live
at such a low ebb in the Church. In the present, beloved, he wants
the Church to live in the fullness of the blessing which is granted
it in Christ. He wants the Church to be turned
away from the little thimble that it's carried into its sanctuary
and put there, and he wants the church to be turned to the great
ocean of his endless love, which is thundering against the door,
saying, look this way, look this way, because this is who I am,
and this is where you really are in Jesus. I pray that the
eyes of your heart would be enlightened to see where you really are in
Jesus. I pray that the eyes of your
heart would be to see that in Jesus, the whole fullness of
the Father is yours. Remember the parable of the prodigal?
He says to the elder brother, Son, everything I have is yours. So the Apostle Paul makes this
wonderful statement as we come to a close. From 1 Corinthians 3. Verse 21,
So then, let no one boast in men, I say this reservedly even if that man's name is John
Calvin or Martin Luther or Richard Baxter or William Perkins or
George Smeaton. Let no one boast in men for all things belong to you.
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, they're all yours. Read them
all. And why would your name want
to be tied with a man's name, when the only name that you've
been created to bear is the name of Christ? Read them all. But don't think
in that thimbleful you've got the ocean. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
or the world or life or death, life or death are yours. Things
present or things to come are all yours. All things belong
to you. Doesn't mean you can go and nick
your neighbour's car. But it does mean in the Christian
community, if your brother needs your car, let him have it. All
things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. So how expansive, beloved, is
our vision of what the Father's planned for us? How expansive tonight, this afternoon
rather, How expansive is your heart? How expansive is your
heart to welcome all and sundry? We had this morning here in this
APC congregation a beautiful communion service and the minister here, George,
welcomed us to the table and in all of the places I've ever
been and celebrated the Lord's Supper together, it was the most
expansive welcome I've ever heard. The Father loves us to be around
His table. The Father loves us to be in
His presence. The Father loves to hear us.
The Father loves to see us. He loves to bless us. He loves
to do for us exceeding, abundant, beyond we could ever ask or hope
or think. And He loves to do it because
He loves us, because He's our Father. And He's provided it all in Jesus
Christ. And so beloved, are we still focused on the thimble? Or is there a world and an ocean? And is there a fullness? The
answer is yes. And what we call times of revival,
beloved, is just seeing what's already there. It's not giving
you anything more. It's just seeing what's already
there. But it's all there in Christ.
The whole world is yours in Christ. God the Father is yours in Christ.
Everything is yours in Christ. So that means there's nothing
to be frightened of. Not life, not death, nothing to be frightened
of. The whole world is yours. all because the Father's granted
it. We're going to pray. Abba, Father, dear Father, it is beyond earthly human comprehension
that we should be the recipients of such blessing as we've described
today. And if we didn't know it from
your Holy Word we would never know it. But Father we bless you that
it's not locked up, dead letter in the pages of a book. But by your Holy Spirit you come
to our very hearts and cause our hearts to be enlarged and
the eyes of our hearts to be opened and you show us Jesus
Christ in all his fullness personally. And you bring us the riches of
Christ personally. And to speak in the language
of the parable, our dear Father, you personally run to greet us.
And you personally bring us in to put us at your side, dressed
in the robes of your own righteousness. And you personally bestow upon
us your own fullness. And you personally love us. and your plan and purpose in
eternity, but it begins now in time, our Father, is to be filled
with your fullness. Our Father, forgive us for our
niggardliness, for our party spirit, for our judgementalism,
for our small-mindedness, for our pharisaic critical spirits. Forgive us, Father. for being
so restricted in our affections when your arms are open wide
to the world. Forgive us, our Father, for doubting
your goodness. Forgive us for not being bold
enough to ask everything that you would give. Forgive us for thinking, our
Father, that you are like the unjust judge. Forgive us, our Father, when
we've not seen you in the richness and the fullness of your grace
with your hands dripping with blessing as they come. Oh Father, dear Father, even now, Cause the eyes of our
hearts to be enlightened. Cause a comprehensive revelation
of what you've done in Jesus just to explode within the very
depths of our being. And so Father from that place
let us live and love because we are in you. We belong to Christ and Christ
belongs to God. and we'll be conformed to His
image and you'll be granting us in Christ everything that
you've ever promised Christ. It's ours. And all we ever do is receive. And all we ever do for all eternity
is receive. And as you give, so your joy
overflows. And as we receive, so our love
overflows back Father, let us see by the Spirit
what you've done and who you are. Let us turn away from the
small little containers in which we think we've collected some
spiritual blessing. Throw open the doors, so to speak,
and plunge into the ocean. Father, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
7 - Filled with the Father's Fullness
Series Life as Father's Children (2)
In the seventh session of the HTC teaching weekend on the Isle of Lewis, Noel Due opens up the theme of the Father's glorious destiny for his children, to be conformed to the image of his Son, and to be filled unto all the fullness of God.
| Sermon ID | 627102334237 |
| Duration | 1:01:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 3:14-21 |
| Language | English |
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