Filling the Heart of the Father Eph 4:8-16
Introduction
As I was talking with someone recently about ministry in the marketplace/workplace I could sense a pain in the heart of God the Father; it was a pain we the Church have caused him because of our failure to bring the glory of his Son into all the spaces in the world which were created “through him and for him” (Col 1:16). The importance of seeing Christ’s presence in everything entered my life at the climax of a week of prayer in 1994. After praying 6-6 daily I had a revelation of Jesus ascended and brining restoration to all things (Acts 3:17-21). In the Spirit I saw the Lord bringing his order to the political realm, the arts, business, law, media, education, sport and so on. I later discovered this truth had been expressed by a former PM of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper. “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Since Jesus is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36) every element of culture is called to submit to him (1 Cor 15:25). This experience in prayer transformed me from being a minister with a vision limited to the local church to someone with a prophetic calling to preach Christ as the head of everything in heaven and earth (Eph 1:10). Once we see these things many places in scripture open up to us, Paul says of the Church in Ephesians 1:22-23, “God placed all things under his (Christ’s) feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Eph 1:22-23). Most Christian leadership has failed to proclaim the true dimensions of the call of God’s people to take the life of Christ into the world.
Ministry to All Things
The scope of what it means to the people of God serving Jesus in creation comes out clearly in Ephesians 4. “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
After having taken demonic powers captive through the cross (Col 2:15) the ascended Lord gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as gifts to the Church to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”. Our passage has already told us where this ministry of the saints is to be exercised. “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” (4:10) The New Living Translation expresses this breathtaking vision more directly, “so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.” Christian ministries are to equip Christian people to take the presence of Christ into every sphere of life and culture. This is what Jesus meant by the discipling of nations (Matt 28:18-20).
In Christ we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt 5:13-14) and he passionately exhorts us, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16) The divine light should shine beyond Church and family into science, technology, commerce, trades, manual labour, into everything human beings put their minds, hands and hearts to. For the glory of the Father to shine brightly into every domain of culture requires great wisdom and knowledge from his people. As we will see, it is a wisdom that shines solely through the cross.
Jesus over All through the Church
Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Rev 17:14; 19:16), but how is this to be made manifest in the world? At the start of his Gospel the apostle John declares of Jesus, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:3-5 cf. 8:12). The illuminating light of the life of Christ should continue to shine through us. Paul exhorts fellow believers, “now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Eph 5:8; Phil 2:15 cf. Matt 5:14; Acts 13:47.) The truth that we have been become light in the Lord is so profound that few believers have come to terms with it.
The Puritan Jonathan Edwards boldly describes believers as “little images of the Sun”/“little suns” united by the Spirit with Christ “the Sun of righteousness” (Mal 4:2) reflecting the knowledge and love of God in the world. Edwards is right, because 2 Peter 1:4, tells us we are “sharers of the divine nature” and John says, “God is light” (1 John 1:5). Christ’s life shining through us illuminates the minds of men by revealing that the goal of the gospel is to humanise the world in the likeness of God’s Son. Think about the influence the light of Christ brought through devout Christians like William Wilberforce on slavery, Lord Shaftesbury on child labour laws or Florence Nightingale on nursing. Each of us is called to make our sphere of influence a place fit for the indwelling of the Godhead (cf. Col 2:9-10). Through the Old Testament prophets we know, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14), but through the gospel we know that in the End it is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ which will shine everywhere (2 Cor 4:6; cf. Isa 6:3=John 12:41). We are called to work and witness in ways that make known to those in darkness that to share in Christ’s glory is the true destiny of everything. these are intensely supernatural realities known only by revelation.
Paul reminds the small-minded Corinthian Christians, “all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Cor 3:21-23). We are called to exercise the ministry proclaimed by the cosmic elders of Revelation 5 as they sing to the Lamb of God, “you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (vv.9-10). As priests and kings to God we are called bring the life of Christ into every sphere of human existence, from the bedroom to the halls of parliament. To exercise our royal dignity and priestly ministry (1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6) requires a share in the supernatural humility of the Lamb of God.
Transparency
This lowliness is sadly lacking in a Church where every power block, from Hillsong to Reformed Evangelicals, think they can lead the way in national revival. None of this agrees with Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” This requires the sort of mindset I sensed when I was in church in Indonesia recently. Before I got up to preach I told them the congregation that Australian Christians need to look up to the Church in Indonesia for their powerful prayer life and endurance in the face of persecution. As a body they are more mature than us and I am now presently asking the Lord how I can use my contacts with the Indonesia Evangelical Alliance to gain prayer support for the terrible spiritual state of our own nation.
Since Jesus said “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:26) there is no way his glory will come to Australia without a new appreciation of suffering. These things became very clear to me some years ago when I was visiting a 24/7 prayer centre in Perth called The Furnace. I was drawn to pick up some pencils and sketch a cross, then I found myself placing a red dot at those points on the cross where Jesus shed blood; his head, hands, feet and side (John 19:2, 34; 20:20). I was moved to connect the bloody points with straight lines which gives you a prism. The diagram was completed when I drew white light proceeding through the prism and emerging in all the colours of the rainbow. The white rays symbolise the holiness of God, and the spectrum the glory of God. The cross is the means by which the hidden glory of God is made openly visible in all its beauty. http://cross-connect.net.au/ This image has a down to earth application.
The bloody points of the cross represent not only Jesus’ wounds, but those who bear in their bodies “the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:7), these are mature men and women of God who can authentically testify, with Paul, “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:10-12 cf. Gal 2:20). When the cross has thoroughly purged a group of Christians in Perth of self-interest the Spirit will sovereignly bring them together in networks that can be entrusted with the glory of God to penetrate every sphere of life and culture. It is plain that we desperately need networks of godly engineers, school teachers, nurses, lawyers, tradesmen etc, but the extent of what the crucified Lord wants something more from us is humbling in the extreme.
Considering others more significant than ourselves must extend to all people because this is extent of God’s love in Christ what God has done in Christ. As a famous theologian once powerfully said, “God loves us more than he loves himself.” (Torrance). We must serve others indiscriminately as Jesus has served us (Mark 10:45).
I was very moved recently listening to some African pastors tell stories of people coming to Christ through humble acts of service through the Watato Church in Kampala. They set up cells across the city which prioritise meeting the needs of people they come across in their neighbourhood. Raising funds for a destitute, unemployed refugee contemplating suicide, collecting donations for a sick child, providing meals for a woman dying of AIDS whose medication was ineffective because of her malnutrition. Needless to say, all these people, and many of their friends, have turned to Christ. This is how the nation of Uganda is being discipled. God has strategies of transformation for any place and time, including Australia.
Just a few days ago I received an email titled “Cornwall Mine Miracle”. A few years ago a coal mine in Tasmania was suffering from about 200 accidents per year then under a new Christian manager this dropped to almost zero. It’s all because he spoke to his men about how different the workplace would be if they treated each other in a way consistent with the teachings of Jesus. If they were humble and owned up to their mistakes and took responsibility for them and for each other, if they cared for one another, and put the interests of others ahead of their own. In his own words, ‘It is not because of legalism that Jesus Christ told us to love God and love one another. It was because he knew it was essential to our well-being in all aspects of life.’ With mental illness escalating out of control in our culture many opportunities are beginning to open up for prayerfully bringing Christ’s peace into the marketplace.
When Paul exhorts the Colossians, “above all, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14) he makes a statement that is true not only for the Church but for everything. For the word of God’s power which “upholds all things” (Heb 1:3) is the word of the love of God in Christ crucified and glorified. Christians are called to live in such a way that the supernaturally invisible love of God might come into the light for all (2 Tim 1:10). The Christ-centred passion of every Christian leader must be that the presence of Christ be manifest in nursing homes, factories, schools, universities, offices, businesses, everywhere, through prayer and humble service. The Church needs to see that behind all the good blessings of life is the presence of Jesus.
As I was out praying the other day the Spirit reminded me of an experience I had in Switzerland some years ago. I was walking along the streets of Lausanne in a real state of grief about the hedonistic luxury obsessed culture of Europe, I felt surrounded by an the antichrist spirit blinding the culture to the saving knowledge of the Blessed One (Mark 14:61; Rom 9:5). Suddenly, I cried out, “You are here!”, Jesus was visible in the pearls, the diamonds, the leather handbags, the fine garments of the shop windows… I saw through created things to the unutterable beauty of the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).
In the Spirit we need to see that the wisdom, knowledge and power in the eternal Son of God through whom all things were made in the first creation (John 1:3) has now been perfected in the Word made flesh (John 1:14); a perfection that, amazingly, indwells us as the Bride of Christ The time is coming when the glorious wisdom of God in Christ (Col 2:2-3) will recreate the whole universe (Matt 19:26). Now, through the Church, this wisdom is to be made known to the evil rulers of this present darkness (Eph 3:10; 6:12) by the outstanding sacrificial lives of the people of God. Marvellous and beautiful as this world may be e.g. mathematics, music, physics, medicine, my plumber wants to tell me about the fascinating properties of water, the new world coming (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15) is as exalted above the glories of this world as the ascended glory of Jesus was greater than his earth-bound life.
Conclusion
Since in Christ humanity has been perfected and taken into the heart of God the Father everything (John 1:18), all the spheres of life and culture (Rev 21:24-26) are headed for a future whose splendour is the glory of the Lamb (Rev 21:23). At the centre of the new creation made for Jesus is the radiant glory of the eternal wisdom and love of the cross. This glory will reign forever and ever and in this reign we will share (Rev 22:5). To make this great destiny known now through living lives of sacrificial service wherever God has placed us is our call, a call with no limits. I am not comfortable with the pain the Father feels over the failure of the Church to fill all things with the glory of his Son. I pray you too will be uncomfortable, and dedicate your life to discipling our nation in whatever space the Lord has placed you.