Way Beyond the Discovery Channel, Eph, 2:7
Ephesians 2:7 · Vern Peterman · Jul 4, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826239314752

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This morning, as Wayne read for us, we'll be taking a look at Ephesians 2.7. And amazing, it's kind of the completion of the passage we looked at this last week. So it begins with a dot, dot, dot, so that. It's continuing on a thought. And we'll want to take a look at that because what it is, he has spelled out how we've been identified with Christ. And the five areas in which we've been identified with Christ have been spelled out in scripture, and he's mentioned a few of those just right in the prior passage. But where this takes us is, he says, so that, and then here's the result, the purpose, the direction towards which we've been identified. Now that's worth listening to, isn't it? We talk about having been identified with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection, ascension and seeding.

And now we see, how come? Why? So we ask the question, why have we been identified with Christ? Real good question, isn't it? It's nice to know these things. It's helpful for us to understand the identification truths, the fact that we've been identified with Christ from His death all the way to being seated with Him.

But what's the purpose beyond that? What does God have in mind? What's God's intent in doing so? What difference does it make eternally? If you look at it, we've been identified with Christ and we're being conformed to His image. What's the purpose? Where is that headed? What does God have in mind? What's God's intent?

One way to look at it, to test it out, a couple hundred million years from now, what difference will it make? How will it matter long time from now? Will it be that we'll just be extremely glad for eternity that we're not in hell? Will that be all there is to it? Will we be up there for hundreds of millions of years and after hundreds of millions of years we'll say, boy, I'm sure glad I'm not in a place where it's really hot. Will that be all? Or will that be enough after hundreds of millions of years? I think what he's got in mind is far more deep, far more substantial, and far more interesting than just being eternally relieved. Think about it.

Here we are on planet Earth, and the clock of time just keeps running along. It keeps moving. Here we met this week, we met the week before, we met the week before that, met the week before that. Time keeps ticking, doesn't it? The pages of our day timers keep flipping by. We put up old calendars and throw away, put up new calendars, throw away the old ones.

We live on Earth time now. And by the way, I'm really glad the Earth doesn't spin this fast. Nonetheless, we live on Earth time now. The Earth's rotation and its orbit around the sun is what clocks and calendars and marks our time. And the Earth clocks time as it moves around the sun. Here's this orbit going on. All these things keep marking our time here on planet Earth.

Ever wonder though, I'm sure you have, ever wonder what will heaven be like? It's interesting, and you've probably pondered this, isn't it interesting that the Bible does not go into immense detail telling us what heaven's going to be like. Ever wonder about that? Hey, you're going to spend eternity in this place, what's it like?

Well, here's a little bit of information. Scripture does not go into immense detail about what it's going to be like to live an eternity. We have some information, yes we do. But it doesn't go into lots of detail. It doesn't say on March 6, 2023 that Vern's going to be doing this. It doesn't outline that.

Lots of things we could ask, we don't know. Will I recognize somebody? Questions we aren't given a lot of direct and immediate answers to. See this rectangle up here, kind of long? Let's say that's 10,000 years. Now, 10,000 years compared to eternity is not very long. But the lifetime that the average person lives is about the length of that little end on the rectangle compared to the 10,000 years. When we've been there 10,000 years, it shows you how long compared to this lifetime that people on planet Earth are all focused upon. What will we do there for eternity?

Oh, I hope not. All learn to play harps really, really well? Practice section 5263. Will we sit in quiet halls listening to the clock tick the moments by? Will we drink endless cups of coffee in order to stay awake since there is no night and to put some interest in the conversation? Now that we've been seated with Christ, will we be saying, it's sure a good thing this seat is comfortable because I'm going to be sitting in it for billions and billions of years. Will that characterize eternity? What he's explaining here, he's starting to give an answer to what this eternity is all about. We studied last time about how God was rich in mercy, and because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins, then He identified us with Christ. Made us alive.

Raised us up. Seated us with Him in the heavenly places. Not in the future. Done deal. Already, you have been seated with Christ. You have been identified with Christ as He was seated, and therefore seated with Him. Notice verse 7. How does it start? Two really, really, really big little words. So that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now there we begin to get an answer. I was really worried about those harp lessons. Twiddling the thumbs really wasn't appealing to me at all. What we see here in verse 7 is he turns a corner. He's saying, this is why. This is the so that. This is why you have been saved. This is what you've been saved for. Here is the so that. so that in the ages to come, He might show His surpassing greatness.

We've been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding for a further purpose. You notice when we study those passages that talk about how we've been identified with Christ in those five ways, that there are benefits that are evident and described in each of those passages. Have you noticed that? This tells us, here's God's ultimate purpose in it. Here's the direction in which those identifications are headed. God identified us with Christ, and He did so with marvelous and profound benefits, so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His kindness and grace toward us in Christ Jesus. That's the intent. There's a direction for all this.

When we looked at Ephesians 19 through 21, 21 ends with not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And the thing that we explained is in the Jewish concept of things, and you have this on your handout as well. And by the way, for those who are joining us for the first time, this is the page number on your handout.

There was the present evil age in the Jewish way of speaking of things and the age to come. And so you had those two ages. That was time on planet Earth. You had the present evil age or the age to come, and that was it. That was the way that they spoke of things. And you will find those references to the present evil age and the age to come throughout the New Testament. And Ephesians 1 is one of those places. Okay? That's the picture of things on planet Earth.

So when he comes along here and says, ages to come, he's talking beyond those, isn't he? Not just this one. Not just one to come. And by the way, that's the end of Earth after the one to come. Earth is done. Earth is through. We're talking about ages upon ages upon ages, rolling and unfolding ages, ages to come, the ones coming, the ones coming after that, and the ones after that. And these ages are not short little segments of time, not little tidbits either. Rolling ages upon ages, then the ones to come with no end in sight, He will show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. See that? This word show is interesting.

The Greek word translated show is used in the Greek Old Testament in Exodus 9.16 where God says to Pharaoh through Moses that He will show to Pharaoh His power. That's the word.

I'm going to demonstrate. That's the idea. I'm going to demonstrate to Pharaoh. I'm going to show His power. What is that telling us? God is going to demonstrate to us, demonstrate to us His character in the ages to come. Okay? That's what He's talking about.

So in Exodus 9, 16, it says, But indeed for this reason I, God speaking, have allowed you to remain in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. This word show is glorifying God, isn't it? This word show is showing who God is. It's showing God's character. And Paul uses the exact same word here.

He's saying God's going to demonstrate, like Pharaoh saw clearly, God's going to demonstrate His character to us. Now, isn't that interesting? He doesn't say, hey, I'm going to show this to a whole bunch of other folks and you can watch if you'd like. to us, to you, to me, to every believer. He's going to spend eternity demonstrating visibly, perceptibly, His power and character.

When we studied the book of Revelation, we saw the 24 elders who represent the church in heaven praise God for creation, they praise God for redemption, for reigning in judgment and reward, And they praise God for judgment, finally, at the very end of the tribulation period. But that's just during the tribulation period. It's all in response, and you'll see that as they praise the Lord, it's in response to who God is and what God has done. Every single time in these verses, every single time they praise the Lord, it's in response to what God has done and who He is. Our praising the Lord in the heavenlies will be much the same, because the first thing to happen will not be our starting to praise Him, but Him showing us His character and we responding to that.

Now, did you notice some things beyond the coffee and the ticking clock? We might be inclined to ask what we're going to be doing in heaven. Does this verse spell that out? The verse spells out not what we do. The verse spells out what God does. God is the one who takes action. God did all the identifying with Christ's crucifixion, and His burial, and His resurrection, His ascension and seating. God did all the work. We're the recipients of it, but God is the one who took the action. This is also the very same way. God is the one who will take the initiative, who will do the demonstrating. He is the one who takes the action.

We are inclined to say, boy, what am I going to do? I hope it's good coffee. Are there different ways to twiddle my thumbs? We wonder what we're going to do. God says, I'm not even the least worried about that. He says, let me tell you what I'm going to do. There's this word surpassing that shows up here, and we've seen that word before.

Ephesians 1.19 talks about the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. This passage we're looking at now, that He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3.19, when we get there, will say, to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

In Greek, it's the same word. It's hooperballo, okay? It means overthrown. Way over, okay? Now, in our culture, overthrown is not a good thing, okay? That's called an error, okay? And we mark those and we say that's bad, okay? This is good. This is all good, okay? This is all good. And by the way, that word ballo is where we get our word ball, right? Hyper is where we get that word, so it's hyperball is what it's talking about.

Way overthrown. Notice that each time this word is used in Ephesians, it is used to describe God's character in the extreme. And when it does so, it does so by modifying an already extreme word. The surpassing greatness or riches. The word's already extreme, and what he's doing is he throws in this word. He is saying this overthrown, way over the top.

He says, you thought God was merciful. He's really merciful. He's trying to get the point across. You thought that the Lord was loving. He's saying His loving is way over the top. We're not talking hitting the ball out of the ballpark. We're talking about hitting out into orbit. This is the kind of word that he's trying to get across. The Lord is not of a character that he's just merciful enough, that he just happens to love you just barely enough. He isn't just adequately gracious. He's way overthrown gracious. Boy, okay.

Now, we brought up last week that this word grace that he brings up here. The Christians adapted and redefined the word. We mentioned that. Grace was typically used to describe how people would do favors for friends or relatives. And that was the word charis. That was how the word was used in the pagan culture.

Christians came along and stretched the word so that it had a meaning beyond the pagan culture because here's God who, as Paul explains, God did these things for us when we were yet sinners, when we were enemies, when we were not even worthy of any favors.

And we hadn't even recognized our need. Now what does He do? He stretches it even beyond that. We brought up last week the point that the pagan idea of grace, the way they used the word was, here's a little favor for you. God comes along and said, here's a favor for you.

What happens now in Ephesians 2.7, he says, all right, we're going to make this word just blow over the top. And you're expecting me to blow your eardrums out, right? Okay. We won't go there. That's dangerous. But the idea is, I can't fit it on the page.

He's saying God's grace is so immense that it is going to take eternity, folks, for you to get an understanding of how immense it is. And when five trillion years have gone by, you've just barely begun. Do you get it? Do you see what he's saying? This word grace, it's no different than the word that was used by the pagans. They said, hey, I'll do a little favor for you. But the meaning of the word is so profound that all eternity is not enough time to explain and expand and expound upon God's grace.

This is why John Newton, better than two centuries ago, would come along with this song, Amazing Grace. You know that John Newton murdered, some by negligence, some by intent, dozens of black slaves. He fathered dozens, he's not sure how many, of illegitimate children. By the time he'd come across this and this realization, He could look back and say, man, I am not worthy of anything. And so that's why the grace was so amazing. Fantastically amazing. The version I've got up here has five verses. Actually, he wrote six verses.

We usually hear of only four. And then the seventh verse, which is one of the verses that we're familiar with, was one he didn't write at all. It first shows up some couple of decades after he died. But what's interesting, I'd like us to take a look at the last couple of verses here. And this one here is a slight modification of the last verse that he did write. I've modified it slightly, but then our purpose is here. And I'll sing the first verse with you, and then I'd like to have you join me in the next one. Okay, can you handle that?

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow. The sun forget to shine. With Christ I'm seated, ever Him to know. He'll be forever mine. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise. than when we first begun. Do you see? I think John Newton had a real key insight here. 10,000 years doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Matter of fact, how much has it reduced the time that we'll have to sing His praise? That we'll have to understand His glory? How much will it reduce it?

Zip. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. The same time will remain after 10,000 years. We think of it as a long time. I showed you an example earlier, that little line in front of the 10,000 years bar. The times that we live, the little seconds that our clock ticks off, will be nothing. The time past will be not worthy of consideration. Think of the greatest trauma in your life. Will you be focused on that for eternity? I think not.

You know, we can get easily focused on the worst thing that has happened to us. We can get easily focused on and centered upon as human beings the worst things that we've done. And some people will even have the audacity to think that God can't forgive what I've done. And God can't possibly forgive what that other person has done for me. His grace is so amazing It's so phenomenal that to demonstrate it, to demonstrate it, eternity will not be enough time. How wonderful that is, to remember. That's how marvelous a grace our Lord has. And you know what? After 10,000 years, I don't think we'll be yawning. And I don't know what brand of coffee people are going to drink, but I don't think it's going to be something we're going to be looking for. Did you notice something?

That the revealing and the demonstration of the surpassing character of God, this is power in Ephesians 1.19, and grace in Ephesians 2.7, is toward those who believe and are therefore in Christ.

Ephesians 1.19, when we studied it, said, the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

This overthrown greatness of His power, that's His character, folks. is in the direction of you who believe. You're a believer here this morning? It's in your direction. This verse that he might show, demonstrate that you might see very understandably the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness focused on who? Us. If you're a believer here this morning, it's focused upon you.

The God of the universe, the One who stretched out the heavens unfathomable distances, immense intricacy and order, designed beyond comprehension, that God says, I can't wait, matter of fact, I won't, to show you my character. And when half an eternity has gone by, it's still not eaten up any of it, and you will have learned more of me, and yet there is still more to go, and you will not begin to get bored. We're concerned about what we're going to do because that's going to keep us from getting bored. God is saying, my character is not something that you will get bored about. This is how it looks if we were to show it graphically. Show the surpassing riches of His grace, that is, in the Greek there, has the construction, in kindness towards us, entirely within kindness.

He's not going to show the surpassing riches of His grace and you go, ouch. Okay? Not going to happen. All of the showing, all of that demonstrating, see, it's not going to be like Pharaoh who says, okay, I know the Lord's power. Oops. Okay? It's not going to be like that.

He's going to show to demonstrate visibly, noticeably, understandably the surpassing riches of His grace, and every single little bit of it will be in kindness towards us. Wow! Do you want the God that created the universe, the God that cares for all the small intricacies of atoms and cells, that same Lord who says, no, I tell you what, we're going to get rid of that. If you want something really interesting, I'm going to direct my attention towards you, showing you, demonstrating for you for the rest of eternity, the depth of my grace for all of time and way beyond time.

That's what he's saying here. Then we've got to ask the question, you know, why do I believe that? I mean, I'm the guy that messed up. If I were to sit here and start telling you the things that I've done wrong, not only would you get bored after a while, you'd probably leave, besides getting hungry.

That is the Lord who says, I loved you so much that I'm going to spend eternity showing you my grace. showing you my grace. Why should he do that? How come? What did I do to deserve that? After all the things I've done that are messed up, things I've done to hurt other people, things where I've fallen short, why?

Why should I deserve that? is because by God's grace I'm in Christ Jesus. That's why. That's the only reason why. The kindness that He shows towards us is for one reason and one reason only, and that's because if you're a believer here this morning, you are in Christ Jesus. That is why. It is not because you came here and you said, you know, I've been here every Sunday and I've been here like clockwork. And boy, I've been working real hard at this God and you better do something good because I've earned it.

Okay? It's none of that. It is entirely because of His grace and in His grace having placed us in Christ Jesus. He looks at us and He doesn't see our history. He doesn't look at, here's the list of all the things that Vern has done wrong. Here's all the ways that Vern has blown it. He looks at Vern and He sees Jesus Christ.

That's the only reason why. And it's the same for you. Your history is not your history. It's the history of Jesus Christ because you've been identified with Him. It is in Christ that He says, now that's worth spending eternity showing my grace. That's worth it. It's because of who we are in Him. It is because of having been placed in Him by God's doing, okay? Not because I've earned it. Not because anything other then God says, you believe, that's good enough for me. That's all. God's kindness towards us is entirely based upon who we are in Christ, period, exclamation point. Nothing I deserve, nothing I earn, not because I'm a great guy or anybody likes me or anybody doesn't like me. That's not the point. It's entirely because we've been identified with Him in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. Is it possible that as human beings we might be, because of our limited viewpoint, be inclined to ask the wrong questions?

You see, primarily, eternity isn't about what we've done, but about what He's done. That's what it's about. The eternity that believers are looking forward to is not about what we've done. It's all about what He's done. We ask, you know, what about me? And the Lord says, hey, it's Jesus Christ. We're inclined to ask, well, what will we do in heaven for eternity? This says that the relevant question is, what will He do? What will He do?

I somehow have a hard time thinking that that's profoundly boring. Can you imagine the Lord, you know, in kindness toward us, and what He's going to do for eternity to just bore us to tears? I can't imagine that. That's not kindness, okay? It doesn't answer the question, what will we do? But it answers the question, what will He do? And it's kindness.

Eternity isn't primarily about who we are and what we will be like. There's lots of questions we could ask, isn't there? There's lots of questions we could ask, you know, what about this body? Will I recognize my spouse and family and friends? You know, we just don't have a lot of answers for those things. Eternity isn't about answering those questions. Eternity is about who He is and what He's like and what we are and what we're like because of who God has made us to be.

That's the key. This morning we're going to be participating in the Lord's Table, and as we do so, with this verse in mind, think of this. We're going to be looking at the Lord's Table, and remember that the Lord sat down with His disciples as He instituted this, and we covered this a couple months back, It's the crossroads where we bring the Passover up to the institution of the Lord's Table. And this event where the Lord met with his disciples the night before he was betrayed was the touchpoint between all those Passover traditions and now the beginning of the Lord's Table. And as he did so, he says, do this in remembrance of me.

He's wanting them to remember that time when God took the action to identify them with Christ in His death. The starting point for this eternity. The starting point for this eternity. Why did the Lord identify us with Christ in His death? Why did the Lord go to the cross?

We just looked at the answer. The Lord says, He says, I can't wait because I've got something to show you and I'm going to demonstrate it for you throughout the rolling ages of eternity. Isn't that a marvelous thing? And it won't be something, I can't imagine, if it's kindness towards us, where we're sitting there yawning and saying, yeah, I've seen this before. It won't be like that. What is going to happen is five trillion years from now, if Earth time means anything at all, the Lord is going to demonstrate His character before us and we're going to go, after five trillion years, we're still going to go gasping, wow, after all that time. eternally amazed. This is His amazing grace. If we were to put another word in front of it, eternally amazing grace. But He puts another word beyond it. Overthrown eternally amazing grace. Eternally gasping kind of grace.

That's what He's going to show us. As we look to the Lord's table this morning, and we'll be led into that shortly here, I would just invite you to recall that. that what the Lord was doing, He was paying a price. He was plenty willing to pay. Because He says, I'm going to love spending eternity showing you the depth of my character. And you will be eternally, overthrown amazed. Eternally amazed. Isn't that wonderful?

Let's pray. Lord, how marvelous a thing you have done here. How tremendous a thing you've done. And yet, Lord, it is only a prelude to what you're going to do. And Lord, the other thing to remember too, and we ask you to bring it to our remembrance now, this morning, is that those ages to come start today. That today we can be eternally amazed, and that five years from now we can be eternally amazed, and that five hundred years from now we can be eternally amazed, In 500 million years from now, we can be eternally amazed. Your depth of character and your grace towards us is that big. Lord, how marvelous. What a wonderful Lord. We praise you and give you thanks for who you are. In Jesus' name, Amen.