Questions for Reflection:
What was the temple built with?
How does God receive glory in the Church?
What qualities must a glorious Church possess? Name two.
What kind of tricks does the devil like to play in the Church?
How can one verify whether a revelation comes from God?
The Church's Position in God's Plan
The previous two chapters discuss God's manifold wisdom, how God receives glory, and how His plan is arranged. What does Ephesians discuss after this? It is about an entity constantly being built by all the saints, and this entity is called the Church. The constructed Church will be filled with God's Spirit, becoming the Lord's temple, a dwelling place for God's Holy Spirit, so that God's name may receive glory and praise. This process of building the temple is a mystery of God.
What is the temple built with? It is built with you and me, every believer. We people will gradually become the Lord's temple, not just one person, but a group of people. Originally, this person had no hope, but because of God's election and His miraculous work in him, everyone is perfected and enters into his own position. Then, what is built is not just a brick, but a glorious temple.
In Revelation, the New Jerusalem is described, where everyone is a living stone. You are both yourself and part of the temple; you can both enter and exit this New Jerusalem and be part of the structure of Jerusalem itself. This is truly beyond our understanding in this world today. But one thing is understandable: that God's Spirit will fill us.
God's Systems Engineering
God's entire plan is called God's systems engineering, and this systems engineering is God's mystery. What we see is that Paul learned about this systems engineering through the revelation given to him by God. That is to say, the Christian faith is a faith where God and man are united as one. Why? Because God wants to build a temple and dwell among us, without electricity, light, or lamps, because God is the light, and the glory of God illuminates that place, and the Spirit of God dwells among the people.
The Old Testament constantly reveals this concept: that the Spirit of God dwells among men. For example, Ezekiel 37:26-27: I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The Spirit of God dwells there, and God wants to dwell with the humble.
Paul wants to emphasize that the Spirit of God dwells among men. How is this plan implemented? Through the Church! This combines God's plan from ages past with the building of the Church. That is to say, the building of the Church must enter into a larger picture. Building the Church is not the biggest picture; in fact, God's glory is the biggest picture. Church building is a key part of God's glory, so in the last verse of this chapter, it says: to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:21)
God Wants to Receive Glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ
Some may ask: What does it mean to receive glory? In fact, in this chapter, Paul is arguing a topic: God wants to receive glory in His Church and in Jesus Christ. To receive glory is to allow what cannot be victorious to be victorious. For example, if you win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, have you received glory? You have! Because you have won.
Originally, mankind cannot overcome the devil, but God uses manifold wisdom to bring these people together, and then through the Spirit of God, people can be victorious, and the Spirit of God receives glory. You will find a sentence in the Bible that the wisdom of children overcomes the wisdom of the world. It is difficult for us to understand how these people overcome.
Combining this with our church's experience today, we can understand: you and I cannot overcome the devil, but by building a glorious church, we can overcome the devil. Not only can we overcome the devil, but we can also drive the devil out. We release them one by one as they come. Originally, we did not have this ability, but God has given us this ability, and then God receives glory. God's glory is inseparable from the Church's victory.
The most critical thing for victory is ability, so when we read verse 20: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20). What is the foundation of this victory? The foundation is love, because He loves us, so He does this, which raises several new concepts.
Love and Ability
The first concept is that love and ability are the key to life. Here, it can be divided into several situations. The first situation is having love but no ability. Today, I talked with my classmate on the phone for half an hour, wanting to share the Gospel with him, because his father just passed away. Before his father passed away, he was in a wheelchair. His father was an official, glorious his whole life, but when he got old, he was very helpless. His eyes were like a child looking up at his parents, looking at his children: You must have a way to save me.
But his children looked at their parents in the wheelchair and had no way to help. They loved their father, but they had no ability. This is a very sad thing. Loving someone but not being able to do anything brings great psychological pain, and then constant self-blame: The old man is about to pass away, but I can't do anything!
The second situation is that a person has great ability, but this person does not love you, and this ability has nothing to do with you. Then, thank God that in the process of building the Church, He combines these two things together. That is, God loves us, immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. This kind of love is so wide, long, high, and deep that it exceeds our ability to measure it. This kind of love is the love that God fills us with.
The second concept is that this love is a love with ability that can solve all problems. Therefore, in the process of evangelism, we must tell our parents that no matter how glorious they are, they are very helpless when facing many problems. For example, when one of our brothers faced lumbar problems, his parents loved him very, very helplessly. We must tell them this fact: You love me, I know, but your love is very helpless, isn't it?
Today, it is not because of your love that I am healed, but because I have received God's love and God's ability. This love is effective and receives healing. Since I have received God's love and ability, I must share the love and ability of Jesus Christ with you. This kind of ability and love is much more effective than burning paper money in front of the grave. People burn paper money in a muddleheaded way, but they don't know where this rule and knowledge comes from, just because they had a dream last night, and then they have to burn some paper for the dead. This cannot solve the problem, but it is the deception of the devil.
In fact, the devil has some ability, but he has no love, and this ability is useless. We rely on the wide, long, high, and deep love of Jesus Christ to gain ability. When Paul wrote this, he wrote through the Spirit twice in this short chapter. The first time is in verse 5: which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. The second time is in verse 16: that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being. We can see that His love and His ability are through His Spirit, which is very important.
I met a person on QQ the other day who contacted me at three in the morning. He said he wanted to die because he was in great pain. He was a believer, but he believed very weakly because the gospel they preached was only half-preached. His preacher would ask him: Do you want to believe in Jesus? If you believe in Jesus, your sins will be forgiven. Do you want to be baptized? It's over after washing in the water. But the gospel preached in the Bible is not preached like this. The Bible preaches through the Spirit of God. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a very, very important step in the process of a person believing in the Lord.
Without the Spirit of God, there is no prayer; without the Spirit of God, your love is helpless love; without the Spirit of God, your faith is weak faith. This friend said that the Holy Spirit dwells in me, because the Bible also says so, but the Holy Spirit dwells in him only a little bit, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is the whole body being filled. Only a little bit of the Holy Spirit in the body can only do a little bit of the work of revelation, the work of touching, and the work of making you confess and repent. This is called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and it cannot manifest the power of God. When the Holy Spirit pours out on you and fills you and overflows, it brings ability.
Therefore, our church attaches great importance to the filling of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, the gospel preached by Paul and the entire Christian faith must enter into ability. Without ability, this love is very limited. What can this ability do? This ability can make the dark forces of the devil in the sky know the power of God's wisdom, because the dark forces in the sky see that this Christian is an capable Christian, and they are afraid of you. If they see that this Christian is an incapable Christian, they can attack you at will because he has no ability.
Today, the true church building needs to return to the book of Ephesians written by Paul, needs to return to the Book of Acts, and needs to return to the Four Gospels of Jesus Christ to build the church. It is not because you believe in Jesus that you naturally gain ability. This ability comes through the Spirit of God. This ability can overcome the rulers and authorities in the heavens.
The Two Kingdoms and the Reality of the Spiritual World
Speaking of our understanding of the world, we must have a structural understanding of the world, which is called the two kingdoms. In fact, the two kingdoms are not far from us. In Chinese culture, there is a saying that Heaven's will allows people to be emperors. When the emperor is born, there are legends of dragons appearing in the well of his house. In this, we can faintly see the operation of the spiritual world. If this person is destined to be an emperor (Mingding Destiny), he cannot die even if he wants to, and he cannot be killed. He just happened to become an emperor. For example, Liu Bang, he escaped from the Hongmen Banquet miraculously.
Some time ago, we watched TV and saw such a story. When Chiang Kai-shek was defeated, he wanted to negotiate peace with Mao Zedong through the Americans. His channel was Zhu De. Zhu De came to Mao Zedong, and Mao Zedong used the poems he wrote: We should use our remaining power to pursue the defeated enemy, and we must not seek fame like the Overlord. Mao Zedong meant to keep chasing the defeated enemy and kill them cleanly, and not seek fame like the Overlord.
We can see that those in power have a direct relationship with the spirits in the air. That is, the affairs of the world have a direct relationship with the spiritual realm in the air. It is inexplicably, what seems impossible becomes possible. You will see that there seems to be a predestination in this world. People like to have their fortunes told, basically because they are full of curiosity about the spiritual world, including burning paper and interpreting dreams, basically because they have a little curiosity about the spiritual world.
People are very sensitive to the spiritual world in the air. Why did Paul say that the rulers and authorities in the air? The earth originally belonged to man, but man cast his vote for the devil, for the dark forces in the air, and the dark forces became the masters of the air, in charge of this land. Now God is beginning to reverse this situation, that is to say, why the earth is full of so many tragedies, it is because there are such dark forces in the air. Why do people live so helplessly, because the dark forces in the air are in power.
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, (Ephesians 3:10)
If God is in power in this world, and we bring the kingdom of God down from heaven, it will no longer be helpless on this land, but full of God's glory, and this power can overcome everything. That is to say, the church occupies a very important position in God's plan. This important position is that God wants to use the church to overcome the dark forces in the air. Originally, people were to submit to the power of the devil and darkness, but because Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, and then expanded the body of Jesus Christ to this earth.
All those who are in the body of Jesus Christ, in the church, begin to manifest the glory and power of God. We can also see in the historical process of the church, what does the devil like to play with the most? The devil makes you have love but no power, or makes you have power but no love, but today, in the church, in the church that truly belongs to the body of Jesus Christ, there is both love and power.
Jews and Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of one body, and fellow partakers of the promise
What kind of people is this plan through? It is through Jews plus Gentiles. This was originally when Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, the New Testament had not yet taken shape. At that time, the Bible people read could probably only read the Book of Malachi, there was only one Old Testament, but what was written in it was all about the Jews. When Paul reached this era, he wanted to demonstrate this matter. When he wanted to push God's plan forward, he must define what the church is: Gentiles and Jews become one.
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:6)
Originally, the church is actually fellow heirs, fellow members of one body, and fellow partakers of the promise. This sentence is very, very important. If the fulfillment of God's promise cannot be seen in a church, it is not that there is something wrong with God's promise, but that there is something wrong with people's faith. If God's promise is real, but those promises are still stuck in the words of the Bible, and cannot be presented in the church, God cannot be glorified. For God to be glorified is to be fellow partakers of the promise, that the promise will be fulfilled. The process of the promise being fulfilled is that the power of God, the love of God, and the promise of God can be seen constantly being fulfilled among us in the process of building the church.
Paul wrote such a revelation in the 3rd chapter of Ephesians. We should read it like this, just like I said last week: when reading the Bible, be sure to grasp a key point - building the church. Once you leave building the church, you will not be able to understand it. So brothers and sisters, be sure to be clear about one thing, what we believe in is a faith that builds the church, definitely not a self-cultivation faith. The faith of building the church, the next chapter mentions unity. Unity is the key element of building the church. Now Paul is just talking about the position of the church in God's kingdom, and the position of the church in God's eternal plan.
Where does Paul's revelation come from?
I want to ask everyone a question, look at verse 3, there is a revelation, and in verse 5, there is also a revelation, what do you think revelation is? That is, how does God reveal to Paul? This is very important. Paul wrote a long passage, where did these ideas come from? Did he imagine them out of thin air?
Answer 1: I guess Paul encountered some problems in his ministry. Because it was a spiritual problem, people didn't understand it very well. Then he would pray and seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and God would give him revelation to build the church.
Answer 2: Paul often prayed in the spirit, and was often filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would move him and reveal to him. If we have anything, we will pray, and God will reveal to us.
Answer 3: I feel that God has a mission in Paul. God gave Paul the office to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. In addition, Paul encountered difficulties in his ministry. He had such a desire to solve the problem, and God gave him wisdom and words.
I think revelation is very important to any Christian. If a person has no revelation in his life, I am not sure whether you are a Christian, even if you are baptized. But don't worry if you don't have revelation today. God is a true and living God, and He will definitely reveal. So what is the process of revelation like? The process of revelation is that people begin to believe from their hearts that God is a true and living God, believe that God will definitely reveal to me, and then in prayer, some ideas will come in. After these ideas come in, they will go and do them, and then they will begin to see these ideas being confirmed. Then I ask you, has Paul's revelation been confirmed?
How to verify the authenticity of revelation: through practice
Answer: I feel that in the process of building the church and serving, God's presence is becoming more and more obvious, and miracles are increasing, which confirms that he is walking in God's will.
Pastor: Since God is a true and living God, He must be a God who solves problems. Many people drove out many demons and solved many of their problems through the God who made Paul victorious, and their lives were transformed, and God was glorified. This can prove that it was done right. If it is done right, the glory of God will surely be manifested. If it is done wrong, there will be no glory of God.
That is to say, when Paul got some ideas and began to receive these things, he had already confirmed it long before writing Ephesians. He didn't suddenly have an idea when he was writing, and then wrote a long passage, and didn't know what he was writing. When he was writing, he had already built many churches. Through building churches, he began to see the glory of God constantly manifesting through him, which confirmed Paul's revelation.
When Paul compared himself with those false apostles, he compared power (at that time, some false apostles tried to compete with Paul for his position to create chaos and troubles). So Paul said that he did not care about words, but about power: You see that the Holy Spirit is clearly with me, what else do you have to say? But those people only talk about it. Where does their revelation come from? Is it revelation in the end? No one knows. But the revelation I have received, I will do it for you to see.
So everyone should believe in such a gospel if you want to believe. When you believe in such a gospel, when your family members encounter problems, you are no longer a helpless Christian. You can see what is behind the trouble through spiritual eyes and revelation, and then begin to declare and fight spiritual battles with your family. When the glory of God begins to be manifested, your family members will easily enter the body of Christ Jesus.
Don't think that revelation is a very complicated thing. When you start praying, you will get some ideas, and then go to practice them. When you see the glory of God after you practice them, that is right. Paul must have also received many wrong revelations, but after practice, the wrong ones were discarded. So Paul later wrote: Do not quench the Spirit...... Test all things; hold fast what is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21) There are some key things that we must constantly learn, confirm, and then move forward according to the revelation of the Holy Spirit while praying.