EPHESIANS OUTLINE # 5 of 34

EPH: 1: 9-10

I. The Goal of History

A. It is no longer a mystery but now something fully revealed to those in Christ Jesus.

1. We are living in a divided world, wherever you look there is division.

(a) There is division between Jew and Gentile

(b) Between Greek and barbarian

(c) All over the world there is strife and tension war and hatred.

(d) What is true of the world is true of individuals

(e) Jesus c&~ne into the world to wipe out division. To resolve the separations and

to gather all men into one

(f) That to Paul is the secret of God.

2. Paul has another tremendous thought

(a) He says that history has been working out

this process

(b) Through all the ages there has been a planning, an arranging, and an administering.

of things that this day of unity should come

(c) The word Paul uses of this planning is interesting. It is household management,

(d) This person was the steward who saw to it that the family affairs ran smoothly and

uninterruptedly.

3. Paul has the idea that all history has been a planning and a thinking and an arranging

Which will end in a blessed unity in Christ(10)

(a) As Bible students we believe history has a plan it has a purpose, that history is the

working out of the will of God.

In the introduction to A History of Europe, H.A.L. Fisher writes: "One intellectual excitement, however, has been denied to me. Men wiser and more learned than I have discovered in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are

concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following another, as wave follows upon wave, only one great fact with respect to which, Andre Maurois says: "The universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are here on this puny mud-heap spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea, and I am quite convinced that no one has the least idea." We are living in an age in which mem have lost their faith in any purpose for this world.

God s purpose is being worked out; and it is the conviction of Paul that -~ purpose is that one day all things, and all men, should be one family in Christ. To that, as Paul sees it, all history has been moving. That secret that mystery was not ever grasped until Jesus came. As Paul sees it, it is the great task of the Church to work out that purpose of unity, which is the purpose of God, revealed in Jesus Christ.

II. The Lie of the Ages

A. Man was not made to be separate from God nor indeed from fellow-man

1.We were created spirit to be in union and communion with the Holy Spirit expressing the spirit of God through the soul (personality) and body

(a) As a created spirit we are meant to be in communion with other created spirits.

(b) Keep in mind the fact that essentially we are spirits.

(c) We don't say I carried on a conversation with Dr Papers body: We are communication with his spirit.

2. What is the Problem Than?

(a) Sin (fruit of selfishness) broke the union between man's spirit and the Holy Spirit.

(b) As a result man became a unitary self fighting for his own ends against other people

(c) This separation (Eph 4:18 - Col 1:21) replaced the sense of union and henceforth

shut man in to the puny powers of his mind and body..

3. 3. God's Answer to Man's Problem

(a) The Lord Jesus came and made a reconciliation between God and man by His out poured life.

(b) He took unto His death the whole of sin and all of its consequent acts (He bore our sin I Peter 2:24) (He was made sin II Cor. 5:21)

(c) This reconciliation includes more than pardon for sin it includes our restoration of union with .

(d) Holy Spirit symbolizes this union for us under such symbols as the vine and branches - one life.

(e) Apostle Paul in verse 22-23 uses another figure head and body. Can you conceive of these as being separate parts?

(f) How about such expressions as; Christ our life, not I but Christ with in me.

III. The Deceit of Satan

A. Satan will make it always appear that there is still a separation between God and ourselves

1. God is in heaven while we are here on earth

2. We are always seeking and expecting God to act from without rather than within

(a) Satan knows that if he can keep us in the delusion of separation we are at his mercy.

(b) We will be weak in a crises, constantly wavering in a decision

(c) We feel this weakness for we view ourselves as separate from God with limitations and corruptions

(d) The very best we can attain to is to call on God to send us some help from without and then struggle to believe that He will.

IV. The Truth of God

A. Col 3:1 We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies

even as He is in us in the earthlier (I Con 6:17,19)

1. We are one with Christ (dare to declare it) one divine life flowing through us.

2. Do you need the virtues of the Spirit?

(a) Do you desire love; peace, joy, gentleness etc.?

(b) We have them for we are permeated with His life all we need to do is claim

what we need in that faith recognition of His indwelling presence.

(c) In the realm of the spirit we possess them through faith~what is true in the realm of spirit becomes so, in the senses.

3. Christ as the head flows through and directs the body

(a) As our life he becomes manifest in and through our members

(b) May God grant us a realized union with God which makes for an abundant

and full life.