The Ephesians Story (Part 1) – Paul, the Early Church & Eternal Reality

In the eternals, there is a second way of viewing things. In the eternals, there is the arrow going to the future and the arrow going to the past, and that which is past is still alive, and that which is future is still alive. Hawkins, in his book A Brief History of Time, said that when the Big Bang occurred, we think we’re part of the explosion and are still expanding outward, and that time is unfolding. He said that’s not true. All of time came into existence, past, present, and future. I cannot possibly comprehend that, but boy, I tell you, Paul did. In Ephesians, Paul will speak of the past as though it’s present, the present as though it’s past, and the future as though it’s already come. Nobody else in the world does that, but Christians did in the first century; we don’t today. And it’s why our gospel is so pivotal, one of the many reasons it’s so pivotal, but one of the big ones. And we’re not invited out of space and time, and we should be.

So, the Eternals see that all of time came into existence at once. I don’t know exactly what the angels know, but I have a feeling that at least the past is very present with them, and they have a sense that there is a conclusion to that which is the future. And if they didn’t have that sense, they had it the day Christ died and three days later when he rose again; there were too many things happening there that were conclusions to past, present, and future. Everything, all lines, past, present, and future, all lines intersect in Jerusalem in those three days. You and I are there; everything is there. Everything comes…I was going to say back to that place…but future to that place, past to that place, and present to that place. It gets really fun to try to use the English language and explain these things.

If we then come to the third way that time is seen, we come to a point where language will not do us any good. Now the brothers and sisters in this room have all seen me discuss this, and you need to know this, but you need to know more than know it. You need to live in it or at least touch it from time to time. You have got to do that every once in a while.  I’m going to take a moment and try to show it to you, and then I’m going to step out of that, and we’re going to look through the eyes of God. For us to try to comprehend this, we have to understand Colossians chapter 2, which says, “All things are created in Christ.” Which means that our Lord, as He really envelops earth’s view of time and envelops heaven’s view of time and eternity, that He, and this is so weak and so inaccurate, if He envelops all creation, then He stands at the beginning and the end at the same time, and the end is no different to Him than the beginning. But that’s really me trying to explain something to you; now I’m going to tell you the way it really is.

The way it really is, is when He created everything, He created it all at the same time. There’s only one word that’ll ever help us, and that word is “now.” Everything that is creation that is not God is now, in Him. There is an ever-going, never-changing “now.” The time we’re in right now is no different for Him than time that has not been born, time that has already been born, died, and disappeared. He does not see any uniqueness to this Sunday, August 15^th, 1993. Everything is happening right now. Everything is as it shall be, and it’s all now.  I am at this moment rising from the grave 2,000 years ago. I am at this moment ascending through the clouds with Christ 2,000 years ago, right this moment. And right at this moment, I am in Christ before the foundation of the ages, being chosen by Him, according to the Edwardian theory, based on the fact that He is, I am also now in Christ at the end of the ages, and I made it.

Now, what’s so difficult about that is even if I comprehend that, there is one thing I cannot comprehend, and that is that I cannot comprehend the eyes of God when He sees me and when He looks at me and when He looks at you and we can’t see this, and I just I struggle so much to communicate this to you. When He sees you, and I’m going to use the word me, but don’t look at me when you hear me say that; look at you. Take your me. Would you take your me in hand for a moment?

When He sees me, He is incapable of seeing me anywhere, but somewhere in the deepest recesses of His Son, the only place He can view me. And He finds me in His everlasting now, at the same time, completed and finished, coming back into Him. Ephesians 1:9, toward administration, when He shall bring all things back into Christ and restore them in Him. Well, that’s my view. In God’s view, this administration was, is, and ever shall be, is taking place constantly. So that I am being brought back into Him; I am already brought back into Him. I was in Him, and I am once more being in Him before the foundation of the ages. And in some way, through the eyes of my Lord, all this is taking place now, now, now.

Now, here I have a sister who is locked and chained and fettered to time in Warrenton, Virginia, and is so taken up with herself; so self-centric. And I’m not picking on you; all the sisters who stay home are this way. And all the sisters who work at their jobs are like this. And all the sisters who are either at home, at work, traveling, or somewhere else in this place. And all the brothers, of course, live in the heavens. All the brothers are caught at the police station or trying to get somebody to pay for a lease, or they’re sitting there watching somebody live or die. And we’re very caught in this.  We need not only liberation into the graces of our Lord; we need a few moments of respite from this whole gory mess we’re caught in when we step outside of ourselves and leave our skins on this planet and step back into Christ. Hallelujah. Where there is no time and there is no space, and in fact, there is no us. We have a few minutes of liberty, liberation, liberation from even existing. We come back to find ourselves as we really are. What are we? We’re scattered across eternity, that’s what we are. We’re a giblet that’s scattered from one end of eternity to the other. Always in the deepest recesses of Christ.

Now, sister, I have answered your question, and I have answered it better than you have ever heard in all your life, and better than almost every believer who has ever lived from the second century to this hour. I’ve answered that question better. It needs to be preached, and this is just a foundational drop in the bucket. It needs to be declared in its totality and all of its riches from one end of this earth to the other. We are the inheritance of Christ, of which He is looking forward to so much; getting the greatest thing He could inherit, which is you. And I need to stand in that noble place and see myself as the most exciting thing that ever happened to Jesus Christ.

I need to stand in that precious holy place, lost somewhere in light beyond light, or purity beyond purity, and find myself in my original condition when I was in Christ before the foundation of the ages, while I’m at the same time in that same rich wonderful glorious moment at the end of the consuming of everything, when we end the view to an administration and come to the administration, when all things are gathered up and brought back into Him, and things are as they used to be because what used to be and what will be and what is are all presently now. And you are the benefactor, and you are the richest of this whole drama. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And say, “Praise the Lord.”