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Sermon preached on Ephesians 1:8-10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/26/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We’ve been working through this extended statement of praise that stretches from verses 3-14. As we delved into the details, we first considered that we have been predestined in Christ. Then we consider how we have been redeemed in Christ. Today, we consider the revelation we have received in Christ. All this continues to be reason to praise God.
As we think specifically about the revelation we have received in Christ, we will recognize that it calls for a response. When you receive special information in advance, you should make use of that. For example, if you knew a specific plane was going to crash, you wouldn’t board the flight. Or, if you knew the stock market was going to completely crash tomorrow, you would sell your stocks today. When you know something in advance, you would be wise to do something with that information. That doesn’t mean we always do that, however. How many of us know that eating badly will kill you, but don’t change our diet? Nonetheless, this passage reminds us of the important revelation that we have received in Christ Jesus. It would call us to a wise response.
We’ll consider this in three points. First, we’ll consider that this is a mystery now made known. Second, we’ll consider how this is a mystery about God’s plan to unite all things in Christ. Third, we’ll consider how this is a plan for the fullness of time. We’ll conclude by considering what are some wise and discerning responses.
Let’s begin then in our first point to consider this mystery that God has now made known to us in Jesus Christ. This point is about revelation. Let’s begin in verse 9 (we will come back to verse 8). That is where we see the language of God making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. Let us break this down. When the Bible talks about a mystery, it refers to how there was some secret thing of God that he chose to reveal to us. Once God does that, then the mystery is no longer a mystery, at least to those whom he has revealed it. In that sense, the whole Bible is full of revealed mystery. Verse 9 has in mind not just the Bible in general, but the specific revelation that is being described here. Indeed, the book of Ephesians uses this word “mystery” six times, and all the references together explain the revelation he has in mind. For the moment, the last reference can summarize it, which is found in 6:19. There, it speaks of the mystery of the gospel. That’s a good summary of what Paul has in mind here.
Paul is speaking in verse 9 about God making known to us the gospel. Remember, last week I summarized the gospel, the good news, as that Jesus has redeemed us from eternal damnation through his sacrifice on the cross. That is the information we need to receive so that we can believe on Jesus and be saved. Had he not revealed this to us, then we would still be guilty, condemned sinners.
Verse 9 further describes this mystery as God’s will and relates that to God’s purpose. The word “will” describes one’s desires and wishes. Here it refers to God’s divine determination. God has foreordained all things so that what he wants will come to pass. That is what we call the decretive “will of God”. Similarly, the language in verse 9 of God’s purpose is that same language in the Greek that is literally his good pleasure. This affirms that his will is in line with his good pleasure. What God has willed to happen is what he was pleased to bring about. Yes, there are things under the umbrella of his whole plan that he doesn’t take pleasure in. For example, God doesn’t take pleasure in the death of the wicked, Ezekiel 33:11. Nor does God delight in wickedness, Psalm 5:4. Yet, his overall plans, that bring even good out of evil, he is pleased with. Thus, the language here of the will and good pleasure describes God’s plan and purpose, his determination and intentions. The redemptive work of Jesus in history is central to this.
Now when thinking about how God reveals things to us, we remember how he did that in the Old Testament through dreams, visions, and other special revelations given to the prophets. But I draw your attention to verse 9 about how this mystery of the gospel has now been made known. It says that God has set this forth in Christ. The idea of setting forth here is that God has presented his plan for public display in Jesus. While the gospel was foretold in the past, there is a clarity of this revelation that has now come with Jesus. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, in both what he taught and what he did, the divine plan of redemption has been made known, more clearly than ever before. Not only that, but after Jesus ascended up into heaven, he continues to show forth and reveal God’s plan to us. For Jesus poured out his Spirit and spoke through his holy apostles, and that comes to us yet today. God has made known his plan of redemption chiefly through Christ and his work!
Now let’s go back to the first verse in today’s passage, verse 8. There it speaks about God lavishing something upon us. Paul is referring to the end of the previous verse, about the riches of his grace. So, verse 8 says that God has lavished upon us the riches of his grace. The word for lavish is about giving in abundance, in a way that exceeds expectations. God has abundantly and generously poured out his rich grace upon us. But it adds, “in all wisdom and insight.” We should ask, in what sense does it mean that God gave us his grace “in all wisdom and insight”? To answer that question, we must remember the context that goes on to talk about the revelation he is making known to us. In other words, I believe this is saying that God’s grace to us includes the wisdom and insight that we need in receiving this revelation. When talking about receiving divine revelation, we need more than just information transfer. There are too many examples of people receiving divine revelation and it either falls on deaf ears or they don’t understand what it means. But Paul says that for the elect, God’s grace includes the wisdom and insight needed to not only receive this revelation but also to understand it and know how to use it.
Let me offer an Old Testament example. Genesis 41 is the chapter that records Pharaoh’s two dreams. Pharoah received revelation from God, but didn’t know what the dreams meant. Joseph, by the grace of God, received wisdom and insight from God which allowed him to interpret the dreams. He told Pharoah that the dreams foretold a coming seven years of great plenty followed by seven years of great famine. Joseph then advised Pharoah that he should appoint a wise and discerning man to prepare accordingly for this future. That is a good example because it shows how Pharoah didn’t have the grace to understand the revelation on his own. But it shows that God did give such knowledge, and wisdom, and insight to Jospeh. Pharoah was then wise enough to appoint Joseph to the task of responding to this revelation. Joseph wisely stored up food during the years of plenty to be ready for the coming years of famine. That shows how we need to act with prudence in light of any revelation God gives us.
Let us now turn in our second point to consider more of the details of this revealed mystery. I have titled this point, “To Unite All Things In Him”. In other words, while a moment ago I summarized the mystery as “the gospel”, I mentioned that Ephesians explains the mystery in various different, but complementary, ways. In this case, the mystery here is explained here in verse 10. It describes this mystery there as God’s plan to “unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” This explains the gospel mystery in a special way, so let’s walk through this and understand what it is describing. This explanation is a theme verse for the whole book of Ephesians.
So, first consider the language of uniting. When it says to unite all things, that word for unite is literally about putting everything under a single head. Sometimes it is translated in a more metaphorical sense, the “summing up” of all things, because when you summarize something, you are putting everything under one heading. But the word is literally about putting everything under one principal head. That head is Jesus, as it says, it’s “in him.” Like the rest of this passage, God’s plan is being realized in Jesus. God is “summarizing”, uniting all things under the head and Lordship of Jesus. So then, God doesn’t just show his plan through Jesus, God’s plan is centered in Jesus. God is setting Jesus in dominion and is working Christ’s reign to be supreme over all creation.
Indeed, let us appreciate that his dominion is such. Jesus’s reign is over all creation. As it says here, “all things”. Of course, we could note with 1 Corinthians 15:27, that this excludes God himself. Jesus reigns supreme as the God-Man over all created things. This is further described when it says both things in heaven and things on earth. Now, some people have wondered what that means. Some have suggested that since the context is about redemption, that maybe this just means elect humans, whether they are still alive or already with the Lord in heaven. But I think the larger context of Ephesians would have us to think bigger than that. I believe it literally has in mind, every created thing, including angels. By the end, Jesus will have conquered all his enemies, and will have gathered up to himself all the elect humans and angels, and he will reign forever and ever.
Let us think about heaven for a moment. Ephesians repeatedly mentions the “heavenly places” and often has in mind the angelic powers that are there. We know this includes not just those angels that have been faithful to God. We know scripture teaches us that Satan and his fallen angels are heavenly, supernatural beings who are in rebellion against God. Satan is mentioned in chapter 2:2 and it describes he has influenced people on earth to a life of disobedience to God. Satan with his demonic forces opposes Christ and his kingdom and rages against it. But, God’s plan is to conquer these evil demons while at the same time gathering up all the faithful angels unto himself. I love how Hebrews chapters 1-2 develops this idea. Hebrews 2:7-8, referring to Jesus, says, “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” In the incarnation, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, only to be exalted far above them after his death, resurrection, and ascension. God’s plan will have even all the elect angels gathered under the Lordship of Jesus.
So then, the same will be true on earth. God will unite all things on earth to Jesus. Now, surely, we think again about how the wicked reprobate will be conquered in judgment. We think about how the elect are forgiven and gathered unto Jesus as Lord and Savior. But something that Paul surely has in mind here is that this includes both elect Jews and elect Gentiles. This a major theme that Paul develops in chapters 2 and 3, that God is uniting together humans of all the nations in Jesus. This is even referenced in the terminology of “mystery” in 3:9. The result will be one united people of God. There won’t be lots of different segregated peoples of God. God is gathering all saved Christians together under the Lordship of Jesus, into a single saved people.
I want you to appreciate the grand majesty of what this is describing. The mystery of the gospel here is saying nothing less than that God is restoring the entire cosmos under the King Jesus. We remember Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But then we remember how quickly the heavens and earth were marred with sin and rebellion. God created the heavens and the earth very good, but they haven’t looked so great for so many millennia. Genesis 3 shows the corruption of “all things” with Satan on the heavenly realm tempting Adam and Eve of the earthly realm into sin. But none of that surprised God. We see so clearly revealed this wondrous mystery. That it was all a part of God’s amazing and marvelous plans that he could redeem all things in Christ and unite them together under Christ. All this is to the great glory of our Sovereign God who declares the end from the beginning, Isaiah 46:10.
This leads now to our third point to consider, what I’ve titled, “A Plan for the Fullness of Time.” That language, of course, comes from verse 10. This point reminds us that while this mystery is still being worked out in history, it will ultimately come to a conclusion. Start with that word “plan”. We’ve been saying that this is God’s plan, but let’s appreciate that nuance of the Greek word there in verse 10 for plan. It is literally about the stewardship of a house, about how a household needs to be ran properly so that everything is well ordered, and the household realizes its goals. I could translate it as “household management”, or maybe just say “house-plans”. So, this isn’t just a plan for the fullness of time, it’s the “house-plans” for the fullness of times. Remember that the goal of God’s will and good pleasure is to unite all under Christ. Now, that group is implicitly referred to as God’s household. So, when all is said and done, all creation will be one wonderful household of God, under the leadership of the Son.
But I digress. What I really want us to understand in this third point, is that God is still working his plans out in human history. These house-plans for the fullness of time refer to the administration that God is doing in history to bring about the planned outcome. That means that we can think about how we are heading that way, and how it will be when we finally get there.
Consider how these plans are working out right now. Think of the opposition we face in both the heavenly and earthly realms. In heaven, chapter 6 describes our current spiritual warfare as fighting against evil powers in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Christians, by the power of Christ, are warring against these evil heavenly beings. They tempt us, and try to discourage us. They try to discredit us and try to condemn us. They want us to cast off our faith and stop telling the world about Jesus. In terms of earthly opposition, chapter 2 describes how the world is full of sons of disobedience. Yet, as we proclaim the gospel, God is using us to convert all the elect into disciples of Jesus Christ. We go to the world with the gospel, and even now he is gathering people from all the nations into one united saved people.
But one day these plans will come to their culmination, when the fullness of times comes. These times will come to their full measure, so that when Jesus returns, the divine will and purpose will be completed, and the foreordained outcome finally realized. Again, think of the finale, when the fullness of times culminates at the end. We recently studied this in the last few chapters of Revelation. The end of Revelation shows Jesus finally conquering all his enemies at the end. Babylon is defeated. Satan is cast into the lake of fire. His Anti-christ and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. All the wicked reprobate are cast there too. Death and hades, also. Those who remain are the saved elect along with those faithful angels. All are gathered unto Christ in the glory of the new creation. Finally, in the fullness of times, all will be restored unto the glorious eternity God has prepared for it.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, this is the mystery of the gospel that God has revealed. Has he given you the grace of wisdom and insight to not only hear this revelation, but to respond prudently? What does wisdom and insight say you should do with this information? Here are at least four ways to begin to respond to this revelation:
First, if you haven’t already, get right with Jesus, before it is too late. When this plan is complete, everyone will either be converted or conquered. Be gathered together now under the headship of Jesus. Follow him!
Second, warn others! Warn them to flee the coming wrath and find redemption in Jesus.
Third, recognize the unity you have with fellow Christians. God is uniting us all together under Christ. We will be a household, a family, together for eternity. That unites us together in a way greater than any earthly bonds.
Four, live knowing that life in this world is temporary and passing away. Live with a view to eternity. Seek to live a holy life as those who will live as children of the most high for eternity.
Those four applications are fitting responses to the revelation we’ve received again today. May you continue to reflect with wisdom and insight on further ways to live in light of what God has told us about the future. Blessed be our God.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
