The Glory of God

The Glory of God in the Church     Ephesians 3.20-21

-On our communion Sunday’s this year we have focused on the Glory of God. The Glory of God is Who God is in His eternal Being and moral Character, as well as the visible expression of His Being and Character through His Grace, Power, and Wrath. We have discovered that lifting up the Glory of God is the highest purpose of God and of all His creation. We have seen how creation, and man, and Jesus express and exalt the Glory of God. We talked about how the Glory of God is a motive for us to persevere in our trials and suffering. This morning I would like us to consider how the Glory of God is expressed in the Church.

–Ephesians 3.20-21 is what we call a doxology. Doxology is a compound of two Greek words, doxa and logos. Doxa is Greek for glory in verse 21, and logos means word. So a doxology is a word of glory to God, a declaration of the Glory of God.

-Paul is so moved as he writes about the power of God at work in saving sinners, of the blessings God has given to the saints in seating them in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and in joining them together as one body, the Church, that he breaks out in an exuberant declaration in praise of the Glory of God. [An exuberant declaration in praise of the Glory of God is what happens when we prayerfully study God’s Word and get to know who God is and what God has done in us and in the world.]

-Paul declares in verse 21 “to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus”. How is the Glory of God seen in the Church and in Christ Jesus? It is seen primarily in three ways. It is seen in God’s powerful work in our individual salvation and its blessings in Christ; in God joining individual believers together into one body in Christ; and in the eternal expression of God’s character through the Church in Christ.

1) The Glory of God is seen in the Church in Christ by God’s powerful work in our individual salvation and its blessings. All of us who now belong to God’s Church, not the Rosedale group, but God’s Church of those who have the Holy Spirit, were once dead to God in our sins. We followed the teachings and practices of this evil world, we lived under the Devil’s rule, and we were sons of disobedience as we carried out the desires of our bodies and minds. Like the rest of mankind we were under the wrath of God and did not belong to God. That is how we would have lived and died if God had not come to us. Listen to this wonderful testimony to the Glory of God in Ephesians 2.4-5. After describing how we were spiritually dead and in slavery to sin we read “But God”. God coming to us is what made the difference in our lives. “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Our individual salvation in Christ is the loving and powerful and gracious work of God and expresses the Glory of God’s Being and Character to all who see us spiritually alive in Christ. Paul writes in 2.10 that “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

-Listen as I read to you Ephesians 1.3-14 [Read].

-What God has done in saving us from our sin in Christ glorifies God who has powerfully worked this salvation in us. So God’s powerful and gracious and loving work in our individual salvation and the blessings He has given us in Christ bring Glory to God in the Church.

2) The Glory of God is seen in God joining individual believers together into one body in Christ. In the OT the Jewish people were God’s people. Some Gentiles became part of the Jewish people but had to submit to the laws and regulations of the Jews to be recognized as God’s people. The obligations of the Law of Moses and all the ceremonial laws were a hostile dividing wall between the Jews and all other peoples and kept all those peoples away from God. The Jewish people who were to be God’s light to the nations, who were to show God to the nations, instead isolated themselves from the nations and disobeyed God. With the coming of Jesus the wall of hostility of laws and obligations was broken down by the cross. With the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus the Holy Spirit was sent to earth and the Church was born, joining together individual believers into one body, both Jew and Gentile, freeman and slave, woman and man.

-Here is how Paul described what God did. Ephesians 2.11-20 [Read].

-So God joining individual believers from all backgrounds and social classes together into one body, the Church, brings Glory to God. John writes this, “I looked, and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7.9-10) God is glorified in the individual salvation of the saints and in joining them together into one body called the Church.

3) Finally God is glorified in the eternal expression of God’s character through the Church. We have already read in Ephesians 1.12, 14 that our salvation is “to the praise of His Glory”. In Ephesians 2.7 Paul teaches us that God seated us with Christ in heavenly places “so that in the coming ages God might show the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. Our salvation by the Grace of God in Christ points up to God’s Glory. In Ephesians 3.10, we read that God’s purpose is that “through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”. In Ephesians 5.27 we read that Christ is going to “present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish”. The Church composed of individuals saved by Grace and joined together into one body with its promised perfection and holiness in Christ, brings Glory to God.

-Notice in 3.21 how long this Glory to God in the Church and in Christ Jesus is to last. God will be glorified in the Church and in Christ Jesus “throughout all generations, forever and ever”. If you are truly part of God’s Church because you have been born again and you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you and have been joined together with other believers, you will Glorify God for eternity. That was God’s eternal purpose (3.11) and is God’s eternal purpose for you as the Church.

-I want to close by asking you to try and realize the great privilege that you have in being a living member of the Church. You are a son to the eternal Father, you are the bride of the eternal Son, and you are a temple to the eternal Spirit. In you the God of Creation, the only True God is to be glorified for all eternity. That is worth being holy for, that is worth living for, that is worth confessing before men who do not love God and Jesus His Son, that is worth your humble worship to God. To God be the Glory forever and ever. Amen.