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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall we're studying the book of Ephesians, learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching. The this morning tells us that we have the task of teaching God's wisdom to the most powerful creatures in all creation. And I couldn't be more excited about that, because I really like to teach people things. uh Not even just like Bible stuff, like I'll teach you anything that I know.  I will sometimes try to teach you things that I don't know.  Our kids' school,  when they were in a co-op, cooperative school, They were looking for a teacher for high school econ and I was like, sure. I do not know economics.  I know business, I thought that was close enough, it is not. I've really enjoyed coaching youth sports, because you get to teach kids stuff. I spent a season coaching basketball. I am not good at basketball. That became evident. I also had a lot of fun coaching  baseball and softball. I do know those sports, thankfully. I was amazing at them, but I understood the mechanics of it. And what I really enjoyed was getting kind of technical. I  would work on throwing mechanics and  hitting mechanics.  mean, grip, stance, where your hips are, how the rotation, transfer of power, all that fun stuff. One time, we were getting ready to go to practice. I come out of the bedroom in baseball pants, and Kezzie is like, what are you doing? I said, oh, I'm going to teach you girls how to slide.  We got out there, I get a dozen 10-year-old girls in the infield. I drew a line in the dirt behind second, or... That was the approach to second base. And I talked about the timing of your steps. You want to have your inside leg come up, make a four. It's got to be your inside leg so you can pop up and see your third base coach. And then you make a four and then it's pockets on the floor. And that is when I realized you can't slide in slow motion. You can't do that. So I  awkwardly went to the ground in a motion that could never be described as sliding. I recovered, I I stood back up, I backed up, I did the whole approach in full speed and when we spent most of that practice working on sliding, I'm not entirely sure how well it stuck because three months later, Kezia's season was ended by sliding incorrectly into home plate, shattering her ankle so badly it took two surgeries to repair. True story. So I couldn't teach 10 year olds how to slide, we need to teach the most powerful creatures in all creation, the wisdom of God. Are you up for that task? Our text says, Paul says that he has preached the unsearchable riches of Christ, not just to Jews, but to Gentiles, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So you and I, the church, not just like preaching and singing and praying, but how we operate as the church now that we have known, these unsearchable riches of Christ, we're the object lesson for the rulers and authorities. Are you up to that? Your life, my life, our life together, we are the teaching aid, we are the illustration, we are the demonstration of God's wisdom for the most powerful people on earth  or the most powerful spirits above the earth.  That's what we're gonna talk about this morning. So to start, we should probably spend some time on that phrase. Rulers and authorities,  you heard what I said there. Your translations might say principalities or powers.  It's an interesting phrase because in  some common usages it just means, what it sounds like it means, mayors, governors, presidents, emperors, rulers, right?  Jesus told his followers that they would one day be called to testify before. the rulers and authorities and that they don't need to be anxious about what they're gonna say.  Paul writes a letter to Titus  in which he tells him  to be submissive to rulers and authorities in a context that sounds like he's just talking about civic obedience.  But here in the letter to the Ephesians, it appears that Paul means something more than that. He means something beyond the rulers on this earth. Well, why do I say that? Well, he uses this phrase three times in the letter. The first time was actually back in chapter one. uh several weeks ago when we were in chapter one, Paul is extolling Christ for his majesty and his glory and he says that he has been seated in the heavenly places far above these rulers and authorities. And the section that we've been going through since then,  chapters two and three, kind of expound on Christ's work in saving us and redeeming us and making us his people in this. having a life in Christ. Then here Paul gets to kind of a midpoint in his letter to the Ephesians. The text we'll be focusing on today,  says that we've  having been transformed, right, what he talked about in the beginning. Now, how we should live moving forward should be making known the manifold wisdom of God. So in the chapters that come as a preview, you know, he's gonna be talking about that, that markedly different life in Christ. He's gonna get into things like.  how we interact together, what our marriages should look like, how you are a good employee or a good boss or a good parent or a good child.  And in the end, he's gonna conclude with some final encouragements and exhortations where he will say, you do not battle against flesh and blood, but what? But the rulers and authorities or the powers and principalities. So not flesh and blood in the heavenly places.  It sounds like Paul is talking about more than just the local governor or even the emperor himself. It's clear that Paul has in mind here something beyond the physical, what we would call the metaphysical. And so you're probably thinking like, all right, angels and demons? Yeah, sure, why not? And now you're probably thinking, you can see how she shattered her ankle. ah Look, I know it's not entirely clear. There's a reason why  this is a little poorly defined as I'm describing it. We are told enough in scripture to know for certain that the metaphysical, these spiritual beings, angels, demons, the  elemental spirits of this world, that they are real and that they're not to be trifled with,  but they're not the focus. And there's actually a lesson  in the fact that the Bible doesn't focus on these beings, it focuses on Christ, okay? Even so,  Paul and his original audience for this letter, they had kind of a mutual understanding. There was a common definition, if you will, or a common belief set around these rulers and authorities. And if Paul were writing to us, 2,000 years later, he might spend more time explaining it all to us than he did with them, especially because we are  logical, rational, enlightened people.  We need to know how it works before we just accept that it does.  Right? ah Certainly before we're gonna change our lives and live as though this is real, we want a little bit of an explanation. mean, think of things like Bitcoin or tap-to-pay credit cards. This is my favorite. I've learned that there are people who will not use tap-to-pay credit cards just because they don't know how it works.  Right? If they know that it works, they don't know how it works, so some reason they're gonna reject that. as if at some point we were all experts in magnetic strip technology.  Whatever, right? But here's the thing about these  powers that Paul is talking about. We have some idea of what he means, and I'm gonna lay that out for you, but up front, I'm just gonna admit, it's gonna end up a little fuzzy. And you're gonna have to be okay with that. Because the focal point, the crystal clear point, is Christ. Angels and demons and the metaphysical is on the periphery. Does that make sense? So with that as a precursor, let's look at a couple of texts from the Jewish Bible, from our Old Testament that kind of laid a foundation for these ideas. Deuteronomy 32, eight. When God laid out the nations, he fixed the boundaries, it says, according to the number of the angels. Huh, so there's like an angel per country, maybe. I mean, there's more countries now than there were when Deuteronomy was written, so how does that work? I'm not really sure.  Psalm 82. It describes God kind of holding court,  this heavenly court where  little G, gods, who he also calls princes in that text, by the way, make a note of that. He holds these princes accountable for  not having judged their nations fairly, like the ones that had been, I don't know, assigned to them, sort of. ah So there's this,  it's the same picture that we have in the beginning of Job, right, where there's this heavenly courtroom thing. And  even the devil is there and there's their spiritual beings assembled before God. What do they do there? I don't know. Why are they there? I don't know.  Not really sure on all of these things, but we're given enough to know that they're there. Then this is  maybe one of my favorites. In Daniel 10, an angel shows up in Daniel's vision and he apologizes for being late. How are you late to someone else's dream? Guys, I don't. I don't understand that, but he says, hey, sorry I was late, I got held up 21 days by the Prince  of Persia. There's that word again. I don't think he's talking about the son of the King of Persia.  He's referring to that Prince over Persia. That's not the full extent of all of the biblical texts on spiritual beings,  but it lays kind of a foundation for a background of a belief set that became really material for Paul's original audience.  We find it in extra biblical writings and some of the literature of the day. And what I'm gonna try and do, I think I can summarize it fairly for you like this. There are powers and then there are powers behind the powers. Rulers and authorities. Yes, in its simplest form. The mayor,  the king, the  ruler, the emperor, the governor. But these rulers and authorities are, they're influenced, they're led, maybe  even controlled by something else. There are powerful men and women in Washington, D.C., but there are powers behind the powers.  Wall Street decides  so much that impacts our lives, but there is a uh spirit of Wall Street that goes beyond what you can... chart or graph or predict or short. Okay. There's powerful men and women in media and entertainment, but there is a  spirit of Hollywood that is volitional in shaping what we think of as glamorous or normal or even good. There are powerful men and women who are holding offices like professor and dean in universities where they are powerful to shape thoughts and ideas. And there is also a spirit of academia, okay? That at times in human history has led those teachers and professors to explore the majesty of God. And at times in human history, it has ensnared them in the thought, the prideful thought that we can explain everything without. And here we are at a junction where you might be intrigued slightly and ready for the next layer of detail. Sorry.  Tell me more. How do they influence? Mark out the limits of their power. Can they read my thoughts? Can they give me thoughts? Do they have wings? That one's easy. Bell rings. We know that one. But here's my word for you. The Bible gives you enough information that you can know for sure that there are powers behind the powers and that they are not to be trifled with. It would be unwise to live as though they did not exist simply because you lack some level of detail you desire. Okay? It would be unwise to live as though Paul was just making something up when he said you do not battle against flesh and blood alone, but you battle against these rulers and authorities, the ones that his contemporaries, the people reading this letter to Ephesus, they knew unquestionably that these powers were behind the darkness that consumed their world and ours. We deceive ourselves to our own peril when we ignore the powers behind the powers, live as though they don't exist. We also deceive ourselves to our own peril when we obsess over them. When we believe that it's this mystery,  The mystery of the metaphysical, of the spiritual realm that the Bible and in this text in particular is actually about. No, no, the mystery that was hidden for ages past and that is now revealed and that should captivate your attention is Christ. It's God's plan for salvation, not only for his own people,  Israel, but mysteriously he turned and accomplished salvation for the Gentiles, those who had been enemies of his people. That is the mystery. So I may be fuzzy on the powers and that's okay. There's something way more important that I do not want you to be unclear on because even the powers behind the powers, they know, they already know  unquestionably that God exists and that Christ is all powerful even over them. James writes, you believe that God is one? Good. Even the demons believe that. And shutter. but even as they fear Christ's power, they have not yet grasped that he is not only powerful, but good. His ways are not only dominant, but wise. And so you, me, the church, we have been saved by Christ to be put on as a display by God, we are his object lesson to the powers to know. His wisdom and his wisdom is this that God's real power is made known in the riches of Christ, which is found in his suffering  at their hands, in his death that was intentional and in his resurrection in power. that condescension  of Christ in that God presented the confounding truth that his power is made perfect in weakness. That God's power is made perfect in weakness. And because that is true, hear me on this, that means the church is not a power display. At times, it seemed like the paradigm was simple. Right? You had God and God's people and everyone else. And God's people wanted to  show that in the power economy, they had the monopoly. Right? That's why they wanted their Christ to be that sort of trump card who would show up and he would show that the power behind their powers was stronger than the other powers. Right? That  their God was stronger, more powerful than all the other gods. Many churches today, many Christians today mistakenly believe that our role in this battle, you know, that battle that is not against flesh and blood, that our role is to dominate. No, no. Our role, this text tells us, is to demonstrate God's wisdom. According to Ephesians 1, the powers already know that Christ is Lord. They already know that he, his victory is sure, that he has risen from the dead, he has seated high above them. And there will come a day when  he will return and any powers and the powers behind the powers that still oppose him will meet their end. But in the meantime. He is demonstrating not his dominance, but his wisdom. His manifold wisdom through the church to the rulers and authorities. Paul got so enthralled  and even overwhelmed by considering how manifold this wisdom was that he actually made up a word. So you got this word manifold, it means like multifaceted. ah And then what Paul does here in this text, he bolts on this prefix to it, Polly. course means many so it's it's the many multifaceted wisdom of God. God's wisdom has so multifaceted that it's its facets have facets right. Well what is so manifold about this wisdom look again at verse 9. Paul was called to preach Christ the Jewish Messiah the power behind their power that is above all powers he's called to preach that Messiah to the Gentiles to the ones who had been under the powers, who had once followed the powers, who perhaps had wielded the powers in opposition to God. God is now delivering  them and you and me by the power of a crucified Messiah. Because his power is made perfect in what? In weakness. Because his power is made perfect in weakness. They raged,  sorry, we're,  God had demonstrated his power in massive demonstrations of power in the past that had happened. mean, yes, he dominated Pharaoh, right? 10 plagues, he drove out nations before Israel.  When Nebuchadnezzar wouldn't recognize God's power, he made him go mad and eat grass for seven days, or sorry, seven years, okay? Yes, but in the face of clear demonstrations of God's power, these rulers and authorities just bucked even harder. The Psalmist actually, marvels at this. says, why do the nations rage? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers, there it is again, take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. They raged, they conspired, and eventually the power behind the powers of a governor like Pilate, the power behind the power of the Jewish Sanhedrin, they killed the Christ. and they thought that they had won, but we know otherwise. We know what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter one, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority. In raising Christ, God demonstrated his ultimate power. Nations may still rage like in Psalm two, But listen to this, they know, they already know. His victory is not in question any longer. The end is sure, they know that he is powerful, they know that Christ is more powerful than them, they fear it, they hate it. What they do not yet understand  is how it is wise. The wisdom of it all. What angels still long to understand, what demons outright reject and angels look on to fully comprehend is the wisdom of it all. Why the cross? How? Does suffering and submission make for a wise plan? How can the God who is all powerful? intend, not just be willing, but intend and purpose to die, to die, and these powers wonder for what? For mere mortals. For mere mortals. For you and me. That is where we come in, church. Paul said that he preaches this gospel to the Gentiles, calling people  out  of the powers that are already defeated. and into the riches of Christ so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. How do we do that? the same way Jesus did, we lay down our lives. Listen, we've already said that there are powers behind the powers in DC. The powers behind the powers in our political world, they say that the highest loyalty is to your candidate, your party, your tribe. Right? They sow division by planting the idea that to  disagree with you is to hate you and so you ought to hate them back. Okay? They draw you in.  To love the idea of a power, to  seek the power, to protect the power, to wield the power of politics that they control. How is it then, inside the church, Republicans and Democrats kneel before the same Lord, share the cup and bread at the same table? People in this room who voted against one another in the last election pray for one another, serve one another. They're changing each other's children's diapers in the rooms below us, right? Serving. Sacrificially, bearing each other's burdens, that's demonstrating the many multifaceted wisdom of God. Or what about the spirit of Wall Street? It draws us to find our comfort, find our joy in numbers on a screen. It tells us that when the market rises, that we should have hope, and when the market falls, that we should despair. How is it then that inside the church, people give away more than they save? People, people, give, pour out of their resources to serve one another, to serve people they don't even know, to advance this message, this gospel to the ends of the earth, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, to take care of the least of these and the vulnerable around us. We pour out resources to do that and it doesn't increase our net worth but we know that Christ is our worth. We sacrifice because he sacrificed for us. That's the many multifaceted wisdom of God. The power behind the powers in media and in Hollywood, they want you to believe that your desires are ultimate and that self-gratification is the most important thing in your life. So then, if your relationships or if your spouse do not meet that desire, you deserve something else. The power behind the power in the screen, in your pocket, it glories in its achievement of riddling your marriage with hurt and betrayal. It glories in its achievement of wrapping your own heart in shame. But inside the church, the manifold wisdom of God is made known when marriages that Hollywood had attacked and torn down are now preserved and restored through the very spirit  of self-sacrifice. Husbands laying down their pride, their rights, so-called, their very lives for their wives. The powers behind the powers, they look on and they see marriages that are built not on revenge not on selfishness but on grace. And they wonder at the manifold wisdom of God. Look with me now at what Paul writes in verse 12. He says that we have boldness and access with confidence. Boldness to access the creator God in that heavenly court we talked about. Why? Because of our faith, our trust in Jesus Christ. Listen. the rulers and the authorities, they know how to wield  shame. They cannot comprehend the power of confession. They deal in  vengeance, but they don't comprehend forgiveness. So, they want to convince you that no, cannot be welcomed into this heavenly court. You cannot be welcomed graciously into the presence of God because they know and you know and he knows who you really are. But, In the church, we make known the manifold wisdom of God when we confess sin openly. Brothers and sisters, we can admit our weakness because we have seen the sacrifice of Christ and we believe in his resurrection. So we know  that his power is made perfect in weakness because in his wisdom, Christ did not come in power. He came  in weakness so that instead of shame, we have freedom in his shed blood. And instead of hiding from the creator God, the powers look on with awe and wonder as we, mortals, have  access to God through Christ. And at that, the angels, who are still seeking to understand, they rejoice at the glory of it all. The demons, they recoil at the thought of it all. And Christ, Christ who suffered their worst, their beatings and the death and the shame that came with it at the hands of the rulers and authorities, not because of any sin he had committed purely on your and my behalf. He was raised from the dead, seated high above all rule and authority and now Christ receives the glory and you church have access to Christ. And through us, and through that work that he completed on our behalf. God is showing all rulers and authorities a wisdom they could never have imagined, the wisdom of the cross. The powers understand domination, but never submission. They understand revenge, they don't get forgiveness. They understand shame, not confession. They understand fear, not sacrificial love. They understand division. not unity. Church, through you,  through us, may they see the manifold wisdom of God. Let's pray. God, our heads are bowed now in reverence, but our hearts, our hearts are full in confidence and expectation that you will work in us by the Spirit. All of your plans for your glory, God, and for our good. I pray that you would use this text. God, work in us to shape us and conform us to the likeness of your Son, for His glory,  amen. Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  If you would like more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindie.com.