The Blessing of Coming Kingdom
Ephesians 1:10

A problem we all face is that we live in a physical world and so much of our life is taken up with physical things. This problem is compounded by our ignorance of what is going to happen. We do not know the immediate future. Will there by a terrorist attack? What will the stock market do? If I buy that car, is it a lemon? If I buy that co-op, what will happen? Sometimes we get so hung up concerning HOUSES and CARS and OUR PROBLEMS that we forget about the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. We can allow distractions in our home life, frustrations in our work experience, and depression in our personal life to keep us back from the blessing of God and the fulness of the Holy Spirit. I can tell you that recently, a lot of things in my life have been breaking. Two faucets in our bathroom. Our car just required an expensive repair. On and on I could go, but we must not let the breakdowns of the physical things to rob us of the spiritual blessings that are in Christ. What can hold me together in a world that is so uncertain?

We cannot live the Christian life without being grounded in the truth. All of us want to be able to EXPERIENCE God, EXPERIENCE victory, EXPERIENCE Joy, love, and all the other good things. The high road to experience is TRUTH and DOCTRINE. The pathway to a rich experience with Christ is by a thorough understanding of the TEACHING of Scripture. Ephesians 1-3 will ground you in this TRUTH and DOCTRINE so that you can experience the power of God and the fulness of God.

Here is the unfolding of God’s eternal purpose that He purposed in himself. Paul is dealing with the richest spiritual blessings known to men. If these things mean nothing to you or they bore you, then it means your spiritual bucket has sprung a hole and you have become more brutish than spiritual. You see the natural man does not understand these things. These are spiritual blessings! These blessings truly make a person rich, and when we feast on them we are like Mary, choosing the best part which man cannot take away. The physical blessings of life are very fleeting, and one can never find security in the material things of life. True security, true joy, peace, love, and contentment, are found in these spiritual blessings.

Here is what Paul has been saying. He is unfolding the spiritual blessings that we have from the Lord Jesus Christ:

The blessing of redemption, v.7

The blessing of illumination, v.8

The blessing of revelation, v.9

The blessing of the regathering of all things under Christ’s head, v.10

This morning we are going to see the amazing blessing of the future kingdom of Jesus Christ. Paul has moved from the CROSS to the CROWN. Because Jesus has redeemed us He will one day regather everything under His headship and rule for ever and ever.

Paul describes this as the dispensation of the fulness of times.

1.    What is a DISPENSATION?

A dispensation means the management of a household or of household affairs. This word is used in Ephesians 1:10 and Ephesians 3:2,9.  A dispensation speaks of God’s management of earth during a certain period of time whereby man is given a responsibility to fulfill God’s goal of bringing glory to himself.

Dr. Rolland McCune, of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, says, The dispensational program is the means or structure by which God achieves His goal of a rule of loving sovereignty and fellowship with man.

There are seven clear dispensations in the Word of God that tell the story of God’s means in achieving a rule of loving sovereignty and fellowship with man.

In each dispensation there is a test given to man, a resulting failure on the part of man, and the subsequent judgment of God.

What are the dispensations?

A. INNOCENSE: From Creation to the Fall (Gen.1:1-3:6)

God creates the heaven, the earth, and man in his own image (a personal, rational, moral, emotional, and spiritual being). Man walked with God and was responsible to obey Him in all things by not eating of knowledge of good and evil. Man sinned and was expelled from the Garden. We learn that even a perfect environment is not sufficient to lead men to holy and happy living.

Point of testing: Man was not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Judgment: Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

B. CONSCIENCE: From the Fall to the Flood (Gen.3:6-8:14)

God put enmity between Eve and Satan, between believers and unbelievers, and promises the success and final triumph of the seed of the woman, which is the Messiah (Gen.3:15). Fellowship with God is attained through blood sacrifice. God’s rule is primarily by His Spirit in the conscience of man (Gen.6:3). Man is to glorify God by submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. This dispensation ends with the judgment of a world-wide flood. We learn that an awakened conscience is not sufficient to lead men to holy and happy living.

Point of testing: man must obey his conscience.

Judgment: World-wide flood.

C.  CIVIL GOVERNMENT: From the Flood to Abraham (Gen.8:15-11:9)

God makes confirms a Covenant with Noah. Fellowship with God is still maintained by God’s grace through faith in God’s provision of Genesis 3:15 accompanied by an animal sacrifice. God introduces the ultimate restraint of capital punishment for those who sheddeth man’s blood (Genesis 9:6). Man is to glorify God by replenishing the earth and to maintaining responsible government. This dispensation ends with the judgment of the languages being confused at the tower of Babel. We learn that human government is not sufficient to lead men to holy and happy living.

Point of testing: Responsible government, man must replenish the earth.

Judgment: Confusion of languages at the tower of Babel.

D. PROMISE: From Abraham to Sinai (Gen.11:10-Ex.18:27

God makes a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob promising the seed of the woman to come through their generation. God was approached by animal sacrifices and made special appearances. The blessing of the promises would extend to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-5). The sign of the covenant was circumcision. The children of Abraham become the nation of Israel and they left the land of promise and become slaves in Egypt. We learn that God’s promises did not lead man to holy and happy living.

Point of Testing: Faith in the promises of God.

Judgment: The people of Israel became slaves in the land of Egypt.

D.    MOSAIC LAW: From Sinai to the Cross (Ex.18:28-The Last Supper)

God establishes the Law of Moses with the nation of Israel. Fellowship with God is maintained as God’s people obeyed the law and offered the prescribed sacrifices that anticipated the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. The rule of God was also maintained under the law of Moses as Israel was established as a Theocratic Kingdom.

Point of testing: Obedience to the Law of Moses.

Judgment: Captivity in Babylon leading to the rejection of Messiah and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

God’s rule has dispensationally progressed from the family unit (Innocense and Conscience) to governmental capacity (Civil Government) to the headship of the patriarchs in their clans (Promise) to the Theocratic Kingdom of God on earth at Sinai (Law).

E. GRACE, or the CHURCH AGE: From the Upper Room to the Second Coming of Christ.

The fullness of grace and truth are come by Jesus Christ. Fellowship with God is attained by grace through faith in the finished sacrificial and substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. The rule of God is being mediated principally through the New Testament Church. The Church is composed of Jews and Gentiles called out by God to worship and fellowship with Him, practicing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Point of testing: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

Judgment: Apostasy of the professing church.

F.   MILLENNIAL KINGDOM: From the Second Coming to the Dissolution of the present earth, Rev.20-22

Fellowship with God will be on the basis of the New Covenant as instituted through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of David and fulfill all the promises of the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenant. The millennial kingdom will merge into the eternal and universal kingdom on the sinless new earth. Here then is the final and eternal consummation of the unifying center of God’s activities, and that is to glorify Himself in providing man with an eternal rule of His loving sovereignty and fellowship between God and man.

2.   WHEN is this DISPENSATION in Ephesians 1:10?

Of what dispensation does Paul speak in Ephesians 1:10?

A.     What is God going to do? He is going to gather together again all things.

This dispensation of the fulness of times begins in the Messianic, Millennial Kingdom upon earth and its transition into the Eternal Kingdom. Here is the ETERNAL purpose of God unfolded, that the seed of Abraham will sit upon the throne of David forever. Here is the ULTIMATE purpose of God. God and His creation will be in perfect harmony just as it was in the initial creation. There will be harmonious fellowship under the sovereign rule of Good.

Verse ten defines the mystery of his will: that God is going to gather together the entire universe, Jews and Gentiles, males and females, rich man and poor man, red, yellow, black and white men, under the headship of His Son, Jesus Christ. This earth is pretty scattered right now, but there is coming a dispensation in the fulness of times where He is going to gather together in one again all things in Him. That he might re-gather or gather together again. Gather together in one is all one word in Greek with HEAD in the center of it (anakephalaioo: head up). It has a prefix ana which means again. He is going to gather together AGAIN under one head all things just as they were at the creation of the world, and it will never be undone by sin. Christ is the head. He is at the center. Notice how often Paul mentions the name of Jesus. He never tires of using and writing the name which is above every name. EVEN IN HIM.

We do not know many things. We do not know what is going to happen in the world in the week or the years ahead. Will there be a nuclear or biological war? We do not know. We do not know what the stock market will do this week. We do not know the day of our death. We do not know if there will be war here or war there. We do not know when the Lord will come. The PRESENT is very uncertain. We do not know many things, but we do know the end. We know the ultimate purpose and in the midst of a very uncertain PRESENT, the ultimate plan of God is SURE AND CERTAIN.

B.     Who is God going to gather?  All things IN CHRIST.

Is Paul teaching a universal salvation for all the demons and fallen men? Of course not! Later on he talks about a spiritual warfare. He talks about the church. This could not mean that there will not be a hell or a lake of fire where the devil and all those who obey not the Gospel will have their part.

The “all things” in this context must mean all the redeemed who have lived upon the earth, the earth itself, the plants and animal kingdom, and the angels who remained faithful to their God. Just as things were in the Garden of Eden with all of the creation of God perfectly united under the authority and headship of the eternal God, so will it be in this future dispensation.

We know that heaven revolted against God and then earth revolted, too. Even the creation groans and is subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Romans 8:19-22).

God will restore the original harmony. Man is restored by redemption through the blood of Jesus.

C.     This refers to the Millennial Reign of Christ:

Jesus Christ will rule and reign on the earth, Isaiah 2:2-4.

This is the fulfillment of the literal promises made throughout the Word of God, that Jesus was born, and the Lord God shall give unto him he throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

In Daniel 2 we see Nebuchadnezzar have a dream of a golden image. The image represents the kingdoms of men: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Then, the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever (Daniel 2:44).

It will be a kingdom of righteousness and peace; holiness and truth; fulness of the Spirit and the knowledge of God.

Isaiah 2:2-4: Jesus will rule and reign on the earth.

Isaiah 11:6-8: The predator and the prey will lie down with one another. The seed of the serpent will not threaten the seed of the woman.

The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, Isaiah 11:9.

Isaiah 12:1-6, Salvation in all of its glorious facets will be plentiful.

Ezekiel 43:1-6, the glory cloud of God will return to the millennial temple.

This is the unfolding of God’s eternal and ultimate purpose.

The things in heaven: cherubim, Seraphim, and the archangels.

Things on earth: All the nations, the animals, the plants, the natural resources, will all be gathered together in Jesus Christ.

The history of the world is behind this simple expression! The fallen-ness and the perversion and problems of the world are written about every day. Death, pain, problems, are written about and man cannot come up with the solution.

So what are we to do since we know the end of the story? What is the ultimate solution since we know the end of the story?

Educate people? Let’s clone? Abort the unwanted? Kill the elderly? Alternative lifestyles? Eat drink and be merry? Let’s give health care and housing to the poor? Let’s go to self-help seminars? This earth is fallen! But someday all will be subdued to the Lord Jesus Christ some day.

Romans 8:21, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The 1000 year reign will end with a final releasing of Satan and then the putting down of all things. The mediatorial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will be finished as there will be no more sin or rebellion.

1 Corinthians 15:23-28 speak of the delivering up of the kingdom to the Father. What could this mean? The Scripture constantly teaches that Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and of his dominion there is no end. I believe this speaks of His dominion in his mediatorial character for the purpose of carrying His work of making intercession for us until the eternal state. When Jesus ascended, all power in heaven and earth was His and it is His now. He will come again and set up his throne in Jerusalem. There will be a 1000 year rule in Jerusalem and when that is finished, He will no longer reign over the universe as Mediator, but only as God. This passage does not mean that Jesus is less than the Divine Son of God.

Praise God that Jesus will return and all those who trust in Him will rule with Him forever!