Introduction.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted
creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an
ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is
meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”—C.S. Lewis, The
Weight of Glory
I. We have redemption through Christ’s blood (1:7).
II. God has given us the “Inside Scoop” (1:8-10).
“[H]istory is neither meaningless nor purposeless. It is moving towards a glorious goal. What, then,
is this ‘mystery’ which God has ‘made known’, this revealed secret, this ‘will’ or ‘purpose’ or ‘plan’
of his? In [Ephesians] 3 the ‘mystery’ is the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s new society on equal
terms with Jews. But this present ethnic unity is a symbol or foretaste of a future unity that will be
greater and more wonderful still… Already Christ is head of his body, the church, but one day ‘all
things’ will acknowledge his headship. At present there is still discord in the universe, but in the
fullness of time the discord will cease, and that unity for which we long will come into being under
the headship of Jesus Christ.” —John Stott, pp.41,44
“[E]lsewhere Paul makes it plain that the coming glory of the people of God is only part of his
purpose of grace: all creation is to share in the fruits of Christ’s redemptive work, even in ‘the
glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Rom 8:21). So here, the universe has its place in God’s
secret purpose, now revealed. In Col 1:20 God’s good pleasure was ‘to reconcile all things to
himself’ through Christ. Nothing less than that is contemplated here in his ‘good pleasure,’ his
eternal decree, which he ‘planned’ in Christ.” —F.F. Bruce, p.261
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen
after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the
stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the
beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only
been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story
which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the
one before.”—C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
III. Application: Meditate – Believe – Treasure!
“Tolerate nothing in your life that might diminish your hunger for God’s Word. Apply it with vigor
and spiritual energy!” “God is most glorified in us when our knowledge and experience of Him
ignite a forest fire of joy that consumes all competing pleasures and He alone becomes the treasure
that we prize.” “If our learning and knowledge of God do not lead to the joyful praise of God, we
have failed… [T]heology without doxology is idolatry. The only theology worth studying is a
theology that can be sung!”—Sam Storms