Hi, I am Joseph Mattera, welcome to God Today. I want to speak to you about the glorious church and why it is so important that you understand what you are a part of when you come to Christ. Jesus said in Ephesians 5, that He was “coming to present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That it should be holy and without blemish.” So why is it a glorious church? First of all, in Ephesians chapter 1, it was a people God planned for before the foundation of the world. That is to say, anything that is important in our life we think about ahead of time. We plan ahead of time. If you want to get married, I am sure if you are a young person you plan for a year or even longer for the wedding day. You don’t just haphazardly say, “Let’s get married.” And you go get married.
When God chose you as a Christian, it says in Ephesians 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the Earth.” Before Genesis 1, when it says, “In the beginning, God created Heavens and the Earth.” Before Adam sinned. Before your mother married your father. Or before you were even conceived, God knew who you were. That is how important you are and that is how important the Church is to Him. He chose you. He had you in mind before the foundation of the world.
What did He have you in mind for? He says, “He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ, according to His good pleasure.” So He adopted you as His very son. He wanted you to be part of His family. You are not just some Church member, you are not just somebody who said the Sinner’s Prayer, now you are part of God’s very family. The greatest title that we ever have in our life is Mother and Father. When we pray to God we don’t pray to the great apostle in the sky, we don’t pray to our general, and we don’t pray to a bishop. What we do is we pray to our Father. Why? Because He has an emotional connection to us.
The Bible says that “God so loved the world…” He doesn’t just love us, but He is our Father so that means He doesn’t just love us, He likes us. Father in the Greek here is “Abba”. That is a very informal way of saying, “Father”, that’s like saying “Papi”. That is a way of showing love and showing that emotional connection. It is like putting you on His lap and wrapping His arms around you. He planned that you would be part of His family. You would be His child, that He would be your Abba. He would be your Pop. He would be your Papi, your Daddy before the foundation of the world.
If that isn’t important, I don’t know what is. It is so powerful to know that God loves us. God has called us, God has planned us. God is a multigenerational God. God has planned us before the foundation of the Earth and God has called us into being, to walk into a particular purpose. I am so excited to know we are a part of that purpose.
He gets into how He has lavished on us in verse 8. “In all wisdom and insight, the mystery of His will He made known to us what was hidden before the foundation of the Earth.” Before Jesus came, the full mystery of His body was hidden. What is the culmination of this mystery? He said He purposed in Himself that in the fullness of time He is going to unite all things in Christ which are in Heaven and on Earth.
Not only did God call you before the foundation of the Earth, to be part of His family, but He also called you to be part of His purpose of uniting Heaven and Earth. That is the culmination of why Jesus came. Jesus didn’t just come so we can have our sins forgiven. He came to enable us to participate in an amazing grand strategy, a great, great story. God’s big story of bringing back not just individual sinners, but bringing the whole universe back. Reconciling the whole word back unto Himself. So, this incredible multi-generational plan that God has for you is so extraordinary that God did not just haphazardly plan it after you came to Christ. God knew you would come to Christ. He planned it before the world began, He planned you before your mother and father even knew who you were. Before you were named by anybody on this Earth, God named you. God called you and God called you to participate with Him in the renewal of all things.
What an amazing grand strategy. What an amazing thing that we even have a foretaste now of what the world is going to be in the end. Everything is going to be united, both in Heaven and on Earth. The spiritual, as well as the natural world. Things visible and things invisible will all be united in Christ. That’s to say Jesus Christ is not just Lord over the Church. Ultimately, He will be known as Lord of all. He is Lord right now over every aspect of society, over every aspect of culture, and if you want to find your purpose in life, not just in the Church place, but in the workplace, you need to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Eventually, all things are going to be under His lordship anyway. This is God’s big story, this is God’s grand strategy.
Those who are united with Christ now, have a headstart with the rest of humanity. This is where human history is heading, this is the consummation of history. And it tells us this is His plan in the fullness of time. That is to say, this is where everything is heading. This is the administration that God is orchestrating to unite everything on Earth and in Heaven and in the cosmos. If we are not with this grand strategy, we are going to be found to be fighting against God Himself. It says in verse 11 of Ephesians 1, that “in Him, we have received an inheritance.” What is our inheritance? It is not merely to be raptured, it is not going to Heaven. Our inheritance is to be part of this grand strategy, this big story of uniting all things in Heaven and Earth. “Our inheritance is predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things.” Not some things, not most things, “according to the counsel of His own will.” This is where everything is heading, this is where human history is going. Anybody who is not uniting their life to Christ is going to be found fighting against God.
I am excited to be a part of this, I am excited you are a part of this, and I am excited we are connecting together today on God TV. If you want to know more about this, go to josephmattera.org, to hear more about the big story of God. Joseph Mattera signing off. God bless you.