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E-MAIL TO EPHESUS #5

GOD'S SEARCH COMMITTEE

There's probably a cute story in your house about who picked out your name, and how long before the ride to the hospital. Someone had a maternity-ward plan — and you showed up. Did you know that God had a plan, and knew your name, a long time before He said "Let there be light"?

There are all sorts of fun stories around about people who have been plucked out of relative obscurity — and suddenly found themselves at the pinnacles of power. We've mentioned how a Texas mom named Karen Hughes used to work with a guy named George back when, as he put it, "we thought a motorcade was one car." Now she works in the White House right next to the 43rd President of the United States, and the White House motorcades run three city blocks.

A kid from Columbia University, interning at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, making $14,500 a year, lucked out one night when Ted Koppel needed him for an obscure Nightline story. Next thing he knew he was working for a congressman from Cleveland named Ed Feighan at double the salary. Eight years later he ended up on the campaign staff for an Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton, and George Stephanopoulos spent several years in the inner circle of the White House, making policy, running a country, going on Meet the Press, and affecting the lives of millions.

It's even more special if the President calls you and says very simply: "Bottom line – I need you. In fact, I've had you on my list for a very long time. Going way back when, I've known that I needed to get you on my team." Wouldn't that be something?

There's an incredible story in the Bible that goes along these lines . . . but with a bit of a twist. You can read in the book of Ezra how a Persian king named Cyrus decided to allow the captive nation of Israel to return to its homeland and also rebuild its long-abandoned and ransacked temple. NIV text notes point out that "it was a consistent policy of Persian kings to help restore sanctuaries in their empire." Apparently this was an effective way for a monarch to maintain peace and stability and the relative goodwill of those they had taken into captivity.

Now over in the prophetic book of Isaiah, chapters 44 and 45, we find a mention of this same event.
"Cyrus is My shepherd," says God, "and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,' and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.'"

In the next verse, Cyrus is referred to as God's "anointed" to fulfill this important task.

Well, that's all well and good . . . but the goosebumps come when you do a little bit of math with the calendar. When did Cyrus actually send the work crews and the chosen Israelite citizens back to their homeland for this rebuilding? History tells us it happened in approximately 538 B.C. Notice: this is B.C., where the years count DOWN, not up. And when did the prophet Isaiah write about this happening? Well, Isaiah began his ministry in approximately 740 B.C., probably wrote most of this 66-chapter book no later than 701 B.C., and DIED, scholars believe, around 681 B.C. Which means that he sat down and wrote about King Cyrus, BY NAME, C - Y - R - U - S, and specifically mentioned what he was going to do, in all those details, a good century and a half BEFORE it happened.

I remember reading the delightful old 10-volume children's set of books, entitled The Bible Story, by the late Arthur Maxwell, "Uncle Arthur." And he envisions a scene where one of God's people — the prophet Daniel, perhaps, who hobnobbed with the kings — says to Cyrus: "Hey, Cyrus, do you know that you're mentioned in the Bible?" And the king says: "What? No way. Show me where." And right there in the ancient scrolls, already turning yellow from 150 years of wear and reading and rolling up and unrolling for prayer meeting, he reads his own name: "Cyrus the king, the anointed of the Lord." Wow! And you realize that you're a man chosen by God . . . and not just chosen as God looks at your report card NOW, but chosen 150 years before your dad and mom even thought about having you and picked out a name that they THOUGHT they were picking out!

The wonderful reality, friend, is that here in the New Testament book of Ephesians, the first chapter, we're told that this divine pre-selection didn't just happen to King Cyrus; it happens to every single one of us. In verse three, Paul is still in his greetings-and-salutations mode when he writes:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing IN Christ."

So this is already very cosmic, and it's wonderfully gratifying to think that the God of the universe, who reigns in the heavenly realms, reaches down to touch you and me with blessings. But now notice verse four:

"For He [God] CHOSE us in Him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and blameless in His sight."

You know, Christians often debate and discuss this question of "predestination," and — lo and behold — we find that very word right in the next sentence:

"In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves." That would be His Son Jesus, of course.

And there you have it. Friend, you and I got picked out to be in God's kingdom before He cleared His throat in Genesis one, verse three, and said, "Let there be light." And if you say, "Oh, come on — even my mom didn't know I was going to be born until such-and-such date while Ken O'Donnell was serving in John F. Kennedy's White House," then all I can say is this: It's in the Word of God. He chose you to be holy, and He predestined you to be His adopted Son, through Jesus. We just spent an amazing five weeks studying the concept of spiritual adoption, and here it comes shining through again. But this is breathtaking: to realize that our names showed up on a heavenly flowchart a good six thousand years ago.

We've been borrowing some insights from the well-written Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, with the Ephesians section written by Francis Foulkes. He points out that this Greek word, proorisas, "means literally ‘marked out beforehand.'" And he adds:

"It is simply another word that expresses the fact that God's plan for His people is from eternity. That plan is the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Men were created for life in fellowship with God, as sons with the Father. By sin that privilege was forfeited, but by grace, in, and through Christ, restoration to sonship is made possible."

We want to spend some time next week thinking about the cosmic nature of God's plan — how it spans our universe and all universes. But what a reality! God's eternal plan is not an afterthought, and you and I, fitting into His plan, are not afterthoughts either.

And what about this hard, seemingly unsolvable issue of "predestination"? And the idea that some people on Planet Earth apparently have their names written down in God's Book from before the foundation of this world . . . and that their salvation is a fixed, predestined, unalterable fact? Dr. Foulkes addresses the plain reality that the Bible says two challenging things simultaneously. Here they are:

"This doctrine of election, or predestination," he writes, "is not raised as a subject of controversy or speculation. It is not set in opposition to the self-evident fact of the free will of men." Those are the two pillars of biblical teaching that seem to be in conflict: predestination and free will. He continues: "It involves a paradox that the New Testament does not seek to resolve, and that our finite minds cannot fathom. Paul emphasizes both the sovereign purpose of God and man's free will."

But friend, let me add just this final thought. Because there does seem to be some theological tension between those two realities. Here at the Voice of Prophecy, we're just simple Bible students; there aren't any Ph.D.'s on the premises here. But yes, it would be troublesome to think that up in heaven, before the first day of creation and "Let there be light," if God arbitrarily just picked me and you and a few others here and there, and predestined only us, wrote down just OUR names in His book, and then said to Jesus and the angels: "These are the ones; just ignore all the others. Get the fires of hell ready for them" . . . I wouldn't want to go on the radio and preach that gospel. But over in II Peter 3:9, I believe we find out just exactly who God has predestined or chosen to be in His family.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise," writes Peter, "as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting ANYONE to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance."

Notice: EVERYONE! Who has God written down as someone He wants to save? Everyone! Who has He chosen? Everyone! The Spirit and the bride don't say in Revelation 22, "Just these chosen few may come and take the free gift of the water of life." No! "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and WHOEVER WISHES, let him take the gift."

Friend, that's how God makes up His list. You can say no to a President, and you can say no to God. But I guarantee you that your name is on His search committee's list. It's up to us to not disappoint Him.