I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of division in the world. People are divided over religion, and religious practices. People are divided over politics, and political opinions. People are divided over whether this dress is white and gold or black and blue.

Remember that from a few years back? When this picture first showed up on the internet, the internet was divided over what colors this dress was. How many of you see a gold and white dress? How many of you see a blue and black dress? Isn’t that weird?

But in truth, the dress really was black and blue, so there was a right answer. But because of the lighting conditions of the picture, many people perceived the colors differently.

Now, some of the things we divide over are silly, but some are warranted, because there really is a right and wrong. It’s evil to cry out, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. In other words, we shouldn’t pretend everything about today’s culture is okay, celebrating what’s immoral for the sake of peace, when there are real evils in the world.

Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And sometimes that means our own families will be against us because of our faith in Christ. There’s division.

And yet, because Jesus came, the Bible promises that God tears down the walls of hostility so that we can have peace with one another, not only in eternity, but today, as we rest in Jesus.

Ephesians 1:9-10.

He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Father, thank You for sending Jesus so that we may have peace. Help us to rest in Your peace. And help us to be peacemakers, sharing the love of Jesus wherever we go, inviting others to know Your peace, so that we will see You bring everything together in Christ. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

There’s a grove of trees in Utah called Pando that’s thought to be the largest living organism in the world.

Pando has been threatened with forest fires over the years, but it’s always bounced back because even when many of the trees are destroyed, the root system just quickly shoots up more trees to take their place.

You see, the whole grove was originally planted from a single seed, and it was given the name “Pando” which means “I spread,” because it has since spread from that one seed to over 106 acres of land, consisting of over 40,000 aspen trees. And yet, all of the trees are actually one tree, sharing the same roots, all being connected as one organism, being over 13 million pounds.

Now, I’m not sure what we would weigh if you put us all together, but the body of Christ is much the same. We’re all individuals, coming in many sizes and shapes, and yet we stand together as one, functioning as one body.

So we started studying the book of Ephesians in autumn of last year, but we took a break in December to focus on Christmas. So now that we’ve gone through the holidays, we’re going back to the first chapter of Ephesians, in which we’ve been looking at all of the blessings that we have in Christ. We’ve seen how we’re blessed to be holy and blameless, we’re blessed to be adopted into God’s family, we’re blessed to be redeemed through our Savior Jesus, and this week we’re going to see how we’re blessed to be united with all other believers in heaven and earth as we all trust in Jesus for our salvation.

Paul writes about this in verse 9, calling it the mystery of God’s will. Verse 9.

He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ. (Ephesians 1:9)

I love how Paul says that this was according to God’s good pleasure. Whenever God blesses us, He doesn’t do it reluctantly, because God was pleased to bless us. He loves to bless us with holiness. He loves to adopt us into His family. He loves to redeem us in Christ.

I find that when I talk to people about their perception of God, many people think that God is constantly angry. A survey of 1,700 Americans found that Most Americans have a negative view of God.

Forty seven percent of Americans think God is authoritative or critical with us. Twenty four percent believe that He’s distant. And the really shocking thing to me is that only twenty one percent of Americans would describe God as primarily good.

It’s true that God hates sin, and He’s angry with us when we blatantly rebel against Him and His commands. But God is not generally angry. God is love. And even when God sent His Son to die for us because of our sin, God didn’t do it out of anger, but out of love. It was His good pleasure to bless us in Christ.

Because, you see, as we’ve said before in this series, we receive all of our blessings from God in Christ. It’s in Christ, the Messiah, Jesus, that we have salvation. It’s in Christ that we become children of God. And it’s in Christ Jesus that God purposed to bring about the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure.

And Paul writes this in such a way to say that this was always the way that God wanted to bless us. God blesses us according to His good pleasure that He purposed in Christ. When God made the world, and us, and all things, His purpose all along way to bless us in Christ.

And that’s a very bold thing to say in light of all of the blessings promised in the Old Testament. God promised to bless the people of Israel, His chosen people, the Jews, and Paul is saying that all of God’s purposes are fulfilled in Christ. This is most obvious from the first promise that God gave Abraham in Genesis 12.

The LORD said to Abram: “Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

And then in verse 7 we read:

The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7a)

So even as God selected Abraham and his family out of all the world to bless and put His name on and make into a great nation, so that they would then in turn bless all the people on the earth, it was to be fulfilled through the offspring of Abraham. Jesus is that offspring, because it’s in Christ that God brings about the mystery of His will.

There are several mysterious things, unknown things, about God’s will and His plan for us and for all of history. We could think about the particulars of our lives and wonder about all the little things that God allows us to experience, whether good things or bad, and how they fit with God’s overall plan for everything. Like, why does God allow some of the horrible things we hear about on the news, and why does God give some people lifes of ease and others very hard lives, and why does God seem to bless some people extravagantly, and others seemingly little at all?

But there’s one mystery, called the mystery of His will, that answers a lot of the other things that we might wonder about God’s will. And Paul writes that according to God’s good pleasure, God made known to us the mystery of His will.

This is really an amazing thing, when you think about it. We don’t have to guess what God’s will is. He reveals His will to us. He makes it known to us. Through Jesus, we have a relationship with God such that the God who made all things lets us in on His plans. He lets us know what the point of all of this life is.

We’re going to get really specific about what this mystery is when we get to Ephesians chapter 3, because Paul writes very clearly that the mystery revealed to us through the apostles and prophets is that Gentiles, that’s us, are united with Jews as members of the same body, as partners in the Gospel, and partakers of all the promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So we’re going to talk all about that in a few months when we get to Ephesians 3.

But for now, Paul gives us just a taste of the mystery of God’s will to open our eyes to the massive plan that God has for us and all things. Verse 10.

as a plan for the right time — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. (Ephesians 1:10)

Paul writes that God’s plan is a plan for the right time. You know, we often want God to operate according to our time table. And when God doesn’t operate according to our time table, so that we don’t get what we want when we want it, we think that’s because God doesn’t care or because God isn’t there.

But when we think that way, we put ourselves in the place of God. The truth is, we don’t have all knowledge and wisdom. God does. We don’t have an eternal perspective on our temporary lives. God does. And God is always good, and God is always working for the good of those who love Him, being called according to His purpose. So even when things in our lives don’t work out the way that we want them to, or we think God isn’t moving fast enough, we can trust that God’s plan is perfect, and that He is working His plan out at the right time, the fullness of time, so that in the end, we see that everything is perfectly right and good.

Because Paul writes at the end of verse 10 that God’s plan is to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him.

In another place, we read that everything will be brought into subjection under Christ. In other words, everything in all of creation will be in agreement that Christ is King and worthy of all praise, and everything will give Jesus the praise that He’s due.

There was an article published a few years back in the journal Biology of Sex Differences. Based on a study that they conducted, the research showed that there’s literally a major difference in how men and women see the world. Here’s what the article said:

Guys’ eyes are more sensitive to small details and moving objects, while women are more perceptive to color changes … Research found that the guys required a slightly longer wavelength of a color to experience the same shade as women and the men were less able to tell the difference between hues. -Biology of Sex Differences

And, I can testify that all of this is true. Every once in a while, Abby and I will disagree about colors. For example, what color is this?

How many of you think this is a shade of blue? How many of you think it’s a shade of purple?

You see, people really DO perceive and experience the world differently, and it’s not just men and women! And if we can’t even agree 100% about everything in this room, it’s even more true for the enormous variety of people born and raised all over the world, with differences of culture, differences of worldview, and differences of what we think the goal of life even is at all.

So as we struggle to see eye-to-eye, we would do well to remember that our blue might really be their purple. But the cool thing about this is that if we were all to humble ourselves, giving each other room to “see” the world just a little differently, we might actually get a more complete picture, and this is all part of the process of becoming “one.”

You see, all of creation will ultimately be made perfect in Christ. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the very earth has been groaning, longing to be made new. And I think that’s a longing we all have. We don’t like the idea of any injustice or evil remaining forever, because if there’s any rebellion against God in eternity, then God has not conquered all evil. But God promises that all things will be brought together in Christ, and all things will be in subjection to Christ.

I wanted to mention one more thing about the Pando grove, and that’s that it has actually been dying lately. They don’t completely know why, but one theory is that it’s just getting old, and that even when new trees pop up, they’re not as strong as truly new trees, because they share the roots of the old trees. So the Pando grove is slowly dying rather than growing.

And the only way that we’re going to grow as God’s people is if we continually plant seeds of the gospel in the next generation. God’s promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church, and we can know with complete confidence that that’s the case, but the way that the kingdom grows today today is when we take a step of faith to share the gospel with everyone in our community and the world, so that they would see the glory and goodness of God, place their faith in Jesus, and be saved.

You see, in Christ, God is bringing all things together in perfect unity, and He invites us to be peacemakers who share the good news of the gospel with all.