Good morning. It's great to worship with you this morning. For guests here, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors here. I have the privilege of bringing God's Word to our church on most weeks.
And we are starting a new series in the book of Ephesians, the epistle of Ephesians, chapter 1. So please turn with me there.
I'm going to pray and we'll start.
Heavenly Father, we pray that as your scripture is read and preached, that by your Spirit you would work powerfully in our midst to bring these truths home to us.
So they don't just remain abstract ideas that we keep in our heads, but that they become life-transforming, affecting truths, Lord, realities that we live by.
Speak to us, Lord. We are listening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Ephesians 1, verses 1 to 14.
In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him, you also, when you heard the gospel of his glory.
The gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
This is the word of the Lord.
We have all met a Christian like this, who profess to believe everything that Christianity teaches, everything that the Bible teaches, but whose belief is not borne out by their life.
She has no savor of the love of Christ, of the Father's love, of Christ's humility, of the Spirit's power in her life.
We've all also met a Christian like this, who knows all the theological terms, who knows all the Bible references, who seems to know everything there is to know about God, but he doesn't know God.
He has no personal relationship with him.
This person is like a tree, right?
It has a semblance of health and fruitfulness about it.
But when you get closer and you take a look at it, you see that the branches are withered and the fruit has no juice or pulp in them.
There's no spiritual life.
And sometimes we think of doing theology in the same way.
We think to ourselves of theology as something abstract and impractical.
But that's not what theology, the study of God, is meant to be.
R.C. Sproul writes in his book entitled, Everyone's a Theologian.
He writes this,
The purpose of theology is not to tickle our intellects, but to instruct us in the ways of God, so we can grow up into maturity and fullness of obedience to him.
That is why we engage in theology.
Now, we begin a new series in the Epistle of Ephesians this morning written by the Apostle Paul around the time 60 to 62 A.D.
He wrote this to a large network of local churches in Ephesus and the surrounding cities.
And then, this is considered by theologians and pastors across the generations, widely considered to be the best primer on Christian theology in the entire Bible.
Because of its remarkable clarity and simplicity in the way it's taught.
But Apostle Paul didn't intend to write this so that it can be used for training in seminaries.
He wrote it to local churches, fully expecting it to inform every single believer and to transform their daily lives.
That's the effect it's supposed to have on us.
And so, to that end, Paul writes in chapter 1, it's his exaltation in the spiritual blessings that we have as the church, the people of God.
He rejoices in the spiritual blessings that we have in chapter 1.
And in chapters 2 and 3, he gives us these specific applications of the spiritual blessings that we have as the church.
How the spiritual blessings of the triune God were applied to the church to reconcile Jews and Gentiles and then to bring them into unity in the church under Christ.
And then, in chapters 4 to 6, Paul gives us the specific implications of the spiritual blessings of the church.
How these spiritual blessings are supposed to shape our lives.
How we live, our relationships, and our jobs, our vocations.
So, that's the outline of the whole book.
And if you feel like, and if you've ever felt like that your spiritual life lacks vitality, lacks vigor,
my prayer for you this morning is that this sermon series would breathe new life into your soul.
That your life would be transformed by it.
That your relationship, that your Christianity, your faith would not just be a formality,
something that you just go through the emotion, but it would become a vital reality in your life.
That's my prayer for you.
And that's the hope for this sermon series.
And in this passage in particular, the first 14 verses, it teaches us that it is the very heartbeat of the Christian
to bless the triune God who has blessed us out of his grace and for his glory.
So, that's the main point.
It's the heartbeat of the Christian to bless the triune God who has graciously blessed us.
Now, Paul begins by introducing himself as the author in verse 1 and by establishing his authority.
He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
The word apostle means sent out.
And the apostle is a witness of the resurrected Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 9.1.
And this is a person that's directly commissioned by Christ, sent out by Christ to be his witness and a pioneering missionary.
So, that's what an apostle is.
And Ephesians 2.20 later speaks of how apostles are the foundation of the church.
And then in Revelation 21.14, it envisions the 12 apostles of the church being the foundations of the new kingdom of God.
In the same way, the 12 patriarchs were the foundations of the nation of Israel.
So, when he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, in a very simple way, Paul's establishing his authority.
I'm not writing as just another church leader.
I am the apostle of Christ Jesus.
And he's the apostle of Christ Jesus.
He's not an apostle of anyone else.
He doesn't belong to anyone else.
He's not like a politician, right, who is accountable to his constituency and whose job security depends on pleasing the electorate.
He's the apostle of Christ Jesus.
He's accountable to no one else.
He doesn't have to please anyone else.
He belongs to Christ Jesus.
And he does Christ Jesus bidding.
And so, he writes this with that authority.
And he's here and he's appointed as apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
It has a divine origin.
He wasn't appointed apostle by popular vote or appointed by some human governing authority, but by the will of God.
And having established himself as the author, he addresses the recipients of the letter, continuing in verse 1,
to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
This is a remarkable statement because there are both Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus, right,
and only Jews were historically referred to as saints, holy ones, those who were set apart for God.
But Paul addresses both Jews and Gentiles together as saints who are in Ephesus,
already hinting at the fact that in Christ, God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles
and expressed salvation to all the nations of the world.
And then he says that those who are faithful in Christ Jesus,
this doesn't mean that Paul is addressing just the faithful Christians as opposed to the non-faithful Christians
because there's no such distinction made throughout the book of Ephesians.
It's referring to those who have faith in Christ Jesus.
It's referring to believers in Christ Jesus.
So if you have faith in Jesus, then Paul is addressing you directly here,
and Paul is addressing all of the Ephesian Christians.
And that means if you are not a Christian, of course,
then if you do not yet believe in Jesus Christ for salvation,
then all the spiritual blessings that Paul will go on to describe, they do not belong to you.
And my plea with you is that you consider the offer that Christ is giving,
the promises that he is making,
and that you give yourself to him this morning if that is you.
Now after addressing his recipients, Paul greets them in verse 2,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The standard Greek greeting was, it's just greetings, right?
That's how they said hello or how are you.
It's greetings is what they used to say.
James 1.1 uses that greeting.
But Paul employs a clever wordplay here.
By switching out a consonant and adding a couple vowels,
he changes the Greek word that means greetings to grace.
So now that our life as Christians has been so transformed
that it's his grace that is fundamental to how we relate to each other as Christians.
And grace, as one Bible dictionary puts it,
it's the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God
to men in the bounty and benevolence of the giver.
It's unmerited favor, something we didn't earn.
It's out of his absolute freedom, out of his sheer abundance and bounty and generosity.
That's the grace we receive.
It's his loving kindness.
It's in the Old Testament concept.
His loving kindness, it's translated as grace in the New Testament.
He refers to his unchanging, ongoing affection set on us, love toward us.
That's grace.
He also greets them with peace.
The word peace doesn't refer to an absence of conflict merely,
but it refers to the Old Testament concept of shalom,
which is to say a wellness, a wholeness of being in right relationship with God
and with the rest of creation,
of being in harmony with God's design and desire for the world.
It's described by the statement,
all is well, physically and spiritually.
That's shalom.
That's peace, and he greets all the believers with this grace and peace from God our Father
and God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then that's how he specifies it, right?
He describes the source.
It's from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is also significant because if you're a faithful Jew,
everyone knows that, you know, God is our Father.
They refer to God as our Father.
And everyone knows that he is a source of blessing, grace, loving kindness, and peace.
But he says it's not just from God our Father,
but he says it's also from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you're just a faithful Jew at this time reading this,
this is a shocking statement that he's saying.
It's the blessing, grace, and peace.
It's not just from God our Father, but it's also from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This teaches us about the reality of the doctrine of the Trinity, right?
Our church is named after that.
There's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right?
There's three persons in one God.
God is one essence, one nature, but there are three persons in God.
Now you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, that's, you see, Trinity, that's an abstract doctrine.
That doctrine can't translate to my life.
But Paul is about to shatter your expectations
and tell you exactly why this doctrine is so foundational to how we relate to God
in the rest of the verses that follow.
And this is a mystery, so I'm not going to try to explain it to you.
It's kind of like there's God in three and one.
So imagine a child, right, who just learned his additions.
He knows one plus one plus one is three.
But no matter how much you try to explain it to him,
he's not going to get multiplication.
One times one times one is one.
It's just not going to make sense to him.
In the same way a child, let's say he just learned geometry, two-dimensional geometry,
he knows how to calculate the surface area of a square.
But no matter how you try to explain it to him,
if you try to explain the volume and the cube in three-dimensional space,
that's not going to make any sense to him.
So in the same way for us as finite human beings,
as we try to make sense of the fact that God is three in one,
three in persons, but one in essence and nature,
it's going to go right over our heads.
We can't make quite sense of it because God's infinite.
He's eternal.
And rightly so.
I think if we can make sense of everything about God
and understand everything there is to know about him,
he's probably not infinite because we're not infinite.
And then in these following verses, verses 3 to 14,
this is perhaps the most beautiful demonstration of the triune love of God,
of the triune God working in concert to redeem humanity,
a people for himself in all of Scripture.
And they can't be separated.
Their works are indivisible, but yet they can be distinguished
by according to what each person of this Trinity does.
And to that end, the outline I'm going to follow as I preach the rest of this passage
is first from the Father.
Salvation is from the Father.
And then second, salvation is through the Son.
And then third, salvation is by the Spirit.
That's the outline I'm going to follow.
From the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit.
First, salvation is from the Father.
Paul begins in verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be.
Right.
In the original Greek, this is the beginning of one long, beautiful, poetic,
impassioned sentence, praising the triune God for his saving work.
It's all one sentence, verse 3 to 14.
202 words, 32 prepositional phrases, 21 genitive expressions,
six relative clauses, five adverbial participle clauses.
You don't have to know all the grammar.
It's a crazy long sentence that has just, he's just going on and on.
God's amazing.
This is what he did for us.
Blessed be the Father.
That's what he does.
All throughout this, but he's blessing God.
It's not a dry, dispassionate theological writing.
It's pulsating with life, just overflowing with gratitude and joy for what God the Father has done.
And that's why I said earlier in the summary of this passage,
it's the heartbeat of the Christian to bless the triune God who has blessed us.
It's what we do as a Christian.
That's our very heartbeat.
It's not just a duty for us to bless God.
It's our very heartbeat.
That's what we love to do.
It's what gets us fired up.
Because as a Christian, above all things, we desire to bless him.
And if you don't feel that way this morning,
my prayer is that by the end of this passage,
you will feel that way after seeing all that God has done for us.
Why does the Christian feel this way?
Why does the Christian want to bless God?
Paul tells us in the rest of verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Why do we bless God?
Because God has first blessed us.
Strictly speaking, right, as Hebrews 7, 7 says,
the inferior is blessed by the superior, right?
So we can't, strictly speaking, bless God
because there's nothing we can give God that he doesn't have.
We can't give him a blessing that he doesn't already own,
that doesn't belong to him.
So we can't, in a strict sense, bless him.
But we could bless him in a sense that we speak well of him.
We praise him.
We recognize that he is the blessed one.
That's what we do when we bless him.
But then when God blesses us, he actually bestows on us blessings
because he's the source of all blessings.
He's the only one that can properly bless us.
So in verse 3, it says that God the Father has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
And I hope you can see God's heart towards you in that sentence,
that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Every one.
Every single blessing.
Did you guys catch that?
It doesn't say, you know, God gave us a few spiritual blessings
or some of the spiritual blessings.
Every spiritual blessing God the Father bestowed on us.
So don't believe the devil's lie when he says to you,
as he said to Eve in the Garden of Eden,
did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
That's wicked slander because God didn't say you can't eat from any tree in the garden.
He said you may surely eat of every tree in the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.
God has always been bountiful and generous toward us.
But Satan impugns God's character to us,
lies to us, and whispers to us,
he's withholding something from you.
He didn't give that to you.
He forbade you from doing that.
If God really loved you, he would have given that to you.
If God really loved you, he wouldn't keep you from that.
Don't believe it for a moment.
God has blessed us in Christ Jesus
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
You might be impoverished here on earth.
You might suffer here on earth.
But you know what?
If you belong to our God, the Father,
then you have spiritual riches
that all the Warren Buffett's in the world
can't even fathom or dream of.
Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ Jesus
because God the Father has given it to us.
And Paul continues to describe these spiritual blessings
more specifically in verse 4.
Even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world
that we should be holy and blameless before him.
God chose us.
The Father chose us
before the foundation of the world,
before we were born,
before the world began.
God chose us as his own
to save us.
The initiative of our salvation
does not lie with us,
but with God.
His choice precedes even our faith.
Lest we miss this truth,
he tells us even more abundantly clearly.
It's verses 5 to 6.
In love he predestined us
for adoption to himself
as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will,
to the praise of his glorious grace
with which he has blessed us
in the beloved.
If there was some standard
outside of God's sovereign will
that God used to decide
whom he will choose as people,
this would have been
the perfect place to say it, right?
He predestined us
for adoption as sons
through Jesus Christ
according to our pedigree.
He predestined us
for adoption as sons
through Jesus Christ
according to our virtue.
God predestined us
for adoption as sons
through Jesus Christ
according to our effort
or our level of faith.
He doesn't say any of that.
He says, no,
he predestined us
for adoption to himself
as sons through Jesus Christ
according to the purpose
of his will,
to the praise of his glorious grace.
God didn't choose us
because he knew beforehand
that we would have more faith
than people around us
or that we'd be more sincere
than the people around us
or that we'd be more righteous
than the people around us.
God chose us
according to the purpose
of his will.
The criterion
for our adoption
as sons to God
is not within ourselves
but it's within
the sovereign purposes
of God.
And you know what that means?
That means,
as Christians,
we can't gratify ourselves
with the thought that,
you know,
somehow we earned
our way to heaven.
We can't tell others
who are not believers
that, you know,
if you were as intelligent
as I am,
if you were,
you know,
only, you know,
as good as I am,
if you only had
as much faith as I did,
you know,
then you could be saved
but you can't be.
We can't say that to anyone
because we have nothing
to boast of.
It was according
to the purpose
of his will,
to the praise
of his glorious grace.
That's why it's
to the praise
of his glorious grace
because if God
saved us
according to our
deservingness,
then it would be
our merit
that gets the credit.
It would be our merit
that is praised.
But because God
didn't save us
according to our
deservingness,
but according to
the purpose
of his will,
that's why it's
to the praise
of his glorious grace.
It's his unmerited
favor toward us
that's highlighted,
not our merit,
not our deservingness.
I hope you're grateful
for this truth
as much as I am
because I ask
in wonder
and amazement
sometimes
as I look back
at my life,
as I look back
at my life
even just this week.
Why me, God?
Why would you
choose me?
Why would you
choose me
as your own God?
Because apart
from the work
of the Holy Spirit
in my life,
I'm a sinner
through and through.
I'm selfish.
I'm prideful.
I'm angry.
I'm judgmental.
Why should he
love someone like me?
Why should he
save me
when there's
millions of others?
I cannot give
an answer.
I cannot give
an answer.
That's what we say.
That's what
Charles Spurgeon,
the 19th century
British preacher,
said in his
typical,
you know,
witty way.
He said,
I believe
the doctrine
of election
because I'm
quite certain
that if God
had not chosen me,
I should never
have chosen him.
And I'm sure
he chose me
before I was born
or else he
never would have
chosen me afterwards.
And he must
have elected me
for reasons
unknown to me
for I never
could find in
myself why
he should have
looked upon me
with special
love.
So I'm
forced to
accept that
great
biblical
doctrine.
For this
reason,
all we can
say as
Christians
is blessed
be,
blessed
be the
God and
Father of
our Lord
Jesus Christ
who has
blessed us
in Christ
with every
spiritual
blessing
in the
heavenly
places.
Even as
he chose
us in
him from
before the
foundation
of the
world that
we should
be holy
and blameless
before him.
And then
it says,
in love
he predestined
us for
adoption to
himself as
sons through
Jesus Christ
according to
the purpose
of his will
to the praise
of his
glorious grace.
Now,
this doesn't
mean that we
don't have any
responsibility in
our salvation.
So please
don't hear me
saying that.
We have to
believe in
Jesus Christ
for our
salvation.
In a sense,
we do have
to choose
him.
Verse 13
teaches this
clearly.
The Bible
always holds
these two
truths in
tension.
Verse 13,
read it with
me.
In him
you also,
when you
heard the
word of
truth,
the gospel
of your
salvation,
and believed
in him,
were sealed
with the
promised
Holy Spirit.
In order
to be
saved,
we must
believe.
And in
order to
believe,
we need
to hear
the word
of truth,
the gospel
of our
salvation.
So faith
comes from
hearing and
hearing through
the word
of Christ.
Therefore,
Christians have
the responsibility
to preach
the gospel
so that
people would
hear.
And unbelievers
who hear have
the responsibility
to believe so that
they might be
saved.
Nowhere in
scripture does
scripture ever
abrogate our
responsibility.
But that doesn't
make verse 4
any less true.
God the Father
chose us in
him before the
foundation of the
world.
during community
group one
week,
actually Rosa
shared what
she heard this
radio preacher
say one time.
It's shockingly
simple,
but it's actually
helpful.
So I'm going
to share it
with you guys.
He says,
you take the
first step,
God takes the
second step,
and by the time
you take the
third step,
you realize that
God took the
first step.
Kind of how it
works, right?
Because election,
the doctrine of
election,
doctrine of
predestination,
really only makes
sense in
hindsight.
is when you have already put your faith in Jesus,
when you've already experienced that salvation,
that's when you realize, looking back,
oh, wait, God chose me before I chose him.
That's when you realize that.
So then if you're not a believer,
your responsibility is not to try to figure out
whether you're chosen or not.
No, your responsibility is to believe
because that's the only way you can find out.
Only those who choose Christ
discover that God has already chosen them.
And divine election isn't some arbitrary dispassionate act.
It's the word translated purpose here
is actually better rendered good pleasure.
That's what it literally means.
It was his good pleasure to choose us.
That's how the NIV translates it
if some of you guys have the NIV.
God chose his people according to his good pleasure.
Verse five further elaborates.
In love he predestined us
for adoption to himself as sons.
God chose us.
He predestined us in love.
The father's love.
The father's good pleasure.
That's the basis of his election.
God's choice was not some arbitrary fiat.
It wasn't just some dispassionate decision
or a cold calculation of what's going to happen in the future.
No, it was in love he chose us.
Out of his good pleasure,
he delighted to choose us.
Before we were born,
before we had done anything good or bad,
before we could even deserve his affection,
the father chose us and delighted over us.
It was his good purpose,
good will to save us.
Christians often think of God the father
as the strict and austere figure,
the severe in his judgments,
full of wrath and judgment towards sinners.
Sometimes we mistakenly think that,
you know,
the father only loves us
because Jesus died for us.
The father didn't love us.
That's why Jesus had to die for us.
Now that Jesus died for us,
the father loves us.
That cannot be further from the truth.
Think of all the passages
that talk about why Jesus came.
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only son.
You know why Jesus came?
He didn't come to purchase
the father's affections for us.
He came because the father loved us.
He came because the father sent him.
He came because father,
in eternity past,
had his good pleasure on us.
His love set on us.
That's why he came.
1 John 4, 8-10
says this about God the father.
Anyone who does not love,
does not know God
because God is love.
In this,
the love of God
was made manifest among us
that God sent his only son
into the world
so that we might live through him.
In this is love.
Not that we have loved God,
but that he loved us
and sent his son
to be the propitiation
for our sins.
Our heavenly father loves us.
I think Christians,
this is just my speculation,
but that has,
I think Christians
have a particularly hard time
with understanding this truth
because many of us
didn't grow up with,
you know,
respectable,
loving father figures.
We have a lot of daddy issues.
And so we kind of transpose
what we believe
about our earthly fathers
to our heavenly father.
We think of him as angry,
unhappy,
distant,
or altogether absent,
maybe even abusive.
But we must not impute
such characteristics
to our heavenly father.
John Owen
is one of my favorite theologians.
He's a 17th century
Oxford theologian.
He writes about this
in his book,
Communion with God,
that I'm reading
with some of the members
of our church together.
He writes that
nothing grieves God,
the father,
more than our hard thoughts
about him.
And by hard thoughts,
he means thoughts
that doubt his love for us,
his compassion toward us,
hard thoughts,
thinking of God
as this austere,
strict,
severe figure.
He writes that
nothing grieves God
more than these hard thoughts
because God knows,
quote,
how it leads us
to avoid walking with him,
how unwilling is a child
to come into the presence
of an angry father.
And then Owen exhorts us,
quote,
we must remember
his kind thoughts
towards us
which have been
from eternity.
Let us remember
how eager and willing
he is to accept us.
If we did this,
then we would not be able
to bear one hour's absence
from him.
Instead,
we find it difficult
to spend even one hour
with him.
Let then this
be the first thought
that we have
of the father,
that he is full
of eternal love
to us.
Is that your first thought
about God the father?
That he loves you?
He loved you in eternity?
In love,
he predestined us
for adoption
to himself
as son.
And the metaphor
of adoption
also beautifully
conveys this truth,
doesn't it?
God's not selecting
or hiring
his employees here.
he's choosing
his family.
People to adopt
to himself
as his own.
Now,
some of you
might have wondered
to yourself
why Paul had to be
so gender insensitive.
Why doesn't he say,
in love,
he predestined us
for adoption
as sons and daughters?
I mean,
that's really simple to say.
Why didn't he just say
sons and daughters?
Does he only want
to adopt men?
But this question
is actually missing
an important point
that the verse is making.
And Tim Keller,
who was a pastor
of a church in New York,
shared one time
about a woman
in his church
who helped him
to understand this concept.
This woman came
from a non-Western,
very traditional background.
And she had one brother.
So there was one son
in the family.
And as she was growing up,
she always knew
that her brother
would get the lion's share
of the wealth
and the honor
of the family.
And basically,
what the family told her
was,
he's the son,
you're just the girl.
And she was reading
Paul's,
Apostle Paul's description
of our adoption
to God as sons.
She realized
the subversive power
and the magnitude
of the promise
that God is making
because God's not saying
you will be treated
as second-class citizens.
He's not saying
you're going to be adopted
into my family
and relegated
to this less important role.
He's saying that
every single one of us,
sons and daughters,
you'll be adopted
to them as sons
with the full rights
and privileges
of sonship.
in love,
he predestined us
for adoption
to himself
as sons
through Jesus Christ
according to the purpose
of his will,
the praise
of his glorious grace
with which he has blessed us
in the beloved.
Isn't that,
I love that.
God the Father
refers to his son,
Jesus Christ,
as the beloved.
And that status
of beloved son
is imputed to us
through Jesus,
through those
who are in him.
He does not,
God the Father
doesn't look at us
and he's just like
wagging his finger
at us like
in disgust
and disappointment.
That's not what he's doing.
The God the Father
doesn't look at us
and shakes his head
in disappointment.
God the Father
looks on us
and says,
Beloved,
my special possession,
my sons.
When you really realize
this truth,
what God the Father
has done for us,
you can't help
but say,
Blessed be,
the God and Father
of our Lord.
That's what Paul says.
That's the first point.
The salvation
is from the Father.
And if salvation
is from the Father,
it is through the Son.
Verse 7 tells us,
In him,
we have redemption
through his blood,
the forgiveness
of our trespasses.
Now,
up to this point,
the verbs
were all in the past tense
to describe God's
choosing,
God's election
from eternity past.
But abruptly now,
the verbs switch
to the present tense
to signal that these
are the blessings
we currently enjoy.
It's ours.
It's ours now.
We get to enjoy it now.
And he says,
We have redemption
through his blood.
And the word redemption,
of course,
recurs,
probably the greatest picture
of redemption
in the Old Testament
was at the Exodus.
Right?
When God,
in redeeming his people,
in basically
trying to rescue his people
from slavery to Egypt,
he judged,
is judged Egypt,
and he killed
all the firstborn sons
of the Egyptians.
But he spared
the Israelite
firstborn sons
because they had
a substitute.
They had killed
a lamb in its place
and daubed its blood
on the door.
So that was how
they redeemed
their firstborns.
They were redeemed
by a substitute,
by a lamb.
And then Jesus
was the ransom price
paid for our redemption.
We were enslaved
to sin and death.
And our slave master
was no interest,
not interested at all
in letting us go,
abusing us
and using us
for his purposes.
And God the Father
sends his son
as the most costly
ransom price
he could pay
so that we can be
redeemed,
freed from our bondage
to slavery and sin.
That's what Christ did.
So we have redemption
through his blood.
And it's because
of his redemption
we now have the forgiveness
of our trespasses.
Jesus Christ alone
could have accomplished this.
He could uniquely
accomplish this
because he was
the son of God
and at the same time
the son of man.
God the Father
is the only one
that can forgive.
God the Father
can't come along
and say,
oh no,
you're forgiven,
don't worry about it
because you're the one
that was offended.
You're the only one
that can forgive.
Father was the one
that was offended.
He's the offended party
in every sin.
Only God can forgive.
God the Father
at the same time
if you,
let's say,
steal someone's car,
you can't then return a bike.
doesn't make sense,
right?
It has to fit.
The restitution
has to fit the crime.
And it is because
humanity sinned,
because humanity
sinned against God,
only a human
can rightly represent
humanity
and bear the punishment
that they deserve.
So God
is simultaneously
the adequate
redemption price,
the ransom,
because he is
the son of man.
And at the same time,
he's able to secure
the forgiveness
of our trespasses
because he is
the son of God.
He can forgive us
and extend forgiveness.
That's why
throughout the Gospels
when he says
your sins are forgiven,
all the Pharisees
go berserk.
What do you mean
you forgive his sins?
His sins are forgiven.
You can't say that.
Only God can say that.
He could say that
because he is God.
He is God.
He's the son of God.
Jesus
is the one
that accomplished
this for us.
It's 1 Timothy 2, 5,
says for there is one God
and there is one mediator
between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus.
And a Christian,
by definition,
is someone
who participates
in the life
and death
and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
That's what it means
to be a Christian.
That's why Christian,
the entry sacrament
is the sacrament
of baptism.
You're buried
and you die
to your sin
and then you are
brought back up
in new life
in Christ.
That's what
baptism signifies.
So Christian
is by definition
someone who participates
in the life,
death,
and resurrection
of Christ.
And that's why
in the span
of these 14 verses
of Ephesians,
some combination
of the phrase
in Christ
or in him,
in the beloved,
occurs 12 times.
It's almost,
it almost gets
obnoxious at times
if you're trying to,
you know,
read this over
and over again
and it's almost like,
it's like a crescendo
and every instance
of it
is like an exclamation point
in this whole doxology
of praise
and blessing of God
in Christ.
Blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing
in heavenly places.
He chose us in him
before the foundation
of the world.
He adopted us
as sons
through Jesus Christ.
Now these,
all these expressions
teach us two things.
First,
God the Father
does nothing apart
from his son.
He does everything
he does
in concert
with his son.
Second,
every spiritual blessing
we receive
from the Father
is through Christ.
As Jesus says,
right,
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.
That means every blessing
that we have ever enjoyed,
every spiritual blessing
that we've ever enjoyed,
it comes through Christ.
God the Father
pours out his blessings
on us
but not a drop of it
reaches us
except through Christ.
He is our mediator.
He is the conveyor.
He is our intercessor.
Father.
We just concluded
a sermon series
in the book of Genesis
and we know from there
that how important it is
for God's people
to be in the promised land,
to be in Canaan,
right?
That's,
to be in Canaan
is to be in God's presence
and to enjoy his blessings.
To be exiled from Canaan,
to be outside of Canaan
is to be cut off
from God's presence
and to not enjoy his blessings.
The New Testament equivalent
of being in Canaan
is being in Christ.
That's not a phrase
that we just append
to the end of our emails.
It's a precious phrase
that we are in Christ
because everything
that is good,
all that we know about God,
all the ways
in which we can relate to him,
it comes to us
through Christ.
And God's ultimate goal
in his redemption plan
is not just to unite us
to him,
but as it says
in verses 8 to 10,
he says,
in all wisdom and insight,
the Father made known to us
the mystery of his will
according to his purpose
which he set forth in Christ
as a plan for the fullness of time
to unite all things in him,
things in heaven
and things on earth,
right?
And the word unite
translated as unite here,
actually more literally translated
to brought under the objection of,
to brought under the headship of,
actually,
the word head is used.
And that's what God intends to do,
to bring all things,
things in heaven and on earth
under the headship of Christ
and that's God,
that is God's ultimate redemption plan.
And that's why the word head
occurs several times
in the book of Ephesians.
Verse 22 later,
he says,
he put all things under Christ's feet
and gave him as head
over all things to the church.
That's God's ultimate plan,
to bring all things
under Christ's headship.
And this mystery
was revealed to us
through Christ.
This mystery
doesn't refer in the New Testament
to something that remains hidden,
but something that was hidden,
but that God has revealed now
in Christ Jesus.
Now, if that's the case,
then we might ask,
then why then
are there still people
who don't believe in Jesus?
Why are there
angelic beings,
demons,
people who still
rebel against God
if God has brought all things
under the headship of Jesus?
And this reality
is frequently illustrated
by comparison
to World War II analogy.
You guys may have heard this,
the comparison between
the D-Day and V-Day, right?
So they were having,
it was a hard-fought battle
on the front lines
in the World War II,
and the Allied forces
invaded Normandy,
and there they established
a beachhead,
basically,
from which point
they could advance their war.
And the D-Day,
which was when they began
that excursion
to take Normandy,
was so significant,
it was such a strategic point
for the battle,
when the D-Day was,
when D-Day happened,
basically,
the V-Day,
the Victory Day,
was unavoidable.
It was as if
that victory was completed
when the D-Day happened.
So for us,
in the Christian perspective,
the D-Day is when
Christ came the first time.
He died for our sins
and rose again.
He decisively defeated sin
and death
and the spiritual forces of evil.
And then the V-Day comes
when He returns
for a second time,
when that victory,
that kingdom of God
is consummated,
brought in its fullness.
It's already here,
but it's not yet consummated.
That's the reality
that we live in.
That's why that's the case.
So, and then,
verses 11-2,
He reminds us again
that about God's redemption
through Christ
was according to
the Father's sovereign plan.
This is very,
it's parallels,
verses 4-6,
is very similar.
And it reminds us,
once again,
that God's not just reacting,
you know,
to human history,
but He had planned this
all along,
His sovereign plan
to save us through Christ.
So Christ is the conduit
of every spiritual blessing
that we receive
from the Father.
And when we recognize
that truth in earnest,
then we can't help
but bless the triune God
who has graciously blessed us.
We come to love Jesus
because He's the source.
He's the one
through whom we receive
all the blessings of God.
So salvation is from the Father,
and it is through the Son.
And now,
at the end of verse 12,
Paul specifically addresses
the Jews.
He says,
those who are the first
to hope in Christ,
but then immediately,
he addresses
the rest of the Gentiles
in verse 13
by saying,
in Him,
you also,
when you heard
the word of truth,
the gospel of salvation,
and believed in Him,
were sealed with the promised
Holy Spirit.
So he's saying
that the Jews
were the first to believe
and to experience
these blessings,
but the Gentiles
are also now incorporated
into this ultimate plan.
And this leads us
to our final point,
which is salvation
is by the Spirit.
In order to highlight
this reality,
Paul begins and ends
his blessing of God
in verses 3 to 14
with the mention
of the Holy Spirit.
Recall what I said
in verse 3.
You can turn back there
with me in verse 3.
Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us
in Christ
with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places.
All the blessings
we enjoy are spiritual,
meaning that it's connected
to the new covenant blessings
of the Holy Spirit,
which was prophesied
of in Ezekiel 36.
Our blessing is
of the Spirit of God.
And that's why Jesus says,
this is a really intriguing parallel
in Matthew 7, 11,
where Jesus says,
If you then,
though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts
to your children,
how much more
will your Father
who is in heaven
give good gifts
to those who ask Him?
And now compare that
to the parallel
in Luke 11, 13,
where Jesus says,
If you then,
who are evil,
know how to give good gifts
to your children,
how much more
will the heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him?
He substitutes the Holy Spirit
to good things,
to good gifts,
because the Holy Spirit
is the substance
and sum of every spiritual gift
we enjoy.
Every good spiritual gift
we enjoy
is of the Holy Spirit.
It's the experience
of the Holy Spirit.
It's a communion
in the Holy Spirit.
It's the fellowship
with the Holy Spirit.
And then,
near the end,
he says again,
When you heard
and believed
the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation,
we were sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit.
It's a very cool image.
The word seal
can refer to
a couple different things
in Greek
as well as in English, right?
One sense,
it could mean to,
you know,
clinch something,
to secure something,
to protect it
and to preserve it
so that it's there,
basically,
you know,
impermeable to corruption.
And then,
now,
the second way
is that it could be
a seal in the sense
of an emblem of ownership.
It's like a signature.
It's like a sign, right?
People back in the day,
in these times
when Paul's writing,
had often like
precious jewels
or a heart stone
that had an engraved image on it
and they used it
to mark things
that were precious to them,
precious possession,
to stamp it
and say,
this is mine.
This is,
I put my seal on it.
And that's what God does.
The King of Glory
has put a seal on us.
He's protecting us,
preserving us.
I think both of those senses
are here.
And that's why,
it's confirmed
by the following statement.
Paul continues,
the Spirit is the guarantee
of our inheritance.
It's because we have the Spirit,
we can be assured
of our future inheritance
in God.
He's the deposit.
Another translation says
he's the down payment.
Because we have the Spirit,
we can know for sure
that we will have the full,
the fullness
of the spiritual blessings,
the consummation of it
to enjoy in the future,
in eternity.
And then it also refers to it
as the seal
of God's possession of us.
So the ESV that we read from
translates it as
until we acquire possession of it.
But it's probably
better rendered,
translated as NIV does it,
as the until
the redemption
of God's possession.
That's what that means.
The possession
throughout this passage
that Paul's referring to
is the inheritance.
It's not that,
he's referring not primarily
to our inheritance
in God,
what we receive,
but he's referring to the fact
that we as the church
is God's inheritance.
You know,
clearly in verse 18.
And that's what
Paul's referring to.
So he's saying,
in essence,
this,
that we are his special
prized possession.
We are his treasured possession.
He's put his seal on us.
This reminded me of
a scene from
Toy Story 3,
I think it was.
I don't know if you guys
have seen it.
The 17-year-old Andy
finally goes off to college,
right,
and he sets aside his toys
and he puts them in a bag.
And he meant to put the toys,
store them in the attic,
but because he stored them
in a garbage bag,
his mom accidentally
throws them out
into the street
and waiting for it
to be picked up
by the garbage can.
I know, right,
it's,
I can't believe it,
the mom's cleaning their houses.
And now,
so because of that,
the toys are,
toys are just distraught,
right,
they think that they
have been abandoned
by their owner.
But Woody,
right,
arguably,
Andy's favorite toy,
right,
he knows that
that's not what
really happened.
He knows that they,
he meant,
the owner meant to store
them in the attic,
not to throw them away.
And so he goes,
he follows the other toys
and he tries to convince them,
but the other toys
are just despondent.
They're like,
no,
what if he doesn't
want us anymore?
And then,
what he does
is so cool.
He points to his foot,
his boot,
which has the name
Andy written on it.
But look at this.
He marked us
as his own.
We belong to him.
That's what God
does with us.
Seal of the Holy Spirit.
Mine,
mine,
not belonging
to anyone else,
mine,
my precious seal
on us.
That's the Holy Spirit.
How precious
is the Holy Spirit
to us?
The Holy Spirit
was so central
to the Christian experience
that in Acts,
when,
in Acts 19,
when Apostle Paul
encounters a set
of believers
who are discipled
by Apollos,
he asks just one
simple question.
Did you receive
the Holy Spirit
when you believed?
Because the Holy Spirit
is so central
to the Christian life
and experience.
If,
then,
if you as a believer,
if we as a believer
live as if the Holy Spirit
doesn't exist,
if you believe
in the Holy Spirit
theoretically,
but have no experience,
no relationship
with the Holy Spirit,
that's a very troubling sign.
The Holy Spirit
is the one
that assures us
when we are plagued
by guilt,
doubt,
and fear.
It's the Holy Spirit
that comes to us
and assures us,
you are God's
prized possession.
You have been adopted
as sons.
That's what the Spirit does.
When we gather together
to worship,
that He is the one
that enlivens our hearts,
fills us with joy
and gratitude.
When we pray to Him,
His Holy Spirit
is the one
that's alongside us,
groaning with words
that we can't even utter,
interceding for us.
That's the Holy Spirit.
He's the comforter.
He's our advocate.
He's the manifestation
of the presence of God.
He is the bond
of our union with Christ.
He's the means
by which we have
fellowship with God.
And when we rightly
perceive of that
and understand that
and believe that,
then we can't help
but to bless
the glorious,
gracious,
triune God
who has blessed us.
To summarize
this redemptive activity
of the triune God,
I know some of it
was a little bit heady,
but I hope you see
the practical applications
of it.
This is such an important
vital truth
for us to understand.
We could use
an imperfect analogy
to describe this.
Maybe think of it
as the gift
and the deliverer
and the gift.
I mean,
giver and deliverer
and the gift.
Imagine that your dad
sends you a gift.
So he's this precious gift.
He wraps it up nicely
and he goes to
the United States Postal Service
and he ships it to you.
And then he gets to you
and then you open it
and you get to receive it
and enjoy the gift
that he sent.
God the father
is like the dad
who sends.
God the son
is like the deliverer,
the USPS Postal Service.
They deliver it to you.
And the spirit
is the gift himself.
You receive him.
You enjoy him.
The presence of God
that he represents.
That's what it does.
And you delight
in every phase of it.
Right?
It's like I
I didn't intend
to share this
but I remember
like a long time ago
I haven't seen this
in forever
but watching like a TV show
where like they announced
that you were like winner
of this great prize
or something
and then the person
who just won that right prize
just like starts embracing
the person
that just announced it to them
even though that person
had I mean
nothing to do with it really.
Right?
Just because he delivered
such amazing news.
Right?
But then for us
Christ is so much more than that
because he's not just
a dispassionate
detached deliverer.
He embodies the message.
He's the one
that makes the gift possible.
Right?
So we delight
in the father
who sends his gifts
and we delight
in the son
who brings us
the precious gifts
and we delight
in the spirit
who applies
those precious gifts
to us.
That's the relationship
that God desires for us.
And because
and what that means
is this
in the end
from the beginning
to the end
the salvation
belongs to the Lord
it's all of him.
And that's why
three times
throughout this
this passage
Apostle Paul says
to the praise
of his glory
to the praise
of his glorious grace
in verse 6
to the praise
of his glory
in verse 12
in verse 14
the only proper way
in which we could respond
as recipients
of such amazing grace
indeed the only natural way
we can respond
as recipients
of such amazing grace
is to bless
the triune God
who has graciously
blessed us
to glorify him
and
and there's
one more reason
we chose this passage
particularly at this time
of our church's life
and
and that's that
we get to celebrate
the 500th year anniversary
of the Protestant Reformation
in the coming month
next month
and
and this book
is probably as good
as any other
for celebrating that truth
and the Protestant Reformation
proclaimed
five
essential truths
they're called
they call them
the five solas
sola is the Latin word
for alone
right
he said that
that the scripture alone
is the final authority
in Christian belief
in life
he declared that salvation
is in Christ alone
by grace alone
through faith alone
and to the glory
of God alone
and it's
this passage
demonstrates
that last phrase
alone
to the glory
of God
alone
perhaps better
than any other
passage in scripture
because
from the beginning
to the end
from the giver
to the deliverer
to the gift
all of it
was of God
that's why
it is glory
to him alone
and not to any
other man
if God's grace
is the river
source
right
then God's glory
is the river mouth
the ocean
to which
all of God's
spiritual blessings
flows
it goes from grace
to glory
and if you
you know
all of you guys
get excited
about something
perhaps some of you guys
are by natural temperament
a little terse
or not very emotional
a little bit
you know
and you think
oh no
you know
praising God
you know
that's for
those emotional people
you know
that's
you know
being
you know
praising God
profusely
like Paul
is oh
that's for those
verbose people
no that's not for me
no
when you become
a Christian
you become
a singer
when you become
a Christian
you become
a praiser
when you become
a Christian
you become
a blesser
you can't help
that
if we can
wax eloquently
about our favorite
TV show
or video game
if we can speak
profusely
about our best friend
or about how
the
or about the amazing
Super Bowl game
last year
then we can
praise God
profusely
our praise
our blessing
should freely
and voluntarily
just profusely
flow
roll off
our tongues
that should be
a proper response
because we can't
help as believers
who have been
recipients of such
amazing grace
to bless the God
who blessed
God
we
want this
not just to be
an idea
in our heads
but a firm
belief
in our hearts
we want to live
by this reality
not just
think of it
theorize about it
but please
by your spirit
transform us
move us
captivate us
with the
triune love of God
in Jesus name
we pray
what
our
minds
what
have
been
and
Yah!