God's Great Purposes For His People Series

God's Great Purposes for His People

Ephesians 1:7-14

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The Book of Ephesians

(Prepared March 12, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

*We are studying the Apostle Paul's letter to the Church in Ephesus. Author John Phillips explained that "Ephesus was a large and important city in Paul’s day, with a population around 350,000 people. It was on the western coast of modern day Turkey, midway between two continents. There east met west. Crowds of government officials, Roman soldiers, and Jewish businessmen rubbed shoulders with Eastern pilgrims flocking into Ephesus to worship at the pagan temple of Diana. That temple was famous as one of the wonders of the ancient world, but it was also a shrine to a false goddess who was "worshiped" through sinful sexual ways.

*Ephesus was Paul’s headquarters during his third missionary journey. He stayed in the city for nearly three years and established a large, influential church. His fellow workers and the new Christians fanned out from Ephesus to the surrounding territory. There they planted new churches in city after city." Later, the church in Ephesus was blessed to be led by the Apostle John. (1)

*In today's Scripture we will focus on God's great purposes for His people, so please think about God's purposes in your life, as we read Ephesians 1:7-14.

MESSAGE:

*Purpose makes all the difference in the world. Andy Stanley once asked, "How many of you would be excited about spending all day filling bags with sand? No thanks, Right? -- But what if we were filling those bags to save our town from being flooded? (2)

*Purpose makes all the difference in the world. That's why God never does anything without a great purpose in mind, and God wants us to know about His purposes.

1. IN TODAY'S SCRIPTURE, GOD'S FIRST PURPOSE IS TO PROVIDE FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE.

*We see this purpose in vs. 7-9, where Paul said:

7. In Him (that is, in Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

8. which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

9. having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.

*In other words: God's purpose was to get good pleasure by making the mystery of the cross known to us. We may not think about this very often, but one of God's purposes is to bring about His own good pleasure.

*People seeking their own pleasure can be a huge problem, because we are sinful, selfish, and short-sighted. But God is infinitely wise and good, so He will only do good things to get His good pleasure. And one of God's greatest purposes is to provide for his good pleasure.

2. BUT ANOTHER GREAT PURPOSE IS TO UNITE THE UNIVERSE.

*We see this truth in vs. 9-10, where Paul tells us that God "made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth in Him."

*Revelation 20 shows us that by the time this happens, the devil, the fallen angels, and all lost people have been judged by God and cast into the lake of fire. Then in Revelation 21:1 John said, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." At that time, God is going to bring about perfect unity and peace in the whole universe. And it all comes together in Christ. We will all be gathered together "in Christ". John Phillips explained that "God has no plan, no program, no purpose, that does not ultimately rest in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ." Glory to God! (3)

*But remember Christians that we are already literally in Christ. When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, one of the miraculous things that happened was that His Holy Spirit came to live in our spiritual hearts. But at the very same time, God's Holy Spirit put us into the spiritual Body of Christ. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 12:13 when he said, "by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. . ." This means we have been totally submerged into the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.

*This is an extremely important truth about Christianity. We know this because phrases like "in Christ" or "in the Lord" are used almost 100 times in the New Testament, including ten times in this short letter to the Ephesians. For example vs. 1 says, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful IN CHRIST JESUS." Verse 3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places IN CHRIST." And vs. 4 says, "Just as He chose us IN HIM before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Christians: We are together as one in Christ. We are together as one in the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ.