Still living at home, bored, and expecting to inherit a fortune when his sickly widower father died, Robert decided he needed a woman to keep him company.
So he went to a singles bar, and he searched until he spotted a woman whose beauty took his breath away. "Right now, I’m just an ordinary man," he said as he walked up to her, "but within a month or two, my father will pass away and I’ll inherit over 20 million dollars." The woman went home with Robert that night.
And four days later she became his…stepmother.
No wonder they say that some men never learn...
It’s amazing what lengths some people will go to for an earthly inheritance, often to only be disappointed when they don’t actually receive what they think they are going to get. But there is a spiritual inheritance that is far more valuable and lasting than any inheritance than any we could ever receive here on this earth. And the good news is that for those of us who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, that inheritance is guaranteed by God Himself.
At the beginning of the year we began our spiritual basic training by going verse by verse through our training manual – Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. After the introduction in the first two verses, Paul writes one long sentence that describes the spiritual riches that God has given to us. This morning we’ll wrap up our look at that sentence which we find in our Bibles in verses 3-14. We began by looking at the work of God the Father as He chose us before the beginning of the world and predestined us to be part of His family. And he accomplished all that by pouring out his grace into our lives.
Then we’ve seen the work of God the Son. Jesus, through His death and resurrection purchased our redemption. He has freed us from a life that is characterized by slavery to sin. And one day, all of God’s creation will once again be centered, focused and brought together in Him.
And this morning we’ll wrap up this section by looking at the work of God the Holy Spirit in blessing us with the spiritual riches of God. Hopefully you’ve been keeping up with your Scripture memory, so let’s see how well we can remember our passage for this week before Dave puts it up on the screen:
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13, 14 (NIV)
This whole section of Ephesians, and indeed much of Paul’s letter, focuses on this idea of an inheritance. But the great thing about this inheritance is that we don’t have to wait to enjoy it. In fact, our inheritance has a past, present and future aspect to it:
My inheritance:
Deals with my past sins
When Jesus redeems us, he deals with all of our past sins. Since there is absolutely nothing that I can do to deal with the guilt and the penalty for my sins, Jesus paid the penalty for me on the cross. And that frees me from the guilt associated with my past sins.
Allows me to live an abundant life in the in the present
You’ve’ all seen the bumper stickers, usually on the back of a large, slow moving RV, that read “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.” In fact, I’ve experienced that myself. A couple of years ago, Mary and I were in Sam Levitz, looking at some furniture. And while we were there, we happened to run into my Mom and sister, who were also shopping for furniture. Their salesman had just let them look around for a while without bugging them, a luxury that we hadn’t been afforded ourselves. But after a while he came back to see if he could help them. By then they had picked out a few pieces of furniture, but my Mom wanted to go look at a recliner chair. I think I kind of caught the salesman off guard when I remarked something like, “Don’t let her buy anything else. After all, she’s spending my inheritance.”
But the great thing about our inheritance in Christ is that even though I get to spend it now, it doesn’t reduce by one iota what I’ll still get in the future. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way when it comes to our earthy inheritance.
I read this week about a woman whose husband had died. He had $20,000 to his name. After everything was done at the funeral home and cemetery, she told her closest friend that there was no money left. The friend asked, "How can that be? You told me he had $20,000 a few days before he died. How could you be broke?" The widow replied, "Well, the funeral cost me $6,500. And of course, I had to make the obligatory donation for the church and the organist and all. That was $500, and I spent another $500 for the wake, food and drinks, you know. The rest went for the memorial stone." The friend asked, "$12,500 for the memorial stone? My stars, how big was it?" The widow said, "Three carats!"
But we get to enjoy our spiritual inheritance now. We’ve been freed from our bondage to sin so that we can have an abundant life right now. But in the future we’re still going to receive the entire inheritance that God has purchased fro us through His Son.
Means I get to spend eternity with God in the future
That is the primary emphasis of the passage we’re looking at this morning. Although we certainly see at least a passing reference to the past and present aspects of our inheritance here, the main emphasis is on the future aspect of that inheritance.
Although all three persons of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – take part in all three aspects of our inheritance, it is the Holy Spirit who takes the lead role in guaranteeing or insuring our future inheritance. It is through the Holy Spirit that my inheritance is signed, sealed and delivered:
How my inheritance is signed, sealed and delivered:
I receive the Holy Spirit through Jesus
Including the passage we’re looking at this morning, Paul has already used the phrase “in Christ”, “in Him” or similar phrases 11 times. Paul wants there to be absolutely no doubt that all of the spiritual blessings that we get all come to us through Jesus Christ – there is no other way!
The same thing is true when it comes to receiving the Holy Spirit into my life. We spent a couple of weeks looking at our relationship with the Holy Spirit in some detail a few months ago in our series from the Book of Acts. In fact, this is one of the passages that we looked at then. And it was clear them and it is clear now that there is nothing that we can do on our own to receive the Holy Spirit into our life. We can’t pray and ask God to give Him to us. We can’t perform some act to get Him into our life. There are not two classes of Christians – those who have some special manifestation of the Holy Spirit and those who don’t.
The Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit comes into the life of every believer at the very moment he or she becomes a believer. And this passage describes the two essential elements in that process. Before we look at those two elements briefly, I need to point out that the punctuation in the NIV translation seems to make these two elements seem unrelated. The phrase “heard the word of truth” is separated from the words “Having believed”, which actually begin a new sentence. But in Greek, the construction of the sentence makes it clear that these two actions are linked together. In other words, it’s not one and then later the other. The two actions occur in concert with each other.
So how do I receive the Holy Spirit? Two things must occur:
o I hear the word of truth
Paul lived in a world that was a lot like ours – one where there were all kinds of ideas of what comprises truth. Or perhaps even worse, the idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth. A poll taken by the Barna group in November 2001 showed that only 22% of Americans believed that moral truth is absolute. And there have been a lot of other polls with similar results. Even more sadly, however, is that among those that consider themselves to be Christians, the numbers aren’t a whole lot higher.
But Paul is very clear here that there is absolute truth. When he writes about the word of truth in verse 13, he includes the article with the word “truth”, so we could literally translate that phrase “the word of the truth.” And then Paul goes on to further identify “the word of the truth” as “the gospel of your salvation.” The gospel, or the “Good News”, is the very essence of the truth in at least three crucial areas:
• The truth about the condition of man
Paul is going to go into this in much more detail in chapter 2. Most people would admit that they aren’t perfect. But most of them also think that they can take care of that themselves – just get rid of a few bad habits or add a little bit of morality. Maybe they’ll even start reading the Bible or going to church. But the truth of the gospel is that man is totally depraved – he is spiritually dead in his transgressions and sins and there is absolutely nothing he can do about it.
• The truth about God’s love
Although He cannot excuse our sin, the Bible is very clear that God loves us. He wants the very best for us. And He was willing to let His own Son die on the cross to demonstrate that love to us.
• The truth about God’s plan
Since people have so many ideas of what truth is, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are also a multitude of ideas on how to be made right with God. Much like in Paul’s day, we live in a culture that says it doesn’t really matter how you get to God. Just be spiritual. It doesn’t matter how you do that because there are many paths to God. We just all need to be tolerant of each other’s religion.
But that is not what Jesus said. He declared the unambiguous truth that God has only one plan and that plan is faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ:
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 (NIV)
No wonder Paul has consistently reminded us that we can only come to God when we are “in Christ”.
o I believe in Jesus
It’s not just enough to hear the gospel. We also have to act on it. The word that Paul uses here for “believe” is a word that indicates more than just mere intellectual assent or what we would call “head knowledge”. The word implies the kind of faith that will result in a changed life. It’s the kind of faith that James writes about in his epistle:
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:17 (NIV)
The entire second half of the Book of Ephesians is going to focus on the fact that the way we live our lives needs to be consistent with what we believe. That’s the evidence of the kind of belief Paul writes about here.
This morning, you’ve heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation. So the important question is, “Have you also believed in Jesus?” Have you trusted in Him and His death and resurrection alone as the only way to be made right with God? And does your belief affect the way you live your life each day?
This morning, we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to pause right now and give you an opportunity to respond to God. If you’ve already made the decision to believe in Jesus in the way we just talked about, then I invite you to use this time to just give thanks to God for sending the Holy Spirit to live in your life.
But I also know that in a group like this, there are probably some of you who have never made that decision, you’ve never trusted in Jesus Christ alone to redeem you from your sins and make you right with God. Perhaps you come to church every week and you’re trusting in your church attendance. Maybe your parents and grandparents were Christians and you’re trusting in your heritage. Maybe you think that because you read the Bible and pray and treat people right, you’ve earned the right to become part of God’s family. But as we’ve seen these past several weeks, the only means God has provided for us to enter into a relationship with Him is His Son, Jesus Christ.
So I’m going to ask right now that everyone bow their heads and close their eyes. If you’ve never trusted in Jesus Christ alone as the basis for your relationship with God, I want to invite you to do that right now. I’m going to lead you in a simple prayer. The words of the prayer aren’t magic, but if you can pray this prayer and mean what you are saying from deep within your heart, then God promises that He will redeem you and make you part of His family and send His Holy Spirit to live in your life. Just repeat this prayer silently right where you are:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I admit to You that I am a sinner and that I am helpless to do anything about my sin. I am sorry for my sin and, with Your help, it is my desire to turn my life around. I thank you for Your love that You demonstrated to me when Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Right now, I am trusting in Jesus Christ alone as the way to a relationship with You. I accept Him into my life as my Forgiver and my Master.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
If you just prayed that prayer, I want to ask you to take a moment to fill out the information on the flap of the bulletin and check the box that reads “I committed my life to Jesus Christ”. Then you can either place it in the offering plate during our response time or had it to Denny or me. We’d like to join with the angels in heaven who are rejoicing over your decision right now and we’d also like to make sure that we can do all we can to help you on the spiritual journey you’ve just begun.
[Response Time and Offering]
The fact that I receive the Holy Spirit when I hear the gospel and believe in Jesus is only part of the story of my inheritance. Paul goes on to describe how:
The Holy Spirit secures my inheritance
Paul gives us two pictures of the Holy Spirit in order to help us understand how the Holy Spirit works in our lives to secure our inheritance:
• He is a seal
In Paul’s day, important documents were sealed with wax and then imprinted with an identifying symbol, usually by pressing a signet ring into the wax. And that seal had three major functions, each of which helps us to understand something about how the Holy Spirit secures our inheritance for us:
o A mark of ownership
In Paul’s day livestock, and even slaves, were marked with a seal to show ownership, similar to the way a rancher might brand his cattle even today. The seal helped to prevent theft and to avoid disputes about ownership. In much the same way, the Holy Spirit seals us as proof that we belong to God. Paul writes about that aspect of sealing in 2 Corinthians:
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
2 Corinthians 1:21, 22 (NIV)
o A symbol of preservation
You’ll recall that when Jesus was taken down off the cross and placed in the tomb, the tomb was sealed with the seal of the Roman Emperor. The purpose was to protect, or preserve what was in the tomb from any outside interference. And when the Holy Spirit seals us, he comes into our lives to preserve us and protect us from outside influences. That doesn’t mean we won’t face pain and suffering in our lives here on this earth, but it does insure that nothing can keep us from our ultimate inheritance.
o An indication of a completed transaction
Whenever a business transaction was completed - the purchase of a parcel of land, for instance - the parties involved would seal the legal documents to indicate that the transaction was complete. When the Holy Spirit seals us, he reminds us that just before he gave up His life on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” The Holy Spirit seals us to make it clear that there is nothing else that we need to do to earn our inheritance. Jesus already completed that transaction on the cross.
• He is a down payment
The word translated “deposit’ literally means a ‘down payment.” That is something we are all certainly familiar with. If we buy something large on credit – a house or car, for example – the lender requires us to make a down payment. And that down payment makes the lender very happy because it is the guarantee that there is more to come. And in most cases, there is a lot more to come – usually several times the amount of the down payment.
The Holy Spirit serves exactly the purpose for us spiritually. He is the guarantee that there is more to come – in fact, much more to come. As great as it is that Jesus has dealt with my past sins and gives me an abundant life right now, the best is yet to come.
Paul writes that the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance “until the redemption of those who are God’s possession”. Literally that phrase means “the redemption of the walk-around”. This is a reference to the practice of walking around the perimeter of a parcel of land that was being purchased. When the buyer did that, it was a symbol to everyone that the down payment had been made and that the parcel now belonged to him.
That’s what God has done for us. He has made the down payment and performed the walk-around to make us His. And the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the guarantee that one day God will return to claim our resurrected bodies for Himself.
It’s interesting that in Modern Greek, the word translated “deposit” or “down payment” in this passage has come to mean an engagement ring. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of what the Holy Spirit is in our lives? He’s the reminder to everyone that God has promised to return and to make us His bride.
The best is truly yet to come!
We’re going to close our time this morning by reading our passage from the Message. As we reads these words out loud together, let’s focus on the fact that the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that we’ve been signed, sealed and delivered.
It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Ephesians 1:13, 14 (Message)
