It’s been over 60 years since Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, and a bright-eyed little girl named Judy Garland led us down the road paved with yellow bricks and into the land of Oz. All the actors are dead and gone, now, but the story of the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the frightened little girl from Kansas lives on in our imaginations. Perhaps we could find several “morals” to this classic story, but one that is unmistakable is the lesson drawn by those great theologians—America—who put it like this: “Oz never did give nothin’ to the Tin Man, that he didn’t, didn’t already have.” English bad; point well-taken! The things that were most desired by these wayfarers were traits that each of them already possessed! The Tin Man had a heart, the Scarecrow a brain, the Lion courage, and for Dorothy, “there’s no place like home” was but a wish away.
What does that have to do with us? Well…plenty! It is often the case that the requests which we as believers make of God are for things that we already possess in Christ! Let me just give you the whole outline today; it’s a simple one, three parts:
• We’ve been blessed by God.
• We’ve been blessed incredibly.
• We’ve been blessed because we belong to Jesus.
Don’t worry if you didn’t get all of that; they’ll be up on the screen soon. But note the difference between Christian faith and religions of the world, and it’s in seed form in our Summer Memory Verse which is Ephesians 1:3 (quote that with me, if you would!). I’m giving away a lot of the sermon even before I preach it this morning, but would you look at the chronological order of the events described in the verse? Which comes first, class, chronologically: our praising God, or His blessing us? God blesses us, and then we respond to Him. In the eternal mind of God, far prior to His flinging the planets into space, He had devised the plan which would ultimately lead to your salvation and blessing. God decided to bless me before the universe was in existence. Selah…let that sink in.
See, many world religions say, “do this and this and this, and then maybe you will have appeased God sufficiently that His wrath will be placated, and He’ll smile on you.” You take the initiative, in other words; you reach out to God, and then—and only then—will He reach back. As we’ll see in weeks to come, your salvation isn’t in your hands, but in His; God took the initiative: He sent His Son to pay the price; He raised His Son from the dead and glorified Him; He chose you, changed you, and will live forever with you. God does it, and then we respond to Him.
As we saw last week, these promises and blessings are for those who are God’s holy people, Jesus’ faithful followers. Yes, we can speak of God’s general blessings on everyone—there are people who never are regenerated by God who enjoy aspects of life here on earth, who receive God’s general blessings. At the same time, God reserves special blessings for His children, just as you might extend blessings to those who are not your own kids, but reserve certain things for your flesh-and-blood children—that’s normal! We, as His children have received His blessings.
I. We have been blessed by God.
We greet one another with “throwaway words”. “How ya doin’?” “How’s it goin’?” “How are you?” We ask these questions, and then either don’t wait for an answer, or expect a response from a fairly narrowly-defined set of acceptable replies: “fine”, “okay”, “well”, “good”; we’ve recently added “busy” to the list of acceptable responses. The last thing we usually want when asking one of these perfunctory greeting questions is an honest response—and when someone gives one, we sometimes find ourselves in conversations we never intended to enter! We expect one of the acceptable answers, even if that answer isn’t really the truth! Such is the state of American greeting protocol today.
But Paul uses words that are more than just polite perfunctorisms; he vests his greetings with significance when he says, in verse 2,
a. Grace
b. Peace
This two-fold blessing of greeting probably originated in worship services, and it became a common greeting in Christian literature as well as a spoken greeting among believers. Far more than a mere “howdy”, it is a uniquely Christian greeting, the truth of which we’d all do well to internalize and then exemplify to a world of people so desperately in need of the touch of grace and the experience of peace with God.
“Grace”, of course, refers to the unmerited favor of God extended toward us; every Christ-follower has first-hand experienced the grace of God. “Peace” is the Greek “eirene”, from which we get the word “irenic”; it translates the Hebrew word “shalom”, and signifies a wish for spiritual prosperity and completeness.
But my, aren’t both “grace” and “peace” foreign in our world? Who shows grace? It’s power, not grace, that characterizes this world; it’s tit-for-tat, not unmerited favor; it’s “you get what you pay for”, not “something for nothing”. It’s rare in this world for someone to willingly relinquish authority/power/control/rights…but God willingly gave Himself for us in Christ. What is Paul saying when he wishes the Ephesians “grace”? That the grace of God, operative in them in bringing them to faith in Christ in the first place, might continue to be magnified in their daily experience. A little more meaningful than “how’s it goin’?”, huh?
Further, by speaking grace to them, Paul models the fact that grace to us ought to become grace through us. Grace treats others better than they might deserve. How might this play out?
• Grace shuts up when it has the right to scream out.
• Grace gives a 2nd chance…or 3rd…or 10th…or…
• Grace takes it to God instead of taking it out on another.
• Grace spares the reputation of another.
• Grace lets it go when you have every right to push it.
• Grace gives a soft answer which turns away wrath.
In the KJV, Colossians 4:6 gives us a beautiful word picture when it says that our speech is to be “seasoned with grace”. When I season my dinner with salt, I sprinkle it all over and allow the salt to permeate the meal, to condition the taste of everything. Paul says that grace ought to permeate and condition the way we speak; what a great word-picture of the way we ought to converse with others—and let’s face it: the primary way in which we interact with other people is through our speech. Paul models for us grace in action.
He also says, “peace”. Paul is speaking to Christ-followers, and he’s not thus saying, “may you have peace with God”—no, they already have that in Christ. Rather, he is wishing for them that the peace of God would practically rule their hearts (Colossians 3:15). The general rule of the lives of Christ-followers, flowing from peace with God, is that the peace of God would prevail. Literally, that word “rule” in Colossians 3 connotes “umpire” or “arbiter”. All kinds of feelings/thoughts/emotions will come to my heart and life; which are to be encouraged, and which are not to be? The umpire, the rule, is the peace of God—and that is Paul’s prayer for the Christ-followers at Ephesus (and for us).
Paul extends these wishes to us in verse 2, prior to making the statement that it is God Who has blessed us with grace and peace, and He does that that in turn, we might extend that same grace and peace to others. And I can do that, because I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me (Philippians 4:19).
II. We have been blessed incredibly.
That’s what verse 3 says: “every spiritual blessing”. God doesn’t toss us a crumb or two, but rather a 7-course feast of His grace, as it were. What kind of blessings? “Spiritual”—and we might cynically say, “well, thanks, but God, what I really need is____.” But understand this: “spiritual” refers to the source of blessing as the Holy Spirit, and God is our Father, Who loves us and is the Giver of every good and perfect gift. It is by the grace of God and the Spirit of God that we have anything that we have, and understand this as well: as a loving Father, God gives us everything that we truly need (not necessarily what we want). We might want a nice fancy motorcycle that we can ride through downtown Pittsburgh without a helmet—or maybe not—but God promises to give us what we truly need.
I Peter 1:3 says that God “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” He has given us the resources we need to live life. Here’s a short list:
• Love? Romans 5:5 – “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts”
• Peace? John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
• Joy? (Same discourse) – “My joy will remain in you…”
• Strength? Philippians 4:19 – “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”
We could of course go further, but the point is, hearkening back to the beginning today, is that we pray, not so much that God would give us these things, for they are our birthright as Jesus’ people. Our need is to pray that God would enable us and empower us to do more with what we already have!
“But Pastor, it says, ‘in the heavenly realms’, and so does that mean that we’re just talking about some sweet-bye-and-bye kind of blessings that don’t really help us much in the ugly-now-and-now?” Uhhh…no. Our ultimate citizenship is in Heaven, but we enjoy the benefits now.
III. We have been blessed because we belong to Jesus.
We belong to Jesus. He owns us. We have been bought with a price (I Cor. 6:18-20).
“It’s my life…” Sorry…what ever gave you that preposterous idea? Before Christ, you are in bondage to Satan; your eyes are blinded to the truth of God; you are held captive by your sin. Then, when you come to Christ, you do so because He has paid the price to purchase your redemption from sin; He has bought you, so you belong to Him. Where along this whole line do you get the idea that the life you are living actually belongs to you? Saying, “it’s my life, and I’ll live it as I choose to” is evidence of one of two things: one, you’ve never experienced regeneration, being brought from death to life via faith in Christ on your part and amazing grace on God’s, or despite your salvation in Christ, you’ve not yet grasped the concept that you belong to Jesus. And that’s exactly what Ephesians 1:3 says: the blessings that we experience happen as a direct result of the fact that we belong to Jesus, His stamp of ownership is upon us.
Now all of this is true prior to what Paul says our response ought to be, the four words he begins verse 3 with: “now we praise God”. This is our fitting response! Because we are so blessed,
Therefore…Praise God!!!
Some translations read “bless God” instead of “praise God”, and if you have that kind of translation, perhaps you’re wondering, “how in the world can I ‘bless’ God?” Certainly, we cannot bless God in the ways nor to the degree that He has blessed us, but we can bless/praise God. First, certainly,
• By the fruit of our lips
Songs of worship that we sing are not mere preliminaries; as they come from a truly yielded heart, they are sacrifices of praise acceptable to God through Christ. But we spoke earlier of the grace of God becoming a reality in our speech—I worship and praise and bless God by blessing others with my speech instead of cursing them, by extending to them grace and peace. God is praised by the fruit of our lips, but also
• By the sacrifice of our lives
God created us with the capacity to choose, and we are no longer slaves to sin; therefore, Paul urges us to offer ourselves to God, to freely and willfully choose to live for Him. Love worth receiving is love freely given, and thus we should use our freedom to serve and love Him. We “bless God” by yielding our wills to His, by echoing the words of Christ in Gethsemane, “not my will, but Yours be done, Lord!” After all, the glory is due Him, not us. “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.”
For a little girl named Dorothy, despite the wonders of the enchanted land of Oz and some wonderful friends made of tin, straw, and fur, there was “no place like home”. For us, it might be said that “there’s no place” like our heavenly home, and we look forward to it. But the good news is that we do not have to wait until we get there to experience our birthrights, “every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.” Praise God!
