Rich Christians (Ephesians 1:3-14)
Thousands of letters sent each year to God end up in a sorting office in Jerusalem. According to the Associated Press, the letters arrive from all over the world in the city's undeliverable mail department.
“We have hundreds of thousands of letters sent either to God or Jesus Christ, and for some reason they come to Jerusalem,” said post office spokesman Yitzak Rabihiya.
In one letter, an Israeli man asked God for 5,000 shekels ($1,000), to ease his poverty. Postal workers were so moved that they sent him 4,300 shekels.
“After a month the same person wrote again to God,” Mr. Rabihiya explained, “but this time he wrote, ‘Thank you, God, for the contribution, but next time please don't send it through those postmen. They're thieves; they stole 700 shekels’.” (The London Times, 10-4-03)
Sometimes we focus so much on what we don’t have, we lose sight of all that we do have. But if we could learn to appreciate what we do have, then we would enjoy life a whole lot more. The fact is we Christians are very rich. We who have put our trust in Christ have vast resources. We have unimaginable wealth that far exceeds that of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Donald Trump combined.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, where we see just how wealthy we are.
Ephesians 1:3 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. (ESV)
We have a high standing with Christ. We have every spiritual blessing there is! And we have the riches of heaven at our disposal. That’s cause for great celebration! That’s reason for a praise party every day. We have more than won the lottery, friends! We have won the wealth of heaven! Don’t focus on what you don’t have. Instead, focus on what you DO have, and praise the Lord. First…
PRAISE GOD FOR SELECTING US.
Praise the Father for choosing us for his own. Praise your heavenly Father for wanting us to be in his family.
Ephesians 1:4-6 Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption 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. (ESV)
God picked us out and gave us a different destiny than we would have had had we not been adopted into his family.
Matt Woodley tells the story of his friend, Andy, who twenty-one years ago, traveled with his wife to a South American country to complete their adoption of a little girl. At the time this country was gripped by corruption, violence, and political chaos. After Andy arrived, they (that is, anyone who could profit from Andy's plight) kept upping the price for the adoption. When he finally threatened to take the matter to the U.S. consulate, a mysterious figure confronted Andy, warning him of vague but dreadful consequences. It was like a spy thriller, except this was real!
But Andy refused to leave without his daughter. The odd thing was that Andy had never even met this girl. She was small and helpless. She hadn't won any awards or aced any tests. He didn't know that one day her smile would light up their living room, or that she'd love their cats and dogs, or that she'd play Mozart on the family piano. For all practical purposes, she was just an orphan condemned to a life of grinding poverty in a far-flung developing country. Even so, Andy stayed there, negotiating with corrupt officials, spending oodles of money, squandering time, and even risking his life to find and win this little girl.
Eighteen years later, Andy and his wife celebrated their adopted daughter’s graduation at a special family meal in her honor. Her name was Maria, and at one point during the meal, Maria unexpectedly stood up and gave a beautiful speech thanking everyone who had helped her find a better life on Long Island. It brought tears to Andy’s eyes, and it all started when he walked into that dangerous nightmare in an attempt to bring her home.
That’s the heart of the gospel: God's loving, daring, persistent pursuit of people like you and me. Like Maria, there's nothing we can do to earn God's love, but he still loves us. And he doesn't want to leave us behind. Instead, in the presence of Jesus, God walked into the “dangerous nightmare” of human sin and pain in order to adopt us into his family and bring us back home. (Matt Woodley, The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us, InterVarsity Press, 2011, pp. 248-249; www.PreachingToday.com)
God chose us and gave us a life we never could have had otherwise. He chose us so we could be holy & blameless, verse 4 says. And He chose us so we could be his heirs. He chose us so we could inherit his wealth. That’s what verse 5 is all about: In love he predestined us for adoption as sons… I.e., He determined our destiny that we would become His legitimate heirs.
In Bible days, a Roman man might have lots of children by several different women. Some of those women were actually his slaves, but he rarely considered their children his legitimate heirs. Even so, there came a day when he would have to choose some of his children to inherit his estate, usually the children of his legitimate wife. That’s when he took his selected children down to the forum, openly confessed them as his legitimate heirs, and officially adopted them as such.
That’s what God did for those of us who have trusted His Son. God has many children, by virtue of creation, but He chooses only a few of us to be his legitimate heirs. He chooses only a few of us to inherit His wealth. He chooses only those who put their faith in Christ to be officially adopted into his family.
God chose us so we could have a better life. He chose us so we could be holy. He chose us so we could be heirs. And He chose us so we could honor him. He chose us so we could bring him glory and praise.
Ephesians 1:6 says, “To the praise of his glorious grace… You see a similar phase again in verse 12: To the praise of his glory; And again in verse 14: To the praise of his glory. God has freely blessed us so that the universe might marvel at his glorious grace.
When Shannon Ethridge was just 16 years old, an act of forgiveness and love changed her life forever. While driving to her high school one day, Ethridge ran over Marjorie Jarstfar, a woman who was riding her bicycle along a country road. Marjorie died as a result, and Ethridge, who was completely at fault, was consumed by intense guilt. She contemplated suicide several times, but she never took her life because of the healing response of one man: Gary Jarstfar, Marjorie’s husband.
Gary forgave the 16-year-old and asked the attorney to drop all charges against her, saving her from a probable guilty verdict. Instead, he simply asked that Ethridge continue on in the godly footsteps that his wife had taken. “You can't let this ruin your life,” Gary told her more than 20 years ago. “God wants to strengthen you through this. In fact, I am passing Marjorie's legacy on to you.”
Gary's act of forgiveness showed Ethridge the amazing love of God. Today, Ethridge is the bestselling author of Every Girl's Battle and Every Woman's Battle, and the book, Completely His: Loving Jesus Without Limits, helps women overcome guilt-ridden, wounded lives. (Kevin Jackson, Christian Author Carries Mantle of the Woman She Killed, www.christianpost.com, 6-21-07)
That’s the power of grace, my friends. And that’s the same kind of grace God lavished on each of us. Our sins put His Son on the cross, but He forgave us and chose us for His own. He chose us so we could have a better life.
Now, that’s cause for praise! So praise the Father for selecting us by his grace. Then…
PRAISE THE SON FOR SETTING US FREE.
Praise Jesus for redeeming us. Praise the Lord for purchasing our freedom with his own shed blood on the cross.
Ephesians 1:7-8 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… (ESV)
Christ set us free from our iniquities. He paid the price to release us from bondage to sin. We were condemned to die because of our sin, but Jesus purchased our freedom with His own shed blood on the cross.
In the movie The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a life of luxury with 1,000 servants at his command. “What happens when you do wrong?” his brother asks.
“When I do wrong, someone else is punished,” the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten.
In Christ, that pattern is reversed. When the servants err, the King is punished (Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? Zondervan, 1997). That’s grace, my friends, so freely and generously given to us, because the Giver Himself has paid the price.
A March, 2011, issue of The New York Times featured a story about a 51-year-old ex-convict named Robert Salzman. After a horrific childhood, Salzman spent most of his adult life in prison. When he was released from prison in 2001, Salzman found it difficult to enjoy freedom outside prison walls, struggling to pay rent or doing stints in homeless shelters.
Finally, in June of 2010 Salzman had a grace-like experience. While he was riding a New York City subway car, he was "found" by Rashaad Ernesto Green, a writer and director who was searching for someone to play a tough-looking former convict for an upcoming film. After an audition, Green surprised nearly everyone when he gave Salzman a key role for the film.
In the ensuing months Salzman found it hard to believe that he had actually been set free from his prison life. On one occasion, while filming with Green on location in a Long Island penitentiary, an exhausted Salzman fell asleep on a cot in the prison cell. When he woke up, he became confused and thought he was still a prisoner. Salzman started weeping in despair … until it slowly dawned on him that he was now a free man. Salzman was overwhelmed by the joy of knowing that at any moment he could walk out of that cramped cell and through the prison doors. On the other side of the prison walls he could enjoy his new life of freedom. (Corey Kilgannon, "Sidewalk Is His Prison Yard," The New York Times, 3-11-11; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what redemption is all about! It is God taking us from prison and making us stars in His kingdom. Now, we are free! We are free to be all that God wants us to be, because Christ paid the price to set us free from our iniquities.
More than that, Christ set us free from our ignorance, as well.
Ephesians 1:9-10 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. (ESV)
God let us in on a secret, something that was never before revealed. We get a hint of that secret here – God will “unite all things in [Christ].” But in chapter 3, that secret (or mystery) is more fully explained. Flip the page of your Bible to Ephesians 3:4
Ephesians 3:4-6 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (ESV)
The mystery is that Jew and Gentile are brought together! People who hated and despised each other are now one in Christ. They are on equal terms – “FELLOW heirs,” and “members of the SAME body.” Through the cross, God has brought all things together under Christ, even those who were once bitter enemies.
That’s the mystery, that’s the secret God has shared with us. Now, we no longer need to live in ignorance. Now, we no longer need to fight each other, because now we know that we are on the same team. The world doesn’t know any better, but we do, because Christ has set us free from our ignorance. He has shared the secret of our oneness in Him.
Some people say, “Ignorance is bliss.” Don’t be fooled. Ignorance is bondage. That’s why the old slave-masters did not want their slaves to learn how to read. They knew that if their slaves could read, they would become educated. And if they became educated, they would find ways to free themselves from the plantation.
In the same way, those who learn the truth of God’s Word find ways to free themselves from Satan’s bondage. His nature is to devour and destroy, so he is delighted when we devour and destroy each other. But when we learn who our real enemy is – the Devil and not each other – then we can band together and free ourselves from his control.
Jesus Himself said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus set us free! He set us free from our iniquities, and He set us free from our ignorance.
Do you know why? He did it for one reason, and one reason, alone. He set us free so we could honor God! He set us free so our lives could become trophies of His grace.
Ephesians 1:11-12 In him (i.e., in Christ) 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. (ESV)
God planned for our redemption so our lives would bring Him praise.
Boston's Charles Street jail used to house the city's most infamous characters. Among its former inmates was Frank Abagnale, Jr., the con artist portrayed in the feature film Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002). The Charles Street jail was once the epitome of prison architecture, but by the 1960s the facility fell into disrepair with overcrowding, riots, and filthy pigeon droppings. The building was condemned in 1973, and the last inmates transferred in 1990.
Then, just a few years ago (2007), at a cost of $150 million dollars, the Charles Street jail became the Liberty Hotel. It boasted luxury accommodations that cost from $319 to $5,500 a night, and it included restaurants named Clink and Scampo (which is Italian for “escape”). There is also a bar named Alibi, reminding patrons of the building's past.
Former inmate, Bill Baird, visited the hotel on the 40th anniversary of his arrest and was amazed at the renovation. “How you could take something that was so horrible,” he observed, “and turn it into something of tremendous beauty, I don't know.” (Denise LaVoie, Associated Press, Infamous Boston Jail Now a Luxury Hotel, 11-8-07)
So it is when God redeems and renovates our lives. He makes us into something of tremendous beauty, and people are truly amazed! My friends, we are rich in Christ. Praise the Lord! Praise the Father for selecting us. Praise the Son for setting us free. And…
PRAISE THE SPIRIT FOR SECURING OUR SALVATION.
Praise the Holy Spirit for guaranteeing our inheritance in heaven. Praise God’s spirit for insuring our eternal destiny.
Ephesians 1:13-14 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, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (ESV)
When we put our trust in Christ, God gave us His Holy Spirit, who is His seal and His deposit guaranteeing our salvation. Once we put our faith in Christ, our eternal inheritance is secure. Do you see it? The Holy Spirit is a seal (vs.13). He is God’s stamp on us, guaranteeing our arrival in heaven.
In the trucking industry, after a truck is fully loaded and ready for its run, the owner of its contents puts a plastic seal around the lock on the door. This is to insure that the driver doesn’t take anything out before he delivers the goods. That seal insures the delivery of all the truck’s contents to its intended destination. If the seal is broken, the driver could lose his job.
In the same way, God put the seal of His Holy Spirit on every believer, insuring our delivery to heaven. You can be sure; no one is going to steal us away. Our arrival in heaven is guaranteed by the seal of God’s Spirit.
Romans 8 says, “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Jesus Himself said of those who believe in Him, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-29).
There is no way the Lord will ever let us go! The Holy Spirit is God’s seal, God’s stamp insuring our arrival in heaven.
More than that, the Holy Spirit is God’s deposit, verse 14 says, “the guarantee of our inheritance.”
In the early years of our marriage, when Sandy and I rented an apartment or home to live in, the landlord usually required a security deposit up front. Our word wasn’t enough for him. On the contrary, he wanted a sizeable sum of money to insure that we would honor the terms of the rental contract.
In essence, that’s what God has done for us. His Word is certainly enough, but He has also given us a security deposit, insuring us that He will keep His promise. That security deposit is His Holy Spirit, and it is His guarantee that we will receive our full, promised inheritance.
My friends, we are very rich in Christ! Don’t focus on what you don’t have. Instead, focus on what you do have, and let it fill your heart with praise. Praise the Father for selecting us. Praise the Son for setting us free, and praise the Spirit for securing our salvation.
We often hear about famous artists who lived in poverty during their lifetimes. Michelangelo is one such artist, who complained a lot about his own deprivation, but in fact died in 1564 with the modern equivalent of tens of millions of dollars.
That’s what Syracuse University professor of art history, Rab Hatfield, discovered in his research. In his recent book, The Wealth of Michelangelo¸ Hatfield writes that for most of Michelangelo’s nearly 89 years, he was marginally, moderately, or massively rich. But he often refused to show it, and often declined to share it.
“He was the richest artist of all time,” at least until that time, Professor Hatfield said in an interview.
“He took in huge amounts,” he said. “It was phenomenal.” And yet, Professor Hatfield said, Michelangelo would complain to family members about how short of money he was.
On the road with a pair of assistants, Michelangelo would get just one bed for all of them, and the reason, Professor Hatfield said, was not erotic but economic. The artist was hoarding his money. (Frank Bruni, “The Warts on Michelangelo: The Man Was a Miser,” New York Times, posted 1-21-03)
He was a rich man, living like a poor man. Let that not be said of us. We are rich in Christ; let’s not live in spiritual poverty. We have the spiritual resources to forgive; let’s not live in bitterness. We have the spiritual resources to love; let’s not live in hate. We have the spiritual resources to win; let’s not live in defeat. Instead, let’s just praise the Lord for all He has done for us.
