Because He Wanted To
Ephesians 1:3-12
Based on a fictional story about the former pro golfer Arnold Palmer, Palmer once played a series of exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia. The king was so impressed that he proposed to give Palmer a gift. Palmer demurred; "It really isn't necessary, Your Highness. I'm honored to have been invited."
"I would be deeply upset," replied the king, "if you would not allow me to give you a gift."
Palmer thought for a moment and said, "All right. How about a golf club? That would be a beautiful momento of my visit to your country."
The next day, delivered to Palmer's hotel, was the title to a golf club. Thousands of acres, trees, lakes, clubhouse, and so forth.
Intro: 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…”
How do we bless God? Make Him Happy? Receiving His gifts of blessings.
We praise Him because He has blessed us. God has blessed us with Gifts. He is happy because He has purchased a way to save you and bless you with all spiritual blessings.
“has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”
Notice it says, “in heavenly places.” The key to that is “in Christ”. If you are saved, you are “in Christ.”
There are two ways to treat these blessings.
News story: Chicago Tribune, 1938, “The flophouses and Chicago’s Skid Row were searched today for one Stanley William McKenna Walker, age 50, an Oxford graduate and heir to an 8 million dollar English Estate. The missing person detail hoped that somewhere among the down-and-outers who lined the curbs and sleep off wine binges in cheap hotels, they would find Walker, son of the wealthy British shipbuilder, W.H. Walker, who had just died.”
By the way, they found him dead in a doorway on a cold night a few days later. He could have lay hold of the blessing, cleaned up, went home to a mansion. But he died not knowing.
Don’t be confused by the passage. Words like chosen and predestined shouldn’t confuse. As a previous pastor stated, there is a sign above Heaven’s Gate that says, “Whosoever will.” When you pass through the gate and look back, it says, “You were chosen.”
For many years, since my college days, I find myself in a conversation as to whether we should accept Predestination as the ultimate truth, or the free will of man. I say I believe in both. I am often told, you can’t believe in Predestination and Free will of man as equal truth. I respond, “I can, I just believe in a bigger God. He can do it.”
I am not saying that I understand it all. But I ask, “Do you want a God you can understand or one who can save you? You can’t have both.”
Let’s look at what Christ has done for us in this passage.
I. Relegated us to be Pure, Verse 4. “chose us… that we should be holy and without blame”
He chose us, we didn’t choose Him. Look at when. “before the foundation of the world.”
How could God choose us and we have free will?
We have to understand the rules of time and the nature of God. God created time.
Time has three observable rules. 1) You cannot “undo” anything written in the past. You cannot go back and unspeak a word. For us, the past is as written in stone. There is no time machine to change history. Whatever we do, it is done.
2) You cannot see what will happen in the future. You can anticipate probabilities for what may happen based upon markers currently observable, but there is always the unseen, and unknown, aspect of the future that you can never see coming.
3) You are only given this moment to experience. We experience one moment at a time, like a phonograph needle passes through the grooves of an old record.
The nature of God, however, is eternal. He lives outside of time. He created time. It is just another of His creations and does not restrict Him with those scary rules. He sees the end as He looks at the beginning, like you would look at a map.
Here is an example in our text. We are holy and blameless (verse 4). That is, if we are in Christ. I don’t feel holy and blameless. I don’t have any evidence in my life that I am holy and blameless. All I have is the promise of God’s declaration. How does that work.
It works because God sees the final product and I can only see the process that is happening now. But so sure is the promise of God, God begins calling me by the final product description while I am still in the process. Truly, “the God who began this good work will complete it at the day of Christ (Phil. 1:6).”
Here is something special about the description. “Holy” is Godward side, while “blameless” is man-ward side.
Ill. When Laura and I were youth counselors at another Church, I loved youth camp. Despite the lack of sleep, the mass produced food, the under stimulated teens acting out, it was a blast.
I loved to get a group of our youth and go around meeting other youth. I had a purpose behind that madness. I would see someone and say to them, “I know you.”
They often responded with doubt, but I would come back with, “I am pretty sure I know you.”
Then I would ask the doubting teen if they were born again. If they said “yes”, I would say, “I told you I knew you. You are holy and blameless as a result of a declaration of the King. You are a prophet (or prophetess), priest (or priestess), and king (or queen) in a kingdom of priests. You are more than a conquerer.”
We had so much fun. Sometimes, we would get to witness to someone who wasn’t saved, but more often, we encouraged someone who needed a lift.
You see, we are under the blood. We will see that more later. But Christ does this in love. Romans 5:8, BECAUSE HE WANTED TO.
Grasp the Significance; you are holy and blameless. Did you know that? Believe it? Live like it is true? What a wonderful gift, blessing, to be selected to be pure. Because God want to.
II. Received us to be Partakers, Verse 5, “adoption as sons”
Here we see predestination. It means predetermined.
Ill. There was a little girl who got separated from her parents at the zoo. That is a parents most feared nightmare. The parents were frantic, but so was the little girl. After a short period, a zoo worker led the little girl by the hand to the office where her parents were stressfully waiting. The first thing the little girl said at the sight of her parents was, “I am glad I found you.”
Our relationship with God is described as adoption. Do you realize the significance of that. Do you realize the change in relationship with God this brings? God wasn’t looking for servants or subjects. He was looking for relationships, family, and we are His family.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ...
We see the reason, “the good pleasure of His will.” BECAUSE HE WANTED TO.
III. Remade us to be Pleasing. Verse 6. “He made us accepted”
This will catch us all by surprise. Our remade makeup honors Him. How do you please God?
Many people try to please God. We attend Church, give tithes, be kind to strangers, read our Bibles and pray. We have received His gifts of grace and we start searching for something to give back.
Ill. One year, Laura and I made gifts of barbeque sauce to give our Church leaders. We got out just before Christmas and hand-delivered each jar. It was humorous at one home. The wife of the home would not allow us to leave until she found something to give to us. Only because we gave a gift to her and her husband.
That is how we often feel towards God. He has given us the universe and we feel so awkward with empty hands. We have nothing to give back. And that is fine with God.
He also made us accepted and acceptable. Do you realize what people do to be accepted?
What do people do to be acceptable? We shave, men put on a tie. Women put on makeup. We wear uncomfortable clothes and more uncomfortable shoes.
God said I took care of that, putting you under His blood. We can’t put on anything to make us more acceptable. We can’t bring anything to give to make us more acceptable. Once accepted and acceptable to God, that is all we need.
Why did He do that? To the praise of His glory. BECAUSE HE WANTED TO.
IV. Redeemed us to be Pardoned, Verse 7,8. “we have redemption … the forgiveness of sins”
We are redeemed through His blood because our sins are forgiven. This is where we seek the true meaning of redemption. What is redemption?
Ill. In days past in history, one would have to be very cautious concerning debt. If you got into a situation in which you could not pay a debt, you became a slave. That meant that your children, and probably your grandchildren were marked to be slaves.
What if you owed a debt and the lender came to arrest you into slavery? What if someone heard of this and met the lender with the money to release you. This one would redeem you from the debt and the obligations of the debt.
Song: He paid a debt he did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone, to wash my sins away, And NOW I sing a brand new song ''Amazing Grace'', Christ Jesus Paid a debt that I could never pay.
Our redemption of found through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
We are forgiven of our debt. This gift of forgiveness is a measure (shadow, symbol) of the richness of His grace. Unmerited Favor of God, totally undeserved. God did that BECAUSE HE WANTED TO.
V. Revealed to us the Promise, Verses 9-12. “having made known to us the mystery”
God reveals to us His mysteries of His will, what he wants. What does God really want?
First He wanted us to know what He wants.
Secondly, he wants unity. “He might gather together in one all things in Christ.”
Finally, he wants to share all that is His. “we have obtained an inheritance”
He is turning all things to our good and His will. It will all honor Christ. Why?
BECAUSE HE WANTED IT TO.
