In any church you’ll find some members who sit on the sidelines, feeling like they don’t really belong on the team. They have heard a number of times that God loves them, but in their hearts, they wonder. They feel a little lonely at church, a little on the sidelines. And they’d like to get to know people more. They have good friends in other places. But in the church, well, who would want to get to know them? They don’t measure up. And when they hear that the church needs people to help with different projects, they really do want to be helpful. But “What do I have to contribute?” they ask. And they sit on the sidelines. They would really like to do more. But they figure they just don’t have much going for them, much to contribute. Does anybody here recognize that feeling? It’s all too common.
Last week we started learning about the church in Ephesus. Or, we could say the churches in Ephesus because probably there were many little churches meeting in people’s homes. And I can picture some people in those little house churches feeling like they didn’t measure up.
Many of them had grown up in families that worshipped other gods, so they knew nothing about the great stories of the Old Testament that had prepared the people of Israel for their Messiah. When Paul had been there teaching them about the Bible, he might have started talking about something that God said to Abraham. And maybe several of them would lean over and whisper to the person sitting beside them, “Hey, who was Abraham, again? I’ve heard that name but I don’t know what he did.”
Maybe Paul would tell a joke about the animals in Noah’s ark and everybody else laughed, but they didn’t get it. They had a lot of background information to catch up on. And that is very doable, but it takes a while.
And some of them grew up participating in some pretty wild things in those temples that served other gods. Some of the temples maintained temple prostitutes who were used by the men as a part of the worship. It took a while to get that out of your mind. Maybe that’s part of the strict rules about men and women that Paul had for the Christian churches in those cities. Some of them would have wild drinking parties as part of their worship of one of the gods. Some of them had been focused on manipulating the gods to give you what you want by bringing them presents. And deep down inside somewhere they knew all along that there was a real God who shouldn’t be treated like that, but somehow it took a long time for that to come to the surface. And now they are worshipping Jesus Christ and the more they learn the more they say to themselves, ‘How could I have been so dumb? I’m ashamed of myself. I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for someone like me.”
Last week we looked at just the first verse of Paul’s letter to that church in Ephesus and I gave you some background to what was going on when Paul wrote it. Today we get into the real body of the letter. And it seems to me that Paul may well have had some borderline people in mind right from the start of his letter, people who felt like they didn’t have much going for them at all. And he started out, right up front with words of encouragement for them. May it be an encouragement to you. You have a lot going for you. Our text for this morning is Ephesians 1:3-14.
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, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
In verse 3, Paul says an amazing thing. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That’s what he says. That’s what the Bible says. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That sounds pretty amazing. Then, we have a lot going for us. Say it with me a few times. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Should we feel discouraged or powerless if God has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenly places? No way!
Well, that sounds good, but what in the world does that mean? The rest of the passage lists huge things that God has given us. Who can spot one and call it out? What does our passage say that God has done for us?
For example, in verse 4 we read that he chose us. What else? He destined us for adoption as his children, he gave us redemption, forgiveness, revelation of his will, gave us an inheritance, seal of the Holy Spirit, a pledge of our inheritance.
That sounds like an article from a theology textbook, with all those big words. We’ll fill most of them out a bit over the next few weeks. If these are God’s gifts to you, you’d better learn what they are and what they mean. But it sounds pretty good doesn’t it? We’ve got a lot going for us. You have a lot going for you. None of us should be sitting on the sidelines. You have too much going for you for that.
One of the reasons that I want to go through Ephesians with you is that it really brings out a high picture of life in Jesus Christ. There is none of that ‘Woe is me, I’m such a terrible person, I can’t do anything right” here. You’ve got a lot going for you! It may take a while to grow into living out all these blessings. But we serve a great God. Aim high! Expect a lot! Dream! Go for it! God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
This was very important to the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley. He had very high hopes for the Christian life. We should, too. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
In fact in a few minutes I’m going to invite you to take a step of committing yourself to go farther than you have before. I want us to aim high as a church. We want to do that every Sunday, but especially now, in the season of Lent when we make an extra effort to go deeper. So I invite you to come to the front of the church as we sing our last hymns so that I can pray for you.
But let’s go back to Paul’s statement that in Christ we have been blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places. Just what is it that we have going for us?
I went over that list again and again to see some line of organization to follow in explaining them. And there is one. It’s a Trinitarian list. It starts with blessings that we identify with God the Father, then moves to blessings from God the Son, and then blessings from God, the Holy Spirit. I put it into a more liturgical form and we used it for our call to worship this morning.
God, himself, is every blessing in the heavenly places. And that’s what you have. The blessings don’t come from reading about God. They don’t come from following rules, although that’s important. The greatest blessings come in relationship to God himself. If you have God on your side, what else do you need? If God be for us, who can be against us?
And that brings us face to face with one of the great theological questions, what does it mean to worship one God who exists in three persons. I won’t deal with that today. We’ll talk about it some more next week. But right now we are working our way through the statements about the Trinity in the Apostle’s creed in the Wednesday Bible Study. And I encourage you to join us in a setting where there is more time to discuss and ask questions.
Today I want to look quickly at what it means to have the blessings of God the Father.
Paul doesn’t mention it here, but obviously the first blessing is a family resemblance. The book of Genesis tells us that we were created in the image of God, both males and females. We have the power to make choices, to think, to act, to initiate, to create. We are like God, but much smaller. If God is great, then there is something great inside of all of us, and we should be able to feel it. Know that however battered the image of God in you may be, no matter how it may seem tarnished or hidden, it is there and God is committed to bringing it out again in you. Can you dare to dream for that? Today I challenge you to rethink who you are in light of being someone who carries the image of God.
Then in our text for this morning, in verse 4, we read, “he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” Before you were born, or your grandparents were born, way before the earliest ancestor that you can name was born; God had already made good plans for you. You have that going for you every day of your life. God chose you. You can walk away from that gift. You can block his good plans from coming about. But as far as God is concerned, if you ask him, he’s on your side. Let that push out of your mind every thought that may say that you don’t matter, every question about whether God cares, any question about whether you deserve it or not. God chose you.
That’s one of the reasons that we baptize babies in the United Methodist Church. We understand that God wants to personalize his choice to them just as soon as possible. God chose you.
And Paul is clear that God made that choice in love. God is so good. Sometimes you hear people talking as if Jesus is the good cop and God the father is the bad cop. I heard someone say last week that they picture God the Father as sort of distant, maybe too strict, maybe too grumpy, so she prays to Mary, God’s mother, who is softer and more understanding. Let Mary work on God for you.
And there are two big problems with that. First that sets a model for society that says men can be the macho tough guys who stand aloof and won’t stoop to emotionally connect with anyone. And it sets a model of women who are easy touches, easily swayed by emotionalism. And if we buy into those distortions, we miss out on the fullness of what it means to be created in God’s image, men and women both.
This is especially important for men. We men need to learn to have God’s heart of compassion, to weep, to care, to be tender, to reach out. Don’t accept a distorted view of God; because that means you have accepted a distorted view of yourself.
But even more important than that, this image of Jesus as the good cop and God the father as the bad cop just isn’t the God of the Bible. The two are as close as can be. There is no disagreement. God the Father in the Bible chose you in love before the foundation of the world. He’s not distant. He’s not mean. He’s not the bad cop.
Sure, he says no if we pray for something that isn’t good for us. But that’s not because he’s mean. It’s because he loves us and wants his gifts to us to be the best. Sure, he gave us the Bible with rules to follow. But that’s not because he’s against us. It’s because he wants the very best for us that he gave us rules that will guide us into the highest blessings. Those rules show us the path to life.
And then in verse 5 of our text, we read, “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.”
Before you were born, God had already given you a destiny, a great destiny, to be the child of the king. What do you call the son of a king? A prince. What do you call the daughter of a king? A princess. Is that part of your self image? He did this according to his good pleasure. He really likes it. And this is my challenge to you today.
God has laid plans for you from way before you were born. They may not include every detail of your life. But his commitment to make something beautiful of your life has been there from all of eternity. He chose you to be his child, to have you call him Daddy, wanting you to know him and be so close to him, to share your life with him, every day. Our son, Justin, and his wife, Brooke have just bought their first house and we’ve been on the phone a lot lately as they ask us for advice and keep us posted on all the developments. And we are just loving sharing all the excitement with them and watching them blossom as they handle this big step. That’s God’s father heart for you.
Will you make a response to God this morning, and say, thank you, Father for your eternal care for me? Lord, I accept my destiny as your child. I accept that I am created in your image to love and serve. Maybe it will be the first time you’ve ever made that step. Maybe it will be one of many you have made.
If you would like to take a new step in that direction, I invite you to come forward as we sing our hymn, kneel at the communion rail if your knees allow, and I would like to pray for you. AMEN
Prayer: “I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19
