Chosen and Redeemed
Ephesians 1:3-14
September 8, 2019
Today I’m going to do a different kind of sermon. I truly have no clue if this will be a 15 minute message or go on for awhile. Although I suspect it won’t be 15 minutes! They never are!
A few weeks ago in Bible study we were talking about Ephesians 1 and I just kind of started talking about the passage from Paul. He wrote this while he was in prison in Rome. My plan for this morning is to simply to in a sense of Bible study of the first part of Ephesians 1. Firstly, let me simply read the passage for you, then I’ll start to break it apart. Also, I’m not going to touch on every verse, just some of the main points and how important they are to us.
I believe it’s a great passage reminding us of what we have when we say yes to Jesus. So, let’s look at 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 even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
In love 5 He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,
6 to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed 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 which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9 making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In Him 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,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.
13 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,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. – Ephesians 1:3-14
OK, there’s so much meat in this passage, and I’m just going to break it down. Maybe not so quickly since the Colts don’t play until 4 PM today.
Let me give you a quick background about these verses. In the original Greek this was one sentence. Imagine writing that in school. Our Bibles often change the sentence structure and punctuation for understanding. But if you are reading this - as it originally was, it’s one long sentence.
It’s as if as Paul was writing, he simply became more and more excited and passionate as he wrote. It’s been said of this passage, “it’s a kaleidoscope of dazzling lights and shifting colors” or “it’s like a snowball tumbling down a hill, picking up speed and volume as it descends” OR “it’s like a racehorse speeding onward at full speed.”
So, in verse 3 - Paul tells us we are blessed. But not only are we blessed, he goes beyond that to tell us we are blessed with every spiritual blessing.
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,
Paul starts out by blessing God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s always the start and finish, isn’t it? We start by praising and blessing God, simply because He is, but beyond that for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
To go beyond that, Paul has blessed God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
Think about how blessed we are! We often don’t stop and consider this. But it’s beyond amazing what God has done for us. Notice how many spiritual blessings we have! Can anyone tell me how many spiritual blessings God gave us? NOBODY CAN! Because we can’t add that high. We can’t conceive of God’s blessings, because we often sell God short. We don’t hold onto those blessings, we deny them, we don’t believe they’re for us. We think they’re for the more spiritual person, but friends . . . we need to stop and reconsider, rethink and re-believe this thought . . . because these blessings are for us.
Paul doesn’t give us a list, but in a sense he gives us a short list, because this verse is really the basis for the entire book of Ephesians. He’s going to outline who blessed we are by the spiritual blessings of God.
So, next, Paul tells us something so amazing and so striking that it’s so, so hard for most of us to wrap our heads around this fact of what he proclaims in verse 4 –
4 even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
In Colossians 3 - - 1 Thessalonians 1 - - 2 Thessalonians 2 - - 1 Peter 2 and other passages, we are told we are chosen. It’s one of my favorite themes about God. This is how I see it.
Firstly, God chose you. You don’t have to be super skilled in anything. You don’t have to be a great athlete, a musician, a singer, an actor, a great student, a great anything.
We don’t always believe that because life has beaten us down and it’s been proven, we’re not always the first one chosen. I remember in school of choosing teams in pick up games and you always wanted to be one of the first ones chosen. I often was near the top of the picks, so I really never worried. But I know when it came to games kids play in gym and teams are picked, not everyone gets chosen with great enthusiasm.
Sometimes in life we feel like leftovers. We maybe have been told by parents we weren’t wanted, we were a pain in life . . . for whatever reason. Maybe life has been more difficult than you think it should be and it hurts. You hurt for what you don’t have and you struggle with your own self image.
In fact, don’t let most people fool you, we all have struggles, some hide them better than others. We all struggle, we all have our issues.
And in the midst of all of this, God says I CHOSE YOU!! In fact, and here’s where we can talk so fast, because this is like a plane getting ready to take off. It’s gaining more and more speed and this is so AMAZING!!! Are you ready for what’s next? Because I want you to believe this!!
Paul tells us not only have I chosen you, but I chose you before one piece of soil was laid on planet Earth. Before I created the oceans and the birds and the dinosaurs - - I had your beautiful face in mind. I knew how many hairs would be on your head. I knew what you would be like before you knew.
I CHOSE YOU! You are mine!! You’re on my team! I wanted you! You were my first round pick. Nobody’s a leftover, everybody’s a somebody in my kingdom! There’s no QUID PRO QUO, remember from last week? It’s a favor for a favor! That’s not how God works. That’s not how Jesus works. In fact, we can’t calculate the repayment schedule for what God has done for us. How can you calculate the death of someone so you can have eternal life? You can’t.
But, we’re not done with verse 4. This is a sermon in itself. Remember, kickoff is at 4.
Paul now tells us part of our spiritual blessing is that we have been chosen by God, chosen before the creation of this world and the intent is that we would be HOLY.
This literally means that we would be different, set apart, so that we would be like Christ. In Leviticus and again in 1 Peter we are told to be holy, as God is holy. That’s the style of life we are supposed to live. It means we are different, we are set apart by God so that we can be more like Christ, so that the world can see Christ in us. It’s a huge responsibility, but we’re also given the power to accomplish this, through God.
Also, we’re made pure through the blood of Jesus. We’ve been cleansed by God, washed of our sinfulness so that we can now stand before God.
Next, Paul tells us we’re blameless. This means God looks at us as unblemished, without spot or defect; we’re spiritually blameless, unblemished from the marring effects of sin. We’re faultless and unblameable. God looks at us as with different eyes. There are so many great passages to back this up. Here’s a few just to help you see and believe this - -
17 For God DID NOT send his Son into the world to CONDEMN the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. – John 3:17
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to FORGIVE us our sins and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9
1 There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus. – Romans 8:1
21 For our sake God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21
You see, God didn’t send Jesus to condemn you, but He sent Jesus so that you could confess your sins and be cleansed and because you’ve been cleansed there is now no condemnation for you in Christ. It was Jesus who took the punishment for you. He was the One who was not sinful, but He became sin for you and I so that we could stand before God pure and blameless, righteous in His eyes, all because we said yes to Jesus.
So, as we consider our lot in life, if we’re getting depressed, or thinking that we’re not worth much in this world . . . then you need to stop and just hold onto what Paul is reminding us about God’s view of you - -
4 even as He chose us IN HIM before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
As we step back for a moment. One extra thing to note from this passage is that Paul uses the expression IN HIM. We were chosen IN HIM. We’ll talk more about this phrase later. There are 3 pronouns in 5 words HE - US - HIM.
What it tells me is that God put us and Christ together in His plans. God planned to make you and I, who didn’t exist as His children, through the redeeming work of Christ. So, God chose us, who were sinners, who were not holy and were blameworthy. So, in reality, we didn’t deserve to be chosen, yet, because God loves us and has plans for us, He chose us.
It may sound complicated, but this is what we receive from verses 3-4 --
We are blessed, we are chosen because we are loved.
We were chosen before the world was created.
We are not condemned.
Jesus died for us and God now considers us - -
HOLY and BLAMELESS.
Can I get an AMEN from anyone, because this is amazing news.
Well, we’re on a roll. We’ve made it through 2 verses and only 10 more to go.
Honestly, we won’t go through all the verses today. We may just move through this next verse and finish next week.
Paul goes on to tell us –
In love 5 He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,
As a quick side note, there were no verses in the Bible until the mid 1500's. So, when Paul wrote this there and every book of the Bible, there weren’t chapters and verses. They were humanly added. I say that to indicate that the phrase IN LOVE, can be part of verse 4 or 5. It makes sense in both, yet most scholars believe it goes with verse 5.
So, in love and that’s agape, sacrificial love. In God’s sacrificial love, He predestined us. Now, we’re getting into election and that’s a 2 month long discussion. So, without getting into all of the details, know this about election or predestination - this makes it pretty easy to understand - -
God chose you to be His! Again, go back a verse and we see election at work. God chose you before the creation of this world to be His child. God’s family consisted of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now . . . God says, I want you to be part of my family.
So, God sets you apart by choosing you. He knows you are ultimately going to say YES to Him. We don’t know that, but He does. Remember, nothing, nothing at all catches God by surprise.
So, we have been adopted as God’s kids. Paul reminds us of that again in Galatians 4, when he wrote –
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. – Galatians 4:4-5
We were once under the law, but now we have been saved by God’s grace, because of our faith. God knew this would all happen.
God’s will cannot be broken. God is not going to call us as His children, and then say, “you know what, you messed up, I’m kicking you out of the kingdom!” That’s not who God is. God is about loving you and caring for you. Yes, bad things do happen, but God’s love is perfect, and we learn that perfect love and fear don’t mix. There’s no fear when it comes to God.
You’re His child. Adopted into the family. And understand this because it’s super important too - -
Because you’ve been adopted into God’s family - you get all rights and benefits as if you were born directly into the family. When you think about an inheritance, you get it all. God doesn’t look at you and think to Himself, “well, you weren’t the best of kids, so I’m only going to give you just a bit of heaven.”
That is not how God operates. God is not a retributional God. He doesn’t punish us more, the worse our sinfulness. God tells us He loves us and we believe it. Even when it’s a struggle, even when we’ve done some really stupid stuff. We trust that God hasn’t kicked us out of the house.
He reminds us no matter what . . . I love you. You’re my kids, you’re holy, blameless in my eyes, you’re blessed, you’re chosen, you’re wanted. I love you with the most powerful love there is.
Now, believe that!! Believe that! Hold onto that, wherever you go, whatever you do! God chose you because He loves you!
