I read once about a nursing home worker who would go from room to room taking care of the needs of the residents. On day she was in the room of one of the residents when the woman looked up at her and said “My but you’re pretty!” The attendant blushed. She was “plump” and “overweight and wasn’t used to people saying that to her. And she said as much: “That’s kind of you to say. Not many people would say that about me.” “Nonsense girl,” replied the resident, “just because you’re fat doesn’t mean you’re ugly.”
There’s an old saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” And that’s a good thing because a lot of people don’t think they’re all that pretty. They find the world judges them harshly on how they look, who they are, etc. But into this world that judges by appearances God says “I think you’re pretty.” The Bible repeatedly tells us… that God declares: No matter who you are; where you come from; who you know; how much you have; OR what others may think of yourselves - God says: You are valuable to Me!
That’s why so many people love John 3:16: “For God so loved the World (that’s YOU) that He gave His only begotten Son…” No matter what the rest of the world may think of you, you’re worth everything to God. He gave His only begotten Son… to die for you!!!
APPLY: Now, that brings us to our text in Ephesians this morning. Paul spends the entire first chapter of this letter telling the Ephesians how PRETTY they are to God. He says they are blessed, redeemed, pre-destined, inheritors of great gift, and that God has given them a guarantee of salvation through the Holy Spirit that He has placed in their hearts.
Now, generally, Paul doesn’t spend that much time telling individual churches how attractive they are to God, but he does do it for the Ephesians. He spends an entire chapter doing that. And the question is: Why? Why spend all that time, and ink, and paper telling them how valuable they are to God? Well - somebody had apparently been telling them they weren’t that valuable to God. Somebody had come in and caused them to DOUBT that they were pretty. Who could that have been?
Well, first - it helps to understand who the Ephesians are. The Ephesians were unique because they were an entirely GENTILE congregation. Apparently, there’s not a Jew amongst them (at least as far as I can tell).
Paul had planted this church years before on a missionary journey through the area, and these new Christians were so excited that even a riot caused by some of the leading citizens of the city couldn’t quash their enthusiasm. No one was going to rob them of their newfound joy in Christ. But… THEN along came folks who claimed to be Christians and created doubt within the church. These pretend Christians began telling them that unless they became Jews FIRST (got circumcised) God wouldn’t love them; God wouldn’t save them; and God wouldn’t think they’re pretty.
And so, this whole first 1st chapter is dedicated to telling the Ephesians that those false teachers lied to them!! In fact, God told the Christians in Ephesus that they were “predestined (by God) for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” It was part of God’s plan – from the beginning of time – to include the Gentiles in salvation. And these Christians in Ephesus were amongst the first of the Gentiles to claim that prize. They primed the pump to show that God intended to do exactly as He had planned.
Later in this letter, Paul told them they were living proof of a MYSTERY. The mystery was that the Gentiles (who’d been baptized into Christ) were acceptable to God just the way they were. “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.” Ephesians 3:6
Now, under the Old Testament those Gentiles would NOT have been acceptable to God. But NOW – because of the blood of Jesus, they were desirable to God and they were attractive in God’s sight.
Now that’s interesting theology, but what difference does that make to us? Why should we care? Well, there’s a lot of folks who struggle with the idea that God cares for them. And there’s a lot of false teachers who will try to use your doubts and use them against you. They’ll use your fears to manipulate you.
ILLUS: I remember attending a Revival in a denominational church where the revivalist tried teach them that if they didn’t FEEL saved… they weren’t saved. In his sermon he told about a preacher’s wife who (he said) THOUGHT she was saved but admitted that she had doubts once in a while. And (he said) her doubts proved she wasn’t loved by God. She was going to hell because she questioned God’s promise. And he played on her fears and “SAVED HER” again. That night he shamed those in the audience - who struggled with their faith – and convinced them to come forward to be “saved” for real! Out of that crowd of 200 or so people there that night, nearly 30 or 40 came forward because they were convinced their doubts condemned to hell.
And as I watched this man I thought – “You dickens you. You don’t care for these people. You don’t care whether they’re saved or not, you’re just looking for scalps to put on your belt. He was an evil and wicked man who would go on to the next church and brag about all the church goers in that congregation had admitted they weren’t saved… but HE saved them! And if he returned the next year for another revival, and if most of those same folks were attendance… they would have come forward to be “saved” again. Make no mistake – this was a false teacher who manipulated folks for his own benefit.
And so Paul tells you, just like he told the Ephesians nearly 2000 years ago - don’t let these people play on your doubts and fears. Know Who You Are!
Well… who are you? Well, if you are a Christian here today… this is WHO you are: 1st – you are redeemed.
But what are you redeemed from? Galatians 3:13 tells us “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law…” But what was the curse of the law? Well. the law of Moses declared what sin WAS, and then Scripture told us that that law condemned us because we’ve all sinned - that was the CURSE! And because of the curse of the Law, all sinners (that’s all of us) were under a judgement of death. As Romans 6:23 says “… the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When Jesus died for us, He paid the debt of sin that we owed. And in His death, He conquered the grave and gave us eternal life. So Jesus redeemed you. He bought you. But that raises the question: how much are you worth? My daddy used to tell me that “an object is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.”
ILLUS: Recently I’ve been watching clips from a show called “Pawn Stars.” It’s filmed in a pawnshop in Las Vegas, NV and each clip shows someone bringing in rare coins, guns, or books into this pawnshop to sell. Many of these people who walk up to the counter want $1000s - even millions - of dollars for their items. Rick (one of the owners) will look the item over and will admit (many times) that he has no clue what the value of these items are, and so he’ll ask permission to bring a friend of his who is an expert in these kinds of products. And of course, the owner is open to have an authority confirm the value they just know their prized possession has. So the expert will come in and will spend a few minutes explaining the history and background information of the gun, or the book or the coin he’s examining. When he’s all done, Rick pauses and asks the expert “So, what is it worth?” and the expert may say $35,000. Then Rick will turn to the seller and “How much do you want for this?” “$35,000” (the seller replies) – “That’s what the expert said it was worth.” And Rick will reply “It’s not worth $35,000 to me. I have to make a profit. I can give you $25,000 for it… but that’s the highest I can go.”
So, what was Rick saying? He was saying the object was only worth a certain amount to him. It might be worth more to someone else… but not to him. An object is only worth what someone will pay for it.
So, what does the Bible say YOU are worth? Well… you are worth the blood of Jesus. You were so valuable to God gave the most valuable thing He could offer - He gave His only begotten Son… so that you and I might have eternal life. You have been redeemed – bought at a high price.
2nd – you have become a beneficiary of a vast inheritance. Ephesians 1:11 says “In him we have obtained an inheritance.”
ILLUS: Back in April of this year (2020), a firefighter from New Chicago, IN went to his ATM and took $200 from his account. He got his money, his card… and he also got this little slip of paper that told who much he’d withdrawn and how much he still had in his account. He looked briefly at that slip of paper… and then he looked again. There on that slip of paper it said that his account had a balance of $8.2 million dollars. He couldn’t believe it… so ran his card again. And sure enough… there was $8.2 million. He’d never had so much money in one place in his entire life.
Now if he’d been a dishonest man he would have taken as much money out of that ATM as was possible – but he was an honest man… and called the bank on Monday to check it out. The bank told him they had no idea how that money had shown up in his account – but it wasn’t there now. All that money had disappeared.
(https://nypost.com/2020/04/14/man-expecting-to-get-stimulus-check-finds-millions-in-bank-account/)
But if that money had been there… do you think he’d have been excited? OH YEAH! He could have used that money for all kinds of things and he’d have been happy until the money ran out. But we have fallen heir to a vast inheritance that would dwarf anything he might ever have in his bank. In fact it dwarfs anything that Bill Gate or Jeff Bezos could claim. I Peter 1:3-4 tells us that “According to his great mercy, (the Father) has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, TO AN INHERITANCE that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”
We have a vast inheritance – imperishable, undefiled and unfading – because we are now children of the King. We’ve been adopted and now we belong to Him!!!
But how do we know we’re going to receive that inheritance? What guarantee do we have that it will be there when Jesus comes back again? I mean… that firefighter’s $8.2 million disappeared almost overnight, how can we be assured that our inheritance won’t disappear as well?
Well God says – have I got a deal for you? In Ephesians 1:13-14 we’re told that “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.”
When you believed and were baptized into Christ… you received the guarantee. Acts 2:38-39 says it this way: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For THE PROMISE is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
ILLUS: Sometime back I had to go to the City Building for something (where the courts and various offices of city officials are found). Now there’s only one door into that building, and it has armed guards and metal detectors you have to pass through. In order to pass by that point, you have to take everything out of your pockets and pass through the detector (which always goes off every time I go through it). It takes about about 4 or 5 minutes to do all that. But, as I was taking stuff from my pockets… two girls passed by the detectors and walked right past the officers on their way into the building. I jokingly said “Hey, how do they get away with that? How come THEY don’t have to go through all this?” And the officer smiled and said “They have badges that prove they belong here!”
When you and I get to heaven the Holy Spirit will mark us as belonging to Christ. It will be our badge that will get us through the gates –while everyone else waits outside. The Holy Spirit is the stamp of God’s ownership, and when we have the Spirit inside – it will prove we belong in heaven.
CLOSE: One last thing - there’s a phrase that shows up 3 times in our text today: “To the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). What’s that all about. Well, there are theologians who will wax eloquent about the meaning of those words… but I’m here to tell you what that phrase really means. When this chapter tells us something was “to the praise of His glory” it means that God did all the things He did for us “to the praise of His glory.” It means that it is a great honor for God for Him save us. He considered it a point of pride to fulfill His promises to redeem us and adopt us and mark us as His own. In all of that God declared His love for us… and He thus paid a great price to save us. And when we stand before His throne at the judgment we will all boldly say “Praise His Glory” because He cared so much for us.
CLOSE: The story is told of a print shop in the 1500s, where the daughter was sweeping floor. As she swept she found a scrap of paper on the floor. It was a ripped part of the bible that her father had been printing for Martin Luther, and on that scrap of paper were these words, “For God so loved that He gave...” The rest of the verse was missing, but that simple phrase moved her, and the rest of the day she went around with a smile on her face. Her mother noticed … and asked what had made her so happy? The girl pulled the crumpled paper from her pocket and showed it to her mother. The mother read it and asked, "What did He give?" The girl replied “I don’t know, but if God loved us enough to give us anything He must love us deeply.”
But now we know HOW DEEPLY He’s loved us. He has redeemed us, given us a vast inheritance, and sealed us with His Spirit. All He asks is that we respond to His kindness with faith, repentance, confession and baptism.
INVITATION
