Ephesians 1:1-14 The first message
Let’s begin with an easy question? Who wrote most of the New Testament? Yes, the answer is Luke. Paul wrote the most books but Luke actually wrote more words when he wrote the books of Luke and Acts.
Now, this book of Ephesians begins like the rest of Paul’s letters with his name but his name but as you know his name wasn’t always Paul but before he was Saul. He had been a rabbi and was very well trained in a school that was run by Gamaliel and he was also a member of the Sanhedrin.
One day, when he was on his way to arrest some Christians the Lord stopped him in his tracks, saved him and called him to be a preacher of the gospel. His conversion had so tranformed him that he changed his name from Saul which means “aggressive or ambitious” to ”Paul” which means “little or small.”
The gospel brought three great changes in his life. First, there was a was deep awareness of sin because he realized he had been an enemy of God who had persecuted the church. Second, he experienced a dramatic change when turned from persecuting believers to being one of their greatest teachers. And then third, he experienced a total redirection in his life when he was called to head up the greatest missionary endeavour this world has ever known.
My goal here is to get through the first fourteen verses of the first chapter of Ephesians this week and next but there’s one thing I want you to know before we start; verses 3-14 are actually one very long sentence in the Greek. Now, if you have periods between some of the sentences in your particular version; these were added by the translators. So, it’s almost like Paul started to say something about God and he couldn’t stop talking.
I remember when I was studying at London Baptist Bible College I had to write a page or two on a subject for English class and when I got my paper back the teacher had taken a few points off for what she referred to as a run-on sentence. I figured since this was a Bible College I’d use the scripture to defend myself and referred to Paul’s writing in this chapter but her response was, “You’re not the apostle Paul.” Anyway, let’s read all fourteen verses even though I’m just going to concentrate on the first six or seven today.
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
I had a dream one night and I know most of us have dreams but I never seem to remember them except for little snippets that I might have thought were either funny or scary; and yet, one morning when I woke up everything in my dream seemed so real that I was actually wondering if it had really happened because I felt as though I had actually experienced what had happened in my dream.
I’ve been preaching for many years and I’ve been invited to all kinds of different places. I’ve preached in Canada, the U.S. and Bolivia, in several denominations, youth groups, home Bible studies, a class for children with learning disabilities, in prisons and jails, in missions, on radio and TV, outdoor events such as open-air concerts and I’ve even preached on the streets in downtown Toronto. So, the fact that I dreamed about preaching wasn’t very unusual but this dream was different then anything I had ever experienced.
So, here’s my dream; one night as soon as I fell asleep I got a phone call from the pastor of one of the largest churches in Toronto. I’d never met him before but I had heard his name and was very impressed that he was calling me. He was actually calling to ask if I would speak at his church at a Sunday evening service a few weeks later. I checked my calendar and told him I was free and then I said I would be honored to preach. We said good-bye and hung up and I began immediately searching through some old messages looking for something that would really knock their socks off.
But, then I thought, this is a large church and maybe some of these people had heard me before and let’s face it; there would be nothing worse than showing up and looking like I couldn’t be bothered to work on something new or even worse that they actually heard me before and forgot that this was a message I had preached and thought I had stolen it from someone else. So, I decided I’d start from scratch, take my time and really feed and challenge these people.
I toyed with using an Old Testament story as an analogy but then I decided to use one of the parables in the book of Luke. I got to work and in the next couple of days I must have put in twenty-five to thirty hours and felt as though I had prepared the perfect message.
It challenged the believers to be faithful and the unsaved to make a first-time decision. Then, I practiced preaching it in my office about three times and felt as though I had it down perfect. Now, all I had to do was wait for the next two Sundays and then go and preach.
When the time came, I drove to the city and found the church; and after driving around the block I found the entrance to a private parking lot that was marked for pastors. I told the lot attendant who I was and why I was there and he directed me to park my car in a reserved spot that was close to the door.
I was about a half an hour early and it was a huge building; so, I thought I’d look around and then go and introduce myself to the pastor. I was amazed at the size of this place; it must have held between two and three thousand.
After walking around for a few minutes I wandered to the front of the sanctuary where the musicians were setting up and I saw the pastor standing near the pulpit and I went up and introduced myself.
He was very warm and not only did he welcome me but told me he had received a copy of one of my messages from one of his members and how much both he and his people were looking forward to hearing from me. And then he said he had a few things to do and that he’d introduce me and call me up from the front row when it was time to preach.
So, I went down front and found a seat. It was about quarter to six and the service started at six. I was nervous and after sitting for a couple of minutes I thought I should find a washroom before the service started and I figured there must be one just outside of the auditorium; assuming that a building this size probably had a washroom in every hallway.
Well, if there was one; I couldn’t find it and I kept walking assuming there’d have to be one somewhere but when I got to the end of the hall there were stairs going up and I climbed the stairs but for some strange reason I still couldn’t a washroom and couldn’t help but wonder; how can they accommodate so many people with so few washrooms.
As I was walking I could hear the music begin and assumed the service was starting but I figured since I wasn’t on until half way through I had plenty of time; but the farther I walked the more confusing it became because not only could I not find a washroom but I was lost and continued to walk and walk and walk.
And not only was I farther from where the service was but I also realized I had left my notes in my folder on my seat and wondered if they’d still be there when I got back.
Well, I never did find the washroom but when I finally got back I realized that the service was just coming to an end. Apparently, the music went on longer than usual and the one who was doing the special music thought he’d share something very heart wrenching that had happened the previous week and then the Pastor felt he should call on one of his staff members to share a testimony and when all this was finished he was so overwhelmed by the moving of the Spirit that he gave an invitation and several people came forward for salvation and a few for rededication.
So, as the service closed I sheepishly walked up to explain how I had got lost but the pastor interrupted and began apologizing to me because he left no time for me to preach and then he handed me a cheque for two-hundred and fifty dollars and thanked me for coming. And then I woke up.
I thought about this dream for a while and there was something important I learned from this. You see, the message I had spent so much time preparing wasn’t for them; it was for me. And even if no one else notices how much time I spend in preparation I still need to be ready to do whatever it is I’m called to do, even if no one else notices. There are times when the most important things we do are done for the glory of God because He’s the one who will one day reward our faithfulness.
And it’s interesting that when Paul wrote these letters to the various churches we have no idea if he expected these letters to be read more than once or twice. He had certain things to say to various congregations or groups of believers and maybe he assumed these letters would read and the various people would profit from them and then they might pass them on to another church; but sooner or later I’m sure he thought that one of these churches would simply put them away and no one would ever see them again. After all, he just wrote one copy of each and there were no such things as photo copiers or any other way of duplicating things other than by hand.
You see, what Paul didn’t know was; that his writings along with those of the other apostles would become the foundation for the church and in the beginning of this first chapter of Ephesians he starts by laying a foundation for their faith and by the end of this book he demonstrates how all three members of the Godhead had been involved in our salvation.
The Father planned it from eternity past; the Son accomplished it on the cross of Calvary and the Holy Spirit signed, sealed and delivered it on the day we were saved.
Now, one of the greatest gifts God has given us to help us in our spiritual lives is the word of God and one of the marks of the inspiration of the scripture is the fact that it has what theologians refer to as antinomies. Now, this may be a new word for you or maybe you know more about them then I do but let me share what I’ve learned about antinomies.
Oxford’s dictionary explains an antinomy is a contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable. In other words, they may not make sense to you and I but they make perfect and complete sense to God.
One person describes antinomies by saying, “Something is said in one sentence but the next sentence or paragraph contradicts what was said and yet, both of these statements are correct.”
Ie. We quote Ephesians 2:8,9, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast." So, how are you saved? You are saved by grace, and there’s absolutely nothing you could do to save yourself; right? But we also quote, Phillipians 2:12 that says, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
So, on one hand we’re totally dependant God to save us but on the other we believe that those who are really saved will live like they are. And there are several other antinomies that I’ll get to in a minute.
If a man or men were completely in charge of writing the Bible they never would have, number one, conceived of antinomies and number two, if they did; they never would have left them here but would have resolved them.
The fact that these antinomies are in scripture is one of the most certain proofs that God has an infinite mind far beyond our comprehension. God understands how they harmonize; we don’t. And, that means that God has a greater mind than you or I; aren’t you glad about that?
Let me touch on a couple of these antinomies or as I called them irreconcilable doctrines. First, there is the person of Jesus Christ. Was He simply a man or was He God come in the flesh? We would say, He was both. And our position is that He was 100% man while at the same time He was 100% God and this is true but both of these the numbers together are absolutely illogical.
We hear a football coach say his team won because they knew how to give 110% to the game; and our response is, “Well, I’m glad he’s the coach rather than the math teacher because everybody knows you can’t have more than 100% of anything. But listen, Jesus was totally God and totally man at the same time. And this means that He was both finite and infinite and He was also fallible and infallible which means He could have sinned as a man when He was tempted but as God He couldn’t have.
His combined nature of both human and divine were what’s known as the hypostatic union. (I’ve been waiting for 31 years to say that and now I feel like all the money I spent on tuition at Bible College was worth it.) And so, the union of the two aspects of His character are contradictory to human logic but they were also absolutely true.
And then second, in this chapter of Ephesians it says God chose us according to verse 4 before the foundation of the world. Listen, before anybody on earth was ever created God not only thought of you but He specifically chose you and then a couple of thousand years later Jesus died on the cross for you and then sometime during your lifetime the Holy Spirit convicted you of sin and you were saved. And listen, I’m glad God chose me before I was born because He certainly wouldn’t have chosen me afterward.
But doesn’t the scripture contradict itself by saying that God saved us before we were born and then it tells us we need to repent and receive Jesus Christ as our Savior? It’s an antinomy.
In verse 5 of this chapter it says, “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” According to the good pleasure of His will means that He wanted to do it and He did it.
Romans 8:28-30 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
And if you read these verses carefully you’ll notice that it was God who did everything. He predestined us, He called us, He justified us and He glorified us. So, these verses and many, many more tell us that our salvation is all up to God.
And then there are other places where we read that everything is up to us. Both Jesus and John the Baptist both began their public ministries by preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” And who needs to repent or turn from their sins? It was us because no one else can do that for us.
In John 12:48 Jesus said, "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” So, by our accepting Him and His word, we’re saved.
Now, both of these positions seem to contradict one another because they tell us that our salvation is either completely up to God or it’s totally up to us and based on the scripture we need to say that both are true.
Someone much smarter than me once said, “On the gates of heaven there’s a sign that says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and when you go inside there’s a another one that says,
“Ye who were chosen from the foundation of the world.” So, did God chose me or did I choose God? Well, the answer is yes.
Let me give you another example of an antinomy. When God inspired the Bible He inevitably had to translate His pure, perfect Word into some kind of language and since human language has been evolving through our growing understanding; we’d have to say that God's perfect word was transmitted by imperfect humans using imperfect languages and yet we also believe that we have the perfect word of God in the original writings.
Now, is this true? Of course, it is, but we also believe that even though God used sinful people and imperfect language to communicate His Holy Word absolutely nothing was lost.
Let me give you another example. In the study of man’s will, the question is usually asked: how can a person’s will be free if his actions were fore-ordained from all eternity? Or to put it another way, how can an action be known to God before it takes place and yet be freely performed by a free, moral agent?
Let me give you an example from Acts 4:24-30, where God puts these two truths side by side without apology or explanation because in these verses we see an apparent contradiction.
“So, when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: “Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.”
For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
So here, Peter and John are describing Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel and they said they had done what God had planned for them to do before they actually did it; and they were completely guilty for having done it.
So, God who is one hundred percent sovereign had planned and determined that His Son Jesus would die on the cross and yet, here it says that wicked men were one hundred percent responsible for His death and yet, both of these things were true.
So, the Bible teaches us that God is one hundred percent in control of creation and all of history and yet man is also one hundred percent responsible for his sin.
When Charles Haddon Spurgeon was asked to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility and he said, “I never try to reconcile friends; they’re both in the Bible.” The whole point of an antinomy is that it is not a contradiction to God even though it looks like one to us.
There is one final one I want to touch on and that’s the trinity. We believe God is three distinct persons and yet when either the Father, Son or the Holy Spirit are anywhere God is fully present. They are equal in nature, distinct in person and separate in duties. All three were involved in creation, throughout the Old Testament, in the incarnation and each has a role to play in salvation.
When One member of the trinity is present the power and person of all three are there. How is that possible? We don’t know, it’s an antinomy.
Augustine was one of the greatest and earliest theologians of the Christian faith and he shared this insight concerning the trinity when he said: "Anyone who denies the Trinity is in danger of losing their salvation, and anyone who tries to understand it is in danger of losing their mind. He also spoke of how we should view these difficult areas of theology when he said, "In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity." Listen, we will never agree totally with one another on absolutely everything but we’ve still been commanded to love one another.
George Whitfield was a great open-air evangelist back in the 1700s and he was also a member of the Church of England and yet he counted many Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists, as close friends; but he was also a very strong Calvinist.
And one day someone asked him, “Mr. Whitfield, do you think we’re going to see John Wesley in heaven?” And they asked that because Wesley, was not only the founder of the Methodist church but he was also a very strong opponent of Calvinism.
Whitfield said, “No, I doubt that we will see Mr. Wesley in heaven. He will be so close to the throne of God that we will be fortunate to even catch a glimpse of his back.” Listen, in the essential belief about the matter of salvation we need to love one another.
And what should we do, then, with these antinomies? We need to accept them for what they are and learn to live with them. After all, they may be contradictory points of view to us but in the mind of God they’re complementary to one another.
We have a finite understanding but I think that one day when we leave this world God is going to open our minds to see things the way He sees and then we’ll realize how wrong we were about so many things. Where the Bible is clear we have to take a stand but where we find obvious contradictions or antinomies we need to be careful.
So, in verse 4, we looked at the fact of God’s election and in verse 5, we see the destiny that comes with that election. When God elects us, He predestines us and that means that He determines in advance what our destiny will be. And the destiny of every person that God has chosen is first and foremost that they will become a member of His family.
And since we’re not naturally born into God’s family then the only way we become part of it is through adoption and everyone God chooses He adopts and once we’re adopted God works to make us more like Himself.
The fact that we’re adopted is exciting enough but look at the last part of this verse where it says, we’ve been adopted into God’s family “in accordance with his pleasure and will.” Literally, Paul writes that we’ve been adopted “according to the good pleasure of his will.”
Do you understand what he’s saying here? He has adopted us because it gives Him pleasure. Can you believe that? God choose you and I in spite of the fact of our sinfulness He’s more than pleased to do it. Now, I understand how I’m more than pleased but I’m blown away by the fact that saving me gives God pleasure.
So, God has chosen us and predestined us to be part of His family and then verse 6 tells us how He does this. He does it through His grace and grace is simply the unmerited favor of God. Listen, He does this because He loves us and wants to do it.
And then verse 8 He says, He made the riches of His grace abound to us and another translation says, He “poured out” His blessings giving us the impression God doesn’t hold anything back.
It’s kind of like at the end of a football game when the winning team pours that huge Gatorade bucket it over their coach. They don’t save any for later but pour out everything and that’s a picture of how God pours out His grace.
I read an interesting story about Oliver Wendell Holmes. Holmes was a medical doctor and he was very interested in the use of ether. In order to know how his patients felt under its influence, he decided to have some administered to himself.
And as he was going under, a very profound thought came to him and somehow, he believed that he had suddenly grasped the key to all the mysteries of the universe; but as soon as he regained consciousness, he couldn’t remember what the insight was.
He felt that this thought was of such great importance to mankind that he arranged to have himself given either again but this time he had a stenographer present to write down whatever this great observation was.
The ether was administered, and sure enough, just before he passed out the insight reappeared. He mumbled the words, the stenographer took them down, and then he went to sleep confident in the knowledge that he was successful.
When he woke up, he turned to the stenographer and asked her to read what he said. And these were his words, "The entire universe is permeated with a strong odor of turpentine."
The human race has long tried to determine and explain the mysteries of the universe, but Paul writes that it was God’s will to make these mysteries known to us by lavishing us with the grace, wisdom and all the understanding that goes along with it.
Listen, salvation is neither obtained nor maintained by us and since none of us deserves it and we can’t earn it, eternal life comes by grace through faith and God will never force anyone to believe in His Son. We are free and responsible for either accepting or rejecting the gospel and as wonderful as the gift of salvation is, if God forced it upon anyone, He would eliminate the free will He gave us. So, let’s make sure we understand the sequence of salvation. It’s grace; then faith; and that’s followed by good works.
Francis Beaumont said: “Faith without works is like a bird without wings; though she may hop with her companions on earth but she will never fly with them to heaven.”
Listen, I like what Max Lucado said: “God is crazy about you. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your picture would be in it. Whenever you talk, He listens and even though you might go days without thinking of Him, there’s never a moment when He’s not thinking of you.”
So, if you’re a believer then the Bible teaches that you were chosen before the foundation of the world and that means that your life matters. Your existence wasn’t an accident or some by-product of natural selection but God has been thinking about you and your life even before He ever said, “Let there be light.”
And then second, you’ve been called to be holy and blameless according to verse 4 and this means you are qualified to serve and worship Him despite your shortcomings. God will use you not because of how good you are but because of the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed or attributed to you.
And then third, each of us were predestined to adoption according to verse 5 and this tells us that God has predetermined to call you to be His son or daughter. God went through His decision-making process about you a long time ago and He has decided to adopt you as one of His children. The question is, have you decided you want to be one of His children.
