Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Who are you pulling for this evening in the Super Bowl? Tampa Bay? The Chiefs? Or you don’t care ??
I’ll be making some excellent points in today’s message, you might even call them touchdowns but nobody needs to think about dumping me with Gatorade after church later.
New Car Window Sticker
Have you ever looked carefully at one of those window stickers of a new car as it details everything that comes with the car? The listing details all the features your new car has because it’s not obvious to the immediate eye. You have your model information, your standard equipment, your optional equipment, and your warranty information. Ephesians 1:3-14 is really one long sentence in the original language of the New Testament. The sentence operates like one of those listings you see on the window of a new car. The Bible also has a sticker window because God really wants you all the equipment that comes for you as His child. So the Bible puts together this really long sentence to communicate all the blessings God is piling up for His children who are in Christ.
Now, no English translation attempts to make it just one sentence because the sentence is so complicated. The version we are looking at together makes it five sentences. This one long sentence is detailing for you the ways God has blessed you if you are in Christ. He’s just piled them up with one blessing upon another upon another. But my fear is you don’t feel this. This is a nose bleed sort of text if you will. We are way up high in the clouds. But we don’t sense how high up we are when we read this. It’s like you’ve been transported to the top of the Rockies but somehow you cannot sense it.
There is a time when you recognize you are obviously way high up but there are times when it’s hidden from you just how high up you are.
Deep-Sea Fishing
If you follow me on social media, then you know that I was in Florida this past week. After the conference was over, my wife and I had the chance to take our youngest son fishing off the coast there. There was a little seasickness by one of us but we had a lot of fun. It was really cold early in the morning as we skipped over the waves to find just the right spot where the fish were biting. Now, I had never done any deep sea fishing before and I had no idea of what we were doing. In fact, I wanted to share a little of the video – pay attention to how long he reels the fish in. But the fishing guide has a little computer onboard that tells you what’s happening in the Atlantic Ocean below us. As he navigated us, he had a little screen right in front of him and we stopped at this one spot where all this color was below us. There were red, yellow, and green colors on the screen indicating something was below us. And he tells Matthew and me as he points to all this color, “That’s fish right there.” There were a lot of fish on the screen.
And just above the colors was a number that indicated how deep the ocean was to the floor below. It was around 250-290 feet to the floor of the ocean below. We were around a mile off the coast of Fort Lauderdale – you could see the buildings clearly. Yet, you drop the line all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor, 250 plus feet deep. Pause now and consider the following: do you have any idea how long it takes to reel up a fish at this depth? I counted how long it took my 16-year-old – it took him more than a minute to real him in all the way. Take your left hand and reel for an imaginary fish in for around 75 seconds or so. You just keep reeling and reeling and reeling. You wonder, “Will I ever get this fish to the top of the water?”
Do you have any idea of the depth of God’s blessings He has in store for any one of His children in Christ? God has Really Blessed You, my friend. Again, God has put the longest sentence in your Bible to outline for you how much God has blessed you.
Let’s count the ways God has blessed you, my dear Christian friend.
• You are chosen (verse 3);
• You are adopted (verse 5);
• You are redeemed (verse 7);
• God’s very Son shed His blood for you (verse 7);
• You are forgiven (verse 7);
• God lavished His grace on you (verse 8);
• He has given you wisdom and insight (verse 8);
• You have inherited everything (verse 11);
• You now have hope (verse 12);
• All this is guaranteed with the seal of the very Holy Spirit (verse 13-14).
It’s just staggering to see it and it takes a lot longer than a minute to reel all this in to your heart and mind. Again, He’s piled them one on top of another.
The Prayer
In fact, God’s love for you is deep down that God even includes a prayer for us to open our eyes to His deep down love. Later in the book of Ephesians, Paul will pray something like this: “Father, I ask you to grant your people the inner heart strength so they can comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of your great love for your people. Give them the power of the Holy Spirit so their inner eyes can comprehend your love for them” (Ephesians 3:14-19).
Imagine being so blessed that God puts a prayer down for us just to comprehend the depth of our blessings in Christ. So you have this beautiful prayer just so you comprehend the depth of His love for you. So God’s blessings and His love for you are so incredible that you’ll run right over without blinking. Again, so many people underestimate the blessings God has granted even one of His children.
Now, to round it off, God has given one last blessing and this is a guarantee. God’s guarantee comes in the form of a seal. Paul, the author of Ephesians, was a lawyer and he’s using the word sealed here in a legal way.
1) Truth & the Gospel
I wonder if this has happened to you. Let me show you.
1.1 The Truth
Look with me at verse 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…” (Ephesians 1:13).
The gospel is this: Jesus died for your sin, He was buried, and on the third day, He rose from the grave. Your Bible is telling you that when you confessed Christ as your Lord and Savior, you were sealed right then and there. The Bible says anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). The Bible is talking about becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You hear the gospel and you believe in the gospel. Becoming a Christian, Christianity, doesn’t start by you doing something; it comes by hearing something. Other religions start by saying, “Here’s how God wants you to live, and if you live in this way, then you’ll be saved.” But Christianity doesn’t do this. Instead of, “Here’s what you must do in order to be saved,” Christianity says, “Here’s what God has done in history to save you.”
1.2 In Christ
Notice how vital Jesus Christ is to all this: “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…” (Ephesians 1:13).
How does every spiritual blessing come? All your spiritual blessings come “in him.” So we get grace “in him.” We get every spiritual blessing in him. In the first fourteen verses of the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is mentioned either by name, title, or by a pronoun or possessive (‘he’, ‘him’, ‘his’) fifteen times.
I’ll give you a little taste of this: “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…” (Ephesians 1:3-5).
It’s crucial that you place your faith in Jesus Christ – He’s the key to everything God has in store for you.
Bitcoin
German authorities have confiscated more than $60 million dollars worth of bitcoin from a fraudster. For those who may not be familiar, bitcoin is a digital currency only. You don’t have anything to show for it. You don’t put in your wallet; it’s only on a computer and criminals love this stuff because you cannot trace it. So back to the story, German authorities capture this criminal and seize $60 million dollars in bitcoin. But there’s only one problem: they cannot unlock the money because the criminal will not give the police the password. He sentenced to jail and the police have made repeated efforts to crack the code but the guy will not say.
If you are shaking your head at that one, listen to this. A San Francisco man cannot remember the password to unlock his $220 million dollars in Bitcoin digital money. He cannot remember it! The password is locked in a hard drive and Stefan Thomas only gets 10 attempts to guess it before it’s wiped clean. He lost the paper where he wrote down the password around nine years ago. What he wouldn’t give to remember that password!
The Bible is telling you just as critical as Jesus Christ to unlock all of God’s blessings for you. If you think Stefan is lying on his bed, wracking his brain over a lost fortune, imagine what it’s like to be left out of God’s favor on your life.
We get redemption in him: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…” (Ephesians 1:7). Remember the car sticker on the new car window and all the equipment that comes from being in Christ? Just like knowing the correct password gets you millions in bitcoin, hearing the word of truth and placing your belief in Jesus Christ moves you into place to benefit from all God has done through Jesus Christ. Jesus is critical and your trust in Jesus is earth-shakingly vital.
How can Jesus alone be true and everything else be leftovers? It’s because of His life, death, and resurrection. No one else did what He did and can accomplish what He accomplished.
1) Truth & the Gospel
2) Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Look what happens when you trust in Jesus and the truth of the gospel: “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” (Ephesians 1:13).
To tell you are sealed with the Holy Spirit may mean as much to you as if I read to you the 2020 tax codes or the names of yellow pages for the city. What do you care if you are sealed? To be sealed means God guarantees to you that you will receive what He has promised.
2.1 Right Then & There
The Bible says that at the moment, you believed you were sealed. Would you repeat these words with me: “right then and there”?
I am not going to become your grammatical expert here but the syntax of verse 13 is crystal clear. At the very moment you believed, you were sealed. It’s not as if you believed and then you were later sealed by the Holy Spirit. This is two sides to one event. Not at some later point but “right then and there.” At the moment you heard the gospel and trusted Christ, you were sealed. You may have heard the gospel in a superficial way many times but at one point you really heard and at that time you believed.
2.2 Tom & Superficial Listening
I met a man named Tom earlier this week. Tom indicated to me that he was a believer in Christ so I asked him, “How did you come to know the Lord, Tom?” He said through my pastor, D. James Kennedy. He said, “I grew up Catholic but my uncle invited me to church.” He talked about coming on Easter and Christmas for some time but he grew more interested so he came more often. “At some point, I came to really hear the gospel. I knew Christ because I heard the gospel through pastor Kennedy.” And then he said something really interesting that I remember even now. He knew the pastor well enough that the gospel was shared in each and every message. He began to wonder why he hadn’t trusted Christ when he first heard the gospel and all those other times. He was wondering what took him so long to really hear the gospel and why had he ignored it for so long before. Tom said he listened to the gospel so many times but it was only superficial back then. But there was a moment when Tom really heard the gospel and trusted Christ, the Bible says right then and there he was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
2.3 What Does it Mean to be Sealed?
What does it mean to be sealed? I’ve already said it’s a guarantee but it’s more than this. If you were reading off a millionaire’s last will and testament and you told me I’m included, you better believe I am leaning in and listening carefully. Now, lean in and listen carefully because this concerns you.
To be sealed meant three items in ancient times:
1) To be sealed meant something was genuine;
2) The seal meant you owned it;
3) and to be sealed meant something was secured.
The Bible says a believer is also sealed in just the same way. Let me show how all these three parts of this matter to you.
2.3.1 Sealed as Genuine
First, God seals me to verify me as His own.
2.3.1.1 My Birth Certificate
My birth certificate has a seal of authority to show it’s real. I can make a copy of my birth certificate but unless it has that seal that you feel when your fingers run over it, it’s not a certified copy. You need a certified copy to prove who you are in some cases. And it has that seal of issue authority. The seal on my birth certificate authenticates me as me when I apply for a driver’s license in a new state.
Listen to the Bible tell you how you can know you are a real believer in Christ: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” (Romans 8:16). God seals in your faith and He seals out unbelief when you were converted to Christ.
WARNING: Simply praying the prayer with me that I often lead you in and never following up with Christ isn’t real faith. The prayer is the beginning of faith only.
2.3.1.2 King’s Signet Ring
In ancient times, a king would use his unique signet ring to seal a document as genuine (see Esther 8:8). The kings of that day would wear a ring, and on that ring would be the king’s signet. And when the king would decree something, they would take melted wax, and they would put his signet on the paper. He would put his signature there, and then, with that melted wax, he’d just put his signet right into that wax. And that was signed with the king’s own handwriting, and then it was sealed with the king’s signet. And that meant that you’d better not mess around with a document sealed by the king. The King of kings, the Lord of lords, has sealed us.
The seal of the Spirit says, “I am His.” God has tagged us and has left a mark on our very hearts. His seal is our certification of authenticity. Again, at the very moment you trusted Christ, the Spirit sealed you as authenticate.
Say this with me, “I’m Sealed as Genuine.”
2.3.2 Sealed for Ownership
The second purpose for God’s seal on us is to give us His trademark. Somewhere in “mom school,” they take little girls aside and teach them that one day when you have kids, you will need to write their names on everything. Traci does this all the time – she writes the kid’s name inside everything we own. Their names are on their shirts, their backpacks, their shoes, and their books. Everything they own, she writes their name in it with a black sharpie. That’s what good moms do, right.
God writes His name on you when you come to faith in Christ. He does this to show He owns you. The Spirit of God has sealed you and you belong to Him. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
God’s Investment
Have you ever paid a lot for anything—car, house, or something? I tell you this, the more you paid for it, the better you took care of it. Have you ever thought about what the Lord has invested in you? That seal, the Holy Spirit of God that He has placed into me, says—listen—He has put a tremendous investment in me. He has bought me with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has too much invested in me not to take care of me. The Bible says you are certified as authenticate and you are sealed as God’s very own property. Dear friend, when He put His seal upon you, in the first place, it means that “you belong to me.” The Spirit seals you to mark you as God’s very own property.
I’m Sealed as Genuine.
Say this with me, “I’m Sealed as God’s Property.”
2.3.3 Sealed for Security
God seals in your faith and He seals out unbelief when you were converted to Christ. The second purpose for God’s seal on us is to give us His trademark. The third purpose is to seal us in order to protect us from evil forces that will threaten to tear us away from Christ.
Would you flip over in your Bibles to John 5:24 with me? Notice the very first two words are “Truly, truly” which means wake up and listen carefully: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). The Bible says the moment you heard the words of Jesus, the words of truth, you “passed from death to life”. Again, it’s right then and there.
You inherit “eternal life.” Now, you’re looking at a guy that has everlasting life. And if I ever lose it, it wasn’t everlasting. I never had it. Now friend, let me tell you something: whatever it is, if you ever lose it, whatever it was, it wasn’t everlasting. Pay close attention now. Whatever you have, if you ever lose it, whatever it was, it wasn’t everlasting. Friend, if I lose my soul, God will lose His honor. Why? Because He told a lie and He would lose His honor.
In Matthew 27:66, the tomb of Jesus was secured by sealing it and putting guards around it. In Revelation 20:3 God throws Satan into a pit and seals it over so he can’t escape. When God seals you, He locks you up.
“I’m Sealed as Genuine.”
“I’m Sealed as God’s Property.”
Say this with me, “I’m Sealed for Security.”
2.3.4 The Earnest Money
Did you notice what God put down for earnest money? “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” (Ephesians 1:13).
When Traci and I bought our first house, we wrote a check of around $1,000 to show we are really interested in the house. It’s earnest money. If you want to buy a car or a house and you don’t have all the money right there and the person says, “How do I know you really want to buy this?” You say, “Hold it for me. Don’t sell it to anyone else and here’s some money to show that I am really interested.” But when God purchased you, He didn’t put down money. No, the Bible says He placed the Holy Spirit down as His earnest money. You “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” If I back out of buying the house or the car, I lose my earnest money. I lose the $1,000 I put down. If God were to back out of saving you, He would lose the Holy Spirit Himself as it were.
The Holy Spirit Himself is the down payment and God is never, ever walking away from His very Spirit. God gives us the Holy Spirit Himself as if to say, “Hold it for me; hold it. I’m coming back. I’m going to bring the rest of it back.” This is earnest money. It means I’m going to come back and purchase the whole thing.”
Did you know this same word in Modern Greek is the word that is used for an engagement ring? When a man says to a girl, “I want to marry you,” and he gives her an engagement ring. God the Holy Father has given us the engagement ring of the very Holy Spirit, and one day there’s going to be a wedding one day in the future.
Conclusion
