This sermon marks the new start of a series I'm planning on Ephesians. Whenever you start a study on a new book in the Bible, it's normal to give a few introductory remarks about the book to give you kind of a big picture to work with. So the big picture of Ephesians looks something like this, I think: God has this vision, this plan, to make a single, holy family, who will live in peace with himself, and with each other. He is going to accomplish this vision through Jesus. Our responsibility, in response to this, has two parts. First, we say "yes" to God. We join God's family. HOW we say "yes" I'll talk about later. Second, we walk worthily of our calling.
The Ephesians have said "yes" to God, but they aren't walking worthily. They are living in their old sins. They aren't living in peace. And so Paul writes this letter to them, to show them how and why they should start walking rightly with God. And, mostly importantly, to push them to start walking rightly. This is a letter that is designed to persuade the Ephesians to change how they think, and how they live.
I'd explain all this better, but the problem with introductions is that they can ruin the book. It's like explaining a movie or a novel before you even start it. Why not instead let it explain itself?
Let's start by reading through all of Ephesians 1:1-14. Try to listen for two things as I read:
(1) How God has blessed us, and (2) How God has blessed us through Jesus.
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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God's will:
To the holy ones being in Ephesus, and to the faithful ones in Christ Jesus.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed/praised! [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one
blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the King,
in so far as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love,
predetermining us for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will
for the praise of the glory of his grace,
[with] which he showed favor to us in the beloved.
In him we have the freedom/release through his blood--the forgiveness of wrongdoing --
according to the riches of his grace,
which he caused to abound toward us,
in/with all wisdom and understanding making known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he planned in him,
for the stewardship of the fullness of the times, to bring together everything in the King,
the things in the heavens,
and the things in the earth in him.
In him also we were chosen,
being predetermined according to the purpose of the one accomplishing everything according to the desire of his will,
so that we, the ones having first hoped in the Christ should be for the praise of his glory.
In him also you, hearing the word of the truth-- the good news of your salvation--
in him also, giving allegiance, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,
who is the down payment of our inheritance,
for the redemption of possession,
for the praise of his glory.
Verse 2:
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
We tend to skip over the introductions to letters--or maybe it's just me. But Paul begins his letter with something we really don't want to miss. Paul here announces to them, as God's representative, that God gives them two things: (1) grace, and (2) peace.
Grace is one of those million dollar Christian words that no one can really explain. Right? More often than not, you can translate it as "God's favor and help." God loves the Ephesians; he desires to help them and do good for them. We sometimes wonder what God thinks of us, and I assume that this was true for the Ephesians as well.
Know that God loves you. Know that God likes you. Know that God wants to help you, and do good for you.
The second thing Paul announces to them is God's peace. Paul is writing this letter to a church made up entirely of Gentiles. Gentiles, historically, were not God's people. They rebelled against God, and lived outside of the covenant God set up with Moses. They lived as God's enemies. But now, through Jesus, we Gentiles live in peace with God.
So far in the letter, you should know that God loves you, that he likes you, that he wants to do good to you, and that you are at peace with him.
This should make you thankful, and make you want to praise God. So Paul pushes you in this direction.
Verse 3-6:
Blessed/praised [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the One
blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the Christ,
in so far as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world
to be holy and blameless before him in love,
predetermining us for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will
for the praise of the glory of his grace,
[with] which He showed favor to us in the beloved.
When we think about what God has done for us, our immediate response should be to praise God. That's what this entire section is-- praise to God. In the OT, in the psalms, one of the things we find on a regular basis is the psalmists retelling the story of what God has done for Israel. When the psalmists tell these stories-- which are God's stories-- they are glorifying God. And it leads them to praise and glorify God.
These verses in Ephesians work the same way. Telling God's story is a way, all by itself, of praising and glorifying God. And it also leads us to praise and glorify God. We can't talk about what God did for us through Jesus, without it leading to worship.
So let's talk about what God has done for us. Verse 3:
"Blessed, or praised, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
Everything we are going to read today points directly to God, as praise to God. This is why we worship God. This is why we find ourselves humming worship songs during the week. This is why we go through life incredibly thankful to God for what He's done for us.
God has blessed, and continues blessing you, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. God has held nothing back. He has given you everything he possibly could. What has God given you? First, He chose you, as a church, in Christ, before the foundation of the world.
This verse has been a source of an enormous amount of controversy in the church. And I really don't want to get into it. I just want to say two things about it that are often lost. First, God chose you in Christ. Jesus is God's chosen one. And when we place our allegiance in King Jesus, we become part of God's chosen people. Second, when you read the OT, what jumps out at you over and over is that Israel is God's chosen people. Israel is God's prized possession; Israel is the people that God loves.
The Ephesian church is made up entirely of Gentiles. No one ever said that Gentiles are God's chosen people. Gentiles are outsiders; idol-worshippers; far from God (Eph. 2:1-3).
When Paul writes here that you Ephesians were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, what he is saying is that your election preceded Israel's. God didn't just choose Israel to be a holy and blameless people.
God chose you, as Gentiles, to be his holy and blameless people. And he chose you for this in Christ. God adopted you into his family in Christ.
This should lead to you praise, immediately. Praise be to God, who chose us Gentiles to be adopted into his family in Christ.
The other thing that we really need to hear in these verses is Paul's strong emphasis on Jesus. Everything God has done for us, and continues to do for us, he did in and through Jesus. God chose you in Christ, the chosen one. God made you his holy people in Christ. God adopted you in Christ. God showed his grace-- his favor and help-- to you through Jesus.
In the first century, the early church debated how Gentiles could be made right with God and become part of God's people. Did Gentiles have to become Jews to be part of God's people, or did God accept them as Gentiles? We take the answer to this question for granted now, but this was a difficult issue. The answer to the question is this:
God forgives Gentiles' sins, and adopts them into his family, through Jesus. When people repent of their sins, submit to Jesus as King, and are baptized into Jesus (Rom 6:3), they become part of God's people.
Praise be to God, who has richly blessed us in Jesus.
But in saying all these, we are just scratching the surface of what God has done for us Gentiles in Christ. Verse 7-10:
In him we have the freedom/release through his blood--the forgiveness of wrongdoing --
according to the riches of his grace,
which he caused to abound toward us,
in/with all wisdom and understanding making known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he planned in him,
for the stewardship of the fullness of the times, to bring together everything in the Christ,
the things in the heavens,
and the things in the earth in him.
All of us used to be slaves to sin. But "in him"-- in Jesus-- we were freed from sin, and forgiven of our wrongdoing.
Paul then expands on this by talking about God's mysterious plan. Paul will talk about this more later in Ephesians, but for now, I'll say this: God had this mysterious plan, this vision for what the world should look like. And this vision looks something like this: God wants to create a single holy family, who will live in peace with him, and with each other.
How will God bring this plan into effect? In verse 8, we read that God planned this in King Jesus. Somehow, what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection brings everything together-- everything in the heavens, and everything in the earth.
I'm hoping you find yourself wanting me to explain this better. How does Jesus' death and resurrection bring everything God created together, into one holy family? Our next verses begin to answer this.
Verse 11-13:
In him also we were chosen,
being predetermined according to the purpose of the one accomplishing everything according to the desire of his will,
so that we, the ones having first hoped in the King, should be for the praise of his glory.
In him also you, hearing the word of the truth-- the good news of your salvation--
in him also, giving allegiance, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,
who is the down payment of our inheritance,
for the redemption of possession,
for the praise of his glory.
When we think about what divides people today, we usually think in terms of race, or nationality. White and black; American and Russian. Maybe we think, rich and poor. Or, Republican or Democrat. But the main division between people in the world, historically, has been Jew and Gentile. Jews were God's holy chosen people.
Gentiles were idol-worshipping outsiders. When Paul talks about how God is bringing everything together on earth, this has to include Jew and Gentile. Paul has been talking about you Gentiles so far. Here, in verse 11, he says, "also we were chosen." "Also---we-----were chosen."
What Paul is doing here is deliberately writing as a member of the Jewish people. Paul also does this in Romans, Galatians, and later in Ephesians. This is something Paul often commonly does to help people think more clearly about what it means to be Jew and Gentile.
So here, Paul says, "also we were chosen." This is his signal that he's going to deliberately speak as a representative of the Jewish people. We Jews were the first ones to hope in the Messianic King. We waited for centuries for God to fulfill the promises he'd made in places like 2 Samuel 7, or Isaiah 7-11.
How were Jews chosen? How were they set apart? Paul says they were chosen in Christ. Jews would say that Israel was God's chosen people. And it would explain this choosing as a mystery. It wasn't because of anything great about themselves; it was simply God choosing to love them and be faithful the promises he'd made to Abraham (Deut. 7:7ff). But Paul says, "we Jews" were chosen in Christ. Jesus is the chosen one, and our election-- our calling-- is a calling in Jesus.
This calling, this election is made for a specific reason here. Paul says, God chose us Jews so that we would praise his glory. God wants us Jews to praise him. That's why he called "us Jews."
In verse 13, Paul turns from speaking about "us Jews" to addressing "you Gentiles."
In him also you, (1) hearing the word of the truth-- the good news of your salvation--
in him also, (2) giving allegiance, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,
who is the down payment of our inheritance,
for the redemption of possession,
for the praise of his glory.
Verse 13 is a little tricky. Basically, there were two things you did before the Holy Spirit sealed you. First, you heard the word of truth-- the gospel, the good news of how God was saving people. Second, you gave allegiance.
(At some point, I really need to explain this translation!). The gospel is not something you respond to with "belief." It's not about believing something to be true. "Believing" means something more like allegiance, or loyalty, or commitment. The gospel is something you obey (Romans 10:162 Thessalonians 1:8). You submit to Jesus as King.
So you heard the gospel, and you responded by giving allegiance to Jesus. These are both big, important ideas. But neither one of these verbs is Paul's main point here. Hearing the word of truth, giving allegiance, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. God sealing you with the Spirit is the main point.
If you've heard the good news, and responded by giving Jesus your allegiance, choosing him as Lord, God has given you amazing spiritual blessings. He gave you the Holy Spirit. He has given you promises. He has given you an inheritance. Knowing this, what should we do?
Paul then pulls everything back to God at the end. Why did God do all this for us Gentiles? God is creating a holy people, made up of Jews and Gentiles, because he wants people to praise him. God did this for the praise of his glory.
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All of us have gone through times when we get distracted by life, and stop really thinking about what God has done for us in Jesus. We take it for granted. We don't value it. We don't appreciate the sacrifice Jesus made. We aren't thankful. Hearing God's story leaves us cold.
Your problem, maybe, is that you are caught in sin. There are things in your life that you are doing, that you know are wrong. And you tell yourself, it's no big deal. You tolerate them; you don't repent. And then you find it a burden to come to church. You find passages like Ephesians 1 leaving you cold. You struggle to worship. You sing the words, but there's nothing behind them. You get to church, and you can't wait to go back home.
If you find yourself reading Ephesians 1, and it leaves you cold. If it doesn't move you. If it doesn't make you want to worship God. If this is you, you don't appreciate what God has done for you. You don't value it. Or maybe you just don't understand it. I don't know. But I'm determined to change that in this series.
Everything else that Paul says in Ephesians is built on these first verses. Everything in our walk with God starts here, with what God did for us in Jesus. If you understand, and appreciate, what God did for us in Jesus, you will praise God. And you will walk worthily of your calling.
Verse 3: "Praised be God, the one blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Jesus."
Everything starts here: Praise God!
