The book of Ephesians was not written with the intention of being a book. It was a letter.
A. There are some people who question who wrote it and who it was written too.
B. Some people say that Paul didn’t write it, and I don’t believe that, but there might be some question as to whether it was written only the to the Ephesians.
C. Some of the oldest manuscripts don’t have the line that is in verse one where it says to the saints in Ephesus.
D. There are some people who believe that the letter to the Ephesians might have been written to several of the churches in Asia Minor, and that Tychicus who delivered the letter was to insert the name of whatever church he was at when he read it.
E. Whether that was the way it was or not what we can know is that God intended it for us.
1. It is a part of the instruction that God gave to us, and a part of what He intends for us to use to determine what it means to be a Christian.
2. So our main concern is not who wrote it or what city it went to but how does it apply to us, today, here an now.
(Eph 1:1 -14 NIV) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession--to the praise of his glory.
F. Right off the bat we are faced with a theological problem in Ephesians. It is a word that has been debated for generations. Predestination.
1. The fact that Paul uses the word predestination is not debatable, but what he intended it to mean is.
2. What does he mean when he says that we are predestined?
3. Well the fact is that nothing in the bible ever tries to define what that means directly, so we have to determine what it means by looking at the what the whole message of the bible is.
G. Let me start by saying that it does not mean that God decided before time that some would be chosen to go to heaven and some would be chosen to go to Hell.
1. The bible says point blank that God is a God of love it even says that God is love.
(1 John 4:8 NIV) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(1 John 4:16 NIV) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
2. The bible also says that God is just.
(Deu 32:4 NIV) He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
(2 Th 1:6 NIV) God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
3. God is just, and God is love, and there is nothing loving or just about creating people for the purpose of suffering damnation in Hell.
4. So from what the bible says about who God is it would be impossible for God to predetermine who would go to heaven and who would go to hell without completely stepping out of His character which is something that God would not do.
5. God doesn’t change.
(Mal 3:6 NIV) "I the LORD do not change..
(Heb 1:12 NIV) But you remain the same, and your years will never end."
(James 1:17 NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
6. God is love, and God is just, and God does not change, and a loving, just, God does not create people for the purpose of suffering eternal damnation.
H. And if that is not enough to convince us then let God speak for Himself through the bible.
(1 Tim 2:3- 6 NIV) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, WHO WANTS ALL MEN TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, WHO GAVE HIMSELF AS A RANSOM FOR ALL MEN--the testimony given in its proper time.
1. God did not choose some to have salvation and some to have damnation, because He is love, and he is just, and he doesn’t change, and He makes it clear that He wants everyone to be saved, and gave His son a ransom for all men meaning all mankind. Which means then that everyone being saved is at least possible which would not be true, if God had already condemned some to hell.
2. To understand what Paul is saying here we first have to understand what he is not saying. He is not saying that God decided before creation who would go to heaven and who would go to Hell.
3. If we understand that then we can understand what it does mean.
II. So, if it was not decided that we would go to heaven or hell before we were born, what does Paul mean by predestination.
A. I said that it is not important what city this letter was written to but that does not mean that it is not important who it was written to.
B. You have heard me say a million times that we have to read the bible in context, and this is the perfect example of that.
C. Who do we know for sure Paul was writing this letter to? Look at verse 1 & 2. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Who are the saints? The Hebrew word for saint is "hagios" and it means "holy one". The word saint has been so distorted in the past that sometimes people misunderstand its meaning.
2. Saints are the ones who have been made right with God or holy through Jesus.
(Heb 10:10 NIV) And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
3. So Paul is writing to those who have already accepted Jesus, he calls them the faithful, those who have faith.
4. Paul is talking to the ones who have chosen, or accepted Jesus. And he goes on to make sure that we know that those who he is talking to are "in Christ".
D. So Paul is talking to those who are in Christ, and then he says in verse 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
1. Paul begins by praising God for the blessing that we have in Christ.
2. He is talking to those who are by faith "in Christ" and the context of what he is saying, or the subject that he is dealing with is the blessing that those who are in Jesus have.
3. The blessing that Paul is talking about is not the who, but the how, not the who will, but the in who it will happen.
(Eph 1:4 -6 NIV) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
E. Paul is trying to make it apparent that we are blessed that before the creation of the world God had a plan and a purpose in what He did and the plan was that all who were "in Christ" would be Holy and Blameless before Him.
1. The thing that Paul is talking about that was set before the creation of the world was not who would chose but how they would chose.
2. Paul is not blessing God for who would be chosen before the foundation of the world but how they would be chosen.
3. Paul is not saying that we are blessed because before the foundation of the world, God chose some to go to Hell, he is praising God that before the foundation of the world God had a plan.
4. And the plan was that everyone who accepted Jesus by faith would be Holy.
5. God chose before the foundation of the world that all those who were "in Christ", those that chose Christ would be His Holy Possession.
F. Two things in the context of this passage show this
(Eph 1:11 NIV) In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,(Eph 1:12 NIV) in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.(Eph 1:13 NIV) And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
1. What does it say in verse 11 that we were predestined according to? THE PLAN! The Plan was what came to be before the foundation of the world, not who would accept the plan.
2. Look at verse, Paul does not say that they were included in the plan before the foundation of the world, he says that they (the Saints, the faithful) were included in the plan or in Christ, when they heard the word of truth, and having heard the word of truth, and having believed.
3. It was then that they were marked in him.
4. Before they heard and believed they were not marked with Him. They were not IN Christ, but after they heard and believed, they were marked with Him, they were IN Christ, and not only that were sealed in Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
5. Those who believed were predestined in Christ, because the plan that was, before the foundation of the world, was that those who heard and believed would be in Christ
6. We who have accepted God’s offer of salvation are blessed because we are now God’s spotless possession, because God planned it that way before the foundation of the world..
G. We are never to believe that we have anything to do with being made right with God other than our accepting Jesus’ offer to take away our sin, and by doing that humbling ourselves before God, and trusting Him to provide what is necessary for us to be His children.
1. When Adam and Eve decided to eat the fruit in the garden, they decided to try to exalt themselves above God and be God, and they decided to not to trust God because God had told them that they would die if they ate the fruit.
2. God had given them the right to choose, and we still have that ability to choose.
3. When we choose to let God be God instead of refusing to give God his rightful place, and when we choose to trust God when he says that Jesus is the only way that we can be right with Him, then we are willingly choosing to put ourselves back in the relationship with God that God wanted Adam and Eve to be in with Him.
4. And that is the only part that we can play in salvation, salvation is God’s plan not ours, it is accomplished by God’s doing not ours, and it is a plan that God had before the creation of the world.
5. That’s what Paul is praising God for not that God decided who would be saved, but that God decided that all who chose Jesus as the way to be in a right relationship with Him, would be saved.
(Rom 3:21-26 NIV) But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
H. Notice that Paul said a righteousness came from God , and that righteousness comes to all who will believe.
1. The righteousness that comes, comes from God (Heb 12:2 NIV) says Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
2. What Paul is praising God for In Ephesians is not that God decided who would have faith and accept Jesus and become righteous, but where that righteousness would come from.
3. Before the creation of the world God had a plan for the salvation of man. It’s not our plan it God’s plan, and its not our doing, its God’s doing
4. And as Paul says it is available to ALL who believe. We are predestined by God in the sense that it is His plan and He carries it out and, and we can do nothing about it accept it and humble ourselves before Him, and trust what he does and not what we can do.
I. It is not hard for me to believe that God’s purpose before creation is that he would have Holy people, and that it would be to the praise of His Glory, because he was the one doing it.
1. God didn’t predestine who those people would be, but He did predestine that they would be, how they would become what they would be, and who would get the credit for it.
2. All those who would accept His plan would be made right with Him, and would be made holy and set a part for Him.
3. They would be His people, and as His people they would be a sign of God’s Glory and power.
4. Our salvation does not glorify us it glorifies God, because He is the only one who can take credit for it happening.
5. Paul’s letter was written much like ours are.
6. The thoughts build on each other and in 2:4-9 we get to the culmination of what Paul is talking about.
(Eph 2:4 -9 NIV) But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God? not by works, so that no one can boast.
J. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions
1. Before the foundation of the world, because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, had a plan, a plan that was predestined, and that plan was that we be made alive in Christ.
2. IT IS BY GRACE AND GRACE ALONE THAT WE ARE SAVED, GOD’S GRACE, CARRIED OUT IN GOD’S PLAN, BY GOD’S POWER.
3. It is by grace that we are saved through faith, not anything that we can do or add to what God has done. Not that there is anything that we can contribute, not that there is anything that we do to deserve it, because it is God’s plan, and that PLAN, He predestined before the foundation of the world and brought it to be through Jesus.
4. God did predestine us, but that does not mean that He decided who would choose grace, but He did decide that grace would be available to all who will believe, and put their hope for the future in His hands, and humble themselves and put themselves under His authority and in His trust, just like Adam and Eve were before they rebelled against God..
5. The only part that we play in our salvation is choosing to trust God through Jesus, which reverses the that fact that Adam and Eve didn’t trust God, and that was decided, before Adam and Eve were ever created.
K. Paul says in Eph 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. I know that this the way that Paul starts a lot of his letters but it also sets the stage for what God wants; us to be at peace with Him and have peace, but that peace is only possible because of grace, the grace that God determined that He would give before the foundation of the world.
2. And that Grace is available to all who will believe.
L. So the question that we need to deal with is not whether God chose who would receive grace before the creation of the world, but have we received grace, by believing in Jesus as the only way that we can right with God and accepting the PLAN that God laid before the foundation of the world.
1. If you haven’t done that I hope that you will today, because that is the Question that has to have an answer.
