9 BLESSINGS IN CHRIST
Ephesians – Riches In Christ
Ephesians 1:1-14
This morning we’re going to start a new series,
on the book of Ephesians.
If you have your Bible
turn to Ephesians Chapter 1.
The Apostle Paul wrote this letter
to the church in Ephesus
in about 62 AD,
from his prison cell in Rome.
Now, the first question you might ask, is
what makes the letter to the Ephesians so special?
Why are we going to spend a couple months
studying this letter?
Let me start with a story
An old American Indian legend tells about a brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a turkey.
The eaglet hatched with the brood of turkeys and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle, thinking he was a turkey, did what the turkeys do.
He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and gobbled. And never flew more than a few feet off the ground. After all, turkeys don’t fly very much.
Time went by and the changeling eagle grew very old.
One day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky,
soaring with graceful majesty on the wind currents,
"What a beautiful bird!" said the changeling eagle to the turkey next to him. "What is it?"
"That’s an eagle -- the chief of birds," the turkey gobbled. "But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him."
So the changeling eagle never gave it another thought. And he died thinking he was a turkey.
That story may be a legend,
but there have been many people
who have falsely believed they’re another type of animal.
In the last several hundred years there have been 53 documented cases of "feral children," children who have been lost in the wild and reared, nurtured and protected by animals.
For example,
In 1987, a child was found living with a tribe of monkeys in Uganda.
When taken to an orphanage, he grunted, squealed, jumped on his hands, ate grass and was very fearful of people. He thought he was a monkey.
In another recent case,
a boy was observed living with a herd of Antelope over a ten year period.
Several attempts to capture him were unsuccessful.
Scientists actually have a name for this type of behavior.
They call it "imprinting."
But essentially, what it is, is an identity crisis. When somebody doesn’t know who they really are.
Many Christians have an identity crisis as well. They’ve been so "imprinted" by the world around us,
that they don’t know who they really are in Christ.
They see themselves as turkeys while God sees them as eagles!
They have been conditioned to think, talk and act like turkeys,
but God says,
if you just knew who you really are,
you wouldn’t believe it.
Ephesians tells us who we really are.
God gave us this book of the Bible,
to show us our true identity, to get us to stop acting like turkeys, and help us fly like eagles.
The theme of his letter is about the blessings that we have, when we become a member of God’s family.
The spiritual riches that become ours,
by committing our life to Jesus Christ,
and making him the boss.
Paul starts out this letter by saying,
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.
That’s his greeting,
Now notice Verse 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.
Notice every spiritual blessing.
Not just some but every spiritual blessing.
What this is telling us is,
when we put our faith in Christ,
we become unbelievably rich,
far beyond what most of us realize.
And that’s what this letter is about,
our spiritual riches.
In the first chapter,
Paul lists these spiritual blessings.
There’s 9 of them listed,
3 that come from God the Father,
4 that come from Jesus,
and 2 that come from the Holy Spirit.
THREE BLESSINGS FROM THE FATHER
HE CHOSE US
Verse 4
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
If you’re a believer this morning,
and you’ve made Jesus Christ the lord of your life,
when you did that,
it was not a surprise to God.
It says God knew his people in advance. In fact, it says he knew you would become part of his family,
even before he created the universe.
But he didn’t just know about us.
It says he chose us to be holy and blameless.
Rom 8:29 says the same thing --
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son,
You see,
There’s a purpose that goes with that choice.
There’s a responsibility that goes with the privilege.
When I was 17 years old, in high school,
I applied for an appointment to the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis.
Now the military academies are not like a regular college,
because you don’t have to pay anything to go there.
In fact, they pay you.
In a way, it’s a great deal.
They give you a top college education,
and you get paid while you’re going there.
But the problem is, you don’t get into them like a normal college either.
You have to get a congressional appointment from a senator or a House representative.
So I started the application process,
and wrote to Representative Phil Crane, from Illinois,
and as part of the process,
I had to go through interviews with a committee from his office,
and I had to take physical fitness tests,
and medical tests,
and fill out a million forms.
And after that whole process was done,
then I had to wait, along with all the other guys who wanted an appointment.
But the day came when I found out,
I’d been chosen. I’d gotten my congressional appointment.
I was so excited.
But you see, with that privilege, came a purpose.
That choice required a change in my life’s direction.
Because you don’t just finish up the Naval Academy,
and go off and find whatever job you want.
You have to go into the Navy.
You’re committed, there’s no other option.
You’re going to spend at least 5 years in the Navy.
So when you’re chosen, it carries responsibilities.
Same thing, when you’re chosen by God,
you’re chosen for a purpose.
to be holy and blameless in his sight
to become like his Son,
God has set us apart. He chose us and He called us to be different. We have a special purpose.
Because of this, He wants us to live holy lives.
Now some of you are thinking right now,
Ken, wait a minute.
You’re talking to the wrong person.
I can’t be holy and blameless.
I’ve already blown it too many times.
Its too late.
I can’t even imagine myself being holy and blameless.
Well if you’re thinking that,
Just hold on a minute,
because that’s just the first blessing listed here.
Theres still 8 more to go.
God didn’t just choose us to be holy and blameless,
The 2nd blessing the Father gives, is
HE ADOPTED US
Verse 5
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ
The bible says that
God not only chose you,
but he wanted you to be a member of His family so much,
that he adopted you.
Gal 4:4-7 NLT
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, … to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.…. now you can call God your dear Father. 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.
My wife Kathy and I have 3 kids of our own,
but we’re also foster parents,
with Butler County Childrens Services agency.
So for the last 5 or 6 years
we’ve had one or two foster kids living with us,
most of the time.
Now our own kids belong to us.
Nobody could come and take them away,
unless we did something horrible
to forfeit our right to be parents.
But those foster kids don’t belong to us.
Any day, Childrens services could call us up,
and say,
we’ve decided to take that child out of your home,
and sent them back to one of their parents,
or put them in another foster home.
They could do that,
because they’re foster kids,
not actually our own.
But it all changes if we adopt.
If we adopt a child,
then we have the same rights as birth parents,
and the adopted child can’t be taken away.
That’s why its so important for each of us to know
that God has adopted us into his family.
Once we’re in his family,
nobody can take us away.
We’re not foster kids,
We belong, and its permanent.
And what’s the result of that?
The last verse says,
now you can call God your dear Father.
We can have an intimate relationship with our Daddy,
because we’re adopted.
Not only that, but
since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.
When you think about it,
that’s an incredible promise.
We go around thinking we’re turkeys,
with barely enough to get by in life,
yet the truth is, that
everything God has belongs to us.
Now not only did our Father choose us and adopt us,
HE ACCEPTED US
Verse 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Grace is another word for total acceptance.
There is no way that we can make ourselves acceptable to God,
But God freely gives us his grace,
which just means that he gives us his acceptance.
He accepts us no matter what we’ve done.
Now that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care what we’ve done,
That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care if we keep on sinning,
or keep on doing whatever we feel like.
That’s not what it means.
When the Bible says he accepted us.
It means,
He totally accepts us and loves us,
so that we can change.
Can anyone remember a story in the Bible
about a slave who runs away from his master,
then becomes a Christian,
and gets sent back home?
Bible Quiz time ----
What book is that found in? Philemon.
What’s the slaves name? Onesimus.
What happens is that this slave Onesimus,
stole something from his master Philemon,
and then ran away,
which under Roman law was punishable by death.
Onesimus is no dummy,
he doesn’t want to take any chance of getting caught,
so he runs all the way from his home in Colossae,
a town in Greece,
and goes to Rome.
While Onesimus is in Rome,
he meets up with the Apostle Paul,
who is in prison in Rome.
Onesimus listens to Paul and becomes a Christian.
Paul tells, him, hey Onesimus, you’re running from the law,
you’ve got a price on your head,
you’ve got to go back and make things right with your master.
Now the great part of the whole story and only God could arrange something like this,
is that Onesimus’ master is a guy named Philemon,
and Philemon is a Christian in the Colossian church,
and Paul knows him personally.
In fact, Paul led Philemon to Christ.
So Paul doesn’t send Onesimus back empty handed,
He sends a letter along with him,
the letter that we now call Philemon,
because it was written to Philemon.
And in that letter Paul tells Philemon take it easy on Onesimus,
because he’s a Christian now,
I want you to let him come back without punishment.
Philem 17, Paul says,
receive him as you would me.
There’s a good reason that story is in the Bible.
Because everyone of us is like Onesimus.
The Bible says ,
every one of us has sinned,
we’ve all blown it time after time,
and yet do you know what Jesus says to the father?
He says the same thing Paul said to Philemon ---
receive him as you would me.
He says,
Father, I want you to receive Ken, as you would me.
Receive Linda as you would me,
and Bob and Terry and Ed, and Lisa, and Bill,
receive them as you would me.
So we are totally accepted by God,
no matter what we’ve done,
no matter what our life has been like.
Now the reason we can be accepted,
is because of the B. FOUR BLESSINGS FROM THE SON
We’ve looked at the 3 blessings from the Father,
The next 4 blessings that Paul mentions,
are blessings that come from Jesus Christ.
1. HE REDEEMED US
Verse 7
In him we have redemption through his blood,
The word redemption, or redeemed, simply means,
“to purchase and set free by paying a price”
Its like when you run out of money,
so you take your stereo down to the pawn shop,
and hock it for 50 bucks.
If you want that stereo back, you’ve got to redeem it.
Now maybe you’ve never been to a pawn shop,
but say you parked in the wrong place,
and had your car towed,
(by the way, I saw a great ad for a towing service. It said, We don’t want an arm and a leg, just all your tows).
When you go down to Wayne’s towing lot,
to get your car out,
are they going to smile at you, toss you the keys,
and say, sure we’ve got your car, go right ahead and take it?
No.
Theyre gonna say,
You want your car?
Its $75 bucks, cash.
You’ve gotta redeem your car.
That’s what Jesus did for us.
He redeemed us.
The Bible says,
the wages of sin is death.
In other words, because every one of us have done wrong,
that was unacceptable to a perfect, holy God,
and so we owed a huge price.
We owed our very life.
And somebody had to pay.
But Jesus paid the price for us.
He redeemed us.
1 Peter 1:18
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed …. but with the precious blood of Christ.
It cost a lot to redeem you.
Your sin is serious to God,
silver and gold wasn’t’ enough to pay,
somebody had to get the death penalty.
There’s a true story about a man named Max Walsh he was staying at a lodge in the mountains.
One day he went for a hike. While he was hiking, the weather changed and he found himself in a blinding snowstorm. He lost his sense of direction, became exhausted and collapsed.
The owner of the lodge sent his favorite dog out to look for Walsh. When he found the unconscious man, the dog grabbed his sleeve and began to pull.
Walsh came to his senses. but thought he was being attacked by a wolf, so he slashed at the dog with his hunting knife.
Mortally wounded, the dog left the freezing man in the snow and returned to lodge where he died at his master’s feet.
When the lodge owner saw the knife wounds, he realized what happened and followed the blood trail back
and rescued the hiker.
Now we all feel sorry for the dog,
But that’s a picture of what Jesus did for us.
He came and found us when we were lost,
loved us, and redeemed us,
and paid to set us free from our sin,
but it cost him death on the cross.
It says,
you were redeemed …. with the precious blood of Christ.
The 2nd blessing from the Son ---
HE FORGAVE US
Verse 7
the forgiveness of sins,
Acts 13:38, Paul says,
In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is freed from all guilt and declared right with God.
Because of what Jesus did for us,
by redeeming us,
we also are blessed with forgiveness.
The word forgiveness here
literally means to give freedom from,
It comes from a Greek word meaning, to send away.
When we’re forgiven,
its like all the bad things we’ve done
are sent far away.
The Old Testament has a picture of how this works.
When people in the time of Moses and Joshua
would worship,
one of the things they would do would be to bring 2 goats to the priests.
They’d sacrifice one of the goats,
but the other goat was called a scape goat,
we still use that term today.
because all the blame of the people was put on that goat,
and then it was allowed to escape.
The instructions for this are in Lev 16:20-22 (The priest) must bring the living goat forward. He is to lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the sins and rebellion of the Israelites. In this way, he will lay the people’s sins on the head of the goat; then he will send it out into the wilderness, led by a man chosen for this task. After the man sets it free in the wilderness, the goat will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.
Jesus was our scapegoat.
He took all our sins on himself,
and then its like he took them far away from us,
never to return.
They’re gone, and we’re completely forgiven.
That’s the blessing of forgiveness.
The 3rd blessing from Jesus is,
HE REVEALED GOD’S WILL TO US
Verse 9,10
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.
It talks here about the mystery of God’s will,
and it just means that one of the blessings Jesus gives us,
is he reveals to us what’s going to happen at the end of the story,
at the end of the world,
Most people don’t have a clue
about their ultimate destiny,
it’s a total mystery to them,
but Jesus reveals that mystery to us.
He reveals the ultimate destiny for this world, and everyone in it.
Its all contained in the Bible,
through what Jesus told us.
In fact, it tells us the direction its all heading right in verse 10.
He says, here’s what’s going to happen,
when the times have reached their fulfillment-
God will bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
That’s where its all headed,
that’s what the end is going to look like.
And that’s one of the blessings Jesus gave,
is revealing that mystery to us.
The 4th blessing from the Son is,
HE GAVE US AN INHERITANCE
(for some reason NIV doesn’t use the word Inheritance –
all the other translations do)
Verse 11 (NLT)
Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,
I saw a cartoon.
There’s a dignified lawyer, reading from a will,
and all the greedy relatives are gathered around,
and they’re all ears, they’re focused,
and they just can’t wait to hear how much money was left to them in this will.
So the lawyer starts reading,
I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!
Well when Jesus wrote his last will and testament for his church, in other words for you and me,
he didn’t spend it all, he paid it all.
He paid for our salvation, and then gave us an inheritance of spiritual riches that is beyond what we could imagine.
You see,
Jesus wrote us into his will,
but a will doesn’t take effect till the person that wrote it dies,
so then Jesus went to the cross and died for us,
so that the will took effect.
Then he rose again and the Bible says that now
he acts like our advocate or our lawyer in heaven, to make sure that the terms of the will are followed and we get our inheritance.
Matt 25:34
"Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
What is our inheritance?
the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
We’re going to inherit the kingdom.
That’s real riches.
There’s 2 more blessings that Paul lists.
C. TWO BLESSINGS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT
HE “SEALED” US
Verse 13
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,
What does a seal mean?
When you decide to sell your car to somebody
how do you go about making it legal?
Well, you take the title,
you turn it over on the back,
and you put your signature on it,
and sign it over to the person who bought the car.
But you can’t just sign it, its got to be notarized,
by a notory public.
What does a notary do after they watch you sign it?
They put their seal on it.
They’ve got this metal stamp gizmo
that puts the official seal of the state of Ohio on that document.
That seal means several things.
First, it means the transaction is finished.
The Notary waits until the transaction is done,
and only then puts the seal on it.
When its sealed, its legally complete.
2nd, it means its authentic.
When the notary seals it, it means
that’s a real signature on there, not a forgery.
When we become a believer, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us,
and the Bible says that’s like an official seal.
First it means,
it’s a finished transaction – Its like the new believer has been bought by God, he or she is part of God’s family now.
It’s a finished transaction, its sealed.
2nd, if you see evidence of the Holy Spirit working is somebody’s life,
that shows that the believer is genuine, its authentic, it’s the real thing.
They’re not just saying they’re a Christian,
its real.
A lot of people say, sure, I’m a Christian,
but it doesn’t mean a thing.
But if you’ve got the seal,
if the Holy Spirit is in your life,
then it’s the real deal.
That’s why Paul says,
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit
The 2nd blessing from the Holy Spirit is
HE GAVE US A DOWNPAYMENT
Verse 14
….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.
Depending on your Bible translation,
it uses the word downpayment,
or deposit,
or in the KJV, earnest, which is where we get the term earnest money.
But they all mean downpayment.
What kind of downpayment is this?
20 years ago, I decided to ask Kathy to marry me.
The first thing I did is I got an engagement ring.
When I offered her that ring, I was essentially saying, Here’s a ring as my pledge of commitment to you,
as a sort of downpayment on what’s to come.
When I became a believer, God sent His Holy Spirit to live in my heart.
The Spirit is the Father’s way of saying to me, "I give My Spirit to you as a sign of My promises. It’s a downpayment on what is to come.
Now, an engagement ring is not the wedding ring.
The engagement ring is a promise of a wedding ring to come.
In the same way,
The Holy Spirit living in me is not all of my inheritance.
Its just the downpayment,
on the "inheritance" that’ll be mine someday.
But here’s the key ---
if the Holy Spirit is present in my life, then I know for sure that I will get the inheritance one day.
Paul says it’s a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
Now those are the 9 blessings Paul lists.
I want to finish up by looking quickly at
what do those blessings mean
to you and me today.
Lets start with the blessings from the Father.
Because of the Father’s Blessings, I can LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND
Because we’re chosen
adopted,
accepted,
we can leave our past behind.
Did you ever see the play or the movie,
Annie?
Poor little Orphan Annie.
She and her friends in the orphanage sing about living a “hard-knock” life.
All the hard chores,
the abuse, and the neglect,
all on top of the hurt that came to these girls from being abandoned in the first place.
They sing, it’s a hard knock life.
Life is miserable, its not a lot of fun.
But if you’ve seen the movie,
you know that there’s a happy ending.
Toward the end of the show,
Annie finds out that her own parents are dead,
but that someone else has chosen her.
Billionaire Oliver Warbucks wants to adopt her.
And when Annie hears that,
she couldn’t be more excited.
Why?
First, she gets to leave the hard knock life behind.
2nd she will live in a new family with incredible riches.
3rd and most important, she was chosen by someone,
someone who loves her,
and wants her enough
to adopt her into his own family.
She celebrates at the end by singing a duet with Daddy Warbucks,
called "I Don’t Need Anything But You."
Annie sings: "Yesterday was plain awful"
Warbucks: "You can say that again"
Annie: "Yesterday was plain awful"
Both: "But that’s not now, that’s then"
God is well aware that some of our yesterdays are just plain awful.
But we get to leave that hard-knock life behind.
Because of the Father’s blessings,
Because the Father has chosen us,
adopted us,
and accepted us,
we don’t have to remain stuck in the past,
we can leave the past behind.
But that’s not all.
Because of the Son’s Blessings, I can REJOICE IN THE PRESENT
Remember the 4 blessings from the Son?
Jesus redeemed us,
forgave us,
shared God’s will with us,
and gave us an inheritance.
What does that mean for us today?
Back to orphan Annie:
we all have times where life still seems hard-knock…
Whether or not we’re believers,
whether or not we live by faith,
stuff still happens.
Family members get sick,
or live with pain,
or die.
Terrorists make our lives fearful.
Crime in our neighborhood makes us insecure.
Bad habits just won’t go away.
Bad decisions lead to destroyed relationships.
People hurt us,
and abandon us,
and reject us.
When things aren’t going well,
its very easy to sink right back down to the hard-knock level of life,
where you give up hope of achieving your dreams
and you become discouraged,
or maybe you throw yourself into your career so you don’t have to think about your lousy relationships at home.
But God didn’t intend for us
to continue live like that.
He sent his Son to bring us to another level of life.
He calls it abundant life. Jesus said, (John 10:10) NAS
I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.
Jesus also gave us everything we need
so we can live that abundant life.
You see,
if we’re in God’s family,
everything Jesus has, we have.
Because He has eternal life, we have eternal life.
Because He is righteous, we’ve been declared to be righteous.
Because He is the king who reigns over all, we’ve been established as co-heirs with Him.
Because He is seated at the right hand of God, we will be seated with him in heaven.
Because He is the holy One of God, we’re also considered holy by God.
Because He is blameless, we’re also blameless.
Jesus said,
I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.
So because of the Son’s Blessings, I can REJOICE IN THE PRESENT
Finally,
Because of the Holy Spirit’s Blessings, I can HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE
What are the 2 blessings of the Holy Spirit?
Paul says he’s our seal,
showing that we’re really a part of Gods family,
and he’s our downpayment,
to guarantee our inheritance to come.
Imagine for a minute that you’re Annie,
and you’ve just been adopted by Oliver Warbucks,
but then you realize that
you can’t move out of the orphanage just yet.
You’ve got to keep living in the orphanage for a while
before you can move into your new Daddy’s huge mansion.
That might be a discouraging thought.
But then Oliver Warbucks says,
I’ll tell you what Annie,
now that I’ve adopted you into my family,
I want to be with you so much that
I’m going to move in with you at the orphanage,
until its time to take you home.
That’s what God does.
God comes in the form of the Holy Spirit to live in us as a downpayment,
guaranteeing that we’re really going to live with him in that mansion,
guaranteeing our inheritance that’ll last forever.
So because of what God has done,
I can leave the past behind,
Rejoice in the present,
I can HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE
Lets stand for prayer.
