I want to begin my message with a hate speech – about the Yankees. (elaborate on how they are the Sox nemesis; you admire them because they get the best players; but the responsibility after they have an all-star at every position is for them to play. They have everything they need to win, but they have to play the games.)
Last week, I challenged you - “God has done all He needs to do in order for you to live the victorious life in Christ. Now you have to assume responsibility.” (The Bondage Breaker, Neil Anderson, p. 27). Today, in the same way, I am challenging you again to hear the word and then to take responsibility for it. You have everything you need to live victoriously, now you have to go and do it. Continue growing “in Christ,” which is the theme of Ephesians, and focusing on the truth. May you continue to walk in the truth you hear.
So today we continue in Ephesians 1. Let the truths of each week spread into your life. Walk in these things – last week on your outlines I gave you steps to walk in the truth. And we’ll do that again today. But keep these outlines for your notes and review them. God will continue to speak through His Word to you.
Let’s stand and read Ephesians 1:1-4. PRAY
Now go forward to Eph. 6:20 (DON’T read it yet - on screen). The beginning of Ephesians is a mixture of praise and declaration and blessing. Because of this, some people don’t realize what was happening in Paul’s life when he wrote this book. As we just read, Paul is pretty positive in the opening of Ephesians. He talks about how are blessed – and he spreads the love, spreads the good news. He is Mr. Sweetness - “Good news! We’re blessed!” Ephesians 1 has a feeling of being sweet like candy – almost too sweet if it weren’t so true – and the unsuspecting reader might think that Paul must have been at a high point in his life, his ministry, and in his personal relationships. His writing is almost sappy, definitely syrupy.
Have you ever known someone who made you sick with their sweetness, who never had a bad day, or a bad attitude? Illustration: Tell about traveling with Lori Miranda – bubbly in the morning – makes you sick! She was one of those people who had just a little too much sunshine to spread around?! We grumpy, bitter Christians don’t like super-sugary Christians, and so we are skeptical of this “Be happy, God loves you” message of Ephesians 1 because it sounds so sugary. Throw in some “damnation and condemnation” wording in there somewhere! Imitate Dana Carvey, Grumpy Old Man - “In my day, we didn’t talk about blessing! God said we was all going to hell, and we liked it!”
We don’t admit it out loud, but inwardly we conclude that these blessings are not for us because they just are too good, too unrealistic, and they don’t reflect REALITY! Obviously, Paul was a hyper, happy, easy-living, always victorious Christian who had no worries, never failed, never got depressed, and never had anything to be upset about. Paul must’ve been out of touch with reality to write all that blessing stuff! Even now, some of you are thinking, “There is no way that I can be as blessed by God as Paul says – look at my circumstances.”
Do you know where Paul was when he wrote this letter? In Ephesians 6:20 (read-on screen), Paul reveals, “I am in chains now for preaching this message as God’s ambassador…” This letter is written from prison. Paul is chained to a gruff, smelly security guard. He is under house arrest, waiting to appear before Caesar, and his days are numbered. And why was he in chains? Because he was obeying God, God decided to “bless him” with prison. And his life is drastically affected - he can’t do his life’s work effectively, he is confined, he has lost many friends, and his life is being wasted away. If ANYONE should be mad at God, Paul should be.
Are you mad at God this morning? Do you have a “prison” that you are “bound” in? Are you chained to something you don’t like? Does your living situation stink? Are you frustrated with your lack of success at work? If so, Ephesians is right up your ally – Paul is right there with you – but yet what is Paul doing in verse 3? “How we praise God…” Repeatedly in chapter 1, Paul calls for God to be praised.
• Verse 3 – “How we praise God who has blessed us…”
• Verse 6 – “So we praise God for His wonderful kindness…”
• Verse 12 – “We should praise our glorious God…”
• Verse 14 – “…Praise our glorious God.”
In the first 14 verses alone, Paul calls for God’s praise four times! How could he praise God in these conditions? I’ll tell you why – it has everything to do with Paul perspective. He knew that he was blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Paul wasn’t rooted in the world, he was rooted and grounded in Christ. He understood the limitation of this world and wanted no part of it.
So although imprisoned, Paul blesses and praises God, and he points to the blessings we have in Christ. In verse 3, Paul confidently declares that we are “blessed with every spiritual blessing.” Then in verses 4-11 Paul waxes eloquent with lots of sugar, painting an incredible picture of three specific blessings that capture us and bring us to glorify God just like he does all throughout chapter 1. The three blessings are our focus for the next few weeks:
1. God pursued us in the past – called election.
2. God makes us family in the present – called adoption.
3. God will make us complete in Christ in the future – called unification.
We’ll only look at how God pursued us in the past – a blessing we call election. But I hope by the time we are done, you grasp the love of God for you, and the beauty of this blessing of election. The blessing of election will touch you and me to our very core and motivate us to greater worship and service.
I know that these blessings are too good not to be true, but election is simply amazing.
So lets see what election is. Start in verse four. Paul begins with “Long ago, even before he made the world…” - long before anything at all was made, God was there – this was the eternity before creation. God was completely sufficient and not needing anything. But here in this eternity before creation, God did something. He thought about us, and He thought about us with a purpose in His mind. This purpose included Jesus Christ and us” – it says “God loved us and chose us in Christ…” This choosing of us by God is called election, and it is based on a “match made in heaven.”
Now when Krista and I were dating, we were mushy and lovey-dovey. We were always together, always making eye contact with each other, always telling each other “I love you,” always talking about each other – looking back now I realize people must have just hated to be around us, because if we were together, nothing else mattered! And we would tell people that we were “a match made in heaven” (we were in Bible college and that sounded really spiritual)! We would tell people that God specifically made us for each other! At least that’s what I would say ‘cause I wanted another kiss…!
Christian, get this - before time began, there was a match made in heaven. Almighty God matched up you and Jesus together in His mind! You didn’t exist yet (nothing did!) and yet God determined right then and there to make you His own. He did this because of His love, and He specifically and purposefully chose you, He chose me.
Now there are some arguments as to where the concept of love belongs in this verse, and there are actually three different arguments. But I like the NLT talking about God choosing us in relation to His love. Because election is all about love - we were chosen by God simply and purely out of His love – nothing else. From Ephesians 1:4, I want to point out to you how election reveals to us how much God loves us. The first truth about God’s love that will revolutionize and transform your Christian life is this:
1) MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS IMPORTANT TO HIM.
God chose to have a relationship with me. God chose me! Say that with me – “God chose me.” We were important to Him! I want to praise God right now! Thank you God for thinking me important and choosing me! Take a second a praise God for that!
We were like that puppy at the Humane Society…elaborate. But you know what, Christian? God didn’t need to choose you. There are many people far more eloquent than us, far more compassionate than us, far more holy than us, that He could have chosen for His service. But God, who looks out over all of humanity, knows every skill and every weakness, knows every sin and every act of goodness in every person, and out of all of those choices, He decided to choose you and me.
And notice that Paul wrote “God chose us” - It is not about me being chosen (focused on pride) – it’s about God choosing me (focused on humility). But in love to God and humility, I can say, if you are a Christian, you are God’s chosen, His ELECT!
This concept of election plays against what we’ve always thought though, doesn’t it? We think that WE need to pursue our relationship with God! Christian, you don’t need to pursue God – He has already pursued you, chosen you, and developed a relationship with you. Your relationship with God is more important to Him than it is to you by a long shot – considering all that He did through Christ to establish it. What YOU need to do is let HIM continue to relate to you! Let that sink in! Furthermore, don’t insult God by acting as if you bother Him or are a nuisance or that you annoy Him. He went to GREAT LENGTHS to make you His elect, His chosen. You have the relationship – start honoring God today by LETTING Him take back control of that relationship. Talk to Him, and let Him talk to you… and guide you and love you.
I say with authority and clarity today - God pursues us! See, you didn’t know this before, and so before when you worshiped, you were unenthusiastic; before when you prayed, you were timid and shy; before when you read the Bible you didn’t expect anything – but NOT ANYMORE! Forget that stuff that’s behind! NOW you know that when you come into the presence of God, He says, “MY CHOSEN ONE! I have sought you. I have bought you. Come on in!”
But there’s more. Verse 4, “God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” These two terms are important in the blessing of election. The first term is HOLY. Back in verse 1, Paul addressed this letter to “God’s holy people (saints).” A saint is a sanctified/set-apart one – a holy one. If something is “holy,” it is “set-apart.” Verse 1 and verse 4 use the same word – hagios – holy. You here at The Journey – you are God’s “hagiois” – His holy ones – the saints of God.
This brings out another truth about God’s love that transforms our lives:
2) MY LIFE’S DIRECTION IS IMPORTANT TO GOD.
God made you holy, and holiness is being set apart for God’s use, right? In other words, God chose you from the beginning of time so that He can USE you! God doesn’t just set something apart so it can sit and collect dust. He has a specific plan for your life.
That bothers some of you. In your mind, you are aggravated that God would have plans for your life that contradict yours! I know this because I’ve talked to you. When you tell me a plan, I ask, “Have you asked God about it?” And there is this annoyed look – “God? I don’t want His plan. I don’t want to live in the jungle as a missionary.” The fact is, we don’t TRUST God with our lives. You should go see that missionary movie, Edge of the Spear.
But God made us holy so He could use you and make your life significant. There is not one person in this room for whom God does not have a specific and significant plan for. Your life is important to God, otherwise He wouldn’t have called you “holy.”
There are some things in our lives that we consider “holy.” When I go to do yard work, I don’t wear my favorite jacket or suit. Those things are set apart, not meant for common use. YOU ARE HOLY, NOT MEANT FOR COMMON US. Your life is important to God.
But keep going - God made us “holy” and “WITHOUT FAULT” (blameless). I love this phrase. Paul is making reference the requirements in the OT system for lambs that were sacrificed. Sacrifices to God had to be spotless – no blemishes, without fault. The sacrificial lambs represented Jesus Christ - the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who would be sacrificed for all of us. Peter uses the same word for “without fault/blameless” when talking about Jesus Christ as the spotless, sinless sacrifice in I Peter 1:19.
The fact that God has chosen us to be “without fault/blameless” leads me to one more truth about God’s love for me that will completely transform me:
3) MY PURITY IS IMPORTANT TO GOD.
God considers you right now without blemish, not bearing the effects of sin, carrying no blame because you are “in Christ.” Christ paid for our sin on the cross. If He hadn’t died, we wouldn’t be without fault. But because He did, when we placed our trust in the cross of Christ, God looked at us and said “You are spotless.” It all returns to God making that possible in eternity past through His love.
But what a slap in the face we give to God when we willingly choose to live in sin – when we treat our blamelessness so dishonorably that we sin without so much as the beat of an eyelash. Our purity is important to God – so important He gave us the title of blameless in eternity past and then sent His Son Jesus to make sure that we were blamless before Him.
So election is the first of Paul’s three blessings in chapter one, and it is absolutely incredible. It reveals the love that God had for me and it presents me with some truths about God that absolutely revolutionize my spiritual life.
1) My relationship with God is important to Him.
2) My life’s direction is important to God.
3) My purity is important to God.
But now because we know these truths about election, let me allow you the chance to make some solid commitments to WALK in these truths beginning today. There are three decisions I would ask you to make with these three truths.
Because my relationship with God is important to Him,
1) I will actively start developing that relationship beginning today.
Because my life’s direction is important to God…
2) I will actively follow even the littlest things He tells me to do starting today.
Because my purity is important to God…
3) I will aggressively rid my life of sin and its habits starting today.
