When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, that city had one major claim to fame. It was the site of the enormous temple of Artemis. This was a building known throughout the ancient world, and it was a great draw-card for tourists and pilgrims – it was a real money spinner.
In their temple worship, the Ephesians looked back in history and spoke of a meteorite that fell from the sky and was eventually shaped to form the idol which stood in the temple of Artemis.
Paul, on the other hand, looked back beyond history, into the origins of the universe. And right there at the beginning of time he saw God skilfully and purposefully planning for the coming of the church!
And like any great architect would, God has set our the specific materials he wants to go into his construction.
You see, you and your church matter so much to God that at the beginning of time, he commanded that certain things be done for you. And he did this because you – the church - are his construction, and you’re very special to him.
So what are the building materials God planned for you, his church?
Well first, you are so special to God that he planned one God for you to worship.
1. ONE GOD FOR YOU TO WORSHIP (v3)
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 1:3a CEV)
God is jealous for you – he’s not jealous of you – but he is jealous for you. God is not willing to share you with anyone! Take a moment for that truth to sink in.
What an amazing thing to be loved by God like that!
And it’s been this way right from the beginning. When God gave us the ten commandments he said ...
You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God (Exodus 20:5a NIV).
Jealousy is often depicted in our day as an ugly emotion. But God’s jealousy for you is far from ugly.
You are his. He made you. You are precious to him. And he will pursue you with absolute zeal.
And the colour of God’s jealousy is not green, it’s red. God does not get possessively “green” with envy when you give him second place in your life. God turns “red” with protective anger. He is fiercely defensive of his relationship with you. Like a husband would be for his wife, or a wife for her husband. God is unwilling to share you with anyone.
And God’s jealousy is for your benefit. It is a blessing to be loved by a God who will guard you, and who will not tolerate any waywardness in case you get hurt.
You are so special to God that he has planned one God for you to worship. And he’s done this because it’s the only way you will gain true security and genuine confidence in life.
2. ONE WORLD FOR YOU TO LIVE IN (vv3-4a)
Next Paul says, You are so special to God that he has planned one world for you to live in.
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 (Ephesians 1:3-4a NIV)
The question is, how are you choosing to live in the world God has given you? And there are two ways.
a) The Way of our Society
Society says there is the “Welcome to the real world” way of living in God’s world. This is the dog eat dog world. This is the world where there is no God and you are just an animal and so am I – we’re just one link in the food chain.
Which reminds me, I once saw a sign in the window of a burger joint that said, “You didn’t claw your way to the top of the food chain just to eat Tofu!”
I guess that’s no surprise because this burger joint was in the middle of the most worldly place you could think of – in Beverly Hills where people are just dripping with the trappings of the world.
But this is the first, most basic way we can choose to live in the world God has given us – at an animalistic, material level.
b) The Way of the Spirit.
That’s the way of society. But then there’s the way of the Spirit. You see, Paul says here in Ephesians that ...
God ... has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (1:3)
What he means is simply this ... there is a realm of experience that is quite separate from this world.
It’s like this, our physical world is full of sound waves. You can’t see them, and in fact you could be totally unaware of them until you tuned into them with a radio. In the same way, the natural world is filled with the unseen, unknown world of the heavenlies – the Spiritual world.
And Paul says, that if you belong to Christ, this is the world you live in. The world where you have direct access to all the blessings of heaven – but right here and right now - - today. If you belong to Christ you exist physically here on earth – but spiritually you already have direct access to all the power and resources of heaven that you will ever need for living.
Millions of people – including some Christians – are not enjoying this world of spiritual blessing and empowerment for living, because they are not tuned into God’s wavelength.
But you are so special to God that he has planned one world for you to live in – and no matter where your physical presence may be in this world, if you believe and follow Christ, you have access to all the power of heaven for living.
3. ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN YOU (v6-8a)
The next thing God has commanded to be done for you is outlined in vv6-8. Let’s read them from your outline ...
God was very kind to us because of the Son he dearly loves,and so we should praise God. Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because God was so kind to us (Ephesians 1:6-8a CEV).
What’s being said here is this ... you are so special to God that he has planned one mediator between you and himself.
And this is exactly what we will be celebrating in just a few weeks time at Easter. Paul says, “Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins are now forgiven.”
In 1927, in West Africa, a blood specimen was taken from a native man named Asibi, who was sick with yellow fever. A vaccine was made from the original strain of the virus obtained from this man. In fact, all the vaccine manufactured since 1927 derives from the original strain of virus obtained from this one man.
This vaccine has been carried down to the present day from one laboratory to another around the world, through repeated cultures and by enormous multiplication, it has offered immunity to yellow fever to millions of people in many countries.
The blood of this one man in the West Africa has been made available to serve the whole human race (www.sermoncentral.com).
Likewise, Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means that our sins can now be forgiven (v7).
You matter to God so much that he planned a mediator between you, your sin and a holy, sinless God. His name is Jesus. And because of Jesus you can live differently and you can overcome those sins that you keep repeating.
4. ONE PEOPLE TO BELONG TO (v5)
God also thinks you’re so special that he has planned one people for you to belong to.
Perhaps you saw Australian Story on TV this week. It was about Lizzie Spender – Barry Humphries’ wife. The story goes that one time when she was flying over a friend’s property in the Kimberly they spotted a herd of wild Brumbies. Her friend said, “Pick one and it’s yours” and Spender did just that. She picked one and photographed it from the air. Then she came up with a plan to catch it.
And this was no mean task on a property the size of Tasmania. So over 18 months they pulled together a team from around the world. A chopper pilot, musterers, a horse whisperer (to break it in), and a float driver to transport it.
They even built a brand new road 30 kms long to get the transport vehicles close to where they needed to be. And they built 1.5 kms of hesian covered fencing for the muster yard. All the stops were pulled out to catch this one horse to satisfy Spenders desire to own it.
In the end the horse was never caught and Lizzie Spender had to settle for two other horses from the herd.
Towards the end of the story she explained that she had no children of her own and that the depth of emotion she had for these horses was like that of a mother and her children.
That is quite a mammoth effort to catch one horse and give it a home. It reminded me of the lengths God was prepared to go for me – in order to bring me into his family. And he did the same for you. Verse 5 explains that ...
God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children (Ephesians 1:5)
You see, you’re so special to God that he has planned one people for you to belong to – his people. If you believe and follow Jesus then you are in God’s family – but it’s not because of any choice you made, it’s because he has first chosen you.
So revel in the fact that you are special to God; but as you do I want to encourage you to remember that every other Christian sitting here today is uniquely chosen by God too. There are no misfits in the body of Christ – each one in God’s family are uniquely chosen.
5. ONE MISSION TO COMPLETE (v9-12)
There’s just one more piece to fit in the big picture of God’s plan for you and we see it in vv10-12. Let’s go to the outline and read it ...
He set it all out before us in Christ, a long range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, and everything on planet earth. It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone (Ephesians 1:10-12 MSG)
The point here is this ... You are so special to God that he has planned one mission for you to complete.
God tells us here that his long range goal is to bring everything together under Christ – and God has a part for you to play in that great eternal plan.
First, if you are a Believer, then you are part of God’s “inner circle.” In other words, God has revealed to you the fact that this world that is falling apart – but that it will eventually be brought back together and unified under Christ.
He set it all out before us in Christ, a long range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him (Ephesians 1:10 MSG)
Second, carrying that message to the world is your mission in life. This is why are you alive. And the Lord confirms this in 2 Corinthians 5 ...
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
So now we have a responsibility to see that we as a church and as individuals - that we are living up to God’s purpose for our lives and for our church.
CONCLUSION
In Ephesus, the tourists came and marvelled at the great temple of Artemis. Today it lays in ruins.
But God’s eternal plan is that people will marvel at his construction – the church. It’s God’s plan for people to see his building materials and gaze in awe. To stare in wonder at the one God he has planned for you to worship, the one world he has planned for you to live in the one mediator he has planned between you and himself, the one people he has planned for you to belong to and the one mission he has planned for you to complete.
God’s message to you today is that you have been chosen to be a part of his eternal plan. And that he has done this so that the earth may hear his voice through you, in your personal life and in your church.
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