[8:00 a.m.] Blessed (Ephesians 1:3)

Our scripture reading today is one verse, the third verse in

the book of Ephesians. As with that we're studying

together as a congregation. This verse of just a couple

dozen words includes so much it it points to so much that just

in the few minutes we have together we will not be able to

scratch the scratches on the surface.

We will see how good the Lord has been to us in all that He

has done for His people, the covenant blessings that He has

kept himself that Adam and Abraham, David and Moses could

not. The benefits of our salvation in

Christ will be reminded. This is a great opportunity to

see in just a few words the majesty and love of Jesus in

your life and in mine. And since it's only one verse,

let's read it together, shall we?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has

blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places. This is the word of the Lord,

Amen. Please be seated.

Pray with me, will you? Oh Holy Spirit, we thank you for

Your humble, kind, gentle ministry of teaching us this

morning. And we thank You that whatever

You have for Your people, you will bring it to us for the

glory of Your holy Name and for our transformation from one

state of glory into another, according to all that you have

planned before the world began. And so this day, Lord, we stand

in you and give you thanks for all of your blessings in your

holy Name. Amen.

I don't know if you can see it or not, but the light on the

pedal board on the organ is flashing and I hope it's not

distracting. I do feel like the service,

though, kind of needs one of those disclaimers.

This service will include strobe effects for those.

So sorry about that. You know, attending a worship

service is one thing, but living a life of worship is an entirely

different endeavour. You know, we can show up in this

room, attend the service, have fun in our fellowship, but when

we leave and life presses down on us with its continuing whack

a mole complexities and and perplexities, it's a different

ball game. You know, even attending a

worship service reveals our need for Christ, doesn't it?

We we say the words, but we criticize the liturgy.

We sing the songs. What?

We judge the music based on our preferences and prejudices.

We listen to the sermon but wish it would be so much more

engaging. When Mark introduced Ephesians

to us a couple weeks ago, he said that we're going to improve

the eyes of our hearts, the spiritual eyes of our hearts, so

that we will begin to see the riches of our salvation in

Christ with more clarity, with more immediacy, and with more

relevance. And so this verse that we have

before us today starts our worship.

Blessed be the God. It keynotes.

It actually keynotes a run on sentence in the original

manuscript. It's one sentence from verse 3

all the way to the end of verse 14.

And this is the keynote of this beautiful, grand, eloquent, and

powerful list of the riches we have in Christ Jesus.

And the purpose of a keynote, as you know, is to set the tone and

the theme. It's to establish the vision of

what's to come, to unite us as listeners, and to give us

context. So that's why it's worth

spending a whole day on this one verse.

It's such a powerful keynote because it's setting the agenda

of our heart for what we are about to read next week.

A heart of worship. It's emotionally influencing us

before we start to review the doctrines that we so well know

in our age and time. And it sparks our imagination by

the repetition of the Word blessed by Speaking of Christ

and His blessings not only here but also in heaven.

It impacts the congregation. And so this keynote tells us to

bless the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the only true God,

not the one of many gods in the Mediterranean world.

When Paul is writing where the pantheon of deities from Babylon

and Persia and Greece and Rome are flourishing in their own

houses of worship. This is very foreign to our

culture where we have churches on many corners, but in Ephesus

there were temples to deities also on many corners.

Ephesus was the crossroad of culture and commerce and

religion. It was in between Jerusalem and

Rome. You know, if you think of

Jerusalem like New York City and Rome as Seattle, and then in the

middle you kind of smash up Denver and Dallas and you've got

this huge metropolis between those two points.

That's Ephesus. In between Jerusalem and Rome,

the great city of Ephesus. And just as we might consider

Jerusalem as the home to three of the world's religions,

Ephesus was the home to one of the most important of all of the

Greek goddesses. Her name was Artemis.

Her name, Her Roman name was Diana.

And Artemis was born to Zeus and Leto, along with her twin sister

Apollo, on the island of Dallas, about 120 miles West of Ephesus.

The difference, though, between this and Jesus is that Jesus

really was born in Bethlehem and really lived and died and rose

again. But the Ephesians loved

believing that Artemis was real. Her temple in Ephesus was four

times larger than the Parthenon in Athens.

It was considered this one of the seven wonders of the world.

It had a storied history before Jesus was born and long after.

The reason why this is so important is because Paul is

writing against this backdrop. The businesses and Ephesus

became rich and profitable by the sales of wood and metal

figures of Artemis herself. Now, if you were to travel to

Ephesus today, you could still purchase your choice of an

Artemis action figure or bobblehead.

But Paul spent three years in Ephesus and he started teaching

in the synagogues for about 3 months, and then he rented A

lecture hall and he had a prosperous teaching ministry

about Messiah in Ephesus for about 3 years.

It was so profitable. I'm so effective, I mean, and so

blessed by the Lord, that the prophets of the silversmiths

began to be compromised, for people began believing in Jesus

and the sales of these modelled idols began to decrease.

Eventually the tide turned against Paul and what began as a

thriving teaching ministry in one of the most important 1st

century churches cities turned into a battle against the idols

that made Ephesus a signature religious cult and the

silversmiths Rand Paul out similar events in Paul's life in

Colossi and Philippi. And eventually Paul was

arrested. And this letter that we are

looking at right now, that this mail of Paul's that we opened to

read was written from prison, not sure where, somewhere

between Ephesus and Rome, probably in Ephesus.

And he writes this letter, and he writes Philippians, and he

writes Colossians, and he writes Philemon while under house

arrest. We commonly call them the

captivity letters. And he keynotes this letter with

worship. While he's in prison.

He's writing this doxological statement to grab our hearts, to

tell us about the blessings we have in Jesus Christ.

You see, because it's easy to attend a worship service, but

it's an entirely different calling to live a life of

worship, to write about the glories of Christ while in

prison. So let's pick up our verse

again. All right, let's take a look at

it. Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ. And here Paul is moving

thousands of years past Israel's Shema.

Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God.

The Lord is 1 and now he's saying this very same God is the

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is from the pen of the same

person who was committed to silencing by imprisonment and

death anyone who followed Jesus. And now he's the first

missionary to the Gentiles, calling us to worship the second

person of the Godhead. And he uses bless a second time.

Look at the verse again. Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ.

Now the word in the original text for blessed is eulogia.

It's the root from where we get the word eulogy.

It's a piece of writing to praise someone, to honor

someone, to bless someone publicly, and to speak of how

they have blessed us. And he uses this word eulogia 3

times in this verse. Look at it again.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has

blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places. So brothers and sisters, this

begs some questions. If we are so spiritually rich in

Christ, why are we so selfish? If He has forgiven us so freely,

why are we so slow to forgive others?

If His grace extends to the worst of the worst, including

the author of this letter and you and me, why do we judge

others so quickly who are different from ourselves?

If He gave his life and died a violent death to reconcile you

and me to our Father, why are we so stone heartedly cold to

reconcile our own broken relationships?

If Jesus lavished His abundant grace on us with an unbounded

generosity, why are we so stingy in blessing others whose lives

are much harder than ours? It's one thing to attend a

worship service. It's an entirely different

calling to live a life of worship.

So Paul is reminding us that our worth and our power for godly

living rest not in our performance, but in our covenant

union with Christ, so that we trust and worship and live out

our heaven realities. Now when we worship as God's

people on Sunday morning, we remember and rehearse our

identity in Christ, confession, the sacraments, the preaching of

the Word, prayer, study and fellowship.

And then we are sent. We're sent out to live

courageously and lovingly in the world as those who are

spiritually blessed, serving, resisting sin, and testifying to

the Lord's love and grace and mercy.

We do this because we have already in possession of these

blessings. While we're slogging through

life, we still have all of the access to the spiritual

blessings in Christ. It's like that depression era

sheep herder in West TX. His name was Ira Yates.

He can barely make it living day-to-day, taking care of the

sheep that needed to be shorn or rescued because they happened to

fall on their back and couldn't get up on their own, or they

needed to be healed or bound in some form or fashion.

And one day the petroleum company comes in and says, Mr.

Yates, we would like to extract natural resources from your

property. He instantly became a wealthy

man and never had another financial worry for the rest of

his life. He was in possession of that

wealth his entire life. He was always standing right on

top of it. And so our verse has these three

prepositions that tell us how we identify these blessings that we

present possess. First, in Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has

blessed us in Christ, which means we are no longer in Adam

for blessings, we might remind ourselves Christ's incarnation,

the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are eternal and we live for

Christ. Our election as part of God's

people, which Paul's going to talk about in a few words later,

was forged not only in eternity past but represented in the

incarnation. We are in Christ by the gift of

the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus.

How does Jesus teach us? How does Jesus nudge us,

influence us, mold us, shape us, comfort us?

How does he counsel us, mature us?

By the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, His Word worship in

His church. We are in Christ because the

Holy Spirit is revealing the ministry of Christ to us moment

by moment. Galatians 2 says I have been

crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but

Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

Himself for me. In Christ we are also eternal.

He chose His people before the foundation of the world.

In the mind of the Trinity. We were predestined in His love

to be brought from the family of Adam, to become a member of the

family of God's people in Christ.

Our redemption was purchased by Christ's sacrifice, planned

before the dawn of time for His people.

We are in Christ, which was purposed in the heart of God

before the foundations of the world were laid.

And if we are in Christ and His death, we are in Christ and His

resurrection. Since we have been united with

Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

Paul writes to the Romans this we know that our old sinful

selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose

its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin,

for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of

sin. And since we died with Christ,

we know we will also live with him.

We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead

and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power

over him. When he died, He died once to

break the power of sin, but now that he lives, he lives for the

glory of God. So you also should consider

yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God

through Christ Jesus. Romans 6 by the way, when we get

to the word you in Ephesians, in English, we have one word for

you. It's you, singular or plural.

And and we, we determined by the context.

But in the Greek language there's 2 words for you, a

singular you and a plural you. And as we start to work our way

through the verses in Ephesians, we will see we and us and we and

us and we and us. And then we get to you and it's

the plural. And when you read Ephesians in

this part of the country, you always want to read it as y'all.

It's the plural. Yes, it's you.

But isn't it beautiful that God chose a people for himself

before the foundation of the world?

It's not about us, it's about God's people.

It's about him always having a people.

It's about Him being our God and we are His people.

Less about this American individualism that every word in

the Scripture is just really all about me.

These are the riches of the spiritual blessings we have in

Christ. The second prepositional phrase

with every spiritual blessing. There's not enough time to talk

about these. Let's pick some, shall we?

Let's talk about how Jesus Christ was able to keep a few of

the covenant blessings promised to God's people.

The covenant blessings with Adam.

If the covenant were kept, eternal life would continue.

We would remain securely in paradise.

We would dwell in God's presence.

In Adam, the covenant was broken.

In Christ, the covenant was kept.

He secured our eternal life in eternity where we will dwell in

the presence of God. What about Abraham?

Also included paradise, a people, God's presence.

But the covenant was not kept because of Abraham's unbelief,

brokenness, and weakness. But Christ remains faithful even

in physical death, and we are his people.

He is our promised land, and by the Holy Spirit we have God's

presence, Moses and Israel. Promise was not kept, but in

Christ's perfect obedience came the blessings of eternal life, a

family of God's making Jesus our promised land.

And not a cloud over the Tabernacle, but the indwelling

Holy Spirit in each one of us. What about David?

The king over all of the nations ended with David's bones drying

up in a grave. But Christ, the King of kings,

the Holy One, anointed over all the nations.

His bones did not see decay, but after three days came to life

and ascended into heaven, where for the first time in history a

human being, all God and all man, is at the helm of the

universe. What about these blessings,

Justification for our sake? He made him to be sin who knew

no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

What about adoption? Those of us who long to be in an

intimate family where we're not judged but accepted, He

predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,

according to the good pleasure of His will.

What about our sanctification? So Jesus also suffered outside

the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own

blood. What about our eternal security?

Are we really going to heaven? Blessed is the one who

perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that

person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised

to those who love him. No one can pluck his people out

of his hand. These are just a few of our

spiritual blessings in Christ, heavenly blessings that we now

already possess. But there's more.

Our last prepositional phrase in the heavenly places.

Those who have gone before us, now fully living in the radiance

of Jesus presence. Understanding everything.

I'm so trying to explain feebly. They live and breathe and

experience it in Christ. We already have all these

spiritual blessings, but there's more to come.

The consummation of all things is not yet, which is why we call

it already slash not yet. For we have been justified and

adopted and sanctified, and we will persevere, but we will also

be glorified. Who doesn't want to live with

God forever? And those who are in Christ

will. He goes to prepare a place for

you and me. And this is true because He said

it, and it's true because He said it's true.

Otherwise He would not have said it.

And those who have gone before us live that entire verse and

live this verse that we're Speaking of today.

They had every spiritual blessing like you and I have in

Christ and now they experience every spiritual blessing with

Christ. We are in the already not yet in

Christ. They are fully in the presence

of God. No wonder Paul can't help

himself by penning a doxology of praise before he starts talking

about all of these blessings that we have in our

glorification. When Christ returns, they will

be with him. It's like Jesus says to his

Father, I can't go back without them.

They are mine. They are in me and with me.

They belong to me. They are my beloved sons and

daughters, Princess and princesses, vice regions and

royalty with me. If I go back, I must take them

with me. And He will, when he returns,

they will be with him. And if we're still here, we will

join them very quickly. And in the procession of the

king, once again, heaven and earth will be brought together.

I'll close with this. You know, a worship service is a

little bit like heaven and earth being brought closer together.

Like when we live a life of worship, when we offer our lives

and surrender our stubborn wills, when we live self

sacrificially to bless the Lord and to others for His glory and

His glory alone. It's like helping heaven and

earth touch again, like our worship service does every hour

on Sunday morning. Heaven and earth touch a little

bit more. And so Paul says, blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his covenant love

and grace enables us to not merely attend a worship service,

but by the power of the Holy Spirit transforms and

strengthens us to live every day as a continual sacrifice of

worship to Him in Christ with every spiritual blessings that

we have already and not yet. Lord Jesus, we thank you for

your Holy Spirit driving these things deeper within our hearts

and within our understanding. And may these words not go by as

another box that's been checked this week, but may we linger in

this time of worship. Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every,

every, every spiritual blessing. Already and not yet.

We so long for that time when we will see this fully and clearly

and be with you. Lord Jesus, thank you for being

with us today. By the power of Your Holy

Spirit, we commit the rest of our worship to You in Your holy

name. Amen.