Ephesians 1:3-14 | #Blessed

Well, good morning, Covenant. You can talk back to me. Good morning, Covenant.

So good to see you, and I'm so glad that it is not snowing. Amen?

Don't get me wrong, I love a good snow just as much as the next guy,

but I really don't love canceling two out of our first three services as a church.

And so I'm, you know, especially grateful today the sun is out,

even with the frigid temperatures and lingering snow still on the ground,

and that we were able to be back together for worship.

A couple weeks ago, we kicked off a study in one of Paul's letters that he wrote

to a young church he planted, the letter of Ephesians.

In the opening lines of that letter, we are reminded of our identity in Christ as saints of God,

of our location in the world, but not of the world, and of the divine resources

that God gives to us so that we can walk faithfully in it.

And now today, we're going to pick up right where we left off and continue to

look at chapter 1, And more specifically, we're going to look at verses 3 through 14.

So if you have a Bible, I'm going to invite you to open that with me to Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And if you're not familiar with the Bible, the book of Ephesians is in the New

Testament, the second half of the Bible, and it's a smaller book,

and so there's no shame in using the table of contents in order to find it.

And if you're new to the church, which I guess is technically all of us,

I'm Josh, one of the pastors here, and I invite everyone to participate in this

sort of brief call and response thing following the reading for the sermon.

I know some of us were raised in churches where you don't speak once the pastor

gets up to preach, but I promise you won't spontaneously combust or start speaking

in tongues if you do, okay?

And so after reading the passage, I'll say, this is the word of the Lord,

and you can respond by saying, thanks be to God.

First, let me read the passage.

Beginning in verse 3, 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,

even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ,

according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace,

which He has blessed us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,

according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us,

in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will,

according to His purpose,

which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,

to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in Him.

And in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according

to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will

so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him,

were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance

until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

This is the word of the Lord. Thank you.

I don't know if hashtags are as popular as they once were, but as a millennial,

I still have a soft spot for them.

Every true millennial, they love memes, they love food trucks,

they love watching reruns of home improvement, adding LOL or haha to soften almost every text.

And yes, we love hashtags.

And for a long time, one of the most popular hashtags on social media was hashtag blessed.

You find it under, you know, pictures of beach vacations Or in,

you know, job promotion posts Or maybe, you know, in a caption of a family photo

Where everyone's smiling at the same time And what did it mean?

Well, it basically meant that, you know, things are going well right now Like

stress is low, comfort is high, circumstances are favorable And look,

there's nothing inherently wrong with that After all, we're Christians.

And as Christians, we don't believe in luck or chance or karma,

but we believe that all the good things we receive, they ultimately come from

the providential hand of God, whether that's a healthy family or a job promotion

at work or just simply a sweet season of life.

And so go ahead and slap that hashtag on your next beach photo for the gram.

It's entirely appropriate to see these as blessings and to give God thanks for them.

But here's the thing. When Paul talks about being blessed in Ephesians chapter 1,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

he's not really talking about temporary physical gifts like a sunny day at the

beach or a pay raise at work, but he's pointing to something much deeper and far more profound.

Look again at verse 3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, who has blessed us in Christ, notice, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And so why should Christians bless God? Well, put simply, because God has blessed us.

And the blessings that Paul has in mind are spiritual in nature, not physical.

Now, it's not to say there isn't a physical dimension to them,

for there certainly is, or that God doesn't also give us lesser and temporary

gifts in this life, for he certainly does.

But Paul's main focus here is on the salvific blessings that are ours in Jesus

and that outshine every other gift we could ever receive.

In the following verses, Paul is going to unpack these blessings in greater

detail and show us how every member of the triune God was involved in bringing those blessings to us.

And so in verses 3-6, we are told that we were chosen by the Father.

And then in verses 4 through 12, 7 through 12, we see that we are redeemed by the Son.

And then in verse 13 through 14, we remind that we have been sealed by the Spirit.

And this Trinitarian framework will serve as sort of the macro structure for my message.

But before we kind of zoom in and look at these points in greater depth,

let's be reminded that this is not just information meant to fill our heads

so that we can ace the next theological pop quiz should we ever have one.

But it's truth meant to move our hearts and fuel lives of worship.

In fact, this whole section here is a doxology.

That is, it's a declaration of praise to God for all the great things he has done on our behalf.

And the original Greek, verses 3 through 14, are actually just one long run-on sentence.

Like 12 verses, 202 words with no punctuation or pauses.

We should probably drive all the English teachers crazy and all the grammar Nazis crazy.

And so our English translators insert a few of them for us so that we can kind of make sense of this.

But when Paul originally penned these words, he was so moved by the generosity

and the wisdom and the grace of God that he didn't even stop for punctuation.

He just continues to pile phrase upon phrase and wave after wave of praise.

And Paul isn't content to praise alone, but he invites us to join him.

And so as we survey all that God has planned and accomplished and secured for

us in Jesus, as we contemplate all these spiritual blessings that are ours in

him, I pray that it serves our affections and that it causes our hearts to erupt and worship.

Because these realities deserve more than a hashtag.

They deserve our heartfelt praise. And the first blessing that Paul celebrates

is this. We were chosen by the Father.

Again with me, verse three through six. Blessed be the God and Father,

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

in the heavenly places. What are those blessings?

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,

according to the purpose of his will and to the praise of his glorious grace,

which he has blessed us in the beloved.

And we hear phrases like God chose us or words like predestination.

Some of us squirm, others get way too excited.

We've just been waiting to debate somebody about this.

But, you know, neither response is what Paul was really aiming for here.

You see, these verses were never given so that we could just have ammunition

for a debate, nor were they ever intended to make us feel anxious or uneasy.

But instead, Paul presents God's choosing as a truth meant to reassure our hearts

and bring us to our knees in worship.

And I'm convinced that when this doctrine is rightly understood,

it does not inflate the ego, it does not trouble the conscience,

but it actually humbles us and serves as an unspeakable comfort to the saint.

But it's easy to miss that if we are too fixated on all the many questions this

passage raises but doesn't explicitly address here.

Questions like, how does divine choice work with human culpability?

And what about those who are not chosen? And what does this mean for free will?

And look, these are good questions that are deserving of careful and thoughtful consideration.

And Lord willing, we'll get a chance to discuss all of them after service and

in our community groups and over coffee with the pastor, if you so desire.

But I don't want us to miss the primary thrust of what Paul is saying because

we are so fixated on the peripheral.

And so if I may, I'm gonna ask you to set all the philosophical conundrums aside

for just a moment and try to hear the heart of what Paul is saying.

In verse four, Paul tells us that before we ever chose to follow Jesus, God the Father chose us.

In fact, before the foundation of the world was even laid, or there was even

in us to begin with, God determined to bring us back from the path of sin and

present us in his presence, holy and blameless.

Not because of all the righteous things that we have done, but because he has

cleansed us from our sins and he's clothed us with the righteousness of Christ.

Put simply, if you're a Christian today, know that before you were even born

or had done anything, good or bad, God determined to save you and bring you

back into right relationship with him.

And if that's all Paul had to say, that would be enough to keep us shouting for all eternity.

Like what grace, what amazing grace that is.

But it gets better. For not only are we chosen for salvation,

Paul says that we were predestined for adoption, which almost sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Like I get, you know, my record is cleared and the penalty has been paid through

the work of Christ. and therefore God can excuse me, I can be pardoned,

I can be spared the judgment I rightly deserved.

But God takes it a step further. For God, the righteous judge,

he isn't content to just say, all right, you're forgiven and free to go.

But even more, he looks us right in the eye and he says, you're loved,

you are mine and you are now welcome at my table.

What a blessing that is. In fact, I agree with J.A. Packer who said that adoption

is the highest privilege of the gospel.

The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper and given the family name.

To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for

by God the Father is greater.

Amen? And as adopted sons and daughters, we possess all the rights and privileges

as children of God, like his provision for our daily needs, his protection from

harm, his loving discipline for our good, his tender care and attention.

And unlike many of our earthly fathers who are often too tired or too distracted,

he's never that. He's never too tired, too distracted to listen.

He's never powerless or unsure of what to do because our Father is God.

And notice God's decision to save us and adopt us through Christ was not based

on some foreseen condition in us, but it was, according to Paul,

according to the purpose of his will, God's will, and to the praise of his glorious

grace, which means that nobody convinced God to do this.

Nobody twisted his arms and said, ah, you got to get down there and save that rebellious humanity.

No, he did this of his own accord. He did this because he wanted to,

and this decision was an act of free and sovereign grace.

And in case we forgot, grace is undeserved or better yet, ill-deserved kindness,

which means that God did not look down the course of time and see some meritorious

quality in you or some future action in your life that compelled him to choose you.

But on the contrary, God chose you in spite of who you are and what you would do.

And that's precisely why this leads us to praise him and not ourselves.

But perhaps that does beg the question, if God's choice of us was not based

on anything in us, then what did compel him to do this?

And the answer, I love this, at least in part, is tucked away in that glorious

little phrase there between verse four and verse five, where it says, in love.

In other words, it was the unrestrained and initiating love of God that compelled

him to do this thing. a love that chapter 2 will describe as a great and immeasurable love.

And that's what should be at the forefront of our minds and our conversation

when we talk about the doctrine of election.

Love. It's a doctrine of love.

Don't you see, that doesn't resolve every question about predestination. I get that.

It doesn't maybe help us harmonize necessarily divine responsibility and divine

sovereignty and human responsibility.

But it does clarify, I think, Paul's purpose, which is to reassure the Christian

of God's eternal and electing love for them.

You see, this doctrine was never meant to be a theological club that we use

to batter people into acknowledgement of God's sovereignty.

But as Brian Chappell observes, this message of God's love preceding our failures,

preceding our accomplishments and outlasting our failures was meant to bring

us assurance and confidence, especially in our struggle against sin and in seasons of great difficulty.

For to such saints, to weary saints, to struggling churches,

to ordinary Christians who wonder if God could still love them despite all the

ways that they have failed him, this passage reminds us, no,

God says, I have loved you before the world began. And so don't doubt me now.

We have been blessed because we have been chosen by the Father.

Secondly, we are blessed because we are redeemed by the Son.

It says, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,

according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us,

and all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will,

according to His purpose,

which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,

to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to

the purpose of him who works all things according to counsel of his will,

so that we, who are the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory.

In this section, Paul tells us that it is in him, that it is in Christ,

that we have redemption.

And the Bible, redemption simply means to set free by paying a price.

But in a way, it's a releasing or reclaiming someone or something by paying the ransom.

A couple of years ago, I was invited to a luncheon downtown with some area pastors.

And, you know, there's a lot to love about the city of Richmond,

historic architecture, trendy restaurants.

But there's one thing that I absolutely cannot stand, and that is parking.

And here's why, because A, truth be told, I can't parallel park to save my life.

And B, even if I could, it seems like the nearest spot is always like a mile

away from where I actually want to be.

And so I did my homework and I found out that this church where we'd be meeting

had a lot reserved for their congregation. And I'm like, man, that's great.

I'm from the suburbs, but I can do parking lots. And so I found this reserved

lot that was mentioned on the website, parked the car, walked to my intended

destination where I enjoyed a sandwich and some small talk with other preachers.

But when it was finished and I got back to the lot, much to my dismay, my car was gone.

You see, apparently the lot was only reserved on Sundays and this was not a

Sunday, which meant that my car had been towed.

And so I found the number on the sign, hitched a ride to the in-pound lot where

they were holding, you know, my beater that I didn't want to pay to get back anyways.

And I went in to explain my situation. I said, listen, man, I'm a pastor.

I said, if that would help, you know, man of the cloth here.

And it was an honest mistake. I'm not from around here. I didn't know.

I could only park there on certain days of the week.

And after listening, he basically said, cue story, bro, that'll be 150 bucks.

And so I had to pay to reclaim what was already mine. And in many ways,

this is what Jesus has done for us.

You see, apart from God's divine intervention, the Bible says that we were enslaved.

We were impounded by sin.

We were trapped, unable to set ourselves free or pay our own debt.

But in love, Christ came and sought us. And when he found us, he set us free.

And to be sure, this redemption came at a cost, and a great cost at that.

For there's no amount of money or no measure of human effort that could satisfy

our debt or set us free from our predicament.

This redemption required the sacrificial and substitutionary death of the son,

a cost that we could never afford, but one that he was gladly willing to pay.

And now because of him, Paul says, through his blood, we have redemption.

And this is why Christians talk so much about blood. You ever think that's strange?

That's why we sing about the death of the Messiah, because it's there on that

hill called Calvary that Jesus satisfied our debt and he paid the price for our liberation.

The cross was lifted up so that we might be released.

His blood was poured out so that our sins might be removed. And his death occurred

so those who look to him in faith might be reclaimed.

And this reclamation project is unlimited to individuals.

In verse 10, Paul reminds us that God's grand plan is to unite all things,

things in heaven, things on earth, under one head, who is Christ's.

In other words, God's eternal plan is not simply to reclaim individual souls and get them to heaven.

It's bigger than that. But to reclaim everything and restore the world to its proper order.

Great, not everything is ordered in appropriate submission to Jesus at this

moment. And we are still awaiting the final consummation of that victory.

Yet on this side of the restoration of all things, we live in a fallen world

where sin still exists, where evil still exists, where many people around us

do not pay homage to their appointed king.

But there is coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess

Jesus Christ as Lord and he will rule over all.

And that's not just something we will observe from a distance as mere spectators

in the kingdom. This is something we will have a share in.

The Bible says that we will inherit a new world, fully reclaimed and made new,

restored by Jesus, a world free from sin, a world free from death,

a world free from all the nasty implications of the fall.

And there, on the renewed creation, the same Christ who redeemed us will reign

over all things, and by grace, we will reign with him. It's amazing.

That said, if this is God's plan, and this is where all of history is heading,

how do we ensure that we make it to the end with our faith intact,

and ensure that we actually end up on the real right side of history?

That leads us to the third and final blessing here, for not only are we chosen

by the Father and redeemed by the Son, but we are sealed by the Spirit.

In Him, Paul says, you also, when you heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

And so how does someone become a Christian?

How did you answer that question? Someone posed that to you.

How does someone become a Christian?

From the divine perspective, it's because God did all that was necessary to make it happen, right?

He planned it, he accomplished all that was necessary for it,

and then he draws this to himself, and all that is an act of sheer grace and

according to his eternal plan.

But from a human perspective, it begins with a response.

Someone becomes a Christian when they hear the gospel and believe on Christ.

And Paul, did you notice, he stresses both.

God's sovereign choice and our responsibility to hear and believe.

And so if you have not put your trust in Christ, this is your moment.

Like, hear the good news and believe on Jesus, who lived a righteous life,

who died a sinner's death, who rose in triumph, who's coming to judge the living

and the dead and restore all things again.

For this is the gospel. We must hear and believe.

And I love how Paul describes the gospel here. He calls it the word of truth.

In other words, I'm not asking you to embrace a myth or a nice religious fable

just to make you feel better.

But I'm asking you to embrace the good news of what God has actually done for you in history.

And I'm appealing to you, I'm begging you to abandon the lies that the enemy's

been whispering in your ear that you've been telling yourself and to finally come to the truth.

And by the truth, I'm not just referring to a set of propositions.

I'm talking about a person, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen,

for he is the way and he is the truth.

It's only in him that we can stand holy and blameless before God.

It's only through him that these blessings of salvation can be ours.

And when we believe, Paul says, we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

In the ancient world, a seal was a mark of ownership and authenticity.

So if you own cattle or slaves, they would often be branded as a sign of your

ownership and that they belonged to you.

We do the same thing today in other ways. You might write your last name on

your child's winter coat when they go off to school, because if they're like

my kids, they lose everything.

Or you might write your name and your address on your luggage tag before heading out of town.

It is a way of marking that thing off as your possession.

And this sealing of the Spirit doesn't just mark us off as those who rightly

belong to God, but even more, it ensures that we will reach our intended destination

and receive this glorious future.

In fact, the Holy Spirit is described here as the guarantee of our inheritance

until we acquire possession of it.

And this word for a guarantee here is a business term that was used to describe

a deposit or a down payment.

Think about it this way. When you put an offer on a house, you don't just make

a verbal offer and then hope that the seller will hold it for you,

but you make a good faith deposit.

You put down some earnest money to show that you're serious about this transaction.

Nothing will disrupt the agreement while you finalize the purchase.

In the same way, we put our faith in Christ. God gives us the spirit as a good faith deposit.

As the down payment, it's God's pledge to us that he is serious about his promises

and that our salvation is absolutely secure.

And so if you're wondering, can a Christian lose their salvation?

Paul's answer is clear, by no means.

For everyone who hears and believes the word of truth is promised this inheritance.

And this promise is guaranteed and backed by God himself.

Which means that the security of our salvation does not rest on our fragile

grip to be able to hold on to the Lord, but on the work of the triune God who

is holding tightly to us.

In fact, perhaps the better question is not whether a Christian can lose their

salvation, but whether the triune God can lose a Christian.

That's the question. To borrow the language of Ephesians, can God's eternal

plan be frustrated by us?

Or can the Son's redeeming work be emptied of its power?

Or can the promised Holy Spirit fail to secure what he himself has guaranteed.

And when you put it that way, the answer is obvious. Well, absolutely not.

For the same God who chose us before the ages began and redeemed us with the

blood of his only son has sealed us with the spirit.

And that spirit protects us and it keeps us until we receive the inheritance

that Jesus has won for us.

When you step back and you consider all these divine blessings,

there's only one fitting response, praise.

And perhaps that's why Paul keeps coming back to that similar refrain.

To the praise of his glory. To the praise of his glory.

To the praise of his glorious grace.

Which reminds us that the ultimate purpose of our salvation was the public display of God's glory.

And the only proper response to such glory is worship.

It is praise. Praise to the Father. Praise to the Son. Praise to the Spirit, three in one.

There are many other applications that flow from these truths and many of which

we will get into as we make our way along through the letter,

like how this shapes the way we do life together as a church,

how we love our spouses, how we parent our kids, how we go to work, how we live on mission.

Before we do any of that, Paul insists we begin here with our eyes lifted,

our hearts moved and filled with wonder and gratitude and with our mouths proclaiming

not what we plan to do for God next, but what he has already done for us in Christ.

And look, we never really move on from this even though we will discuss other

things because every act of obedience and every step of faith and everything

that we're called to walk in must flow out of worship, not replace it.

And so may genuine worship and praise be the theme of our lives.

May it be the heartbeat of our families. May it be one of the defining marks of our church.

And may we be a people who continually, despite whatever season we might find ourselves in,

that continually offer praise and honor and glory and blessing to the triune

God who has blessed us beyond measure.

Let me pray. Father, thank you so much for your amazing word and for this reminder

of what you have done in eternity past and in actual history and have promised

to do in the future to save us back from the path of sin and to restore us to

the right relationship with you.

God, I pray that these familiar truths would not be lost on us today,

but that it would stir our affections for Jesus, that it would blow our mind

in a new and fresh way, and that it would cause us to live lives of worship,

for you are truly worthy of it.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray. And all God's people said, amen.