Ephesians: Peace and Security in God’s Pursuit of Us

Now, this morning we're beginning a journey through the book of Ephesians.

Paul writes this letter while he is in Rome in prison.

In Acts 21, we read that Paul brought a Gentile into the Jewish temple, so he broke the rules because only the Jews were allowed into the temple.

So Paul brings in a guy who doesn't have the right lineage.

He's not Jewish.

He doesn't have the right resume.

So you don't get to be near God.

This is sort of like church on a holy mountain.

You know, like if you are good enough and holy enough and get yourself holy enough, then God can really love you.

Get your act together.

And Paul just doesn't believe that anymore.

He doesn't believe that intimacy and relationship with God is for a certain person or lineage or resume.

The main point of the entire letter to the church in Ephesus is what God has done for us in Christ and how we should live in light of it.

The letter is made up of four sections.

The first is our new life in Christ.

The second section, our new community in Christ.

The third section, our new unity and purity in Christ.

And the fourth section, our new relationships in Christ.

Let's begin Ephesians 1, 1 and 2.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So point number one is this the way of grace leads to peace.

The way of grace leads to peace.

Grace and peace was this common ancient greeting.

It was used all the time.

What is different is that Paul adds that little phrase from God and Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now in this letter, Paul uses the word grace 12 times.

He uses the word peace eight times.

Paul wrote 13 New Testament books or letters.

In all 13, Paul uses some greeting of variation of grace and peace.

So why?

Why are these words constantly paired together over and over again?

Last year, last November at Thanksgiving, my sister and I, my sister's three years older.

We went to my mom and we went to her and we said, Mom, you are mature in years.

You're not old, you're not elderly, mature, right, mom?

That's what we say.

She's taught me not to call any of you elderly or seniors, mature, you are maturing in your years.

We said, Mom, you're maturing in your years.

You probably have some bucket list items.

Maybe you've never written them down, maybe you don't even know if you could accomplish them.

We want to say to you, feel free to spend some of our inheritance.

We give you permission, not that you need it, but we're just telling you, spend some, do some of this bucket list stuff.

And if you have a couple places you want to go, we're for you going.

In fact, we're so for you going, we will take you.

So you pay for it, spend our inheritance, but we will go with you.

Good deal for everybody, right?

So last weekend, over Lab Day weekend, my mom and I went to Glacier National Park.

There we are last weekend, and she paid.

She paid for it all.

She paid for the plane ticket, she paid for the cabin, she paid for the meals, she paid for the gas, she paid for all my Huckleberry milkshakes, which is one to two a day when I'm out there.

I didn't pay for anything.

It was just a gift.

I don't have to pay it back.

I'm not waiting of like maybe I might have to pay it back in some way, weird way.

There's no contingency.

It is unconditioned.

I didn't earn it, it was a gift.

That's what a gift is.

It has no conditions, no contingency.

It's unconditioned, it's one way, we could say.

It is a one-way street.

Grace is one-way love of God to us.

Gift, no contingency.

Didn't pay for it, don't have to pay it back.

Grace is the unconditionality of his love for us.

That's why we can have peace.

We have peace because it's unconditioned, because it's not contingent.

At the end of every church service, have you caught on what we say to you?

We say at the end of every we say, go in the grace of Jesus.

You are forgiven and free.

Have a great week, but go in peace.

We can say go in peace because we say go in the grace of Jesus.

You are forgiven and free.

We can declare that and not even mention what you do, what you've done, what you might do.

That's why you can have peace.

Now, maybe you've been in a lot of places that could say something like, go in the grace of Jesus and all the great things you're gonna do and how hard you're gonna work for him.

And then there's always a little bit of like, how at peace am I?

Because how hard am I working?

But grace is one way.

The gift of salvation, relationship with God, that part of a relationship, that's security, no contingency, completely secure in Jesus' sufficiency.

Now, the antithesis of grace is merit or performance.

Perform and you can be loved.

And it's all of the self and it's never enough.

And you're always questioning yourself, it's filled with anxiety.

Am I good enough?

How much am I doing?

Have I paid it back?

How passionate am I for Jesus?

You're always reviewing and scorekeeping.

When I was in high school, I was in the National Honor Society.

Did anybody make their way?

Did they earn the National Honor Society?

Did you get the email?

Did you get the letter?

You were in the National Honor Society.

It's amazing.

What a prestigious club of millions and millions and millions and millions of people.

But I made it into the National Honor Society because of my grades.

And so I was like, oh, this is amazing.

The problem was I think they met once a month, and it met after school.

Well, I had basketball after school.

So I went to the sponsor and said, hey, I'd love to be in the National Honor Society Understanding, incredibly prestigious club of tens and hundreds of millions of people around the world.

But I would love to be in this.

It looked good on my college, you know, applications.

The problem is I got this basketball, and she said, Well, that's gonna be a problem.

So I missed a few meetings, and then she warned me, and then I missed a few more, and then I got kicked out.

Right?

Merit got me in, my grades.

Merit was gonna keep me in.

It was the only thing that was gonna keep me in.

Perform and you can belong.

Now let's think back on my relationship with my mom.

I was born to her.

I did not choose her.

Right?

Children don't choose their parents.

She birthed, there I am, cute little little guy.

I mean, what happened?

I mean, look at that hair.

That is unbelievable hair.

Children do not choose their families, they belong because they were birthed.

They're gifted.

And children are cute.

That little boy had to be that cute.

And your children have to be as cute as they are.

Because they are so needy and so messy, right?

Young parents?

Amen?

You can barely say it.

Only one mom could say it.

The rest of you are you're just like, this hour is gonna be a little nap.

I got free child care, I'm gonna take a little nap.

This morning I went for a walk at 7:30.

I'm walking around Lewis Park right here, and I hear little kids playing.

And there are three little kids playing in a front yard at 7.30 in the morning.

What a nightmare some of you are living through right now as young parents.

There is a reason you're tired, and it is your children.

It is incredibly tiring to have young children.

Some of you have done more this morning than I do all week.

And I'm just saying, as a midlifer, midlifers, you won't always be tired as you are.

You start to get a little bit of energy back as your kids get older.

And these kids gotta be as cute as they are.

They got to because they're so needy.

Children are so needy, but we love them anyways.

Because they're our children.

We just love them because we do, and it is one way.

And we love them when they succeed, and we also love them when they fail.

Because merit is not the basis of the relationship.

Love is.

And love is one way.

We see it in verse 1 to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

So these people are declared saints, they're declared faithful in Christ Jesus.

They are holy because they belong to Jesus and they will go on to learn holy behaviors.

But they don't belong to Jesus because they're already holy.

This is why grace can give peace.

Because the love and the worthiness is not tied to your performance or the lack of your performance.

It's not tied to your triumphs or your failures.

This is why the gospel has power, because it relieves the heart of that self-justification.

And it rebirths a new life that is in grace, that is in a security of position with Jesus and with the Father, that it's already secured, not by your performance, but by his work for you.

Listen to verses 3 through 10.

Listen as you read this, you're gonna hear over and over again in him, in Jesus, in Christ, in him.

It's like Paul's trying to make a point here.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, 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, with 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.

Point number two is this we are secure with God because our relationship is fixed in God's commitment to us, not our commitment to him.

We are secure with God because of our relationship with God, it's fixed on God's pursuit, commitment to us, not our commitment to him.

Now, our commitment to God is important.

It is really important.

But our security, our peace is not based in our commitment to him.

It's rooted in the security, the sufficiency of his commitment to us.

The original Greek of verses 3 all the way through 14 is one long, complex sentence.

It's like a snowball that starts at the top of a mountain and it builds and builds and builds and builds.

And Paul is just lavishing promise after promise after promise in Jesus, in Christ, in him, in Jesus, in Christ.

Now, the phrase that usually jumps out, maybe you caught it.

You're like, Were we gonna talk about it?

We're gonna preach about that.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself.

Predestination is the belief that God chose who would become Christians.

He chose you.

Now, maybe you come from a background that fully embraces predestination.

In fact, you would love an argument about it.

Now, maybe you come from a background that you're resistant to predestination and you just pretend like the word doesn't exist in the Bible.

We're just not gonna pay attention to that one.

I like to start at verse 4b and 6b that state in love.

In love he predestines us.

Did you get to catch that?

In love he predestined us.

So that's the intention.

And that's God's position and attitude toward you.

It's already fixed because it's fixed on Jesus, not on you.

So it's fixed, it's secure.

That's how he feels about you.

But still, did you choose him or did he choose you?

Because I remember praying a prayer at that fundamentalist Baptist church that scared the hell out of me when I was 13.

I remember it.

And it worked.

I gave my life to Jesus.

I really do remember that.

I remember it.

I remember clearly going, like, oh, I am a sinner and I need the forgiveness of Jesus.

And I'm I'm I'm gonna give my life to Jesus.

And I prayed a prayer and I meant it.

I surrendered.

I prayed a prayer.

Now, maybe that's your experience because you come from a conservative evangelical, and maybe you took communion or you took a class, and in that class you committed your life to God and to Jesus.

Now, I don't know your experience, but maybe you remember, like, yeah, no, I have.

Like, I've surrendered my heart to God.

Like, I know I have I have a decision in this.

I gave up, I prayed.

So, like, what is this he chose me?

Like, I don't I don't know what to do with that.

Well, first, if you want resources that talk much more thorough about it than I'm gonna do in the next seven minutes, there's two books that you could read R.

C.

Spruels Chosen by God, and John Piper's Five Points Toward a Deeper Experience of God's grace.

Those could be good resources for you.

Now, two things that have helped me, not incredibly theological, but just kind of metaphors, images, things that have helped me along the way.

The first is the doorway metaphor.

Because we experience giving our life to Jesus like a doorway, and the front of the doorway says, by your surrender, by your decision, by your prayer, you walked an aisle, you did something, you remember this fully as your commitment, your decision.

You remember it as clear as that, like you're like, yes, I know, I know I have.

Or maybe it's been more of a process, you come from a Presbyterian or episcopal background, and they don't have a forced moment, but you're like, no, I've given my life to Jesus.

I've committed, I'm committed.

And you know that as your decision by your surrender.

And so you walk through that door and you're like, that that the experience of giving my life to Jesus is me giving my life to Jesus.

And you walk that, you begin to walk with Jesus.

As you begin to walk with Jesus, every once in a while, you look back at those years and that month and then that week, and maybe that one moment for you.

And the back side of that doorway says, by God's pursuit, by God's grace.

And we begin to understand the very same thing that we understand is our decision as God's grace.

Because our choice and our decision and commitment is inside of his choice and choosing of you.

And that's why you can have peace.

Because if that's not true, and we've been there, we've been in those places, and we say, Have you given your life to Jesus?

And did you mean it?

I mean, I know I know you meant it, I know you I know you prayed a prayer, but did you mean it 100%?

Because if you're at 80%, if you're at 95%, let's do it again, let's give our life to Jesus again.

You've been there, maybe you did it and you prayed again and again and again, right?

I did that, I was the preacher that caused it at times.

Because you look back and you go, like, oh, I gave my life to Jesus, but maybe I wasn't 100%, maybe I was 84%.

The problem with that is it's all about your commitment.

And you may have really meant it.

I don't know how to put a percentage on a decision of surrendering your life.

The Bible says if you have faith like a mustard seed.

So to me, if you look back and you look back at your decision for Christ, and there's like a mustard seed of honesty there, we can just cast our focus and our rest in Jesus' sufficiency for us.

And we don't have to keep scorekeeping it.

We don't have to keep grading it and figuring out the percentage and redo it and redo it.

We can say, I've given my life to Jesus, I don't know exactly, I can't grade it, I don't even have to score keep it because the Bible says faith like a mustard seed.

Was there mustard seed back there?

Yeah, there was mustard seed back there.

And then it becomes about Jesus and it becomes about what he has done for us.

Your decision for Jesus is inside of God's grace for you.

Only by his grace were you able to make the decision.

The very decision, the very prayer, the very walking the aisle or taking the communion, all of that is inside of God's empowering of you to make the decision, which is by his grace.

I was being wooed and loved by God before I even made a decision to follow God.

Second thing that helped me, a little more philosophical.

Did you notice verse four?

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, so he chose you before creation, which means he chose you before time existed, which means he chose you outside of time.

We're getting philosophical.

Second thing that helped me was this book I read years and years ago by an MIT physicist called Einstein's Dreams.

Not a spiritual book, but it's interesting.

Maybe you want to read it, maybe you don't.

30 chapters.

Every chapter is a different concept of time.

We experience time as linear.

That's the way time works for us.

But every chapter, a different way that time operates, a different conception of time.

So one dream might be where a world is circular, and then the next dream might be where the time jumps or overlaps, or where all of a sudden cause and effect don't work the same way.

And it just got me thinking, what if time doesn't exist?

And like I verse four, he chose us before the foundation of the world.

So he chose us outside of time.

God is Alpha and the Mega, He's outside of time, He's eternal.

It doesn't just mean God is forever time, it means God is outside of time.

God is no time.

I don't even know what we're talking about at this point, to be honest.

The book, that book, Einstein's dreams, it just helped me go, like, oh, I'm limited.

I might not ever like really understand some of this stuff.

That's okay.

God and his ways are not bound by time.

I don't have it all worked out.

But I know God was the initiator, and I know he is the sustainer, and I know I'm the receiver, and I know that's why I can live in peace.

The doctrine of predestination or election, it may be a mystery, but it is a blessing of security.

Because if God chose you, then the relationship is not founded or maintained by your commitment to God, but God's commitment to you.

Your commitment's still important, but that is inside of God's commitment to you.

Which is the reason why 11 times at the beginning of this book, that's all about what is Christ to us and how do we live in light of that.

The very beginning is all about Jesus' commitment to us.

11 times in verses 3 through 14, Paul uses the phrase in Christ or in him, in Christ, in him.

And we're going to get to how we should live, but it comes out of this security and sufficiency.

Verses 11 through 14, 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 were 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.

Point number three is this we do not belong to ourselves.

We belong to God.

We first see this in verse five, as he predestined us not to be servants, but to be sons, to be sons and daughters.

He didn't predestine you to be a servant.

He predestined you to be a child.

God chose you not to simply serve him, but to actually be his sons and daughters.

And then verse 13 in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed.

Sealed with the Holy Spirit.

In the ancient times, a wax seal was a way of marking possession.

And Paul's saying, God has stamped you.

He is marked, you are his.

You do not belong to yourself anymore.

You belong to God, which is incredibly relieving.

And it also means that my failures do not threaten the relationship because his love to me is one way in Jesus.

One of my favorite all-time stories is Les Miserables.

You know this because I keep preaching this story.

If you remember the story, there's Valjean, who's the symbol of humility and create and grace, and then there's Javert, the inspector.

And the inspector is a symbol of justice, right and wrong, law.

You have to pay the price of your sins and mistakes.

And at the end of the story, Valjean gives Javert grace.

He could have taken Javert's life and solved a lot of his own problems.

And after Valjean spares the inspector's life, for the second time, the inspector sings this song.

Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief.

Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase.

I am the law, and the law is not mocked.

I'll pity, I'll spit his pity right back in his face.

See, right there, there's a mistake.

He mistakes grace for pity.

Grace is not belittling.

Grace is just love to you.

It doesn't belittle you.

It may humble you, but it does not belittle, but see, he's so prideful he can't receive.

I'll spit his pity right back in his face.

There is nothing on earth that we share.

It is either Valjean or Javert.

He's saying it's either grace or it is law.

He can't figure out how they work together.

And then he kills himself.

He's a crisis of identity.

He can't receive grace.

Now I know that our paychecks and our grades, we're in college application season in our household.

I have a hip flexor issue.

I don't know if y'all have y'all waking up with hip flexor issues yet.

There's something going on.

Everybody midlife is, we're all dealing with hip flexors.

If you're midlife and beyond, you'll get there, young people.

All of that is merit.

All of it is merit.

All of that works on merit.

You doing something and getting a return out of it.

The world, so much of the world, works off of a merit system.

Paul, and this morning I'm saying, our hearts just don't work that way.

Our relationship with God just doesn't work that way.

Your inner self just doesn't work that way.

Peace is found and is only found as we become honest about who we are and we begin to receive love.

That's why toward the end of Les Miserables, Valjean's dying.

And Fontaine, she knew Grace, she's already passed away.

She comes back and she sings to him.

And she sings this come with me where chains will never bind you.

All your grief lost at last behind you.

God in heaven, look down on him in mercy.

And Valjean sings out, Forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory.

And she sings, Take my hand, I'll lead you to salvation.

Take my love, for love is everlasting.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that your commitment to us is not based in our commitment to you.

Your pursuit of us began our pursuit of you.

May our hearts rest all the more in your grace, your one-way love to us so that we can know peace.

Father, we're gonna work our way through the book of Ephesians and learn how we should live for you, but it has to begin here this morning.

In the one way love of God, you to us and Jesus.

May we live all the more enamored of your love for us that we might live for you.

May we live all the more enamored of your love for us, the sufficiency of Jesus, that we might be at peace.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.