Battle Ready: "Chosen for His Purpose": Ephesians 1:11-12 Pastor Daniel Reese

Three weeks ago we embarked on a spiritual journey, right? A spiritual basic training, which is taking us through the training manual, the Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus.

One of the things that I have encouraged us to do as part of our spiritual basic training is to work on memorizing the entire book of Ephesians as I mentioned earlier.

So we've approached that challenging goal the same way one approaches eating an elephant, one bite at a time. So we've bitten off some bite-sized pieces of that goal versus one through ten.

Now, when I challenged us to memorize the book of Ephesians, I knew that not all of us would even make an attempt to do that.

But I think that it's important to set some goals that are going to challenge us. Even if we don't reach those goals, our efforts will get us to a place we never would have reached if we hadn't at least given a little bit of effort.

I really like what Michelangelo wrote about aiming high. He says, the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it's too low and we reach it.

Or perhaps maybe you can relate more to the words of the great philosopher, Yogi Berra. You've got to be careful if you don't know where you're going because you might not get there.

I'm convinced that scripture memory is one of the most important spiritual disciplines that you can make part of your life.

And I'm not alone in that opinion. Here's what Chuck Swindall wrote. He wrote, I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking than memorizing scripture.

No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends. Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective.

Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified.

So even if you haven't started memorizing Ephesians yet, I want to encourage you to start now. I know there might be a lot of reasons why many of you haven't even made the effort.

Maybe a whole book is just more than you can bite off. It may very well be the case with many of us, including me, before we get to the end of the book, that this was a little much.

But I do know this. I have memorized 10 verses of the Bible, of God's word, 10 verses I didn't know at the beginning of the year.

So why not just start now and see how far you can get? Or if you can't memorize the whole book, maybe for whatever reason, at least pick out a few key passages from each chapter to memorize.

Or at least memorize one sentence, Ephesians 1, 3 through 14, that's one sentence, long sentence in the Bible.

That sentence contains a ton of spiritual riches, including almost every key doctrine of the Bible.

So now that we've started talking about spiritual scripture memory, let's look at verses 11 through 12.

We have your Bible Ephesians 1.

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 the praise of his glory.

When I first began to work on my so-called book report, they call this,

my first impression was that Paul was pretty much saying the exact same thing he said already in verses 4 and 5.

In verse 4 he says,

Now it certainly wouldn't be the first time in Paul's writings or even in the entire Bible that repetition is used to create emphasis.

And the doctrines of election and the doctrines of predestination, as we've already seen, would certainly be important enough to warrant additional emphasis.

But in looking at this passage more closely, I believe Paul has something else in mind for us here.

The first observation that leads me to that conclusion is that the word chosen there in verse 11 is a different Greek word than the one that's translated chosen back in verse 4.

We'll look at that more in here just a moment. But even more important to me is that the us in verses 4 through 5 appears to refer to a different group of people than its reference in 11 and 12 when he says we.

In fact you'll notice that Paul gives us a further definition of who comprises the we in these verses.

He further identifies this group of people as we who were the first to hope in Christ.

Now although we're not going to look at verse 13 until next week, we need to take a brief look at it as part of this verse this morning because it will help us identify the we in verses 11 and 12.

And so 113 starts off in him, you also.

So there's very clearly a contrast between the we in verses 11 and 12 and the you in verses 13.

So as we continue to go through the book of Ephesians in coming weeks, the identification of the we and the you is going to become even more apparent than it is right now.

We can pretty get some pretty good clues this morning as to who compromises both of these groups.

So you have to remember that Paul is writing to a group of is writing to the church in Ephesus that consists primarily of Gentile Christians.

Okay, and then Paul and the other apostles are all Jewish Christians.

And certainly there are ones who at first they were the ones who had first believed in Christ and thus their hope was in him before the before the orders were brought forth.

And so they had the hope in him and then they were given the challenge to bring the gospel message to Ephesus and the surrounding areas to so these so that these Gentiles had the opportunity to enter into that hope themselves.

So in verse 11.

When Paul writes about being chosen.

He is clearly referring not to all Christians in general, but to those Jewish Christians who had been chosen by God to be used as his instruments to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.

It was God's plan.

And it was God's will that these Jewish Christians would be praise and glory to God by the means being the means by by which the Gentiles were exposed to the good news of Jesus Christ.

So that they had the opportunity to believe in him.

So but then on the other hand of verses four through five, as we've already seen that applies to all believers.

All believers have been chosen.

Every person who is accepted Jesus as the personal Lord and savior has been chosen.

God has drawn them into his family.

He's made them a part of his family.

And he does that through his grace, which he has poured out on us through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A couple of weeks ago when we looked at verses four through five, we learned that every believer is chosen or elected by God.

And it gives God pleasure to bring us into his family.

This morning, we're still chosen by God.

But today we've I've taught it we're chosen for his purpose.

Because in this passage, we learned that when God chooses us to be a part of his family, he also chose us to be a part of carrying out his purposes here on the face of the earth.

After the message a couple of weeks ago, someone asked me a really great question.

It's a question I get asked often.

And the essence of that question was this.

If God has already decided who is going to be saved.

If God has already decided who's going to be elected.

If he's already decided who's going to be brought into his kingdom, then why should I pray for unbelievers?

Why should I pray share my faith with others?

Now that's a really great question.

The person that asked that question was really listening and really thinking about what I shared in that message.

And frankly, it's probably a question many of us have been wondering about.

But the good news is the passage that we're in this morning that we're looking at helps us greatly in trying to answer that question.

There's at least three reasons we find here in this passage.

And then the rest of the scriptures that we we are to pray for and share our faith with others.

The first one is it is God's plan.

It's God's plan.

The word translated chosen in verse 11 carries the idea that Paul and the other apostles had been claimed by God as his portion or inheritance.

So taken together with the rest of the verse in the context of this passage, Paul makes it clear that he and the other apostles had been chosen by God as part of a larger overall plan.

And that plan was that those men, those Jewish Christians who were the first to hope in Christ would be the means by which God would spread the gospel to the elect so that they could respond to that message through faith and then be a part of God's family.

Now, it really shouldn't surprise us because from cover to cover, the Bible is clear that God chose the Jews.

It's his chosen people and he chose them to be the means in which you would bless all the peoples of the earth.

And here's what he says in Genesis 12 verse 2.

Genesis 12:2

He says, And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So we said a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about Abraham, God didn't choose Abraham.

He didn't choose the nation of Israel because they deserved it.

He didn't choose Abraham or Israel because they were more talented or more wealthy or more righteous or holy than all the other people around them.

But God chose them because they were part of his plan to redeem people to himself.

Notice that even back in Genesis, even back in the beginning, it was God's plan to use Abraham and his descendants to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

And that was the plan that was carried out by Paul.

It was the plan that was carried out by the other apostles and other Jewish believers there in Ephesus and in the surrounding area.

Jesus confirmed this plan of God as he spoke to the disciples as they walked through the vineyard the night before his death on the cross.

And John 15.16. He says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

What was the fruit that they were to bear?

Taking the gospel to others so that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ and become a part of God's family.

That's the fruit.

Because God is sovereign, he not only chooses those who will become part of his family, he also chooses the means and the methods or the plan by which people are redeemed and made fit to have a personal relationship with him.

And as I've said before, God could have chosen any plan he wanted to.

He could have chosen any means he wanted to.

But in his infinite wisdom, he made the death and resurrection of his son to be the means of our redemption.

And in order for people to be able to place their faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross, God's plan is that his followers share the gospel message with the rest of the unbelieving world.

When Paul and his companions had gone to Ephesus, that responsibility was theirs.

They had that weight on their shoulders.

As those who had been the first to place their trust in Jesus, God had called them to share the gospel with others, particularly the Gentiles in Ephesus.

And what Paul is implying here, and he will make even clear later in this letter, is that responsibility is now being passed on to the Gentile believers in Ephesus.

And as the beneficiaries of those who have passed the gospel message on to generation after generation over the past 2,000 years, that responsibility is now ours.

It's yours and mine.

So the first reason we share the gospel and pray with others is that it is God's plan.

In a sense, it seems illogical to us.

If God had already decided before the creation of the world who would become part of his family, then what difference does it make if I share my faith?

What difference does it make if I pray or not?

In Romans 7 through 8, Paul confirms the principles of God's election and our redemption through the blood of Jesus.

When he gets to Romans 10, he very clearly writes about our responsibility.

In Romans 10, 14, he says, how then will they call on him and whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Later on in verse 17, he says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ.

So even though God is God in his sovereignty, chooses whomever he wishes, it is God's plan that those in whom he will choose will come to have faith in him as we share the gospel message, as we pray for them.

In fact, praying for others, praying for their salvation, praying for their needs is probably the best way that we can even acknowledge the sovereignty of God in the process of salvation.

Because he's the one that does the work.

Since only God can be the one to change hearts and draw people into himself, prayer is an essential element in sharing the gospel with others.

There's a second reason that we pray and share the good news.

It's God's command. He commands us to do it.

One of the things that has become really apparent as we've embarked on our basic training is that because God is God, there are just some things that are just too far out of our understanding.

We just can't wrap our minds around it.

We've seen that we have discussed the relationship between God's election and sovereignty and man's responsibility.

Now, although those two concepts seem contradictory to our human mind, they are both clearly taught in the Scriptures.

Just because we can't figure out how these things go together doesn't mean they aren't both true.

It just means that we aren't God.

Thank goodness I'm not.

But it's also true that God has chosen to reveal some things very clearly to us.

And when He does that, it is our responsibility. It's your responsibility to obey what God has revealed.

God made that very clear to Moses in Deuteronomy 29.

He says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

In other words, God chooses to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways to us, and we are responsible for being obedient to the instructions and commands that He gives us.

So He reveals Himself, He reveals a command, and then our responsibility kicks in and we have to obey those.

Even though we don't understand all the reasons behind them.

Right? And if you have children, you know this to be true.

If you are a parent and you're raising children, you know this to be true.

When our kids are young, we give them all kinds of commands, right?

Do this, don't do that.

Do this, don't do that. Go here, don't go there.

And if they don't understand why they're to look above ways before they cross the street,

or don't touch the stove because it's hot, or it's really not pleasant for you to be eating your meal with your mouth wide open looking at me, right?

If we don't tell them these things, they might not understand the reasoning behind those commands, but in the meantime, hopefully they will just obey the commands, right?

Paul and the other Jewish apostles shared the gospel messages, not only because they were part of God's plan,

but also God had commanded them to do it.

Right before he ascended into heaven, Jesus shared this familiar command with his followers in Matthew 28.

Verse 18, he says,

That is a command. It's not a suggestion, it's a command.

And that command obviously applies to all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ.

Even those, even though only those of us that have been chosen by God are capable of placing our faith and trust in Jesus,

we are commanded to take the gospel to the entire unbelieving world.

It'd be easier if everybody that was chosen wore a big letter E or something on their shirt, right?

Like, I'm elected. I'm one of the elect. That makes life easier, but that's not how it works.

So we share the message and we pray for all unbelievers and trust in God that he will use us to be a part of his plan

and draw some people to himself.

So rather than discouraging us from obeying God's command to be witnesses for Jesus Christ,

the doctrine of election should be a great encouragement for us.

Dr. Michael Horton noted, without divine election, evangelism would be like a salesman trying to sell his products in a graveyard.

As we'll see later in chapter 2, all mankind is dead in their sin.

All of us, every single one of us.

And we're not capable, you're not capable, I'm not capable of convincing a dead person to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Only God can do that.

Because that takes all kinds of pressure off of us when we're sharing the gospel,

knowing that the results of our conversation, of how we do it, knowing the results of anything we do,

are not the result of our own efforts, but they are the result of God working through us.

The results are totally up to God.

In fact, the doctrine of election practically guarantees it.

In spite of our inacquaticities, in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our stuttering,

in spite of our not having all the right answers, God can still work, right?

It doesn't stop our evangelism efforts.

If we share the gospel and pray for many people, we can pretty well be assured that at least some of those people have been chosen by God

and that God will use us as part of his plan to bring them into his family.

So we share our faith and pray for unbelievers because that is God's plan and it's because God's command,

but it's also because it gives God glory.

This is the second time in this long run-on sentence of Ephesians 1-3-14 that we've seen the phrase,

praise the praise of his glory.

We saw it in verse 6 in the process of pouring out spiritual blessings in our lives.

We see it again here in verse 12 at the end of this section that's focusing on the role of God,

the Son, in that process.

We'll see it again next week in verse 14 at the end of the section that focuses on the role of the Holy Spirit in that process.

The third reason that we share our faith and we pray for unbelievers is that because when we do those things,

God gets the glory.

You don't get the glory.

God gets the glory.

You'll remember earlier that we looked at a verse in John 15 where Jesus told his disciples that he had chosen them to bear fruit.

He had chosen them to share their faith with others.

In that same discourse, Jesus also said to his followers in John 15-8,

by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

So since salvation is 100% based on the sovereignty of God,

when I share my faith with others and I pray for them and they come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

it is God, not me, that should get the glory.

I don't get the glory.

It's all God in sporting events, baseball, basketball, football, whatever.

There's some sort of official on site to make sure people are following the rules.

They sometimes have black and white stripes, sometimes they're whatever.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

Referees, officials, whatever.

I learned this from the First Service because in the First Service nobody comes to watch the referee.

Apparently that's not true because your family comes to watch ref games, whatever.

But for the most part, none of us are buying tickets to a sporting event or turning on the TV based on who's refing that game.

I don't think we do that.

So the spectators, the fans, the watchers are there to see the players compete against each other.

In fact, the best officiated games and matches are those in which nobody remembers the referees after the game.

Probably the best compliment a referee can get after a game would be,

it's almost as if you weren't even on the court.

That's how it should be when it comes to sharing our faith with others.

Because God planned it that way, we are an essential part of the process of someone coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

But when that happens, it is God who should receive the glory.

It's as if you're not even there.

In other words, we don't want people to remember us.

We don't want people to remember how eloquent we were, how we answered all the questions.

But we want them to remember the great and awesome God who has given us the opportunity and the privilege of being involved in the process.

We live in a culture today that is obsessed with statistics.

We measure the ability of our athletes with batting averages and shooting percentages.

We measure our politicians by poll numbers.

We gauge our economy based on the rate of inflation or how the Dow is doing.

And unfortunately, that obsession has rolled over into the church.

We measure success of a church based on how many people attend, or the size of their budget, or how big their building is, or how many people they baptized last year.

And while some of those measures may have some benefit in helping us to see how we might be more effective in being witnesses for Jesus Christ,

the problem is that they are used on the glory or lack of glory of the local church instead of focusing all the glory on God.

For those of you who are believers, this passage of Scripture, Ephesians 1-11-12 should be a great encouragement for you to renew your efforts to pray for others and to share the gospel with them.

You should read this passage and understand, I have as a follower of Jesus, I have a responsibility to make sure I'm praying for those lost people around me, that I'm sharing the gospel with them.

It should also cause you to fall down on your knees and thank God that you get to be a part of His plan and salvation.

For the ability to carry out the command. For the ability to bring glory to Him because of the plan.

And if you're here this morning and you've never made Jesus your Savior, I would encourage you to make that decision today.

Maybe you're here this morning because somebody has been praying for you.

Or maybe you're here this morning because someone has talked to you about what Jesus has done in his life or her life, and you're like, I'd like to have that part of my life.

And God wants to get the glory as you commit your life to Him.

Maybe you have no idea why you're here. You came out of obligation.

You came because you wanted to keep the peace in your home.

You came because you're single and you're on the prowl for a spouse.

I don't know.

It's a great place to meet women, I think.

You might not know the reason you're here.

But I do.

God in His sovereignty is drawing you close to Him.

He's wooing you too.

And you're here today because of God's sovereign plan.

Don't ignore the call.

Don't ignore it.

I'm going to pray for us and we're going to have time to respond and sing one more song.

Here's how I encourage us today.

Challenge us today.

When I think about my life before Christ,

and I think about how He has changed my life over the years,

it makes me wonder if I would even still be alive if it wasn't for Him.

I was making some pretty stupid decisions.

If you think about your life prior to Jesus and now,

what sort of miracles has He done in your life?

Where would you be without Him today?

I think it's important to have that in mind because when we really think about all that God has done for us,

why would we not want to share that with somebody else?

Why would we not want to share that with somebody that's on the verge,

it's at the end of their rope with no hope whatsoever?

Why would we not want to offer that hope to them?

Why would we not want to offer that life-changing reality of who Jesus is?

If it wasn't for Jesus, I can honestly say, I think Saint Louis confirmed that,

our marriage would be over.

That's a miracle.

You put two sinners in a house, particularly one like Sina.

Things don't...

Things could go badly, right?

And so when I see people struggle in marriage, I want to encourage them.

Let me tell you what God has done in us, how He's changed us.

That's sharing our faith.

That's what we're being part of the plan.

So as we sing and as we respond,

we just ask the Lord how He wants to help you be a part of His plan.

We be obedient to do it.

We have a responsibility to a lost and dying world out there to offer them hope and grace.

Let me pray for us.

God, as we close, as we sing,

just as you were faithful in the first service, I pray that you will be faithful now.

Your spirit will just dwell in our midst.

I pray God that you will just speak to our hearts.

I pray that your voice will be heard louder above all the noise in your...

that you will free us from distraction.

I pray for salvation to come to this place.

I pray that you will speak.

So God, I look at this time.

I pray that your spirit will follow us and will hear your voice.

It's called the Savior's name. Amen.