ES003. Ephesians 1:3-6
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Many Christians have a problem with the worship of the Trinity because we are very much stuck in a formula of To the Father, Through the Son, By the Holy Spirit. And the formula works for it is the Holy Spirit who enables our prayers and praise to the Son because of the Father and because of the Son to the Father. But Paul's formula set out in this passage, which is about 200 words in the Greek in one long sentence, can be broken down into three sections in a poetic form:
3-6 Praise to the Father
7-12 Praise to the Son
13-14 Praise to the Holy Spirit
v3a
The thing is, we need to know what is most important and that is praise.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
The Apostle insists that we start with God, and with worship. We are not to rush into the presence of God in prayer or in any other respect; we must always start by realising who God is. What would be thought of a person who tried to rush into Buckingham Palace to see the Queen...and refused to consider matters of etiquette?
...But the Apostle insists upon the right and appropriate order; and we must only consider the nature of the blessings after we have worshipped God and praised His Name, and after we have realised what God has done in order that it might be possible for us to be blessed at all
...I can certainly testify after many years of pastoral experience that the people who give me the impression of being most miserable in their spiritual life are those who are always thinking of themselves and their blessings, their moods and states and conditions. The way to be blessed is to look to God; and the more we worship Him the more we shall enjoy His blessings.
The first 3 chapters are one of continual prayer and praise, and this is coming from Paul who, despite writing from prison, was worshipping. There is an old book I recommend called ‘Prison to Praise’ by Merlin Carothers who talks of beating various problems including health issues through praise. When we praise God much of the things we complain about cease.
The Old Testament is full of praise to the God and Father of Israel and Paul cannot help himself either and declares in the New Testament era; Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this new era God is not only the God of the Jews but, now, of all people who acknowledge Him and His Son.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Paul is overflowing with praise to God for all the things God has done for us in Christ. We are found in Christ. Over ten times we find that everything we have, as Christians, is in Christ.
Francis Foulkes put it like this:
“Christians not only have faith in Him; their life is in Him. As the root in the soil, the branch in the vine, the fish in the sea, and the bird in the air, so the place of the Christian’s life is in Christ.”
v3b
Now we can come to the blessings(!)
Our earthly blessings are but the shadows of blessings. Corruption and vanity attach to them all. They cannot abide with us. They comfort us, much as the gourd did Jonah; but there is a worm at the root of them all.
Only this morning we heard that the earth is in a state of decay. Surely no long-lasting blessings here...
But we are not talking of earthly blessings but heavenly...
Our Heavenly Father’s blessings in Christ Jesus will never wither, nor leave us. Has Christ a “glorious body?” has He an incorruptible kingdom? will He reign in life and glory for ever? His blessedness and ours are the same. “The glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given them.” (Jno. 17:22.)
I am incredibly excited to hear this - the same blessings given to Jesus are given to us. How are we possibly worthy? Not by anything we have done!
.4 Chose us
God has made it possible for everyone to be saved and all that come to Him are put 'in Christ'. Long before we even made it to this planet, long before it even existed God had already put a plan for salvation in place. In the process of this plan He chose us.
When we were younger and we were made to be separated into teams. We always wanted to be chosen and not left to last. Here, God has chosen you. And even chose me. You were not last on His list. This plan was not only for salvation but to make us like Him; holy and blameless. This is a far cry from the consequences of Adam and Eve whose sin, and our sin since, have separated us from God and broken the bond and fellowship that had been there. Which is why Paul cannot help Himself again to praise the glory of His grace for without it we would all still be lost; all at sea; all adrift, but because of His grace we are restored as His children to live forever in harmony with him for we are now accepted in the beloved. Accepted not rejected; received not shunned; admitted to his presence not refused.
How? Because we have been made unblemished like the Paschal Lamb sacrificed for us:
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
Holiness is moral purity in contrast to being sinful. It is to be different and separate from the worldly. But more than this, we are to be a difference expressed in the world. To be salt and light. We have been made holy. Blamelessness is freedom from the guilt of breaking God's law. Of course, we have no hope of living up to God's standards so completely in this life but we have been given the Spirit of holiness who raised Jesus from the dead and is our guarantee of redemption in the end, in other words we have been made blameless.
Our position is unmistakable: We are already holy. We have been made holy. Nowhere in this passage or anywhere else in Scripture does it say it is dependent upon our own holiness or righteousness to have all spiritual blessings in Christ. It is not just a future realm of being holy as we have already seen but it is also a present reality:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
We have been predestined to these things. In love He predestined us:
Ephesians: Evangelical Exegetical Commentary Commentary
Predestined:
God’s motive: ἐν ἀγάπῃ, “in love”
Goal: εἰς υἱοθεσίαν, “for adoption”
Mediation: διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, “through Jesus Christ”
Interrelation of adoption: εἰς αὐτόν, “to himself”
Standard governing the act: κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ, “according to the good pleasure of his will”
Result: εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ, “for the praise of the glory of his grace.”
.5 adoption as sons
When we came to faith in Christ we became children of God whether we were male or female. But then according to this we are also going to be adopted as sons of God no matter whether we are male or female. Being adopted confers on us all the rights of the Father and makes us heirs of everything that is His. But this also means we have to give up any of our own rights. By being adopted we are now under the authority of the Father.
Now this might be a concern but only for those who do not know what the Father is like. And this is where we can fall down in our understanding. Remember the Parable of the Talents where one man who received one talent hid it in the ground because he was afraid of his master because he said he was a hard man reaping where he had not sown. But the point was that the master was not like this at all but if he was then surely you should buck your ideas up.
Sometimes we have the idea that God is an ogre who will come down like a ton of bricks...well, if He is like this then we should buck our ideas up just to be safe but what if He isn't like this at all but actually loves us and wants the best for us even though we offend Him too easily…amazingly, He wants to forgive and to forget. In love He predestined us, adopted us according to the GOOD pleasure of His will. GOOD pleasure. Nothing to be afraid of here! He wants to treat us as He would treat Jesus. It is through His blood that He has purchased us and redeemed us.
Our rights; our way; our old things; no longer have power in our lives. These were the things that enslaved us; ENSLAVED us. Now we are brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And this was given to us because of our obvious good looks, because we are nobles and powerful, wise and rich, because we were already like God, yeah, right! If anything the complete opposite. We were children of wrath, sons of disobedience, helpless, wicked, desperately poor and sinful enemies. And we were enthralled not by Him but by darkness.
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
We loved darkness but His love has convinced us that we are better off with Him. He has lavished His love upon us and made us coheirs with His natural, firstborn Son and seated us in the heavenlies. And we miss understanding what we were before for we were slaves of sin and unrighteousness. Slaves in the old era were non-persons, not counted as human at all but with the blood of Jesus He redeemed us bought us making us His slaves but instead of keeping us in that state He made us sons so that we could be co-regents with Christ. It would have been unthinkable that the Emperor would make a foreign slave a son so that he could be the next emperor! But this is what God has done for us. And this was done because He really wanted to.
.6 We have been accepted in the Beloved.
The Beloved is Jesus. And the upshot of all this is that we are as beloved as Jesus. All these things are beyond comprehension. How can we grasp this kind of love shown to us who were His enemies? This shows that His love is truly selfless and only in our interest.
The old catechism was right in defining the chief end of man as praising God and enjoying Him forever. So, it is not surprising when we consider all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus that we, with Paul, are praising the wonders of His grace. Amen.