Blessings of Being In Christ
Ephesians: Bringing It All Together • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 39:39
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· 1,486 viewsIf you have a right relationship with God, it is all because of what Jesus has done. Being "in Christ" opens the door to some amazing blessings, which we find described in Ephesians 1:1-14
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This morning, we are beginning a new series that will take us through, Lord-willing, until the first part of September.
Go ahead and open your Bibles up to the book of Ephesians, which is where we will be over the next few months.
I will say at the start of this series that I feel pretty intimidated to tackle this book, especially to do so in a short time.
Ephesians covers a wide range of challenging theological topics, which we are really only going to get to take a quick glance at as we go past.
However, this book also contains some very clear practical teaching on how to live now that we are fully right with God.
Read chapter 1:1-2 with me...
This letter was written to the church at the city of Ephesus, which may have been the fourth largest city in the world at the time with a population of around 250,000 people.
It was an impressive city, but it was also a godless one. One of its distinguishing characteristics was the massive temple of Artemis, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World before it was destroyed.
The Apostle Paul had spent three years ministering here, and although he hadn’t planted the church at Ephesus, he was certainly very fond of these folks.
Years have gone by, and Paul is likely sitting in a Roman prison when he writes to his old friends in Ephesus.
This church had a strong foundation, and so he was able to write a little more in-depth than he did in some of his other letters.
Still, it appears that they hadn’t fully grasped one key reality, and that is what we hope to see through our series here.
We are going to track through Ephesians with one central idea in mind: God is bringing everything together in Christ.
That’s why we are calling this series, “Ephesians: Bringing It All Together.”
We see this in 1:9-10...
In the first three chapters, we are going to take a look at the truth of God bringing everything together, and then the last three chapters are going to tell us how that impacts every aspect of our lives and relationships.
For us to get this, we are going to take a step back and lay a little groundwork before we move forward.
When God first created the world, everything in all creation worked exactly as God designed it to work, and every angel and person submitted themselves to God’s good rule over their lives.
All the angels, all the animals, all the oceans, and all of mankind was willing to do
Then sin entered the picture and threw everything off balance.
First, Satan rebelled against God. Then, Adam and Eve turned their back on him.
The introduction of sin even corrupted nature itself, which is why we have disease and death today.
The rest of history has been an attempt for us to set things right. We have tried following pleasure, knowledge, religious ideals, but nothing has ever been able to bring it back to what it was supposed to be.
Nothing has ever dealt with the corruption that lies in our hearts that we cannot remove.
That’s what Jesus was doing: bringing it all back together.
As we will see this morning, God sent Jesus to come to us so that, when the time was right, he could bring everything back together in him.
In fact, as we look through this first part of chapter 1, we are going to see that all our blessings are because we are in Christ.
Not only that, but we can flip that around - we have every spiritual blessing because we are in Christ.
Don’t we have to climb up to some super spiritual status to get those things? Aren’t there bonus levels to unlock or something?
Look at verse 3…If you are in Christ, you have every spiritual blessing!
Now, let me be clear: these spiritual blessings are only for those who are in Christ. In other words, if you are here today and have not yet made the decision to follow Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then these aren’t yours yet.
They could be, if you will willingly surrender yourself to him and come back into the relationship with God that he created you for, but they aren’t yours until you respond to him.
“Great! So this is where you start telling me that since I follow Jesus, I am going to have my big house and my great relationships and my awesome job with no problems, right? #blessed!”
Actually, no. That isn’t it at all. Do you know how I know? Because the guy writing this was probably under house arrest at the time. That isn’t exactly my idea of my best life now.
Actually, the blessings we have in Christ are so much better than that, and that’s what we want to see this morning.
In fact, here’s what I want you to see: Jesus has secured every spiritual blessing for you.
It isn’t you; you didn’t bring yourself back to God. You didn’t earn your way into heaven, and you didn’t earn your salvation.
As we will see throughout this study, all of these things are gifts that God gave you because he is good and loving and gracious and merciful.
These blessings are yours in Christ, not in yourself.
These blessings are spiritual blessings, which means we don’t see them physically right now. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that something isn’t real because it isn’t physical!
These are as real as anything you see or hold in your hands, but they are even better, because these blessings will last forever!
Think about it: what if God gave you everything you ever wanted? All the money, prestige, pleasure, relationships, degrees, jobs, whatever. One day, you are going to die, and none of that will be around anymore.
However, the spiritual blessings we have in Christ will never go away.
We are going to see that, in Christ, we have at least four major spiritual blessings.
If you are new to church and haven’t heard these truths, then I hope you will see how incredible it is to have a relationship with God.
If you are saved and you know it, then let these humble and encourage you as you hear again all that Jesus has done for you.
In bringing all things together in Christ, what you find is:
1) You are adopted.
1) You are adopted.
Read verses 4-6 with me.
Before we even start discussing these, let me go ahead and say this: I know this passage stirs up a lot of debate.
What does it mean that God chose us? What does it mean that we are predestined?
I can’t give you all the answers today. In fact, I probably won’t ever be able to give you all the answers.
However, there is a
Whether you believe this means that God specifically chooses some to be saved or that God saved people based off the choice he saw them making in the future, here’s what I have to say: God chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
I don’t know all that it means, but I do know that it is amazing to think that God would choose me.
I am weak, I fall so short of who he called me to be, and I act in a completely different way than I know that I should.
However, God knew all that about me and chose to love me enough to bring me into his family.
Did you see that?
If you are here today and you are in Christ, then he has adopted you into his family!
You are his son! By the way, ladies, don’t get upset that I didn’t say “and daughters”. Remember that in those days, daughters didn’t have the same rights as sons, so to say that God adopted us all as sons is a big deal! That means we all have the same rights of inheritance, which we will cover in a bit.
Remember what we said in the beginning? It was our sin that broke our relationship with God.
We were the ones who left him, and yet he brings us into his family!
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Why? Why would he do that?
Is it because you are smart or you are pretty or you have high earning potential?
Is it because you try really hard to be good?
No! Look again at verse 5-6.
He brought you into his family because he is gracious! He wanted to adopt you because he loves you and wants you to know it.
You have been adopted, not because you have done good things, but because in Christ, God drew you to himself and made you a part of his family.
He is pulling everything together in Christ, which means that because of Jesus’ death for us, we can be pulled back into right relationship with God and adopted into his family as sons.
Isn’t that incredible?!
Wait a second, though.
If I sinned, then how can God just overlook that to bring me back?
He can’t and still be just, so how can I be part of his family?
That’s the second blessing we see in this passage:
2) You are redeemed.
2) You are redeemed.
If you are in Christ, you are redeemed!
Read verses 7-10
You can be a part of God’s family because he bought you back to himself!
We don’t use that term “redeemed” very often anymore, but you might have used it at an event sometime.
Have you ever won a prize? The announcer tells you to bring your ticket by this table to redeem your prize.
What does that mean? You exchange your ticket for a prize in return, right?
Redeeming has the idea of “buying back” or exchanging.
That’s the idea here: you have been bought out of your sin and into a right relationship with God.
How? Again, not because of what you have done.
What does the text say? (verse 7)
Jesus redeemed you with his blood!
In other words, he bought you out of your sin with his own blood, purchasing for you the forgiveness you desperately needed.
If you have come to Christ and turned from sin and turned to him, then you have been bought by his blood out of your sin!
His death on the cross covered your sin, and now you are redeemed! Your sin debt has been paid and you are free to be who God created you to be, living under his leadership like he designed.
Was God reluctant to buy you back? Did he have to scrounge around in the couch cushions or car seats to find enough change to redeem you?
No! Look at it again…God lavishly, extravagantly, richly poured out his grace in paying for your debt with Jesus’ blood.
For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
He redeemed you, and since you are like me and you aren’t by your natural descent a Jew, you should be even more thrilled by that reality!
We will talk about it more in the weeks to come, but the “mystery of his will” is that the Jews and non-Jews would all be fully redeemed by Jesus.
You weren’t even a part of the unique nation that God promised to bless, and yet you have these amazing blessings in Christ!
Wow!
You have been adopted into his family, which is amazing.
Looking backward, you see that you had to be redeemed to be adopted.
What do you have to look forward to, though?
That’s our third blessing we see here:
3) You have an inheritance.
3) You have an inheritance.
Read verses 11-12.
There’s not a lot of detail in this passage, but we do know we are receiving an inheritance.
Peter gives us a little bit more information about it in the opening to his letter:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
You and I have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
We don’t fully see or understand it now, but we do have it.
At least one portion of this will to finally and fully be free from sin.
You have been saved from the power of sin, so you no longer have to obey it and the punishment for your sin has been paid by Christ.
However, you still live in the presence of sin. It is still all around you, and you still fall into the pattern of sin.
The salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time, our inheritance, is that moment when every stain of sin is removed and we enjoy an inheritance with God that cannot be destroyed, damaged, dinged, or darkened!
Can you imagine how great that will be? Can you imagine going an entire day without a wrong thought, motive, or action?
How glorious is that!
Will it be because you have made yourself perfect?
No! I may be beating a dead horse, but I want to remind you again, it is in him that you have this inheritance.
It is based off his lavish grace, not your extreme faithfulness.
Celebrate the fact that this isn’t about you!
That inheritance will also involve unbroken fellowship with God.
Your heart truly longs to have complete, unbroken fellowship with the God who made you.
That’s what drives your desires for acceptance, your fear of the dark and being alone, and much more.
If you are in Christ, though, you already have a taste of that inheritance.
The last blessing we see this morning is:
4) You have the Holy Spirit.
4) You have the Holy Spirit.
Read verses 13-14.
When you were placed into Christ, when you turned from sin and turned to him, when he adopted you into his family and when he redeemed you from your sin, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
He is in you now as a down payment until you can get to heaven and collect the remainder of your inheritance.
The idea that you are “sealed” with the Spirit has a lot of different connotations, but at the very least, it implies at least two things: ownership and security.
In Paul’s day, a seal would be imprinted on something to mark that it belonged to or was sent by a particular individual.
When your life in Christ, you belong to God and can never be taken away from him!
If we are sealed with the Spirit, then, it has the incredible idea that we are marked as God’s and God’s alone!
The Holy Spirit is proof of that, because he teaches and guides and comforts and corrects us. He equips us to serve God in ways that we never could if we were relying on our strength or ability or wisdom.
He redeemed us, we are his, and we have the Spirit living inside us as proof.
Think about a time you have read God’s word and it has almost come alive to you…that’s because the Holy Spirit helped you see it that way!
Ever sinned and immediately felt convicted? In other words, you were genuinely sorry you did the wrong thing, not just sorry you got caught? That is the work of the Holy Spirit, helping you see where you are choosing what isn’t best for you or pleasing to God.
Not only that, seals would also help people be secure!
Ever sensed God’s peace when you should be freaking out? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
Do you see what’s amazing about that? This is just the down payment!
Can you imagine what heaven is going to be like?
If those moments are any kind of hint of what it is going to be like to be in heaven with God, then I cannot wait!
God is bringing everything together in Christ.
If you are in him, you have been adopted and redeemed. You have an unbelievable inheritance, and the Holy Spirit is an incredible down payment of what is yet to come.
It makes sense, then, why Paul would want to start his letter by blessing the God who has done all this for us.
He doesn’t do it because we are pretty or smart or good. We are sinners. He saves us, adopts us, redeems us, blesses us because he is beautiful and gracious and loving and good.
Do you know him today?