Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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!

Wat

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.

If you are in Christ, you are redeemed!