Richly Blessed by God

RICHLY BLESSED BY GOD Spring Valley Mennonite; October 4, 2020; Ephesians 1:1-3 Happy October! I suppose it is safe to speak of summer in the past tense, although we most likely will have a few warm days. As a result of your gift of a Sabbatical this last summer, Alice and I were able to take several trips. My wife could tell you how "antsy" I get before leaving on vacation. My anticipation runs so high I have trouble sleeping, desiring to get an early start. Similarly, I feel anticipation as we launch out on a journey through the Book of Ephesians. Study of this book has profoundly affected many people, and I look forward to what God has to say, both to me personally, and to you. As I had the incredible privilege of studying these first few verses of chapter one this week, I found myself overwhelmed at the wealth of the riches described, riches which are ours simply by virtue of being a child of God. Every phrase, no, every word is overflowing with God's love. I humbly suggest that if you are feeling the need for change in your life and for deepening your relationship with our blessed Lord, you would do well to spend time interacting with these verses in Ephesians. Do you agree or disagree with this statement: "The blessings of being a Christian primarily will come after we die." (Agree, lift your hands; disagree, lift your hands.) This really is a loaded question, for there is truth on both sides of the issue. But it has been my experience as a Pastor in observing believers, including myself, that most of us believe that primarily the blessings of God will come after we die. In other words, few of us feel we can experience the fullness of God during our earthly years. For many of us who have been believers for many years, this has been our experience. God inspired Paul to write this letter to spell out for us the incredible riches we have as our spiritual birthright, both right now as well as in the future. We see this clearly in verses 17 through 19 in this first chapter. Look at these verses for a moment: (Read 17-19-Paul prays...) Our inner eyes need to be opened to-what? The Hope we have by virtue of His calling; how we enrich the Lord Jesus as His inheritance; and the greatness of His power available to us. What an incredible promise of spiritual wealth awaits us in these verses, as we learn or are reminded of what we have! It is like we have been gifted with a proven gold mine; all we have to do is dig out the gold! Let's begin uncovering these wonderful riches! First, we learn that: I. WE ARE SAINTS Read vv. 1. Several years ago, my children gave me a Father's Day gift. It was a DNA kit from Ancestry.com by which one can determine their ethnic origins. I waited six weeks or so for the results which told me I am from Scottish, Irish and English descent. And while my background was interesting to me, it didn't really change my life to any measurable extent. Many people have used these tests-probably millions-with the hope they might find their identity or self-worth. But to be honest, we have nothing to do with who our parents or grandparents were. In the same way that I did nothing to earn my ancestry, we do nothing to earn our position as children of God. Verse 1 states we are saints. Paul is a perfect example of this: he was an apostle "by the will of God." Saul of Tarsus could occupy the seat of the one man "least likely to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ." He was an enemy of Christ, completely dedicated to destroying Christianity and Christians. Yet, Jesus stopped him in his tracks on the way to Damascus and saved him. He commissioned him as the Apostle to the Gentiles (grasp the irony in that!) Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle serves as a pattern for our own salvation, for you see, we all were enemies of God, entrapped and blinded by sin. Until God reached down and drew each one of us to Himself, we were not seeking God. John 6:44: "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him..." None of us were struck down in the middle of the road and heard Jesus' voice, but each one of us who have placed our faith in Christ has done so because it was God's will to do so. We all are believers "by the will of God." Therefore, God designates us as "saints." What is a saint, biblically speaking? First, it is not a holier-than-thou, halo-wearing super- Christian. Saints are ordinary believers in Christ. Biblical saints have problems, difficulties, and troubles. The simply are those set apart, belonging to God. The word "saint", Greek "hagios", is the same word translated "holy" in usages like "Holy Spirit." Saints are God's "holy ones," those the Father has separated out, set apart from all others, placed in Christ to be His own personal possession. God just declares that all who are believers are saints. Period! End of discussion! You are a saint; I am a saint in biblical terms. This book is written to us. This leads to an all- important fact about our salvation: I mentioned last week an outline of the book using the three words "Sit, Walk, and Stand." This comes from a book written by a Chinese believer named Watchman Nee. He says it very well: "The Christian life does not begin with walking; it begins with sitting. The Christian era began with Christ, of whom we are told that, when He had made purification of sins, He 'sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high' (Hebrews 1:3). With equal truth we can say that the individual Christian life begins with a man 'in Christ', that is to say, when by faith we see ourselves seated together with Him in the heavens. Nee continues, "Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, 'If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal?' 'What can we attain without effort?' 'How can we ever get anywhere if we do not improve?' But Christianity is an (odd) business! If at the outset we try to do anything we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big DO but with a big DONE." (unquote) We are saved by faith, not by works, not by self-effort, not by living a certain way. First, we sit, THEN we are enabled to walk. II. WE RESPOND TO THE CALLING OF GOD WITH FAITH Following "saints" is the phrase "who are faithful in Christ Jesus." Realize that there are not two different types of Christians here in verse 1: saints and super-saints, saints and faithful saints; rather, 'faithful in Christ' points out that faith is a necessary element to our calling as saints. God calls us, we respond by faith. Faith is the means through which we receive the free gift of grace. Faith is the response of a starving man when a plate of food is set before him. We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is the calling to the banqueting hall, the seating at the table, the food set before us; our eating it is faith. But the phrase "faithful in Christ Jesus" also speaks of the fact that a saint can't quit being a saint. A Pastor had a call from a young man who was mired down in difficulty, discouraged, and who had lost his confidence in prayer. He felt God was not listening and he was ready to quit. So the Pastor suggested, "well then, why don't you just quit then? Give it up. Stop being a Christian. Just try it." The Pastor knew that if the young man tried, he would find that he couldn't quit. And the young man realized it. He said, "you're right. I can't quit." That is because, as we learn in verse 13 of this chapter, we were sealed in the Holy Spirit so we can't quit. Theologians call this the "Perseverance of the Believer." If we truly are a believer, sealed by the Spirit, we will persevere. We cannot "unchoose" ourselves. Conversely, if a person finds he can "quit being a Christian" without any turmoil of soul, it is a pretty good indication that he never was a believer in the first place. III. GRACE PRECEDES PEACE (Read verse 2) Next comes the common greeting, "grace and peace to you." These are the two great heritages of the believer, two things that are ours no matter the circumstances. Grace wraps up all God is and what He imparts to us. Grace includes God's love, mercy, blessings, strength, and power. John 1:16: "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." The second part of our heritage is peace, which follows God's grace. Peace is freedom from anxiety, fear, and worry. It is our confidence, based on God's character, that we are secure as we trust a loving God. Peace and trust are closely related. Peace is the state of not knowing the details, yet not worrying about them. If you know the details of how everything will work out, then you don't need to trust. Often God "keeps us in the dark", hiding the details, to build our trust. All believers are given this ability to trust, and trust produces peace. When we can't see His hand, trust His heart. Saints, Holy before God through Christ, Perseverant in faith, recipients of grace and peace: this is our life as God states it. And these truths are just the appetizer, this is just the introduction! Settle in for the main course! Paul begins to lay out before us how: IV. WE POSSESS INCREDIBLE RICHES IN CHRIST Turn your attention to verse 3 (read). "Blessed" means "Praise be to". The Greek word is 'eulogia'; the words "eulogy or to eulogize" come from the same root. When we eulogize someone at their funeral, we speak well of them, praising the good things they have done. Paul states that God is to be praised, thanked, greatly commended-because of what He has done for us. And what has God done for us? Everything! This is a statement which sums up what the whole book is about, a 'theme verse' if you will: God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Think for a moment about this incredible statement! This is truly difficult to grasp, and frankly, few of us really believe it. God is saying that I as a believer have been given everything I need, everything there is to get, everything worth having. Period. It is already in the bank. There is nothing else that we need to live and thrive as a believer. There is nothing else. The reason this is true is that the statement begins with God and ends with Christ. When a baby is born, he is complete, everything is in place. He has everything he needs to grow into an adult human. But full growth happens over time and with proper nourishment and training. The same is true for we believers. When we are born again, we are given everything we need to grow to maturity. It is present in potential. There are four things to understand in this summary statement: * First, it begins with God, the one source of all these blessing. By the way, let me point out a structural characteristic in this first chapter, which teaches a profound truth about God: notice the words "to the praise of His glory" in verse 6; now notice the same phrase in verse 12, and again in verse 14. Three times the phrase is repeated, each time a different person of the Trinity is acting: in this section, the Father is acting. In the second section, verses 7-12, the Son is acting. In verses 13-14, it is the Holy Spirit. Each Person of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit have a part in the all- encompassing plan of God of which we are a part. And, as this plan unfolds, it brings glory to God, the Three-in-One. * The second element within this statement is that God has blessed us. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing. This is what God has done. The action is past tense, action already completed. God has the goal of bringing about a universe which is filled with blessing. This relates to the phrase already mentioned "to the praise of His glory." That is, in order that God should be praised, that His people would be so awe struck with the wonder of what He has done, that without limit and without being able to stop, we would be overflowing with praise. We know that we should be doing this, that our lives should be filled with praise and thanksgiving. But we seldom live that way. Our idea of praise is that somehow praising God is something which we make ourselves do. We come to church and "sing praises to God." Praise has somehow become part of a ritual rather than a natural response. But Paul is trying to get us to realize that God has done such incredibly remarkable deeds on our behalf, that if we understand them, once our dull minds grasp what God has done ALREADY for us, we will not be able to help ourselves but to stand in absolute awe and amazement and say, "that's true of me?" That is incredible! My God, how great thou art! This is what God desires, that we would be overwhelmed and stop and praise Him that we have already been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. * The third element of this summary is the realm in which every spiritual blessing is given; it is given in the heavenlies. This doesn't mean heaven, or that all blessings are waiting in heaven-heaven will be wonderful, and it will be an incredible blessing, but that is not what "in the heavenlies" means. Paul is talking about the present experience of these blessings, right here and now. We are involved "in the heavenlies" right now. These heavenlies, which are mentioned throughout this letter, are the realm of invisible reality, of things which are true about life in this world, in the cosmos, about which we can't see or touch. And yet they are very real, and they play a vital role in our lives right now. 2 Corinthians 4:18: "...we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Remember the Old Testament account of Elisha and his servant? They were surrounded by the armies of Syria who were searching for Elisha to kill him. The servant looked out in the morning and saw the warriors, the cavalry and the chariots, and in fear he turned to Elisha and said, "It is hopeless! Look we're surrounded!" Elisha said, "Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And he prayed, "Lord, open his eyes." And the Lord opened the young man's eyes and he saw a ring of fiery chariots, manned by hundreds and thousands of angels. He saw with spiritual eyes. Because we are in Christ, we now also live in a spiritual realm, awakened, and enlivened spiritually, and that is where the blessings originate. The heavenlies are contrasted with the physical, temporal realm in which our senses operate. For a person who has been born spiritually, God has now given spiritual senses, the ability to perceive spiritual realities, and we must learn to trust those senses also. This is the realm in which faith operates. And it is the realm from which every spiritual blessing has already been given to us. * The last thing we see here is the blessings are found "in Christ." No phrase is repeated more in Ephesians than this one. Everything we are comes by our union with Christ. Physical blessings in life come "to the just and the unjust"; rain falls on everyone's fields. But spiritual blessings come only to those connected to God trough Jesus Christ. We cannot bypass the Son to get to the Father. Many claim that all religions worship the same God, only by different names. Don't you believe it! We cannot bypass Jesus and still get to the Father. The One True God exists in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Any belief system with a god other than the Triune God is false, and these religious systems originate with Satan and are demonic. Jesus warned, "No one comes to the Father but by Me." Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. He is Not One of many ways, Not one way of looking of the truth, and Not one of many pathways to life, both eternal life and true abundant life here and now. Wow! And all that truth in the first three verses! What rich treasures await us as we continue in our study of Ephesians. It truly has the potential of being life changing! The book has been written so that we might grasp these incredible blessings and take courage to live in the fullness of all that God has given us through His amazing grace. God has done all this "to the praise of His glory." 2