He Knew Me Back When
Notes
Transcript
A bit of Background
A bit of Background
Ephesians is one of what is known as the Prison Epistles. These four letters written by Paul while imprisoned in Rome include Ephesians, Philippians, Collisions and Philemon. Ephesians was written to deal with some very specific issues confronting the Christian church and faith, namely the difference in how to actually be right with God.
Judaism had, in Paul’s mind, devolved into a religion of human attainment, doing the works of the law as a means to be right with God. It put the spotlight on humanity and their abilities to “pull themselves up” by working hard, this form of Judaism had a lot in common with the other religions of the day, especially the pagan worship of Artemis that permeated Ephesus, in fact the worship of Greek and Roman Gods was very much predicated on the work of the worshiper to prove their loyalty and how much they deserved notice by the god they were worshiping, how much work the follower did to make themselves desirable to the Gods they worshiped. This was in direct contrast to what Christianity was saying. Paul in the first paragraphs of his letter makes clear exactly who and what matters.
I don’t think you know what that means
I don’t think you know what that means
As we dig into the letter to the Ephesian chruch this month we are going to start with some words that we think we understand. Some concepts that we figure we have all figured out.
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
There are more than a few important words in there, lets take a look at a few of them.
Blessed x’s 3
Blessed x’s 3
The word blessed shows up twice and same word with two differnet meanings or understandings.
The first way it is read and understoood is to be praised. WHen Paul says Blessed is God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ he it’s a call to praise it’s a call to worship, it details something that is praisworthy or to be praised.
But then there’s that comma and right after that comma we have three words that matter.
Who has blessed, same word but because of the way Greek works, because of context and all that fun stuff we have a differnet meaning. One that is tied to being spoken well of, of being provided with bennifits, to act kindly towards. So we have two things happening here. We have humaninty reaching up in praise and hoor of God, and we have God in the person of Jesus reaching back to us. But wait there’s more. We also have the idea of spiritual blessings, the gifts that we are given that are there to help us in our walk with Him. Paul is letting us know things. We have a reason to praise a reason to worship and it’s because of What Christ has done for us and his provision for us through the gifts we are given.
You have been chosen!
You have been chosen!
And now we start to get into the stuff that can be confusing and a bit controversial if we arne’t careful.
P is for Predestination
P is for Predestination
When we talk about election and being chosen by God befroe the foundation of the world, and we follow that with what Paul says in Vs 5 that word Predestined which he uses again vs 11 people can easily get the idea that “well I mean there are some that are going to be saved and some that arne’t and it doens’t matter what I do if I’m pre-destined to either place my actions dont really matter. Now we could go into all sorts of deeper discussions here we could take time to delve into Calvinsm or delve into the importance of Arminianism. These two doctrinal understandings of predestination are pretty much polar opposits. A very basic undestanding is this.
Calvin believed that there was what’s called double unconditional predestianation, boiled down that simply means it doens’t matter if you understand and know about good and evil some people are chosen to be saved and some peopel are chosen to be damned end of story and there is nothing that can be done to change that.
Arminius, and later Wesley held to a single conditional predestination based on the indiviual’s faith, the idea that God truly knows a persons faith choice.
Then of course there is a third view by this guy named Molina that seeks to smash the two views together with God having special middle knoledge that allows for humanities freedom of choice.
We fall into the Arminiun camp with a dash of Molina.
What matters is the fact That God chose before all of this whole world thing happend, h chose humanity, broken human beings to be seen as holy and blameless in Love not becaus of ourselves but because of Jesus and what he did.
A is for adoption
A is for adoption
I love what verse five says.
He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
THnk about that…It’s Gods will that we are not just aquaintences, not just best friends, not just a club membrer or servant or hireling. No God chooses to see us as adopted. This is huge. What Paul is saying here means we have hope, we have a chance, we have an inheritance. (talk about when people make a will) It’s more than that though we are adopted because it gives God pleasure to pull humanity back into the relatinoship that they were designed to have with him from the beginning. But wait there’s more.
to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
God gets it. He understands that humans need grace, grace that only comes through Him and he doesn’t just give us a little bit. It’s not just small grace. It’s not just enough and not a drop more. We know and understand this because of that one word;
1lav•ish \ˈla-vish\ adjective
[Middle English lavas abundance, from Middle French lavasse downpour of rain, from laver to wash — more at LAVAGE]
(15th century)
1 : expending or bestowing profusely : PRODIGAL
2 a : expended or produced in abundance
b : marked by profusion or excess
That is how much grace is avaialbe to humanity and it’s a good thing becasue we need it. There never comes a point in our walking around on this earth life that we will have made it, that we will have deplaeted the need for God’s grace in our lives and so because of who he is, he doens’t just give us a little bit, he gives us more and more and more.
The way it works
The way it works
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.
We see here where our salvation comes from, we’ve touched on that recently. We also again see the idea of this overwhelming flood of grace when we read richly poured out. Paul makes sure we understand
Look this has been the plan all along relationship with man, restored because of Jesus, because of the plan because God wills it. Think about that for a moment, the creator of all wants a relatinoship with me a broken messed up human that sometimes does the right thing sometimes does the wrong thing, that falls down and has to get back up over and over. That will say the wrong thing, that will at any moment not live up to the ideals and principles that are laid out for a follower of christ to live by. But because God wills it and because of his Grace richly pourd out and because it was his plan all along he is going to bring it all together into what it was designed to be. That’s so amazing so wonderful and so perfect. but wait there’s more.
A Living Will and Testament
A Living Will and Testament
In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.
In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
We have an inheretince as childen of God remember that whole adoption thing. (expound)
We can rest in the knowledge that God in the person of the Holy Spirit is a living breathing active part in our lives reminding us of what we have now but also of what is to come. A walking around in teh cool of the day relatinoship with Him.
All of this everytihg that we see in these verses in Ephesians flies in the face of what the relgions that were most prevelant in Ephesus were all about. It took the idea of having to do all this stuff to be seen and loved and chosen by God and put the spotligt on the fact that God already chose. He shoce humanity way back in the beginning. All of scritpure is a testmaent to God’s plan to bring humanity back into relatinoship with Him. Not mans plan to build a bridge back to God.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
Write down all that God has done for you. Count your blessings today becasue we have them. They are there and they are real and they are true.