The Blueprint for our Provision and Position
The Blueprint: A Study in the Book of Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsIn Christ, I have already been given everything I need.
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INTRODUCTION
Probable that Ephesians wasn’t written exclusively to the Church at Ephesus. (Circular Letter)
Gives all churches a picture of God’s plan regarding how we are to walk in our new identity as believers and as a body of Christ.
It’s the Blueprint for God’s Plan To:
Have a unified body that understands and expresses the fullness of Jesus to the world.
Equip, empower, and mature the body to a place where we would co-labor with Christ to model and express His love towards all people and enforce victory over all evil.
CHAPTERS 1 – 3 - Our POSITION & PROVISION in Christ
CHAPTERS 4 – 6 - Our PRACTICE of Walking out our PURPOSE on Earth
This plan, or blueprint, is given in a beautiful progression in which we are shown our provision and position in Christ, and how we are to respond to all He has done by the way we live our lives both in personal character & conduct within community.
TENSION
This book gives us both the theological and the very practical. We have to have both.
We will see that beginning in Chapter 4, Paul admonishes us to live holy lives. But notice that he doesn’t do this before he reveals all the wonderful things the Lord has done for us in chapters 1-3. Our holy lives should be the fruit of our personal relationship with the Lord, and not the other way around. We don’t live holy to get God’s love; His love comes only by grace through faith. We live holy lives in response to the love that God had for us while we were still sinners and what He accomplished for us on the cross.
TRUTH
Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
The first three chapters stem from this verse and these two concepts:
1) We’ve already been provided with everything we need, and
2) Our provision comes from our position in Christ.
BIG IDEA: In Christ, I have already been given everything I need.
2 Peter 1:3–4 (NKJV)
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
“IN HIM”
Our position determines our provision.
· Ephesians 1:3 – 1:14 is only three sentences in most Bibles. Each of them either start and/or finish with ‘IN HIM’ and describe elements of the ways we’ve already been blessed. In Greek, this portion is one long and complicated sentence.
PAST TENSE PROVISION OF SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS (1:3-14)
We are not trying to work towards being blessed. We already are! These are written in the Greek aorist tense, meaning there was a point in the past when all these blessings were obtained and given to us. Paul is simply describing what is already ours in Christ, and completely fulfilled in the Spirit.
We are going from Victory to Victory (spirit – soul – body)
Ephesians 1:4 - He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
Ephesians 1:5 - predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
ADOPTION IS HUGE!
Galatians 4:1-4
Romans 8:12-17
According to Greco-Roman customs, a man could adopt a son and bestow all the legal rights and privileges of a natural born child. It was more than just bringing someone into the family. It was about which child was going to become the heir of everything the father had. This even applied to the imperial family. In fact, Roman emperor Julius Caesar adopted Octavian as his heir. Octavian, using the name Augustus, became ruler of the Roman empire. Through adoption, we now have had all ties severed from our old master and have now become the property of our heavenly Father as heirs and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV)
to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The Greek word CHARITOO that was translated “made accepted” in this verse was only used one other time in the N.T. Luke 1:28 says, 28. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” So, “being accepted” in Ephesians 1:6 is equivalent to Mary being “highly favored” in Luke 1:28.
Ephesians 1:7 - In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
Ephesians 1:8 - which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence (understanding),
He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
We have already been given wisdom and understanding through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is: The Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Might, the Spirit of Knowledge, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (see Isaiah 11:2). You have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Ephesians 1:9-10 - having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:11-12 - In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God.
This inheritance is ours now. It includes everything that belongs to Christ, because we are joint-heirs with Him through adoption (Romans 8:17). Although we won’t see the fullness of this inheritance until Christ personally takes the reins over all of heaven and earth, we can pray for things to be done here on earth as they are in heaven (Matthew 6:10). As much as we can release our faith, we can begin to enjoy our inheritance now for what grace has provided. There’s also a rendering of this verse that includes the concept that we are also GOD’S INHERITANCE. Through our union with Christ we too have been claimed by God as his own inheritance. Before we were even born, he decided to make us His heritage, and he gave us our estate through Christ.
Ephesians 1:13 - In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
At salvation, we each receive a brand-new spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is free from sin and pure. Then we are immediately sealed by the Holy Spirit). A barrier is formed to keep sin out and retain the purity of our born-again spirits. When we sin, it is in the soulish/physical realm. The born-again spirit doesn’t participate. The Greek word means to set a seal upon, mark with a seal, to seal for security, and in order to prove, confirm, or attest a thing (a seal approves that its contents have authority).
Ephesians 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
The Holy Spirit in the lives of us believers is the pledge, guarantee, promise, and assurance that we shall enter into our inheritance with all its benefits. Our glorified bodies have been purchased through the sacrificial payment of Jesus, but they are not yet fully redeemed. Redemption is salvation completed (Romans 8:23). Salvation begins with the born-again experience, but it will not be completed until we receive our glorified bodies and assume our eternal position with Christ. Paul was saying that until we see these bodies glorified, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that the rest of our salvation is secure and coming. He is given to us like an engagement ring, as the first installment of what’s coming!
PAUL’S PRAYER (1:15 – 23)
This is Paul taking a moment to pray for us. Not that we would get something that hasn’t already been provided. Instead, he prays we would supernaturally have the eyes of our heart opened and enlightened to see the abundance of riches and Spiritual blessings we have already been given through our position in Christ.
This is like what happened to Elisha’s servant in 2 Kings 6:17. In that passage, Elisha’s servant saw physically that they were surrounded by the enemy. But the Lord opened the eyes of His heart so He could see into the spiritual realm and saw the horses and chariots of fire of God surrounding them. Here, Paul is praying that the eyes of our hearts would be opened so that we could see what we already have in our born-again and regenerated spirits.
Ephesians 1:15–23 (NASB95)
For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH (2:1 – 2:10)
Paul reminds us that all of this was done for us through God’s love and by His grace while we were still sinners. The way we receive salvation (by grace through faith) is also the way we continue in the life to receive every other spiritual blessing. It’s not by our works, but by His grace and our faith in what He has already accomplished. We were saved, raised, and seated with Him. We are His workmanship, created new in Christ to walk in His good works.
Ephesians 2:1–7 (NLT)
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
Co-seated with Christ…just like we are co-heirs with Christ. We share in His authority. We are His representatives on earth (2 Corinthians 5:20). To the degree we are walking under His authority, we can walk in His authority.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE!!! Your position IN HIM didn’t just give you His blessings…it made you a PRICELESS WORK OF ART that exists to take the blessings we’ve been given and bless others.
In Christ, I have already been given everything I need.