Know the Blessing Christ Has Given Us More and More
Notes
Transcript
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
God’s purpose in creating you is to reveal his glory to you, and for you to respond in worship. And since our God is all powerful, and all good the way he reveals his glory to you is not a boring or stale affair. But rather he has revealed his glory to you by creating a world for you to be blessed in.
To be blessed means to receive good things from God. When God created Adam and Eve, he did not place them in a wasteland, but he placed them in a garden where they would be blessed beyond measure. And even you today, can relate to this original purpose (even though we live in light of the curse) because if you thought about it for just a second, you would be amazed at just how many blessings you woke up to this morning.
From the breathe in your lungs, to the pleasant sounds of birds singing that is a delight to the ear, to the pleasing sights of the golden sun hitting the fields of wheat and corn, to the smells of breakfast and coffee and the anticipation of enjoying such blessings with others around you.
Our God is a God who blesses. And shows his glory to us in the way he blesses us, even the unbeliever as they breathe his air enjoy his creation.
If this is the case, why do we wake up in God’s creation without the basic truth that God has blessed, and so we are to return such blessing with blessing, or praising him?
Why do we use the air in our lungs to breathe out complaints instead of worship?
Why did you complain about the bird that made a sweet melody of music in your ear to spur on your worship in the morning, because it damaged your desire to sleep?
Why did I stuff my mouth full of eggs and coffee as if I deserved it, instead of doing it in a way overwhelmed that my God blessed me with the aim that I would eat to the glory of his great name?
Mothers, why did you treat your children as curses this week, instead of a blessing from God, with the purpose to enjoy him through the work of raising the little rascals?
Fathers why did you head to work grumbling instead of seeing it as just another way God has blessed you in love for the sake of glorifying his name as loving and caring?
Singles, why did you to grumble to God for what he has not provided you in his providence, instead of being in awe for the relationships he has blessed you with in order for his name to be lifted up as good and true?
To the generation that is blessed with gray hair, why did you spend your week complaining of what the world has come to, and longing for the good ol days, instead of seeing the blessing of what God is doing in Christ today, despite the dark world?
If God blesses his creatures as a way to show his glory, why do we not receive such revelation from his creation with worship stamped on our hearts and songs of praise and gladness flowing forth from our lungs.
Why do we fail to “praise God from whom all blessings flow?”
It is because we have forgotten the main point of the book of Ephesians.
It is because we do not know the main point of the book of Ephesians.
It is because the main point of Ephesians has become a crusty doctrine on a page, instead of a living doctrine in our souls.
After a common introduction that we will circle back to in light of the main point of why Paul wrote
Paul states the main point of the letter when he says in worship
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Blessed
Give to God, for he has given to us every spiritual blessing in Christ
The blessing we give to God is not the same blessing he gives to us
He gives to us something we need, we give to him worship for what he has provided for us.
If you bless a hungry person with a meal, he will respond with thanksgiving
If you bless a cold person with warm clothes and a blanket, he will respond with thanksgiving
Spiritual Blessings in the heavenly places
We humans are created to enjoy blessings God gives in this world, showing our gratitude with worship
But interestingly Paul does not say bless God who has blessed us with every physical blessings in the earthly places
But says rather, bless God for blessing us IN CHRIST, with every SPIRITUAL blessings in the HEAVENLY places
God blessed Adam with every physical blessings in the earthly places
He used it not for worship to him which is our greatest good, but rather as an end itself.
And so the greatest blessing sinful man can hear now, is not all physical blessings in the earthly places
We use that in our sin not for our greatest end to worship God, but for selfish ambition which leads to death
No instead, the emphasis is bless God for the spiritual blessings that he has given in Christ in the heavenly places (where God dwells).
Spiritual blessings in Christ in the heavenlies
Simply means believing upon Jesus who forgives us of our sins and brings us back to God, to use all the physical blessings of this world to glorify Christ with.
And to use the lack of physical blessings to glorify Christ with.
Do you want to know why you struggle with blessing God for his physical blessings?
Because you are not taking those physical blessings through the spiritual blessings Christ has given his people
Why do you complain about the physical blessings of a job?
Because you are not attaching that blessing with how it enables you to give to the church, to have a home to comfortably praise God in, to have opportunity to share the treasure of Christ with your coworker…the blessing of being able to use it for Christ’s honor
Why do you complain about the physical blessing of your wife?
Because you have detached it from the spiritual blessing of being able to love her as Christ loved the church…the blessing of being able to use it for Christ’s honor
Why do you complain about the physical blessing of your husband?
Because you have detached it from the spiritual blessing of showing Christ to a difficult husband
Why do you complain about God calling you to be single right now?
Because you have detached it from the spiritual blessings of serving Christ in a freer way
And so the main point of Paul in this letter is to stimulate the hearers to understand that the greatest of all blessings comes in Christ, and is spiritual in the heavenly places.
That means all the physical blessings need to go through the lens of the greater spiritual blessings of Christ that he provides.
And part of blessing God for his spiritual blessings in Christ is to expand our minds to know it more and more
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Indeed, since the blessing of Christ in the heavenlies is to bring you back to the eternal God of heaven—the implication of that is eternal
We are never done try to understand Christ and his blessing he has provided to his people
Since the implications in your life is endless
The main point of Paul in Ephesians is that you would praise God for what he has done for you in Christ—the forgiveness of sins and bringing you close to him by his life and death and resurrection.
And that as you consider this eternal blessing, you would always grow more and more in understanding it.
Know Christ, know him more
And this permeates throughout the entire epistle
In chapter 1 he says this spiritual blessing was determined to be given to you by God in eternity past
According to his will, he predestined to save a people from their sins and bless them beyond measure in Christ
In Chapter 2:1-10 Paul shows how you were dead in curses, but God made you alive with Christ in time and space
You once were dead or had no desire for God. But God changed you through Jesus to cause you to walk in Christ…or use all creation to honor Christ
Then in chapter 2: 11-22 Paul shows that such spiritual blessings came to not just you as an individual but to a whole group of people he calls the church
The whole church joins as a community to enjoy the spiritual blessing of Jesus
Then in chapter 3 he shows how his purpose as an apostle was to proclaim this spiritual blessing to those God has called to receive it, even to the point that he loses physical blessing.
Indeed, Paul proclaimed the blessings in Christ even as it landed him in prison where he lost out on physical blessings. Showing how the spiritual blessing is better than the physical.
It was better for Paul to use the jail cell to honor Jesus than to live in a thousand mansions honoring his flesh
And then the second half of Ephesians is all about how we are to live in light of all spiritual blessings we have in Christ.
Another words, the blessing Jesus has given us in the heavenly places, reveals itself in what we do on earth
The spiritual blessings of Christ is going to cause the church on earth to live a certain way that will be filled with blessing (4:1-16)
The new life you have in Christ will abolish the old life you had in sin and will be filled with blessings in the spirit and drive away the curses of the flesh (4:17-5:21)
The spiritual life Christ has provided you will cause wives to submit to their husbands even when the world tells wives today not to in order to live a blessed life (5:22-24)
The spiritual life Christ has provided you will cause men to lead their wives into holiness as her servant as Christ has done for the church. Even when the world has told you the blessed life is to not act like men, shut up, and play video games and watch sports (5:25-33)
The spiritual life Christ has provided our children is to see their submission to their parents is a life filled with blessing in the land, instead of joining the world in celebrating disobedience and following their own desires (6:1-3)
The spiritual life in Christ shows Fathers to train up their children in the way of blessedness, instead of leaving it to the schools, the church, or entertainment (6:4).
Finally the spiritual life in Christ draws us to put his armor on and do war with the flesh and its leader Satan. For Satan would like nothing more but to bring you back into the false lies of blessings outside of Christ (6:10-20).
God has created you, to be filled with the blessings he has provided
The greatest blessing is Jesus Christ who can forgive you of your sins and make you near to God, living for his glory
And then you can live a life of nearness to God, using his physical blessings as a sacrifice to honor Christ
Paul, in this apostle, desires for you to know this blessing found in Jesus, and for your minds to expand in it more and more and more and more
Ephesians 1:1 “1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
Ephesians 1:1 To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:”
Ephesians 1:2 “2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”