Making Much of God
Notes
Transcript
NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
Let me start with a question this morning:
Why did Jesus come to this earth?
Certainly we could answer that question with a verse that Ryan shared last week:
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
The simple answer is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But let’s go a little deeper than that.
Why did Jesus come into the world to save sinners?
Tension
Unfortunately, even in the church, there is a tendency for us to answer that question in a very “me-centered” way and make the gospel all about me. That can happen in some very subtle way ways that we may not even recognize, like creeping into the lyrics of some of the worship songs we sing.
Let me give you a couple of examples - one a traditional hymn that was composed in the 1800’s and then a more contemporary worship song that we sing here at TFC.
Let’s begin with the hymn. Perhaps you are familiar with the chorus:
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
There is obviously nothing wrong with counting our blessings. We ought to live lives of gratitude and give thanks to God for the blessings in life. And in the passage we’ll read in just a moment, we’re going to see that we have been blessed beyond measure.
But here is the potential problem. If you look at the rest of the hymn, you’ll see that it is largely focused on what God has done “for me”. It’s really easy to make the gospel “me-centered” like that, isn’t it? one way we see that in today’s culture is people who are constantly moving from church to church to find one that will meet their needs.
The lyrics to a more contemporary song are certainly more egregious when it comes to making the gospel “me-centered”.
You didn’t want heaven without us / So Jesus, you brought heaven down.
I can’t speak to the composers’ intentions here, but just at face value the lyrics seem to suggest that God is lonely without us so He sent Jesus down to earth to save us so that we could be with Him. Again, please don’t misunderstand me here. God does love us and takes delight in us. The parable about the father who throws a party for the prodigal son when he returns home certainly demonstrates that. But the idea that heaven would somehow be incomplete without me is obviously very self-centered.
This morning we’re going to begin a new sermon series that will take us through the book of Ephesians foe the next few months. This morning as we look at the beginning of Paul’s letter, I am going to do my best to answer the question I just posed:
Why did Jesus come into the world to save sinners?
Truth
I last preached through the book of Ephesians here at TFC back in 2007-2008. That series contained over 50 messages. I actually preached 5 different messages on the 14 verses we’re going to cover this morning.
So this morning, I’ll try to heed this advice from the comedian George Burns:
“The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”
― George Burns
Let’s begin with a brief background on Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. Paul likely wrote this letter from his prison cell in Rome in about AD 62. As we’ll see, he writes primarily to the believers there, many of whom had become disciples of Jesus Christ as the result of one or more of Paul’s previous trips there.
Since Paul stayed in Ephesus longer than any other place during his missionary journeys, it’s not surprising that once he is imprisoned in Rome he is concerned about the believers there. So he sits down and writes this letter to teach and encourage those disciples. But this letter had a much more far reaching impact as many believe it was a circular letter that was also read in the other churches in the region. And that letter still serves to teach and train us nearly 2,000 years later.
The letter contains two clearly distinct sections:
Chapters 1-3 primarily contain doctrine. In these chapters Paul recounts all the spiritual blessings that we have as a result of God’s work in our lives. The focus in these chapters is on what God has done for us.
Chapters 4-6 primarily contain practical principles about how to live out our faith hereon this earth. The focus in these chapters is on how we are to serve God in our daily lives as a result of what God has done for us.
When I look back on the five sermons I preached on this morning’s passage back in 2007, I can see that there was a lot of value in digging more deeply into several important theological concepts in this section, things like election and predestination, and redemption and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But I also think that I may have essentially missed the forest for the trees and not given nearly enough attention to the overarching theme. So today, I’m not going go into a lot of detail on every single verse, but instead focus more on that theme. I’m going to give that to you right up front so that you can keep it in mind as we read today’s passage.
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
With that in mind, follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
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.
This letter begins with a salutation that is very similar to many of his letters. Paul identifies himself as an “apostle” of Christ. The word apostle there can be used as a title, but the word itself just means “messenger” or “one who is sent out”. That is essentially who we are as well, isn’t it?
Paul addresses the letter to the “saints who are in Ephesus”. In our culture the word “saint” describes someone who has been officially recognized as being an especially holy or pious. But the underlying Greek word literally means “the set apart ones” and Paul uses it to identify everyone who has put their faith in Jesus.
In the underlying Greek, the next twelve verses we are going to read comprise just one sentence. It is the longest sentence in the Bible. Before I continue reading I want to encourage you to look for two things that are crucial to our understanding of these verses:
The phrase “in Christ” or its equivalent.
The phrase that is repeated three times that gives rise to the main idea we talked about just a minute ago. Let me remind you of that one more time:
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
With that in mind, please follow along as I read.
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,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
At first glance, it would be easy to make this entire passage very me-centered, wouldn’t it. After all Paul begins by telling his readers that God has blessed them with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. That is certainly a mind-blowing statement isn’t it? Think about that for a moment. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, then God has bestowed every spiritual blessing on you…every spiritual blessing. And as I said earlier, we ought to give God thanks for that every moment of every day.
But if you take in the entire passage, it becomes obvious very quickly that God did that primarily for His glory and not just for me, even though I certainly benefit from what God has done for me in Jesus.
Notice how this sentence begins: Blessed be who? That’s right blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So right away, this passage is primarily God-focused and not me-focused.
The next thing we see here is the prevalence of the phrases “in Christ”, “in him”, ‘in the beloved” and “through Jesus Christ”. If I counted correctly those phrases are used 11 times in these 12 verses. Almost every single verse contains one of those phrases. Obviously Paul’s focus here is 100% on Jesus and not so much on himself or even the other disciples of Jesus he is writing to.
The next thing I want us to notice is who is doing all the action here. In fact, let’s compare what God does and what we do.
Here is what God does:
He blesses us
He chooses us
He predestines us
He redeems us
He forgives us
He lavishes His grace on us
He makes known His will
He unites all things
He gives us an inheritance
He seals us
How about what we do?
We hear
We believe
That’s it. And as we’ll see later in the book, even our ability to believe is a gift from God. So basically God does everything and we bring nothing to the table.
Finally, remember I asked you to look for a short phrase that appears 3 times here in this passage - one that really nails down our main idea for today. Can anyone tell me what that is?
That’s right. “to the praise of his glorious grace” (v. 6) and “to the praise of his glory” (vs. 12, 14)
That is the answer to the question I asked earlier:
Why did Jesus come into the world to save sinners?
He did that so that we would know and glorify God. That is why He did the ten things on the list we compiled from this passage just a minute ago. Obviously we are blessed greatly by every single one of those things, But the main reason God did all those things “in Christ” was so that He would be glorified.
I love what Pastor John MacArthur said about that:
The reason for our existence is to know and glorify God. The reason for creation is that God may be glorified. The purpose of the universe is to create a theater in which God can redeem a humanity who will be drawn into His presence to glorify Him forever and ever. Everything is about glorifying God.
That is why we’ve identified our main idea today as...
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
Application
So how do we make much of God with our lives? I could give you a very long list, but this morning I want to leave you with just three practical ways to do that.
HOW TO MAKE MUCH OF GOD IN MY LIFE
HOW TO MAKE MUCH OF GOD IN MY LIFE
Put my faith in Jesus alone
Put my faith in Jesus alone
That is what it means to be “in Christ” - the phase that Paul uses over and over again in this passage.
It means acknowledging that I bring nothing to the table and that I am trusting in Jesus alone, and not in anything I can do as the basis for my relationship with God.
I think most of us are probably familiar with the words of Jesus that He spoke to His disciples right before He went to the cross:
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus told us directly that the only way to the Father is through Him. I believe that just because Jesus said that. But today’s passage gives us even more insight into why that is the case.
Every other religion in the world requires that I do something in order to be made right with God. Here’s the problem with that. If I am made right with God based on something I accomplish then who gets the glory? I do. Right?
But if I bring nothing to the table and God does everything - chooses me, predestines me, redeems me, forgives me. and everything else we see in this passage - and all I have to do is believe, then who gets all the glory? God does.
I’m pretty sure that most of you joining us today would say that you’ve already done that. But it’s also possible that some of you have never really done that. Maybe you’ve been coming to church regularly for years. You contribute to the offering each week. You try to live the best life you can. Maybe you’ve even “prayed the prayer” and asked Jesus to forgive your sins and “come into your heart”. But you’ve never really put your faith in Jesus alone as the way to God. You’re still trying to earn God’s favor by something that you do.
If that’s the case, not only are you missing out on all the spiritual blessings that God wants to give you in Jesus, you are robbing God of the glory that is due to Him. If that is true of your life, then today will you put your faith in Jesus alone and quit trying to earn God’s favor by what you do? If you’re not sure exactly how to do that or would like to talk about that some more, please let me or Ryan know and we’d be privileged to help you with that decision.
But that’s not the only way I can effectively rob God of His glory. Whenever I’m preparing a sermon, I can easily begin to think that this is a great sermon and isn’t God lucky to have me to preach it. It’s really easy to drift back into the idea that I have something to offer God that He really needs isn’t it? But when we do that, we’re trying to grab the glory for ourselves and take it away from God. And whenever we do that, we need to confess that as sin and repent.
Trust God even when it doesn’t make sense
Trust God even when it doesn’t make sense
In this passage, we learned that one of the things God does for us is to reveal the mystery of His will. When Paul writes about “mystery” there, he is specifically referring to the idea that until the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, there were aspects of the gospel that were still a mystery, but now in Jesus they have been revealed.
But, as I’m sure we’ve all experienced, that doesn’t mean that God always reveals the details of His will for our lives ahead of time. Typically what God does is to just reveal the next step in our journey and ask us to be obedient to that. That requires a lot of trust in God doesn’t it. It means that I have to believe that God is good and that He knows what is best for me, even if it doesn’t make sense to me at the time.
There is a sense in which the entire gospel doesn’t make sense, right? The idea that we’re made right with God by the death and resurrection of His Son, really isn’t very logical. And there are a lot of other things in the Bible that really don’t seem very logical. But when we trust God in those situations, then we give glory to God by acknowledging that His ways are better than ours.
Bear fruit
Bear fruit
As Jesus spent time in the garden with His disciples shortly before He went to the cross, He spoke these words:
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Jesus revealed that God is glorified when we bear much fruit. But, taken in context of that entire discourse, Jesus makes it clear that we can only bear that kind of fruit when we abide in Him, which is just another way of saying that we need to be “in Christ”. And the primary way that we bear fruit is to love others the way that Jesus loved us by laying down His life for us.
Because that is something that no human can do naturally, when we love others like that it gives us the opportunity to tell people that it is the work of Jesus in our lives that makes it possible. And when we do that, we give all the glory to God.
Action
We’ve learned today that...
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
God’s primary purpose is not to make much of me, but to make much of Him.
Does your life reflect that purpose?
I’m going to ask everyone to bow your head and close your eyes for a few moments and to consider and honestly answer a few questions:
In your life are you making much of God or making much of self?
Is your idea of the gospel God-centered or me-centered?
Is your relationship with God all about what you can get out of it or all about doing all you can to make sure God gets the glory He deserves?
As you consider those questions, is there something you need to do in response to what God has revealed:
Do you need to put your faith in Jesus alone for the first time? If so, will you commit right now to contact me or Ryan so we can help walk you through that process?
Is there some sin you need to confess? Will you do that right now?
Is there some specific change you need to make in your life to make sure that you’re not robbing God of His glory. If so, will you go ahead and write that down. And if we can help you do that in any way, please let us know.
Inspiration
When we began this morning, I pointed out some song lyrics that could indicate that we’ve made the gospel “me-centered” rather than God-centered. Fortunately, however, I am encouraged by the fact that most of the songs we sing are God glorifying. Among those is the song “How Good is He”. The song ends with these words that I think do a great job of expressing what we’ve learned today:
How good is He
If He never did another thing for me
He is all I'll ever need
How Good is He