Blessings of Redemption Ephesians 1:3-14
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: Talk about adopting a child...
3 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,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on 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 on us. In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him
11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Transitional Sentence: We who believe the Gospel message receive numerous spiritual blessings the hour we first believe.
The spiritual blessings!
3 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,
Verses 3 through 14 of this first chapter tell us about the spiritual blessings that God provides. They are a blessing given to us as a gift for our welfare. A gift to strengthen and encourage us. A gift to give us hope for the future. The thing is not one of them will really do anything for you in this life. You can’t sell them, you can’t give them away, you can’t pawn them or use them as collateral for a loan. Once you accept them and believe you shouldn’t ever want to return them anyway.
b. They are a blessing and gift that provides us with an identity, a new identity, a new family.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Each one of these blessings points to God as your Father. All of them point to a new you, a new you in Christ Jesus.
c. We find these blessings in the heavenly places - they are a guarantee of what’s to come. But for the here and now this is spiritual armor. Holding onto this identity provides protection from the evil one. It keeps the lies of the evil one from keeping you from living a life free of darkness. It is a part of the armor that God has provided for our use to stand up for Him in this dark world. Learn them, remember them use them in your daily life.
2. So, what are these Blessings?
Predestined (verse 5, 11)- Determined in advance by divine will or fate. Talk about Dave and not wanting to talk about predestination - it goes against free will.
b. Chose (verse 4) - Pick out or select someone or something as the best or most appropriate of two or more alternatives - (Before the foundations of the world) According to this we did not choose Him - He chose us. This coupled together with predestined means we had no choice in the matter. You being a part of the family has nothing to do with you and what you want. God worked everything out in your life to make sure you are a part of the family. You may not like to idea of this, but I’m okay with it. I can look back on my life and see Him at work.
I was walking His path until......
14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
c. Adoption (verse 5) - Legally take another’s child and bring it up as one’s own. Adoption in this country requires a lot of paperwork, money and a lot of rules have to be followed. But God took care of the legalities of adoption ounce for all. The only payment required was the blood of Christ Jesus on the cross. An unblemished sacrifice in exchange for a mess of a human being. Adoption is legal and binding.
d. Sealed (verse 13) - Fasten or close securely; apply a nonporous coating to make it impervious. Talk about a clay pot Eph 1:13
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
e. Inheritance (verse 11, 14)- Money or objects that someone gives you when they die or a physical or mental (Spiritual) characteristic inherited from your parents
f. Forgiveness (verse 7) - Stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense, flaw, or mistake or cancel a debt
g. Redemption (verse 7, 14) - compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something or gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment - (Talk about an item at a pawn shop).
h. Holy and blameless (verse 4)- holy is dedicated or consecrated to God and blameless is innocent of wrongdoing - We are Holy because God sets us apart as His and blameless because He makes it so through the power of the blood of Christ Jesus. This is sanctification. We are set apart for God, immediate sanctification, and then made blameless, He works in us to continually change us and remove the sin that binds us to the darkness. But you have to allow Him to do it. You have to stop kicking against the goads. Stop fighting Him, stop trying to go your own way, walk completely into the light.
i. Grace (verse 6, 7)- Unmerited Favor as in Romans 5:15 “15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.” or a power provided by God for our daily living as in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
j. Lavished (verse 8) - Bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities
3. How do we get these blessings?
By God’s Will (verse 5, 9, 11)
If you say you want something done, that something, would be your will. It is the same for God. When God wills something to happen it happens. Well in verses 5, 9, and 11 Paul says that these things, theses blessings, happen in accordance with God’s will. So, these blessings don’t come to us because we say we want them. They come to us because God says they are ours. We need only to believe the gospel message and accept it as truth. He does the rest.
b. In God’s Way (verse 7 His blood) Eph 1:13
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
God’s way is that you believe the Gospel message. This is where your will comes into the mix. You accept God’s gift and all of these blessings by believing in His Son Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior or you don’t. That’s your choice. Chose this day whom you will serve, the gods of this present evil or the God of all creation and His Son Christ Jesus.
c. In God’s Time (verse 10) Says that all of this was done according to the fullness of the time. With the Death and resurrection of Christ Jesus all of this was made possible. So now is the time. God’s time for you is now. Don’t wait, don’t harden your heart. Believe and be saved.
d. Your work to receive all of these blessings and become a part of the family is to believe. Believe by Faith. Only through faith will you be saved. Remember the price has been paid for our redemption we don’t need to try and work it off. The price was too high to even try to pay for it.
Eph 2:8 says:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Just open the gift and all of these blessings will be lavished upon you. You will have a brand new identity - you will be a child of God. You will be a part of the greatest family there is - the Family of God.
Exit: For the past few weeks I talked about Isaiah 43:18–19 “18 “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. 19 “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”
I used this for us as a church, not looking to the past and the way we did things but looking forward to the future to what God is going to do. Well, what if you took those two verses and applied them to your own life. What if you stop looking back at what your life was like and you start looking forward toward the new thing that God wants to do in your life. What if you completely accepted what God did for you the hour you first believed. What if you completely turned your life over to the Lord Jesus and you accepted your true identity. The identity as a child of God. What would you do differently? Would you come to church more, volunteer more, tell more people about Jesus, give up your life and start serving God in some full time ministry position? Would you go to the ends of the earth to carry the gospel message to people who have never heard?
These 10 blessings make us who we are in Christ Jesus, children of God. But to receive it you must first believe the gospel message and accept the free gift of God, your salvation through the blood of the Lord Jesus, through grace by faith. Believe and be made new. Believe and walk in a newness of life.
Remember these blessings. Keep them in your heart and your head they will protect you in times of trouble.
Finish by re-reading the passage with the personal pronoun - YOU!
Pray!