Guaranteeing our inheritance
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you have your Bibles , please turn to
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Paul was a prisoner when he wrote this letter. It is most likely he was a prisoner of Rome when this letter was written. It is also around the same time period that he wrote, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. This is around AD 60
Ephesians is an interesting letter because it was a letter that was meant to be circled around to different churches, not just the church at Ephesus. You will notice that Paul does not name anyone in the letter. There is also no articular problem raised in the Epistle either.
I want to preference this sermon with one other issue. There will probably be questions. Please feel free to come discuss any questions with me.
So let’s dive into the one of the biggest questions of following Jesus
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
In the last series where we covered Galatians we have looked at the blessings that God gives us. This is why every single prayer needs to start with a praise for who God is. God blesses us with every spiritual blessings that we can have in life. This isn’t something we can do ourselves and God is much bigger than we are and yet He blesses us each and every day. Many times this is about having a Godly perspective on our lives. This is why Paul and the other apostles tell us many times that we must keep our minds on heavenly things. Many times in life it come down to the having the proper perspective on what is happening.
Ephesians 1:4–6 (NIV)
For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
We are going to cover the tough aspect of free will vs pre-destination. Now we have to start with some common ground before I lay out what Paul is talking about. First there is no way to get around predestination. It is used throughout the Holy Scriptures. There is no way to simply ignore it. Furthermore to ignore it would be to make the argument that God is not sovereign over the world and His creation. So there must be an element of predestination. Furthermore almost all of the book of Revelation details events that are to happen. Which would imply that that God is in control of the events of the world. So we must start at the point that God is sovereign over all things.
Now here is the question: did God pick you to be adopted into sonship through Jesus Christ? Did He specifically pick you?
The answer is yes but the answer is yes to everyone. Who did Jesus go to the cross for? Who does Jesus redeem? Jesus goes to the cross for everyone. Jesus was predestined all the way back after the fall of man. Jesus is the one that redeems the world. He is predestined. Just as He is predestined to return to the world.
So what about you , how did you come to Jesus, well in Theology this is called “ Conditional pre-destination”
God’s grace and love is what brings you to God. God breaks into your life and the Gospel is presented to you. These moments in your life are called Kairos moments. Kairos means that God breaks in. He personally enters your life and various times throughout your life. Now what you do when the Gospel is given to you, that is your choice. However God did not leave you out in the wilderness to make that decision on your own. If you look back on your life, you will see those moments.
Let us look at what Martin Luther says about free will.
Free will without God’s grace is not free will at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good.
Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)
Without God breaking into your life, without the grace of God, people would never turn to God. I want you to think about how powerful the lure of sin is, how powerful the sense of self is. Without God’s grace in our lives, we are simply prisoners.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
But we are not prisoners because we have the redemption through the blood of Jesus. Our sins, our wrongdoings, our shame and anxiety. The battles we face day in and day out are all washed clean by the blood of Jesus. The mystery that so many people struggle with is made known to us. The mystery of the world is no mystery. His will is no mystery. The will of God is that we would put our faith in Jesus, and that we would proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior. After that, we live out as best we can the path that Jesus already walked for us.
to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
This is why we cannot get away from predestination. Even people that do not follow Jesus believe there will be an end times. There will be a time with God has said that the times have reached and Jesus will return. This is Jesus gave us the great commission before He returns to the right hand of the Father. We must stand up for the Word of God. We must tell people about Jesus and we must help people. We must welcome people in to the house of God. Because there will be a time when time has run out. It will be the ultimate Kairos moment when God breaks into all of our lives at one moment in time and then time will cease. These are not scriptures that are to be taken lightly and this why time after time this church has stood up for the Word of God because people must know the truth and not be lead astray by wolves in sheeps clothing.
Ephesians 1:11 (NIV)
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
Here we look again that God chose us but the second part of this verse is why I singled it out. According to the plan of Him. According to His plan. I am try my best to be honest and open. I have to tell you that I do not how people function believing that there is not a grand plan for this world. There is not a grand plan for your life, or my life. That would mean that all that happens in this world is random. There is no hope in randomness. There is only hope in that God is working a plan according to His will. God is working a plan that includes your lives and my life. We must start trusting God with those plans because I would much rather trust God with His plan rather than mine. I do not always know the point of the plan. Honestly I don’t. Sometimes I sit in this sanctuary by myself and just ask God why is this happening. As much as I try to have answers, I do not always have the answers and furthermore it isn’t for me to know the answers. That is the same in your lives. Here is what I do know though. God loves us so much that He sent His son so that we can redemption. God loves us so much that He doesn’t just leave us alone but He breaks into our lives. He breaks into history and the world. There is a plan that we are all working towards. Our part of the plan is to do the will of God
Doing the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about his plans.
George Macdonald (Scottish Novelist and Poet)
That gives me comfort. I will concentrate on what I can do and God takes care of the plan.
in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
The Gospel puts in our hope in Jesus and with that we receive our salvation. We get the Holy Spirit because of what Jesus did. Because we believed and put in our faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit was sent to us.
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit is a deposit on our inheritance. It proves that we are now in God’s possession and to be honest there is not anywhere else I would rather be. And this is where the true hope is proven over and over again by God.
We live in trying times and about that there is no debate. We face times in which people are moving away from the Word of God and searching for answers else where. Some are even distorting the Word of God to justify their own ends. This isn’t the will of God. Jesus came to this world predestined to redeem us to the Father.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is the plan and will of God
Let us pray
