Eph Adopted 4 Notes
SERMON NOTES
Subject: Blessing #3 - “We were Adopted
Speaker: Dr. A. Burge Troxel
Date: July 8, 2007
Scripture: Ephesians 1:5, Galatians 4:4-8
The Book of Ephesians
The Spiritual Blessing of
Being Adopted
Ephesians 1:5
Introduction:
Review of Blueprint for the Church – Eph 2:21, 4:16, 1:3
Blessing #3 – We are Adopted
God’s Blueprint = TOGETHERNESS
Ephesians 4:16
“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Outline
The Spiritual Foundation 1-3
What to Believe
The Spiritual Structure 4-6
How to Behave
The Spiritual Foundation
Spiritual Blessings
Spiritual Salvation
Spiritual Union
Spiritual Mystery
Ephesians 1:3
“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.”
Spiritual Blessings – 1:3-14
We are Chosen
We are Predestined
We are Adopted
We are Redeemed
We are Forgiven
We are Sealed
JOKE?
A woman has twins. Unfortunately due to her financial situation, she gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Amal.” The other goes to a family in Spain they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mom. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, “But they are twins—if you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amal.”
Ephesians 1:5
“he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—”
Galatians 4:4-5 (NAS)
4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:7
“So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
[Spiritual] Adoption
• We Were Slaves to Sin
• We Are Adopted Sons
• We Will Be Heirs with Christ
Comparison with Physical Adoption.
Physical Spiritual
Orphans – No one to care for us. Parents unable for whatever reasons to look after their child. Alone. Orphanage or foster Home. No special identity in a family. Lost. I’m sure orphans sometimes have terrible feelings. Maybe they have been passed over for adoption or sent home.
And, then one day a Husband & Wife come and say. We want you to be a member of our family. What love and care that orphan must have felt. I can’t imagine. Perhaps someone here could. So suddenly this orphan become a member of a particular family. And everything change. The past is not so important anymore. What is important is the now and the new and wonderful future that is possible.
What Is Physical Adoption?
A small girl recently gave her definition of the word “adoption.” “It is when you love someone and you ask them to come and live with you.” Simplicity is still the best way to say a thing, is it not? God loves us too, and He wants to adopt us as sons and daughters—how about it? Would you come and live with Him?
Love Without Coercion
My wife and I waited 15 years for a child that never came by the natural way. However we were approached one day with a lead of a newborn not yet born. I remember standing in front of the judge on our day of adoption. He pointed his finger and asked of me, “Is anyone coercing you to adopt this little boy?” After we had assured him that we were doing so out of love for our sin, he made this statement. “From today on, he is your son. He may disappoint you, even grieve you but he is your son. Everything you own one day will be his and he will bear your name.” Then he looked to the clerk and gave this command. “So order a change in this child’s birth certificate and may it reflect that these are the parents of this child.”
It was then that I realized that my Heavenly Father loved me so much that, without coercion, He loved me and gave His all to me. On that day, He changed my name and I gladly bear His name and His image.
Gerald Penix
I. We Were Slaves to Sin – Rom 6:17a [Not Orphans
Romans 6:17a
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, . . .”
Past Tense – Sin should not longer be our master.
A. Leading to death – Rom 6:16
Romans 6:16
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
B. Controlled by unrighteousness, not righteousness – Rom 6:20
Romans 6:20
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.”
C. Slaves to Satan – Gal 4:8
Galatians 4:8
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.”
Blinded by Satan, false gods.
II. We Are Adopted Sons – Rom 8:15
Romans 8:15
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
No practical difference between natural and adopted sons (God doesn’t have any natural sons other than Jesus).
Two boys were registering for the first grade. They were almost the same height and weight and had the same last name. The teacher asked: “Are you twins?” “No,” one of them answered. When she noticed on their birth certificates that there was only six months difference in their ages, she asked: “Are you cousins?” “No, we’re brothers,” one boy replied. “Well,” said the teacher, “please have your mother write down the dates of your birth, and bring it to me. If you aren’t twins and you are brothers, one of you would have to be more than six months older than the other.” Both boys looked at each other and then one of them said with a smile: “One of us don’t have to be older than the other, cuz one of us is adopted. But I don’t know which one.”
—Msgr. Arthur Tonne, Jokes Priests Can Tell, vol. 6
8:15-17. In contrast with the control of sin, which enslaves to the point of fear, believers have received the Spirit of sonship. The word translated “sonship” (huiothesias) means “placing as a son” and is frequently translated “adoption” (as in, e.g., v. 23). Believers are adopted sons (Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5), not slaves (Gal. 4:7); so they need not be enslaved to sin or in fear. In New Testament times adopted sons enjoyed the same privileges as natural-born sons. So, instead of cowering in slave-like fear, Christians can approach God in an intimate way calling Him Abba, Father. “Abba” is a Greek and English transliteration of the Aramaic word for father (used elsewhere in the NT only in Mark 14:36; Gal. 4:6). Besides being adopted into God’s family as sons, believers also are His children (tekna, “born ones”) by the new birth (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2). And the Holy Spirit, who gives believers life, testifies with (not to) their spirit(s) of the fact of the new birth.
Abba is an informal Aramaic term for Father, connoting intimacy, tenderness, dependence, and complete lack of fear or anxiety. Modern English equivalents would be Daddy, or Papa. When Jesus was agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane as He was about to take upon Himself the sins of the world, He used that name of endearment, praying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for Thee; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).
Just as an orphan feels completely accepted and loved and cared for when the adoption occurs and he or she is not longer an orphan but a son. We too should sense the wonder of having been slaves to sin but because of God’s adoption, we have become Adopted Children of God.!!! Awesome.
And became se are sons, we will be heirs with Christ.
III. We Will Be Heirs with Christ – Rom 8:17
Romans 8:17
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
In many families children inherit their parents’ estates; each child is an heir and the children together are co-heirs. Similarly, since Christians are God’s children, they are His heirs (cf. Gal. 4:7), and they are co-heirs with Christ. They are recipients of all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3) now, and in the future they will share with the Lord Jesus in all the riches of God’s kingdom (John 17:24; 1 Cor. 3:21-23). Sharing with Jesus Christ, however, involves more than anticipating the glories of heaven. For Jesus Christ it involved suffering and abuse and crucifixion; therefore being co-heirs with Christ requires that believers share in His sufferings (cf. John 15:20; Col. 1:24; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12). In fact believers do share in His sufferings; if indeed translates eiper, which means “if, as is the fact” (cf. Rom. 8:9). Then after the suffering they will share in His glory (2 Tim. 2:12; 1 Peter 4:13; 5:10).
We don’t receive what we deserve, but we receive what Christ deserves. We do not inherit the penalty of sin, but the blessings of sonship!
A. Of everything – Heb 1:2
Hebrews 1:2
“but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”
B. Of the Kingdom – James 2:5
James 2:5
“Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”
Privilege and Responsibility
C. Of Eternal Life – Titus 3:7
Titus 3:7
“so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Conclusion
Praise God He Adopted Us as Sons
Harriett Buell wrote the words for “A Child of the King” one Sunday morning while walking home from her Methodist church service. She sent her text to the Northern Christian Advocate, and it was printed in the February 1, 1877 issue of the magazine. John Sumner, a singing school music teacher, saw the words and composed the music without Harriett Buell’s knowledge. The hymn has been widely used since then to remind believers who they really are—bearers of God’s image (Genesis 1:26) and children of the King of kings.
My Father is rich in houses and lands; He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands! Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, His coffers are full—He has riches untold.
My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men, once wandered o’er earth as the poorest of them; but now He is reigning forever on high, and will give me a home in heav’n by and by.
I once was an outcast stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth; but I’ve been adopted; my name’s written down—an heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.
A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there! Tho exiled from home, yet still I may sing: All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.
Chorus: I’m a child of the King! With Jesus, my Savior, I’m a child of the King!
Are you an adopted child of the King, or are you still living as a slave to sin?
