By The Will Of God

By The Will Of God Ephesians 1:1–14 (NIV84) 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 11 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, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Friends, today I’d like us to contemplate what God desires to share with us from the first three verses of this letter. We have read more to get broader perspective, but I’d like us to focus only one the first three verses. Verses 4-14 merely embroider onto verse 3. Paul begins here with the conventional greeting like he starts all his other letters. But I’d like you to see it for what it is. Friends, in the first part of the first verse Paul identifies himself. This self-identification is out of the depth of his most vivid self-consciousness and sense of call — “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” As you know, Paul was not one of the original twelve disciples (later called apostles). No, originally Paul had another agenda. In Acts 7:59, Luke reminds us that while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” In Acts 8:1-3 and 9:1-2 Paul’s agenda is revealed. 1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Acts 8:1–3 (NIV84) Acts 9:1–2 (NIV84) 1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. That was his will, his desire, his passion, his fanaticism in action for God – to put every Christian behind bars. However, in verse 1 of this letter, we read about a different agenda. In a few words, we could say almost in a cryptic manner, and Paul states that he does what he does because that is God’s will. Luke tells us how that change occurred: that the risen Christ Jesus confronted Paul on the road to Damascus and called him to preach the gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Acts 9:3–19). Acts 9:3–6 (NIV84) 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” An apostle was a messenger, a “sent one.” The apostles’ mission was to be God’s representatives: They were envoys, messengers, delegates, directly under the authority of Jesus Christ. They had authority to set up and supervise churches and to discipline them if necessary, which Paul did on all three of his missionary journeys and after his release from this first imprisonment in Rome. Paul says he was Jesus’ messenger “by the will of God.” If ever there was a clear-cut case of someone’s not choosing God but being chosen by him, it was Paul of Tarsus. Saul, as he was then named, was a violent persecutor of the church. He was there when Stephen was martyred (Acts 7:58). He was heading to Damascus to do more harm to Christians when Jesus stopped him in his tracks. From that moment, Paul followed, later becoming Christianity’s greatest missionary. For me, personally, there is a tremendously hopeful message in Paul’s story. It reminds us that we have no excuses. It doesn’t matter whatever sins we have committed, whatever sinful thoughts or deeds haunt our past—or present—they are minor compared to Paul’s. If God’s grace was sufficient for him, it is adequate for us. Therefore, we can let go of our feelings of guilt or inadequacy and leave them at the foot of the cross. Paul did, and the world has never been the same. Paul uses several labels to describe his first readers in the second part of verse 1. He refers to them as “saints”. He is not using this word to describe a few spiritual élite members of the church. No, he is describing all God’s people. They were called “saints” because they had been set apart to belong to him. The expression was first applied to Israel as the “holy nation”, but came to be extended to the whole international Christian community, which is the Israel of God. A little girl who attended worship in a place with a lot of stained-glass windows was asked what a saint was. “A saint is a person the light shines through,” she replied. A saint is someone whose life—speech, actions, attitudes, relationships—points to Jesus. Does yours? The Bible teaches that all believers are saints—including you! This is not a reflection of your personal holiness but of the fact that a holy God has set you apart for his purposes. Face your day ready to treat each responsibility or each relationship as an opportunity to reflect God’s mercy to others. Next, they are also faithful. The adjective “pistes” can have either an active meaning (‘trusting’, ‘having faith’) or a passive (‘trustworthy’, ‘being faithful’). RSV, for instance, chooses the passive, but the active seems better since God’s people are ‘the household of faith’, united by their common trust in God through Jesus Christ. Maybe Paul blends the two senses of pistis, “belief” and “fidelity”, here. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a believer who is not himself believable, or a trustworthy Christian who has not learned trustworthiness from Him in whom he has put his trust. Thirdly, Paul’s readers are in Christ Jesus. This vital expression of the letter thus occurs in its very first verse. To be ‘in Christ’ is to be personally and vitally united to Christ, as branches are to the vine and members to the body, and thereby also to Christ’s people. For it is impossible to be part of the Body without being related to both the Head and the members. Much of what the epistle later develops is already here in bud. According to the New Testament—and especially Paul—to be a Christian is, in essence, to be ‘in Christ’, ONE with Him and with His people. Fourthly, some manuscripts add that Paul’s readers are at Ephesus. Originally a Greek colony, Ephesus was now the capital of the Roman province of Asia and a busy commercial port. It was also the headquarters of the cult of the goddess. Diana (or Artemis) whose temple, after being destroyed in the middle of the fourth century BC, had gradually been rebuilt to become one of the seven wonders of the world. Indeed, the success of Paul’s mission in Ephesus had so threatened the sale of silver models of her temple that the silversmiths had stirred up a public outcry. Paul’s description of the first readers of this letter is comprehensive. 1. They are saints because they belong to God; 2. They are believers because they have trusted in Christ; 3. and they have two homes, for they live equally a. ‘in Christ’ and b. ‘in Ephesus’. Now, this is the bit that we need to understand: this description didn’t apply to Ephesians alone. All Christian people are saints and believers and live both in Christ and in the secular world, or ‘in the heavenlies’ and on earth. I believe many Christians experience spiritual trouble because we fail to remember that we are citizens of two kingdoms. We tend either to pursue Christ and withdraw from the world or to become preoccupied with the world and forget that we are also in Christ. Jesus came to the world to be in the world, for the sake of the world even though he never participated in the practices of the world. In this He is our role model too. Jesus Christ brought a new relationship between God and people—we have a relationship with God only because of Christ Jesus and only because we are “in” him through our belief in him. In fact, Paul used this phrase (or a variation of it) twelve times in the first fourteen verses as he stressed the unity all believers should have because of their common bond in Christ. Not only do believers have faith, but they are also faithful; however, it is only when believers are “in Christ Jesus” that they can be faithful. Faithfulness is possible only in Christ. As an apostle, one sent, Paul’s authority was not self-generated, but was ordained of God. He, therefore, could not help but preach Jesus. However, as he stated in 1 Corinthians 9:16 (NIV84) 16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! Listen carefully, because I think this point is more important than what most preachers think: Before he met Christ Jesus, he was “Saul,” named after the tallest and vainest of the Benjaminites, King Saul, from whom he descended according to Philippians 3:4–6. But after coming to know that Jesus is Christ, he takes the name “Paul” — small. The Lion had cut him down to size. Now he humbly says, “but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV84) Paul’s smallness became the medium for God’s bigness, his weakness a channel for God’s power. Instead of a gospel of persecution and damnation, the humble Paul started to preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Grace” means God’s undeserved favour. It is through God’s kindness alone that anyone can become acceptable to God. As Paul will write later in this letter, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) Grace means the free, unmerited, unexpected love of God, and all the benefits, delights, and comforts which flow from it. It means that while we were sinners and enemies we have been treated as sons and heirs. Friends, Ephesians — carefully, reverently, prayerfully considered — will change our lives. It is not so much a question of what we will do with the epistle, but what it will do with us. This is what we have to offer to others — a brand-new greeting from another world: “Grace and peace.” All who genuinely want this can have it through Jesus Christ. But there is more. We have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Under the Old Covenant, God’s promised blessings were primarily material, such as those guaranteed to obedient Israel in Deuteronomy 28:1–14 — fruitful wombs, flourishing crops, abundant flocks, bread in every basket, prosperity, and world influence. Likewise, under the New Covenant Jesus takes care of his own materially and charges them not to worry about their needs (Matthew 6:25–34). In all of this, Paul celebrates God. “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.” God is not stingy when it comes to bestowing His blessings on His much-loved children. He has already given us every spiritual blessing, securing them for us in heaven, where none can be stolen, damaged, or kept back. Our highest response to all this must be to hold our gifts up to God and sing the boundless praise of him who reigns above! Our theology must become doxology. As we read Ephesians today, to be strengthened and encouraged as Christians for the new tasks that lie ahead, we should remember that all genuine Christian life and action flows out of worship. True worship of the true God cannot help telling and retelling, with joy and amazement, the story of what this God has done in Jesus the Messiah.