Untitled Sermon

Introduction

There has been a catchphrase over the past few years “fake news”. This phrase has been used to define an event or information that allegedly is a hoax or scheme devised to lead a person astray. News articles with misleading facts are considered to be fake news. Paul has been preaching to this Ephesian church in this first chapter about God. How God has provided a solution for their sins through Jesus Christ. He has explained how we have been redeemed. The word redeemed implies that God bought us out of sin. When the Bible talks about redemption it speaks of redemption through three aspects, Past, present and future. The past redemption deals with what Christ did on the cross to free us from the penalty of sin. Then the Bible speaks of redemption as God presently redeeming our lives from sin changing us into new people.

Illustration: I like to watch these shows where people will by an old beat up property and renovate it and make a profit from their labor. This is sort of what redemption is like. If you were to have seen our lives 10 or 20 years ago. Maybe last year you can admit you wouldn’t have seen much but God redeemed our lives. He took what look like beat up and worthless and bought us through the blood of Jesus.

To further illustrate redemption have you ever gave up on yourself and someone comes by and reminds you of who you are. They may say things like, “you better than that” You take those words and you are redeemed. All of us needed to be redeemed. If we were to ask what is wrong with our lives? We need to have our relationship with the father redeemed. The problem with us is that we want a relationship with God on our terms.

God wants to redeem us through Jesus Christ

What are the steps of redemption?

There are several steps of redemption we can see in Ephesians.

Trusted Truth

The gentiles and early church members have been listening to this new message of a man who was supposed to be God in the flesh and something about his death is supposed to save them. First off many of the early church like most of us didn’t even know they needed saving or they knew Jesus died for sinners but this truth didn’t apply to them until one day the message began to resonate and they gave in. They thought that Christianity was fake news but like so many us they one day God through the Holy Spirit began to make the gospel means something to them.

Illustration: The frustration and the joy of preaching is you never know when or what you’re going to say that breaks the fallow ground of a person’s heart. God in says that his word will not return back to him void until it has accomplished its mission

Truth Saves

We live in a plural society with all types of things we can believe in and some of these belief can come from well meaning people with good intentions. The gospel has a supreme goal in our lives. Its main goal is to bring us into right relationship with God and help us to become the you God intended for us to be.

Truth leads to Sealing

The term sealing is the meat of this message. The experience of salvation is the accomplished by the Holy Spirit from day one

Illustration: Some jobs make you wait 90 days before they provide you with benefits like healthcare and their retirement programs. They want to see how you going to perform.

Salvation is not based on how you perform it is based on the life and death of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus live a life that qualified him to be the propitiation for sins. The mediator between us and God. Salvation came through the shedding of Jesus blood. The word seal speak of a symbol of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the ancient days a person could have a seal made to mark their possession. They would take a seal like a brand and mark their possessions.

1. a seal speaks of ownership This implies that you become the property of God that receives special attention. Any trespassers are to be apprehended on God’s property

2.) A seal also could suggest security- the tomb of Jesus was secured by a seal. If the seal was placed at an entrance to for protection. (My security guy) Why do you need a seal? When the devil sees that seal he understands what you are carrying.

3.) Seal represents authenticity- If a letter were to arrive without a certain seal it was to be disregarded as a fraudulent document