Ephesains 1:3-14 - In Him

Rocky Pugh

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Introduction

[READING - Ephesians 1:3-14]

Ephesians 1:3–6 NASB95

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.

Ephesians 1:7–10 NASB95

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

Ephesians 1:11–14 NASB95

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.

[PRAYER]

[OPENING] Jesus once told a short parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. He said it was like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The point of the parable is that the kingdom of heaven is so valuable… it is such a treasure… that we should joyfully give up everything in order to get it.

[CONTEXT] I want you to imagine with me this morning that the man who found the treasure in Jesus’s parable was the Apostle Paul.

On the road to Damascus while Paul was still breathing out murderous threats against Christians, Paul stumbled upon a treasure, and that treasure was the Kingdom of Heaven in Jesus Christ.

Paul left everything behind to take hold of this treasure. He said, “... whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…”

This righteousness before God through faith in Jesus Christ is the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We should joyfully give up all things in order to possess this!

We should joyfully give up all things for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus in His death and resurrection.

[INTER] But when Paul looked into that treasure chest, what did He see? What were those treasures in Jesus that made it Paul’s joy to give up everything to know Him?

Well, in Ephesians 1:3-14 Paul opens the lid so that we can see for ourselves.

[CIT] In Ephesians 1:3-14 the Apostle Paul praised God the Father for the sovereign work of redemption through God the Son, which is guaranteed by God the Holy Spirit.

[PROP] As we study this passage and behold the treasures we have in Jesus, we too are called to praise God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[TS] In this passage, we want to see three main REASONS for praising God…

Major Ideas

REASON #1: Praise God because He chose us and adopted us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3-6).

Ephesians 1:3–6 NASB95

[EXP] To bless God is to praise God, and Paul called the Ephesians to praise God because God has blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Spiritual blessings are those blessing that come to us from the Holy Spirit who is also called the Spirit of Christ. They include but are not limited to the things we read about in this passage—things like election, adoption, redemption, reconciliation, inheritance, and the Holy Spirit sealing us and guaranteeing that we shall be redeemed.

All these spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places, which means that they are perfectly secure (nothing can corrode them and no one can steal them from believers), but they are not yet fully enjoyed. Though we can enjoy these spiritual blessings to some extent here and now, the full enjoyment of all these spiritual blessings waits for us in Heaven.

All these spiritual blessings—everyone of them—are also in Jesus Christ. There are zero spiritual blessings outside of Jesus.

There are no spiritual blessings in Islam.

There are no spiritual blessings in the false Jesus of Mormonism.

There are not spiritual blessings in following our own hearts.

The only place to find spiritual blessings is in Jesus, and in Him you find them all.

Paul told the Ephesians that this is why God chose us—chose believers in Jesus—before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

The only way to be holy and blameless before God is through faith in Jesus.

Jesus lived perfectly before God, died sacrificially to pay the price for our sins, and rose again as proof that all who trust in Him are covered by His holiness and blamelessness.

Apart from Jesus, we can’t be holy and blameless before God.

Apart from Jesus, we are condemned under the wrath of God.

But in Jesus, we are saved forever, blessed with every spiritual blessing, and welcomed into the family of God!

Ephesians 1:5 says, “In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ...”

This is why God chose us! This is why God elected us! This is why God predestined us from before the foundation of the world! So that we would become sons and daughters of God!

This God did according to the kind intention of His will or as the KJV and CSB put it, “according to His good pleasure.” In other words, it delighted God to exercise His kind will toward us when He chose to adopt us as His own children.

And God adopted us so that we would praise His glorious grace—the glorious grace that only comes to us in the Beloved Son of God, Jesus Christ.

[ILLUS] I know a many people who have adopted children. Some of them have adopted children from orphanages and group homes here in the United States. Others have adopted children from orphanages in other countries.

Adopted children who are welcomed into loving families sometimes have questions about where they came from, who their natural parents were, etc.

But I have never once heard of an adopted child asking his or her parents, “Why didn’t you adopt everyone?”

And, yet, when we read about God choosing and predestining us for adoption into His family, one question we like to ask is, “Well, why didn’t He choose, predestine, adopt everyone?”

[APP] Let me give a few different answers to that question.

First, God chose, predestined, adopted according to the purpose of His will, and not according to our understanding or approval.

When we ask God a question, we are creature asking Creator, and God is under no obligation to explain Himself to us and there is no need for Him to justify Himself to us because He is perfectly just whether we understand the outworking of His justice or not.

As Paul wrote in Romans 9:20-21…

Romans 9:20–21 NASB95

20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

Certainly God as Creator has the right to do with us as He wishes—according to the purpose of His will.

Second, God was under no obligation to choose, predestine, or adopt anyone for salvation because everyone rejected, rebelled, and sinned against God in Adam’s sin in the garden.

Romans 5:12 says…

Romans 5:12 NASB95

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

That one man through whom sin entered the world was Adam, and in Adam all died—all were separated from the life-giving, lovingkindness of God because in Adam we all sinned.

This means that we all already made our choice, and we chose to go with Adam in rebellion against God.

If God had not countered our sinful choice in the Garden of Eden with His sovereign choice before the foundation of the world, then none of us would be saved.

Third (and I think this is my favorite answer), instead of worrying about who God chose or predestined, give yourself to Jesus and rejoice in being adopted into the family of God!

Instead of asking, “Well, why didn’t He adopt everyone?”

Rejoice in the infinite grace that has adopted you!

[TS] Reason #1: Praise God for He chose us and adopted us in Jesus Christ.

REASON #2: Praise God because He redeemed us and reconciled us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:7-10).

Ephesians 1:7–10 NASB95

[EXP] To be redeemed is to have the price paid for your freedom. Every believer was once a slave to sin leading to death—eternal separation from the goodness of God. But God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus, to redeem us by paying the price of death in our place upon the cross.

Now, we who have trusted in Jesus are no longer slaves to sin, but are free to follow righteousness.

Now, we who have trusted in Jesus are saved from the wrath of God and shall experience His goodness forevermore.

Specifically, this redemption involves the forgiveness of our trespasses or our sins.

Sin in anything we think, say, or do that is the opposite of what God wants us to think, say, or do. It is to disobey God.

Sins or trespasses are not just major things like murder and adultery, but also seemingly minor things like anger and lust.

Because God said, “Do not steal,” that one theft was enough to send you to Hell forever.

Because God said, “Do not lie,” that one lie was enough to send you to Hell forever.

But all your sins have been forgiven in Jesus Christ!

In Jesus, our sins are cast as far as the east is from the west!

In Jesus, God remembers our sins no more!

Now, all this forgiveness was according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us.

That word ‘lavished’ means that God’s forgiving grace overflows to us. We don’t have just enough to cover our sins but more than enough! The idea is what Paul said at the end of Romans 5, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…”

Not that we would want to try, but we cannot out-sin the grace of God.

But God not only redeemed us, He redeemed us to reconcile us—He didn’t just forgive us to save us from Hell, He forgave us so that we would be united with Him through Christ.

With wisdom and insight God has now revealed to believers the mystery of His will—the mystery of His divine plan—to sum up, unite, reconcile all things in Christ Jesus.

This was God’s administration or plan according to His kind intention or according to His good pleasure.

He did this because He delighted in doing it.

He did this to the praise of His glorious grace.

He did this in the fullness of the times—or we might say, at the perfect time.

And one day—at the perfect time—all things will be summed up in Christ Jesus, things in the heavens and things on earth.

In Acts 17, Paul said that in Him we live and move and have our being.

When Christ returns, everything that is not consumed by His holy fire, will know that it lives, moves, and has its being in Christ.

[ILLUS] The other night during our family Bible lesson, one of our little ones said, “I’m not sure I’m ready for the return of Jesus.”

When we look at the pain, suffering, and death in the world, we would all say that we are ready for Jesus to come back.

When we just look at the stress of every day living, we would all say that we are ready for Jesus to come back.

But when we think about sins, our doubts, and just how far we are falling short, I think we all understand how one could say, “I’m not sure I’m ready for the return of Jesus.”

[APP] But being ready for the return of Jesus really depends on two things, and those two things depend on God.

We are ready for the return of Jesus if we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And we are ready for the return of Jesus if we have been reconciled to Jesus Christ through faith.

And, as I said, those two things depend on God.

God has chosen us for redemption and reconciliation.

And that redemption and reconciliation has been won for us Jesus.

We cannot be ready for the return of Jesus by obeying harder or even by believing harder.

God counts our little mustard seed of faith as enough if that faith is in Jesus.

No, we can only be ready for Jesus’s coming by resting in the redemption and reconciliation that Christ has already won for us through His death and resurrection.

[TS] So rest in Christ and praise God for He has redeemed us and reconciled us in Him.

REASON #3: Praise God because He sealed us and guaranteed us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:11-14).

Ephesians 1:11–14 NASB95

[EXP] We have been predestined for adoption and predestined to receive an inheritance. These two things go together because those adopted into the family of God receive an inheritance just as if they had always been children in the family of God.

This is God’s will for those who have faith in Christ.

And God works all things according to His will.

Nothing can stop believers from receiving the inheritance God has prepared for them.

Nothing can stop the praise that God will receive as followers of Jesus fully experience all the spiritual blessings in Christ for all eternity in the happy presence of God!

Paul said he and other early believers were the first to hope in Christ. He might have meant early believers in general or he might have meant early Jewish Christians specifically, either way, the Ephesian Christians were included too because...

…they too had heard the Gospel of salvation;

…they too had believed;

…and they too had been sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit.

What is the Gospel of salvation?

It is the good news that God’s graciously saves sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to believe the Gospel or believe on Jesus for salvation?

It means to count on or depend on Jesus for salvation rather than counting on or depending on anyone else.

What does it mean that we are sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit?

It means that our salvation is guaranteed. It is irrevocable. Nothing can now separate us from the love of God.

Brothers and sisters, consider how certain our salvation is!

We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world!

We were predestined for adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself!

We were predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will!

We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God and given the Holy Spirit as a pledge or guarantee of the salvation that will one day be ours in full at the return of Christ!

[ILLUS] There is nothing comparable to what God has done for us in choosing us for salvation, dying to save us, and sealing us for salvation.

We should be assured of our salvation!

If God the Father chose us, He will save us!

If God the Son died for us, we are saved!

If God the Holy Spirit sealed us, we will be saved—guaranteed!

But how do we know if we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit? Are we supposed to speak in tongues or fall out shaking in the Spirit? What’s the sign that indicates that we have been sealed by the Spirit?

Listen to what the Apostle John says in 1 John 4:1-3a…

1 John 4:1–3 NASB95

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

To confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to confess Jesus as revealed to us in the pages of the Bible—a real Savior who really died to save us and really rose to make us right with God.

This is the Jesus revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

And if we believe on Him for salvation we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit—guaranteed.

[TS] …

Conclusion

Now, all of this is more than enough reason to praise God forever!

He has chosen and adopted us in Jesus!

He has redeemed and reconciled us in Jesus!

He has sealed and guaranteed us in Jesus!

But please don’t miss that all of this is only true in Jesus.

“In Jesus” or “In Him” is the most important phrase in this passage.

We were chosen in Him.

God’s grace is freely bestowed on us in Him.

We have redemption in Him.

God made His salvation plan known to us in Him.

We have obtained a heavenly inheritance in Him.

We have heard, believed, and been sealed in Him.

All spiritual blessings are ours in Him!

And only in Him!

Are you in Him?

Have you realized that you are not a good person? Have you realized that you are a rebel against all that God has said is good and right? Have you realized that you are a liar, a thief, an adulterer or adulteress, a murderer even if only in your heart?

Have you realized that you are addicted to wickedness and evil and that your only hope of freedom is an act of God?

Well, there is good news! God has acted on your behalf!

He sent His Son to pay the price for all your wickedness by giving His life in exchange for yours!

On the cross, Jesus laid down His life for you.

In the resurrection, Jesus proved that He had paid it all.

And if you trust Him, you are in Him and nothing shall ever separate you from the love of God!

Ephesians 1:3 NASB95

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,

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