Disciples Affirm Resurrection Hope

Objective: We are all messed up do not judge others because they are different

Bible Verse: Ephesians 1:11-23

Proposition: Disciples should be bold in their faith because

1. We have received an inheritance in Christ. (v. 11-14)

2. We have received a spirit of wisdom and revelation (vs 15-19)

3. We are under the Power of Christ (vs. 20-23)

Ephesians 1:11-23 Common English Bible (CEB)

11 We have also received an inheritance in Christ. We were destined by the plan of God, who accomplishes everything according to his design. 12 We are called to be an honor to God’s glory because we were the first to hope in Christ. 13 You too heard the word of truth in Christ, which is the good news of your salvation. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because you believed in Christ. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians

15 Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that 16 I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, 19 and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength. 20 God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens, 21 far above every ruler and authority and power and angelic power, any power that might be named not only now but in the future. 22 God put everything under Christ’s feet and made him head of everything in the church, 23 which is his body. His body, the church, is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in every way.

Opening: ALL SAINTS SUNDAY

Point:

Today as the Church we celebrate All Saints Sunday. We are not talking about The New Orleans Saints, Americas Football Team!

No we are talking about the Saints that have gone before us and joined the church triumph.

We are talking about the early fathers and mothers of the faith like St.Paul who wrote most of the new testament, St. John the baptist who testified about Christ before his arrival, and all those who helped bring you to know Jesus.

All Saints Sunday celebrates those who impacted THE CHURCH for the Gospel of Christ to be known to everyone across the world.

All Saints Sunday celebrates the fact that the church before us followed the Great Commission of Jesus given to us in Matthew 28:19-20

“ 19 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, 20 teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”

Today’s scripture which we explore together helps us dive deeper into what it means to be a part of The Great Saints who have come before us, pointing us to Jesus Christ.

Sometimes as Protestants, we have a hangup talking about the Saints and Early Church Fathers because some churches are accused of Worshiping them.

Hear this, we do not worship those who came before us but we certainly learn from them.

This reminds me of the quote “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

We have a lot to learn from those who came before, and I know I may get carried away with talking about History because I really do love it.

But today we get to celebrate together once again why we are here and why we know Jesus the Christ!

Rational 1: We have received an inheritance in Christ. (v. 11-14)

Point: When we have faith in Jesus we get eternal life and our sealed in the Book of Life

Verse: 11 We have also received an inheritance in Christ. We were destined by the plan of God, who accomplishes everything according to his design. 12 We are called to be an honor to God’s glory because we were the first to hope in Christ. 13 You too heard the word of truth in Christ, which is the good news of your salvation. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because you believed in Christ. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory.

As we explore this first part of our text we are going to focus on verse 11 and 13.

We are told that we have received an Inheritance in Christ, and that we have been sealed because we have believed in Christ.

What we note is that we must receive something to have an inheritance. We are told in the gospels that through Jesus and only through Jesus we will inherit eternal life.

The Gospel of John tells us in Chapter

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Some Christians today would certainly label me as an extremist but I believe these words to be true.

Jesus The Way, The Truth, and The Life!

That through Christ we have received this inheritance that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel of John chapter 14. And that because of our belief in Christ we have been sealed in The Book of Life according to Revelation 20:20,

But hear this, it's not because of what we have done but what Christ has done for us.

When Amanda and I were going through College we both worked for a Presbyterian Church called John Calvin Presbyterian for those who do not know that was the founder of the Presbyterians anyways.

I was the youth pastor and Amanda was the Children’s Pastor. \

She worked a lot harder in her job I admit, it was great as it was our first year of marriage, but the worst part was we shared an office!

I will never forget a conversation we had with their pastor Rev.Harry Brown regarding Baptism, he stated that Baptism is an Outward Sign of the Seal God has made with, a seal of the new and ever-lasting Covenant.

Baptism is “an outward sign of an inward grace.”

Dr.Martin Luther stated “I [i.e., God] have given you baptism as a gift for the forgiveness of sins, and preach to you unceasingly by word of mouth concerning this treasure, sealing it with the Sacrament of my body and blood, so that you need never doubt. True, it seems little and insignificant that by the washing of water, the Word, and the Sacrament this should all be effected. But don't let your eyes deceive you.

This Seal we speak about today is our Tattoo our branding of our inheritance because of our faith.

The point here is while we may disagree with what we all believe about baptism.

What all Christians agree with is that through Christ and through our Faith we have received an inheritance and that we have been sealed and adopted as Children of GOD.

Rationale 2: We have received a spirit of wisdom and revelation (vs 15-19)

Point: When we believe God blesses us with the Holy Spirit

Verses: 15 Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that 16 I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, 19 and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.

These next verses point us to two objectives this morning. The first we notice in verse 17 which states “17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you.

In this verse we should have really one take away that we are unworthy on our own to know Christ or accept Christ that it is only possible through GOD’s Love given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit to know GOD.

Some would refer to this as Prevenient Grace or The Grace that Comes Before while others would simply say this only comes by hearing the WORD of GOD, his Proclamation, and the Sacraments.

Regardless of what you personally believe, I hope we can agree that we cannot do this on our own, that is what the text tells us this morning.

The next part of this really comes from verse 19 which states “and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.”

That when we believe in Christ Jesus there is change in our lives, that the power of The Holy Spirit is gifted to us as believers.

Often Mainline Christians tend to forget about the Holy Spirit. In one of my favorite books titled “The Forgotten GOD.” by Francis Chan he tells us we often treat the Holy Spirit like the Red Headed Step Child of the Holy Trinity.

But the truth is that when we become believers in Jesus something happens, a change in our very self.

The scripture tells us this morning that This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.

This is the very power that the Saints of The Early Church used to spread the Gospel of Jesus and to build the church that we have today, as believers in 2021 we cannot forget the Power that Christ gives his church.

We learn this in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 which states

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Rational 3: We are under the Power and Authority of Christ (vs. 20-23)

Point: God is our ruler, our lord, and our master nothing else!

Verse: 20 God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens, 21 far above every ruler and authority and power and angelic power, any power that might be named not only now but in the future. 22 God put everything under Christ’s feet and made him head of everything in the church, 23 which is his body. His body, the church, is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in every way.

As believers in Christ as the Church we must recognize that we have received an inheritance, that we have received gifting from the Holy Spirit, and lastly this morning that we are under the power and authority of Jesus Christ

Personally I could care less about what the world is saying about the church because we are under no authority except for God’s.

We have to stop allowing the world and others from telling us what The Church should be doing or not doing.

We as the CHURCH have to first look at whose authority is first in our lives.

It's not The United States, its not a political party, and its not any denomination its Christ First.

When we stop looking to Christ first, we leave behind The Saints of the Church.

But unfortunately, it's the direction of the Church today, we often are too scared to do what God is calling us to do because we are looking for permission.

But when we look to Jesus as the one who grants authority our permission to live out the mission of the church is granted.

Likewise, we must submit ourselves as Christians under the feet of Jesus we must be his servants and we must be willing to say YES LORD no matter what, recognizing his authority over our lives.

When we are willing to do this scripture tells us in Luke 1:37 that “nothing is impossible for God.”

So what are you putting before the authority of God this morning, and what is God calling you to do that you are awaiting permission for? I tell you this morning to “Go therefore.”

Closing: You are a child of God

Point: As children of God we are given permission through our inheritance

As parents we hope to start our kids off right in this world.

Amanda and I don’t have a lot but each month put money away for Ricky Lee for College or whatever he needs to start his life when he turns 18 and when he turns 18, I hope that we will have prepared him for this world, and I pray that I send him off to make something of himself.

God in our scripture does these things too.

He starts us off by claiming us for him by giving us the inheritance of eternal life in Jesus.

Then through the Holy Spirit he prepares us and equips us for this world by giving us gifts and power which he personally gives each of us uniquely.

Lastly, he give us permission by reminding us of his authority over our lives and releasing us to do his work as the church.

God is a good father, and for some of you this morning you may not have had a good father but here GOD is setting the example for us on how to be good parents.

So let us be like The Saints of the Church trusting in God, and being the church so that the next generation may inherit the Goodness of The Christian movement that each of us have had the honor of being a part of.

Let us be good parents by leaving an inheritance for the next generation

LET US GO THEREFORE MAKING DISCIPLES. LET US PRAY