Spiritual Blessings in Christ
Ephesians 1:1-14
May 20, 2007

[Prayer]

Today’s Message is from Ephesians 1:1-14. We will be going through the book of Ephesians for the next few weeks, the Lord willing (with some possible breaks for other messages interspersed).

The book of Ephesians is a letter written by the apostle Paul and addressed to the ‘saints in Ephesus’. It’s a general letter and was almost certainly intended to be read not only by the saints in Ephesus, but also to be circulated among the other churches. And it was certainly also intended to be read by us today, in this present time.

Paul’s words were inspired—breathed—by the Holy Spirit. As we read the passage, remember that we are reading the word of God.

Also, as I usually do, I encourage all of you—I exhort you, in fact—to not just read your Bibles on Sunday or during Bible study on Wednesday, but to read your Bibles every day—and not just read, but study and meditate on the word of God. When you’ve gone through the Bible, go through it again...and again and again and again. It’s what sustains your life!

Now let’s read the passage—Ephesians 1:1-14:

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3Praise 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. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
11In 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, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And 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, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:1-14 –NIV)

Verse 1 starts out, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus...” But, before I go on to the rest of the passage, I’m going to talk a little bit about who the apostle Paul was.

The apostle Paul started out life not as Paul but as Saul. According to my Bible dictionary, Saul means asked by God. Sometime after Saul became a Christian, his name was changed to Paul, a Roman name which, also according to my Bible dictionary, means little—little Paul.

Saul, before he became Paul, was a man of great accomplishment. He also had a great pedigree. In his words, he was circumcised on the eighth day (exactly according to the Law of Moses), of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin (king Saul, the first king of Israel was also of the tribe of Benjamin). He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, the greatest of the great!  He was a member of the strictest sect of the Jewish religion, a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. He kept the law perfectly. (Except that after his conversion, he acknowledged that he had a lot of trouble with one commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” He said that sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in him every kind of covetous desire. Have you noticed that when you try to make yourself great by human standards, you envy anyone whom you think might be doing better than you are doing? It happens with wealth, power and prestige; it also happens when you try to make yourself “holier than thou”, which is what Paul had been doing. And, incidentally, it’s a good test of your motives for doing anything that you want to claim to be doing to serve the Lord. If you are envious of the competition, or for that matter, regard anyone who is doing something similar as “the competition”, you need to examine your motives.)

Saul, before he became Paul, was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, the same council that had earlier voted to put Jesus to death. He had risen to this position at a young age, another one of his ‘accomplishments’ that he could boast about. As a member of the Sanhedrin, he had voted for Christians to be put to death. He also went from house to house arresting Christians and dragging them off to prison. He considered these things to be a display of his zeal in serving God.

The first part of verse 1 in today’s passage says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” This is the ‘from’ part of the introduction to the letter. It identifies who is writing it. It’s how Paul identifies himself—“an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”.

What is an apostle? In the broad sense it is someone who is sent on a mission—a missionary. But in Paul’s case, he was sent with the very words of God—the gospel of salvation—to teach and to preach (and to write, too). Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would remind them of everything he had taught them and would guide them into all truth (John 14:26, 16:13). The same applies to Paul. Jesus also chose Paul and taught him. Here’s Paul’s testimony:

11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11, 12 –NIV)

Jesus himself gave the message of the gospel to Paul.

Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. It was an office to which God appointed him. Men can appoint a person to an office and it may or may not be the will of God. But God appointed Paul to be an apostle and it was by his will that Paul was appointed. (We might also say that God has appointed each of us to some office or position within the church—that we have been appointed by the will of God. But in Paul’s case, the appointing was much more spectacular than for most of us.)

Paul was on his way to Damascus. He had letters from the high priest to the synagogues in Damascus authorizing him to arrest any Christians he found there. As Paul approached Damascus, a light from heaven blinded him and he fell to the ground. A voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.”

Paul asked, “Who are you Lord?”

The voice answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

What a shock! This is Saul, the one who has it all together and is absolutely in charge. Now he’s on the ground and blind—although he didn’t actually realize he was blind until he got up and opened his eyes—and someone else is going to tell him what to do. And someone else, the other men who are with Paul, are even going to have to lead him to the person who is going to tell him what to do. And someone else is going to have to restore his sight to him. And now I’m going to read what happened next. This is from Acts 9:10-19:

10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. (Acts 9:10-19 –NIV)

In verse 15, you may have noticed, the Lord told Ananias, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” Now I know of a person who was having trouble keeping track of money.  This person was told, “What you have to do is to tithe—and not at the Catholic church, but pick the last church in the world that you would ever consider going to and tithe there!” Saul, the Hebrew of Hebrews, who would not even have entered a Gentiles house because it would have made him unclean, was to take the gospel of Jesus Christ, whom he had been persecuting, to the last people on earth that he would ever have considered taking it to, to the Gentiles and their kings. (I don’t think he found out about that part until later. Maybe by that time it wasn’t as much of a shock.)  Saul, the Hebrew of Hebrews became Paul the small.

Paul, later in his ministry, prayed three time for the Lord to take away some affliction or trouble that he was having—a thorn in his flesh. The Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s comment about this was, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” The grace of Jesus Christ is really sufficient for all of us. (By the way, in case you didn’t already know, the person that was told to go to the last church in the world you would ever consider going to and tithe there—she’s still here.)

I have a couple more things to say about Paul. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul said, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” It had a particular context, which I’m not going to go into, but, in any case, it seemed pretty arrogant to me for Paul to make a statement like that: “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” It sounds as though he is implying that he is perfect. But I’m going to read what Paul says from Romans 7. This is from Romans 7:14-25:

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:14-25 –NIV)

Does that sound like anything you’ve ever experienced? Paul had to fight the spiritual battle, too. But there is one example in that passage that we can follow: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We can thank God that he will rescue us through Jesus Christ!

One more thing: Paul could have boasted about his pedigree—do you remember his pedigree—of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, etcetera, but here’s what he said instead:

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11 –NIV)

Now let’s go on to the rest of today’s passage. Today’s passage, and the rest of Ephesians and, in fact, most of what the apostle Paul has written in other books, is first of all about God’s glory, then about Jesus Christ his Son and finally about the church.

The word church can refer to all those who believe in Jesus all over the world. It can refer to all the believers in a particular city, as in the case of this letter, or it can refer to the believers who meet at a particular location, as the church that meets at 365 E. 13th. The purpose of the church, and in fact the purpose for everything God does, is for his glory. His purpose is to show his greatness to all his creation—and that’s the purpose of the church. I also need to point out that when Paul wrote, he was writing to and about the church more than to and about individuals.  It’s important to remember this because we tend, in our individualistic thinking, to think more in terms of our individual relationship to God rather than about the relationship between the church and God.

Now let’s look at verses 1 and 2 in today’s passage. They are Paul’s introduction and greeting. Here’s what they say: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” I’ve already talked about the first part of verse 1. It’s the from part. It identifies Paul as the writer. The to part identifies whom Paul is writing to—to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. The saints are all those who are faithful in Christ Jesus, that is, those who trust in Christ Jesus. The word saint means holy. If you are a saint, that means you are a holy person. Holy doesn’t necessarily mean you do everything right. What it means is that you are sanctified, that is, that you are set apart for God’s use. If you trust Jesus, you are a saint! If you don’t, you aren’t. There is no third option.

The rest of Paul’s introduction and greeting can really be thought of as a prayer: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” We can and should follow Paul’s example and greet and pray for each other that way, too: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Grace, by the way, comes from God.  And you can only really have peace if you have peace with God. If you are not a saint, you are enemies with God! Let me say that again: If you are not a saint, you are enemies with God! You can never have peace with God!

Now let’s look at verse 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.”

We (we being the saints) have every spiritual blessing in Christ. We are blessed in the heavenly realms. And it’s God the Father who deserves the praise. The fact that the blessings are “in Christ” means that we don’t have them except by knowing Jesus. They come through knowing him! The heavenly realms are where the spiritual blessings exist and operate. The heavenly realms doesn’t really mean “up in heaven”, but refers, apparently, to a parallel reality where angels and demons operate and where spiritual blessings as opposed to physical blessings (or any other physical things) take place. They are also the place where our spiritual battle with the forces of evil takes place, according to chapter 6, verse 12.) The heavenly realms are at least as real, and probably more real, than the physical realms. The physical realms are perishing. Our physical bodies are perishing. If we belong to Jesus, there will come a time when we will receive spiritual bodies which will never perish!

What are examples of spiritual blessings? Well, I’m not going to try to give an exhaustive list, but peace with God and eternal life are probably the most important. Also, later in Ephesians, Paul is going to tell us to be completely humble and gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love. Don’t you think it would be a blessing to be able to do that—no more strife or contention? Only the power of the Holy Spirit can accomplish it. It’s a spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

Now lets look at verses 4 through 6. Let me read them:

4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4-6 –NIV)

God chose us in him (that is, in Jesus) to be holy and blameless in his sight. That means that God considers us to be holy and blameless because of Jesus. Without Jesus—without his death and resurrection—we would not be holy and blameless, but worthy of eternal punishment—the lake of fire. We need Jesus!

God chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless. He also predestined us to be adopted as his sons. (That means we have an inheritance.)

Now this word predestined keeps coming up in Paul’s writings and some of us have a hard time with it. (It’s going to come up again in today’s passage.) It sounds like it means that if God didn’t decide to save you before he created anything, you are hopelessly lost. You have no choice. On the other hand, if he did decide to save you, you are saved no matter what. You can’t reject his salvation. It’s forced on you. I’m one of the people who have a hard time with this. There are two many places where God tells us to choose for me to believe that we don’t have a choice. Also, I’ve noticed that people who subscribe to this doctrine, the doctrine of predestination, still pray for the salvation of others. That would seem to be a waste of breath to me.

I asked Mooma what she thought about this and she answered right away: “God predestined everyone to be saved, but he won’t force you. You have the option of rejecting his salvation. Well, I don’t really have the answer. I don’t think the word translated predestined in English has to mean cast in concrete. But, in any case, what God did, he did in love—and he did it through Jesus Christ—and he did for his glory—literally, so that it would result in the praise of the glory of his grace! Amen!

Now let’s look at verses 7 and 8. Here’s what they say:

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:7, 8 –NIV)

Our redemption is through Jesus’s death on the cross for our sin. God is all wise and understanding. He lavished—poured out in great abundance—this gift on us with all wisdom and understanding. That means that it was the best thing that he could possibly have done. It was done with all God’s wisdom and understanding. We don’t dare reject God’s gift.

Now let’s look at verses 9 and 10:

9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9, 10 –NIV)

This is God’s ultimate purpose for his creation, to bring everything together under Christ. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:26) Death is not a natural part of life as some people want you to believe.  It’s an enemy. It’s evil. It’s the result of sin.

Now let’s look at verses 11 through 14:

11In 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, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And 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, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-14 –NIV)

There’s predestined again. The we in verse 11 (we were also chosen) refers to Paul and the other apostles, since verse 13 says, “And you also were included...”  God’s purpose in choosing the apostles was so that they might be for the praise of his glory.  Everything is for the praise of God’s glory.

“And you (that’s us) also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation (verse 13).”

Well, maybe we weren’t predestined after all. We were included when we heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation. (If you haven’t yet been included, don’t delay. Give yourself to Jesus. You are either a saint or you are an enemy of God!)

According to verses 13b and 14, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Our inheritance is guaranteed. Can you lose your salvation? In some places in the Bible it seems like it’s possible. Tom thinks it is. But what person who is saved would want to give up his salvation? These verses say that once you believe, your inheritance is guaranteed. As a minimum, that’s eternal life! And it’s all done for the praise of God’s glory. Amen!

[Prayer]