Gist: I love how Paul starts his epistles. In his address, he notifies his readers, but also himself. All day long Paul is harassed, but he keeps his eyes focused on the One Who is in him and the One he is in. He’s an apostle, or better put, one sent forth.
And in Christ, so are we!
Our walk through Ephesus for the next couple of weeks has intense Doctrine (teaching)
• But as doctrinal as it is, it is also inspirational and operational!
• The first chapter pays attention to the Saints in unison with the trinity.
• In other words, The Triune God and His Church
• What God does in Creation, What Christ does as Redeemer, the HS as Sustainer
• Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer
• The promise of our inheritance and redemption, is a deposit that we wait on.
• That means time passes and shift happens & memories fade.
• So, Paul takes them on a journey.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
Paul reminds his readers and himself of who he is, what he does and why.
Apostle – one sent forth.
It’s What God willed and Paul’s (destiny).
Not a whole lotta fun when you think about it from Paul’s side.
Not only is he attacked from his own kind being a Hebrew, hated by the commoner as a Pharisee he becomes hated by the Pharisees becoming a convert to Christ.
He was radically transformed.
He’s in prison, has been chased, 3x beaten with rods, 3x shipwrecked, snakebitten, jailed more than any other, flung over walls, 5x flagellated, a night in the open sea…
But now he knows and wants them to know it was God’s will to be shown both sides.
And who they are saints
It is tragic that the church has chosen certain special people to confer sainthood upon them.
As far as the church is concerned, I could never make their classification of saint. As far as God is concerned, I am a saint. St Carmen- has a ring to it. Lol
But not just me, as far as God is concerned, you are a saint. Why? Because God sees you in your perfected state in His Son.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without grace there is no peace, and right off the bat there are 2 spiritual blessings. Spiritual because God gives them and God is Spirit, that’s why we worship Him in Spirit and truth.
Manual labor isn’t the way to God, we can’t be good enough because we cant work our way into the kingdom
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,
What Christ has and God wants us to have… every spiritual blessing
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world;
Paul connects his Jewish crowd with the word chosen… because Israel was God’s chosen people. He redeemed them without any doings from them other than being oppressed
The phrase is literally, he chose us out, or selected us for himself. Not instead of or before, but rather chosen for the purpose of, for the sake of, in order to…
In other words, God has something in mind for us. (Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it.)
Could it be that God, knowing all things, knowing we would miss the mark and because He (SO LOVED the world) sent His one and only Son in the same sinful flesh that we are wrapped in to be the offering we could never be?
•We are blessed to be a blessing. In Christ we lack no good thing.
We were chosen before creation to be set apart (holy) & blameless with Him in love.
•God’s choice was intentional, not an accident or an “evolution” of goodness on our part.
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
It is God’s declaration that we would not be spiritual orphans.
•Because of God’s goodness and great grace we were brought to faith in Jesus.
•In love we will not be denied and are adopted as children of God. His Choice!
•In love, not fear we can stand with Jesus in God’s presence.
V7-10 What Jesus (The Agent) enabled (In Him/Christ) 9x in 12 vs. over 30 in Ephesians
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
Knowing all that would come! Still made available the riches of redemption by His finished work on the Cross. This is the day we celebrate the baptism of the Lord, what is reported:
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Not 1 miracle logged, not 1 healing, no multiplications, Just His willingness to be
And God makes his announcement “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased”
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
It is His joy to make known to you what you’ve often wondered… what is God doing? And that He Himself ordained it that He would safe us through God in the flesh.
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
God pulls it all together in Christ and as God omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
Which then is made known to us… Yes we were chosen in Christ – set apart for his salvation.
Death had stolen us, possession is 9/10 of the law. But the Law can’t save us only grace through Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ love for us is that great. When he sets us free death has lost its sting. 1/10 of Jesus, His tithe, his offering on the cross is more powerful than 9/10 of any stronghold.
His gift is offered! Whoever receives it has it, who does not does not!
When you turn down Jesus’ offer of salvation, that leaves you spiritually dead. Then there’s no spiritual gifts for you because you are not in Christ.
But because of his great grace he relentlessly pursues. Even now
Takeaways
We are Chosen in Christ – if that’s hard to believe, it’s not from God’s endut of, but into.
- Holy- he called us out for his purpose
- Blameless- in Christ Jesus
- Loved- So loved, willing to offer His Son, the Son willing to offer himself while the Spirit of God holds all things together.
Predestined to belong to Him in Him –
- Accepted – adopted when the world rejects us and our vilest enemy whispers we’re not worthy… Jesus says we are
- Redeemed -
- Forgiven
Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
And we’re just getting started.
