Ephesians 3:14-21 "Strengthened to Understand"

                Our text for today brings to an end the first half of Paul’s letter to this thriving church in Ephesus.  It also brings a thematic end to what Paul has spent the entirety of this letter talking about thus far, and that is the privilege of the Christian.  Remember, this is the standard format for the Great Apostle.  He first deals with doctrine and theology, and then deals with the implications and application of all that he’s been teaching.  Our text for today, the second half of chapter three, is somewhat of Paul’s doxology on all that he’s said thus far.  Very quickly I’ll remind you of where we’ve been.  For the most part we’ve been talking about the great privilege that it is to be found in Christ.  Paul’s talked about how salvation is completely a work of God (chosen, redeemed, and sealed) and that regardless of what nationality you are that the gospel is open to you.  Now, this doesn’t mean that it’s some universal thing that is everyone’s right and privilege, but that there is nothing inherently within anyone that makes them a recipient of God’s grace and mercy.  That choice is completely and totally up to God and God alone.  We are simply the ones who very lovingly, graciously, and humbly receive the benefits of that election that Paul spoke of in the opening statements of this epistle; that’s why we say that it is the privilege of the Christian and not the right or reward of the Christian.

                So, as Paul prepares to bring to a close the doctrinal portion of his epistle about the church (which many biblical scholars have taken this to be a written prayer of Paul’s), he begins by saying, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.”  Two things; the first is that the phrase “for this reason” refers to, in my opinion, the entirety of what he has said.  Again, in my opinion, Paul isn’t just referring to the most recent thing that he’s talked about (which is the gospel being as much for the Gentiles as it is for the Jews).  Some scholars have wanted to limit the scope of these words to mean either only his most recent doctrinal point or the fact that he didn’t want them to lose hope because of his being under house arrest.  However, even in the most limited view of this phrase, Paul would be referring to this very same plan of salvation that is made known through Christ.  So, we can safely assume that no matter what view you take of the phrase “for this reason”, Paul is speaking about rejoicing in God.  Secondly, the fact that Paul talks about his posture is important.  You see, the Jewish custom for praying was to stand up.  They would think it a farce for us to be sitting down with our hands in our pockets during a time of prayer.  The Jews (as well as some other Christian churches through the ages) understood reverence to be conveyed to God during prayer only when standing.  Honestly, it makes sense.  When the president of a company, a superior office, an elected official, or anyone else whom is owed respect walks into a room what do we do?  Well, we stand (or at least we ought to).  We stand to show them the honor and respect that they deserve.  However, by Paul’s bowing his knees, by his kneeling, there is a sense of humility and urgency and importance that is being conveyed here.  Paul is, in essence, saying, “Thank you, God, for all that you’ve done and all that you are doing.  Lord, I am not even worthy to stand in your presence and so I lower myself to the lowest possible place.”  It’s Paul’s way (and a right way) of showing reverence and honor to a holy God.  Yes, it’s different from Jewish tradition, but different from tradition doesn’t necessarily mean worse than traditional.

                After Paul’s reminding his audience what he’s previously said, he also reminds them that as followers of Christ, they are all part of the same family.  All Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ.  If we wanted to make some type of analogy, we could say that we’re all related in Christ with church being sort of like a family reunion with the blending together of a lot of different types of people who are all related.  Yes, we’re very different people with very different views and opinions, but we’re all related; we’re all related in Christ.  That’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our time together this morning really looking at two things.  We’re going to look at how this body collectively and we individually are strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and how we are made to comprehend the love of Christ. 

                All of this sort of comes out of a natural progression throughout this text really.  First, there is Paul’s thanking God because of all that he’s already taught, followed by the petition made by Paul on the behalf of his audience that they would be “strengthened with power through his [Holy] Spirit in [their] inner being.”  In other words, that our hearts would be strengthened, our minds changed, and our souls shaped by this power.  Any change or confidence that one has that stops at a surface-level isn’t from God.  Paul prays that the teaching that he has given thus far would not be a point of contention and anger, but would be one that only renews our faith in God.  I love what John Calvin says about this being strengthened by the Holy Spirit.  He says that, “believers have never advanced so far as to not need farther growth.  The highest perfection of the godly in this life is an earnest desire to make progress.”  In other words, even though this church was doing well and even though Paul had just given them all of the information that he had and even though he knew that they were as well-equipped for ministry and growth as anyone, they still needed more.  They needed the Holy Spirit, and they didn’t just need him a little, but they needed him in their inner being.  They needed him to change them and strengthen them down to the most intimate parts of their bodies, minds, and souls.  They needed what is known as divine grace; grace that only comes from God.  God knows our limitations and our inabilities; therefore He is the only one who can overcome them in His creating within us a new man.  In order for us to really transform and change, we must have the Holy Spirit.  We can’t do it by ourselves.  We don’t like hearing that because we’re a people who for the most part pride ourselves on our self-sufficiency.  However, when it comes to our salvation, we simply have no choice but to rest in God that He will perform this saving work in us and to us.

                Now, out of this grace, as a result of the Holy Spirit’s working in us and strengthening us, we ought to grow in our comprehension and understanding of the love of Christ.  Naturally, as we come to understand what God has done to us and for us, our appreciation and admiration ought to grow, but our understanding of Christ’s love for us ought to grow as well.  However, one thing that I think we need to get a handle on (or at least try to) is what we mean when we say or read “the love of Christ.”  Obviously it’s something that is very expansive, and impossible for our finite minds to completely understand.  These general units of measurement or space that Paul gives us here of “breadth and length and height and depth” ought to harken our minds back to our saying at the end of chapter two that we are Christ’s temple, the “living stones” of 1 Peter 2.  This tells us that Christ’s love for us is great.  So, there’s no denying that in understanding Christ’s love that we have to think about something that is quite large.  Our problem, however, has been that far too often we have actually over-sized the love of Christ.  I know that that sounds odd, but follow me for a second.  If you were in our Sunday School class last week, you might recall that I said that Christ died specifically for you and not generally for you.  In other words, at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross, he had you and me on his mind, specifically.  His death, his sacrifice, wasn’t undertaken with just the general thought of whoever determines later on that they wanted a part of what he was offering would receive it.  No!  Christ’s death was to redeem to the Father those specific people whom the Father had given to him.  Some of them were past, some present, and some future.

                Perhaps instead of saying that we over-size the love of Christ, we might could say that we over-extend it.  You see, we make Christ’s death a universal truth for all mankind.  We make the sacrifice on the cross include those whom Scripture clearly teaches that it doesn’t include.  This past summer, we looked at John 3:16 and specifically at that word that is translated “world’.  We find in that passage “For God so loved the world…” the cosmos in Greek.  We try and apply the death of Christ to those whom it does not apply to.  It applies only to those whom, as Paul said to begin this epistle, those whom He chose before the foundation of the earth and that He predestined for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.  Paul has come full circle in this first half of his epistle.  God has chosen you to be His people, He has given you the power of the Holy Spirit to work on your hearts and change your minds and strengthen you for the ministry of the gospel.  And he has done this not because of anything that is present within you or that He foreknows as being present within you, but simply because He loves you.  He loves you so much that He sent His Son into the world to die, specifically for you.  Not for mankind in general, but specifically for you and for me, for those whom God chose before the foundations of the earth.

                Paul concludes this first half of his letter to the Ephesians with a doxology.  “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.”  In other words, thank you, God.  Thank you for who you are.  Thank you for what you have done.  Thank you for what you are doing.  Thank you for what you are going to do.  We are to trust in God and to trust in the unfolding of His plan.  It may not be easy, and it may not be what we want, but if it is the will of God, then is good and perfect.  Thank God for what He is doing, and thank God for His calling us to play even the smallest part in it.

Ephesians 3:1-13 "The Gospel Mystery"

                Do you know what makes a good teacher or a good instructor?  Yes, there are a number of things that we could say to answer that question.  We could say compassion, understanding, confidence, knowledge, etc.  However, one of the most often overlooked qualities of a teacher is their ability to anticipate confusion.  What do I mean by this?  Say for example we were going to begin a Sunday School series on a set of very complex or controversial theological topics, I wouldn’t be a very effective teacher if I went into it with the expectation of simply giving you the information one time and expecting you to understand it.  I would need to anticipate the difficulties that you might have and make preparations for them.  Every teacher (no matter the subject) is knowledgeable, confident, etc., but it’s the ability to anticipate the difficulties and overcome them that separates one from another.  Well, that is exactly what Paul is doing here in chapter 3.  Think about what he has already dealt with here in this epistle in only two chapters.  He’s talked about the work of the Trinity (chosen, redeemed, and sealed), he’s talked about what is granted to us in Christ, how all that is granted to us comes through faith, and that these riches and mercies aren’t just granted to a select nationality, but to all who profess saving faith in Christ.  We spent a great deal of time talking last Sunday about how this last item was quite controversial to the people in Ephesus at this time.  In fact, Paul was actually in Rome under house arrest at the time of his writing this epistle for teaching that very same thing.  When Paul says that he is “a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles” he’s telling the truth.  He was currently awaiting trial for speaking about the equality, in God’s eyes, that now existed between Jews and Gentiles.  He was currently living the reality that these were some difficult and controversial matters that he was talking about. 

Paul knew that he needed to explain a little more all that he had given them (and us) thus far.  I’m sure that Paul was anticipating the leaders in the church reading this letter, looking at one another, and saying, “Surely Paul doesn’t mean what he just wrote about Jews and Gentiles being equal?  There has to be some lasting difference right?”  You see, Paul knew that the Ephesians were going to have some difficulty with this topic, just as numerous other groups had.  He knew that there was going to be confusion and head-scratching.  He even calls it a “mystery made known to him by revelation.”  Now, the meaning of this word mystery isn’t what comes to mind when we hear the word today.  This isn’t some Scooby Doo (I’ve got kids) mystery that must be solved.  NO!  The Greek word that we get the word mystery from actually means “something known or understood only by the initiated.”  In other words, the gospel, the Christian faith, is only truly understood by those who have this saving faith.  Others may know about Christians, but until they fully become one then there is much that isn’t known.  I’ll be honest with y’all, most of the rest of this country looks at south Louisiana and the way of life here as a mystery.  It’s not that something has to be solved, but something that until you become one (initiated), then it’s pretty confusing.  After almost four years Amy and I are still confused about certain things on a regular basis.  Or, and perhaps a better analogy, parenthood.  You can’t describe to someone what it’s like to have a child that you’re responsible for.  However, there is a sense and a feeling that you get from having a child of your own.  In essence, once you’re initiated into parenthood, there is a revealing of the mystery of what it’s like to be a parent.  That’s what Paul’s talking about here.  He’s saying (and we’ll talk more about this later on) that it’s going to look odd to those outside of professing believers, but that’s normal.

                To drive his point home even further, Paul says in verse 6, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  So, what is he saying here?  And as I answer this, I’m going to substitute the title all Christians for Gentiles.  And by all Christians, I mean those who truly profess saving faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Paul is saying that all Christians are heirs with Israel, co-heirs with Christ.  He says that all Christians are members of the same body. It’s the same thing that we’ve said before in our look at this epistle about all Christians making up the body of Christ with no one more important than another, but with Christ as the head.  And finally, Paul says that all Christians are partakers of the promise in Christ.  Now, it’s important that it is promise singular; because that leaves no interpretation other than the promise of redemption that God made with Adam in the Garden and later repeated with Abraham in Genesis 12.

                Now, before Paul simply says that things have changed and moves on to something else, he takes some time to reemphasize the importance of what he has just been teaching them about.  He doesn’t want to give the impression that what he has said is only for informational purposes.  Back when I taught high school biology my students would always ask me, “Coach Robinson, why do I need to know all this stuff?  Why is it important that I know what role the mitochondria plays in the cell?  What use is it for me to learn the steps of photosynthesis?”  What made matters even worse was when they went home to their parents and their parents or grandparents would say they didn’t have a clue.  They would come back and say, “My grandfather worked for 45 years and he said he’s never even heard of photosynthesis.”  Well, Paul is trying to make sure that these Christians don’t just simply say, “Why does any of this matter?  Why are we wasting time over this issue?”  Think about what many folks like to do today.  We like to say, “Well, God will sort all that out so I’m just not going to worry about it.  I don’t know how I feel about it so I’m just going to push it aside and go about my business.”  We tell ourselves that we’re just not getting bogged down, but in all honesty it’s more like we’re afraid of offending someone so we run and hide from questions and difficulties.  I’m not talking about wrestling with difficult and complex issues, I’m talking about just not caring enough to put in the effort to try and gain some understanding.  Paul’s not giving this information just to have something written down.  He’s giving them this information because it is of use and importance to their spiritual growth.

                Paul is telling these folks that this distinction (or should I say the abolition of this distinction) is something that is of such importance that his entire ministry is based on it.  His entire ministry is about proclaiming the good news of Christ’s resurrection to those who were once thought to be outside of God’s covenant people.  He says that not only is it his calling but that it is to be the calling of the Church as well.  “Through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”  And I don’t want you to miss this ever so subtle use of the word manifold here in verse 10.  God’s manifold wisdom, says the biblical scholar and precursor to the reformation, Erasmus, “regulates all things by amazing plans, through death bestowing life, through ignominy (disgrace) conducting to glory, through abasement (lowering) displaying the majesty of God.”  God’s manifold wisdom, i.e. His plan of salvation, is now no longer for only a select nation, but is to be known world-wide.  It’s no longer known by a small number, but has been made known to the entire world.  In fact, it is to be known even beyond the ends of this world, in the heavenly places.

                Paul is encouraging these Christians to not lose hope.  Again, this might seem a little strange because as we’ve said before, things were going really well there at the church in Ephesus.  The church was growing and there wasn’t really much strife that existed within the church.  However, there did exist the possibility for strife and potential problems.  Remember that I said a good teacher can anticipate the problems before they even arise.  Paul’s brought up both the doctrine of predestination and the concept of God’s covenant promise being just as much for the Gentiles now as it is for the Jews.  If there weren’t problems beforehand, Paul is doing a fine job of creating them isn’t he?  I mean, if I wanted to start an argument within the church and I didn’t want it to be about paint colors or room temperatures then predestination and the non-exclusivity of the gospel are pretty good options.  However, we can take Paul’s bringing these topics up along with his words about this epistle being for the benefit of the church and glean one thing from it.  It is for our own good and our own benefit that we seek to gain an understanding of how God works.  Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, we will never fully know how and why God works the way that He does, at least not in this life, and maybe not after that.  However, that should not stop us from striving to gain an understanding to the method in which He works.

                We, Bible-believing, Christ-professing, God-fearing Christians, are part of this initiated group.  We are, like Paul, one’s who have had this mystery revealed to us.  Now, it may not have happened in a singular moment like we see with Paul.  Maybe you’re like me and you just kind of realized after years and years of hearing someone teach or preach on the gospel, maybe the importance of what was being said finally dawned on you.  However you came to know Christ, you are the possessor of a great gift.  You are someone who has received the greatest and most precious gift that anyone could ever receive.  Don’t waste it.  Don’t just file your faith away and keep it as some dusty box that you only pull out during a time of trial or hardship.  Let it be something that you use so often that it becomes part of you.  Spend so much time growing in your relationship with God through prayer and Scripture reading and other wonderful resources, that your faith isn’t a part of who you are but is who you are.  Your growth shouldn’t stop upon this mystery being revealed to you, but this mystery being revealed to you ought to cause your desire for growth to become insatiable.  

What I Learned Through the Delta State Shooting

                We’ve all heard the story of the high school valedictorian who gets us on stage and thanks someone in the crowd who spoke a kind word to them years ago.  The short of it is that the valedictorian, years earlier, was on his way home to commit suicide when someone spoke a kind word to him and unknowingly gave him a the courage to continue onward.  It’s a wonderful story about not knowing the impact that you can have on someone around you.  It may be true, or it may be completely made up, I don’t really know.  However, until yesterday it was just a story for me, until it became somewhat of a reality.

                As news broke yesterday about an active shooter on the campus on Delta State University in Cleveland, MS my mind immediately jumped to the events of only a few weeks ago at my alma mater Mississippi State.  My first thought was that I hoped that the events at Delta State would turn out like those at MSU…no fatalities.  I prayed.  A little bit of time went by and then came news that there had been one fatality.  I prayed.  A few minutes later, I saw where it was a faculty member who was shot and killed.  I prayed for his family.  As the “urgency” of the situation began to fade away and as the new information stopped coming in as quickly, the day seemingly got back to normal.  I really didn’t hear much more other than people supporting the university during this horrific ordeal.  Things seemed to be pretty much over except for merely apprehending the suspect.  Then, that’s when things got extremely real for me.  I was scrolling through Facebook and saw where they had released the identity of the suspect and given a picture of him…my heart fell into my stomach.

                I stared at my computer screen in my office for what felt like hours in disbelief.  I was reading that a man named Shannon Lamb was wanted and that the picture was a recent one taken of him.  Most of you don’t know (or at least didn’t know until yesterday) who Shannon Lamb is.  However, I know him, and have for roughly 10 years.  Back in 2005 I became a high school science teacher at Murrah High School in Jackson, MS.  Shannon was a math teacher at that same school who taught in the classroom next to mine.  We would talk almost every day during breaks between classes, lunch, and before the school day started.  We taught a lot of the same kids, so we usually talked to each other about who was struggling and who was doing well…teacher stuff.  However, there were moments where we talked on a much deeper level as well.

                Shannon was kind of a quirky guy.  He was very quiet, very nondescript, and wore a suit to work every day (actually it was either a blue suit or a gray suit that he alternated each day).  He was very serious about his job and honestly one of the smartest people that I have ever known.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that he seemed almost the opposite of what you would think of as someone who would ever commit these actions taken yesterday.  He shared with me stories of how he was brought up with a troubled past.  He came from a broken home where drugs and alcohol weren’t just present, but encouraged at an early age.  He shared with me how in his past he had had his own issues with addiction and how they had wrecked his first marriage (a marriage that he said came about because he and his first wife were either drunk or high for almost their entire relationship).  He had shared with me how up until a few years prior, the only things that he had ever done of any account in his life were his education and his children.  He was a good father who tried his best to remain active in the lives of his children.  Despite his past mistakes, he wanted to provide something for his kids that he never had…guidance.  He had seemingly turned his life around and was only worried about providing for his kids and making sure that they succeeded in life.

                After that one year teaching together Shannon accepted a position with Delta State because of a research grant that he had gotten.  It was a position that was going to put him working between Cleveland, MS and Gautier, MS, and give him more time with his kids.  He had even started dating his ex-wife once again (after she had cleaned herself up as well) and they seemed to be on a possible road to reconciliation.  When I last spoke to him in May 2006, he seemed to have his life headed in the right direction.  Yet, as I write this entry 9½ years later, Shannon’s life crumbled and he’s taken three lives, with the last one being his own late yesterday evening.  I have no idea what happened during those 9+ years, but over the last 24 hours I have asked myself one question over and over again…“Could I have done something about this?”  Now, let me state very clearly that the events of yesterday aren’t about me.  I have little-to-no relationship with DSU.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about my interaction with Shannon.  Did I do everything I could have to help this man out who I knew had a troubled past?  The answer, quite simply, is no; no I didn’t. 

                As I think back upon our conversations, I realize that nowhere in there is the gospel present.  It would be easy for me to defend/excuse myself and say that this was prior to my feeling called to gospel ministry, but the truth of the matter is that I was a Christian at that point in my life.  It’s not just pastors or devout Christians that are to witness to others about Christ, but it’s the task given to all Christians.  It’s a task that I failed at miserably in the case of Shannon Lamb.  Would my speaking to him about Jesus have made any difference…who knows?  Would my speaking to him about my faith or his faith have prevented the events of yesterday…maybe not?  However, we’ll never know because I never spoke up.

               As I said, the events of yesterday in Gautier, MS (where it is believed he killed his girlfriend before driving to Cleveland, MS to kill the DSU professor) and at Delta State aren’t about me.  I’ve only stepped on that campus a couple of times and don’t have any emotional connection to it at all.  The focus, as it rightly should be, is to be on helping a campus, a town, and a student body heal and recover from a horrific tragedy.  However, I can’t help but think about the lasting impact that this will have upon me in my ministry and my life moving forward.  Are there times that I should speak up that I will remain silent…probably.  However, I can tell you that they will be few now moving forward.  I no longer have to hear the story of the valedictorian to know the power of speaking up because I have the heartbreak of knowing what it feels like when you say nothing.

               

Please pray for the families of Amy Prentiss and Ethan Schmidt, Delta State University, the Cleveland, MS community, and the teenage children of Shannon Lamb.  May Shannon’s kids no be crushed by the weight of their father’s sin, but driven to Christ instead.  Also, please pray for a seminary classmate of mine, Seth Still.  Seth is the RUF minister at Delta State and will be tasked with proclaiming the gospel to this group of young adults who are looking to make sense of the events that have taken place.  May God speak through Seth and all other campus ministry persons to bring about his glory through disaster.

Ephesians 2:11-22 "Built on Christ"

                A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the first half of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus and we saw those sweet words, “But God” that D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said were in a sense the gospel itself.  We talked about how despite our sinfulness and our separation from God, that He restores us through the work of the Triune God; chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  In essence, that is the past, present, and future for mankind.  We fell and were separated from God, Christ’s death changes that, and our future is to be delivered to glory through the work of the Holy Spirit.  However, we have to remember that in Paul’s time, there is an entirely different argument that was going on.  You see, we live in a time where we understand that anyone can follow Christ and that it isn’t the exclusive right of one nation, i.e. Biblical Israel.  However, that is exactly the problem that Paul makes mention of in our text today as we look at the past, present, and future of the Gentiles (but also there is news for us as well).  I guess if I were going to describe it in something that makes sense to us, it would be like a citizen of another country coming to America and committing a crime, yet finding themselves afforded all the rights and privileges of the American justice system without being a part of our country.  We would be upset because our Constitution applies to American citizens and not to those of another country.  Yes, I know this happens, but it isn’t really supposed to.  Also, keep in mind that we are talking about the Bible and God versus America and the U.S. Constitution.  One of these is infallible, while the other is very much prone to error.  Israel had a problem with the Gentiles claims to God and Paul was to setting the record straight on this matter.

                Much like the first part of the chapter, Paul starts off by telling these Gentiles just how grim their position with God really was before Christ.  Of that he says a number of things.  Paul says that they were separated from Christ, alienated from Israel (God’s chosen people), strangers to the covenants of promise, hopeless, and without God.  None of those paint a pleasant picture for the Gentiles (or the uncircumcised as they’re referred to here).  In fact, it sounds a lot like what Paul had to say previously about us being dead in our trespasses and sins and being children of wrath.  I know that we just glossed over the list here, but think about what it really means to be separated, alienated, hopeless, without, and a stranger.  Paul has been preaching and teaching about the fact that in order to be saved you have to be in union with Christ and yet he’s saying that these Gentiles have nothing connecting them to God at all.  That is, they didn’t until the time of Christ.  “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  How much does that reverberate the sentiment of the previous phrase “But God”?  In other words, despite the Gentiles having no claim to be part of God’s chosen people, because of Christ, they can now come to God; we can come to God.

                Paul goes on to add, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility.”  Alright, there are a couple of things in there that I want to expand upon for just a moment.  The phrases “has broken down…the dividing wall” and “created…one new man in place of the two” both speak to what Christ did in terms of opening up salvation to more than just national Israel.  If we were to look at a picture of the ancient temple, we would see that it looked kind of like a square target.  With each ring or wall, the number of people who could continue inward became fewer and fewer.  Now, the very center of the temple was the holy of holies, the symbolic dwelling place of God, which was raised above all other levels.  Next, came the levels for the Jews.  There were levels for priests, men, and women of various statures.  Then, a few steps down from this level were the levels for all those who were not Jews, not part of the nation of Israel.  There was always a great distinction made between Jews and Gentiles, even when they both professed faith in God.  Well, Christ has knocked down those walls and he’s leveled the steps to where there is only God and man.  There are no longer subclasses of mankind, just people.  We think of the great racial and social walls that have been torn down over the last several generations.  Some of them are worthy of celebrating like the abolition of slavery and the fulfillment of women’s right.  Others are not as glorious; the changing of the definition of marriage most recently.  However, this tearing down of the exclusivity of the covenants and promises of God is the most celebratory of all wall destructions.  In Christ, we are all new creations, none of us more rightful recipients of God’s grace than the next one.

                You see, what God has done through Christ is to create a new humanity.  In this new humanity, we may still look very different on the surface, but in reality there is no difference amongst all of mankind.  We are all children, made in the image of God, we’re all fallen, and we’re all in need of his saving grace and mercy.  “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”  No longer strangers or aliens, but fellow citizens and members of the household of God.  Now, the Greek word that is translated here as “household” is a word that could be translated as family.  However, it doesn’t mean biological family, but it encompasses all peoples that one might think of when describing or thinking of family, even servants and hired workers.  I look at it like this, have y’all ever been to a family reunion…a big one?  I mean one of those that you don’t know but about a quarter of the people there, if that many.  Now, I can say this is true for both my family and Amy’s, but you start looking around the room at one of these events and you start thinking that there’s no way you’re related to these folks.  There is nothing externally that shows any commonality between you; however, there is no other word to describe them other than family, part of the same household.  The household of God, the kingdom of God has gone from national to international.  It has gone from national Israel to the international Church, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”  As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  A life, a relationship, and a church (Church) all must be built upon Christ in order to withstand the trials and hardships that are bound to happen.  Amy and I got to watch last Saturday as one of our friends pledged to his bride to build their home upon the foundation of Christ, which is exactly as God commands us to do.  Christ must the foundation for all that we do.

Now, I’ll come back to the analogy of a marriage resembling the church when Paul gets to it later on in this epistle.  So, for now let’s move on and look at what this has to do with us as we sit right here.  As I’ve said over and over again, Paul is talking about the Church here in this epistle.  And as we just said a moment ago, the Church, like our lives, must be built upon Christ.  Christ must be the foundation and cornerstone of what the Church is built upon.  However, there is still more that Paul wishes for his audience to know, and it is specifically about the role that individuals play in the life of the Church.  “In [Jesus] the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”  I want to use Peter’s words in 1 Peter 2 as a commentary on Paul’s language here.  Peter writes, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  Well, what do these two verses mean?  You see, because of Jesus, the living stone that was precious and chosen by God, we are the living stones of God’s temple and priesthood today.  We hear all the time statements like “The church is much more than brick and mortar” or “it’s the people that make the church, not the building.”  One that I’ve said for years is that “the strength of the church isn’t in the pulpit or the property, but in the pews.”  You see, Paul and Peter’s words are telling us that the Church’s foundation is Christ, but the walls, the infrastructure, and all else are to be the people of God carrying out the commands of God.  That is the charge that is being made to us this day and it is the charge that was being made to the Ephesians during this time.  Yes they all came from different backgrounds just as we do today.  However, we are all a new creation, one new man in Christ Jesus.  And being this new creation, our focus is to shift from being focused on our own interests to being aimed at fulfilling the will of God.

The gospel is not exclusive.  If ever there was something that would seemingly be exclusive, this would be it.  However, because of Christ, the gospel isn’t the right and privilege of one nation, one race, or one people group.  The gospel is the good news for all mankind.  It is the news that regardless of who you are or what you have done, you can have a relationship with the Creator of the universe.  And when you do have this relationship, you become the instrument of God working in this world to carry out His works.  These words of Paul’s about the gospel being for all and not a select few might even mean more to us today than they did to the Gentiles at the time.  Think of how distraught we would be thinking that we had no standing with God simply because we were born to certain parents.  That would be terrible wouldn’t it?  “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Ephesians 2:1-10 "But God"

                Back in the fall of 2011, shortly before I accepted a call to become your pastor, I went on a trip to Haiti, to a remote portion of the island outside of Gauthier City near the Dominican border.  I, along with several other pastors, went with a newly formed mission organization and was going as a representative from the church where I worked at the time.  The purpose for my going was to determine whether or not Grace Chapel EPC wanted to partner with But God Ministries in their mission.  But God Ministries was started by a man named Stan Buckley while he was the pastor of First Baptist Church of Jackson, MS, one of the largest churches in the U.S., and it was something that he felt so passionate about that he actually left pastoral ministry so that he could devote himself fully to this ministry.  Their vision was simple, to go into this place that was largely dominated by a mixture of voodoo and semi-Catholicism (sound familiar?) and plant not just a church, but an entire Christian community with Christ as the cornerstone.  They were going to work their way outward from a water well and move onto medical facilities, housing, and a worship center.  In other words, despite everything else telling them that what they were doing was foolish, bordering on impossible, they were going to do it, and believed that they could do it.  Why did they believe so adamantly about this?  Why did they know that despite everything telling them otherwise that their plan would work?  This verse right here in the middle of our passage today, “But God…”  Yes things were bad; yes they were awful; and yes there was a seemingly certain chance of failure, but God. 

                Paul, in our text for today, starts off by telling these Christians in Ephesus of where they stand on their own merit, and it isn’t a good place.  He says that they “were dead in trespasses and sins” and were once “children of wrath.”  Now, one of the things that I find so astounding about this passage comes from adding the previous chapter to this.  Paul has laid out in chapter 1, basically God’s plan of redemption.  He’s talked about Jesus and the work of the Trinity and then he went on to talk about the work that ought to be done through the Church after the time of Christ.  Now, he’s talking like there’s no hope for us.  He’s talking like no matter how much we are a part of the body of Christ, it isn’t going to do any good.  At least that’s the sense that we get from those first three verses.  Then, there are those sweet words of verses 4-6.  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ.” 

                Did you notice the phrase “dead in our trespasses and sins” being in there both before and after this turning point in verse 4?  In other words, even though we are exactly as broken and undeserving as Paul described us as being in the first three verses of this chapter, God still carries out His saving and redeeming work in us; “by grace you have been saved.”  Notice that that statement is in there twice as well.  Yes, you’re sinners.  Yes, you’re broken.  Yes, you’re fallen.  Yes, you’re disobedient.  Yes, you follow your own desires over the Lord’s.  Yes, you’re constantly straying from the Father’s will for you, but God.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said of these two words that “These two words, in and of themselves, in a sense contain the whole of the gospel.”  Lloyd-Jones is exactly right.  The gospel is all about our coming to know and understand just how errant we are, how broken we are.  It’s about knowing that we don’t measure up to the standard that God has set for us.  However, despite the absolute truth of that fact, God still sent His Son into the world to pay the price that was owed for our sins.  God still sends His Holy Spirit into the world to be the power of God working in us, to us, and through us.

                You know, it’s not like the text says, but God forgave everything in Jesus.  I mean, it would be great if that was all that Paul wrote, but it’s not.  Instead, we find something so much more joyous than we could imagine:  “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  So let me get this straight; not only is God not going to punish us and exercise His wrath towards us (which He is perfectly within His rights to do), but He is also going to show us such riches and grace that the only way that we can quantify them is to call them immeasurable.  Surely there’s some catch here.  Surely there’s something that we must give up or do in order to be shown these immeasurable riches of His grace.  You know what they say about a deal that sounds too good to be true…it usually is.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”  Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that all of this, all of these wonderful blessings that God has promised to, and indeed will, bestow upon us are granted to us because we have faith in Him?  “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ok, now things are starting to seem just too good to be true.  I mean, rationally thinking, there’s no way that we could be the recipients of something that we so clearly do not deserve… “But God.”

                I want to remind of a few things here.  First, faith is much more than acknowledgment.  We covered that pretty in-depth when we studied the epistle of James.  Faith is not just admitting or acknowledging the existence of God, but instead it is knowing that God is real and trusting in Him.  To borrow a phrase that we used last week, it’s heart-knowledge and not just head-knowledge.  Secondly, even when we get that assurance that we have faith, even when we know beyond and shadow of a doubt that we believe wholeheartedly in Christ and rest upon Him for our salvation, we have absolutely nothing to brag about.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about celebrating.  Being found in Christ gives us every reason to celebrate.  I’m talking about boasting or bragging as if we’ve done anything ourselves.  If you recall, back in the opening part of this epistle, Paul wrote that one Greek sentence that talked about the work of the Trinity in terms of our salvation:  chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  We don’t find our names anywhere in there except for being the ones who everything is done to.  It’s not as if we really contribute anything to our salvation.

                I’m kind of a particular person.  I have certain things that just jump out to me in certain ways and I really don’t know why.  Now, my wife has finally after some time gotten through to me and helped me to see that I don’t have to point out every little thing that I notice.  For example, I’ve often found it puzzling why after a surgery the doctor or surgeon comes in and tells the patient that they did great during the procedure.  Did they?  Well, what exactly was their role in the operation?  I mean, can you really count being laid out and knocked out by gas as doing something?  After all, they have people now whose sole job it is to monitor your vital signs throughout the surgery.  In essence, when you don’t even do the one thing that you’re supposed to do, they have someone to do it for you.  I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of anyone making it through a procedure and bragging about how well they did during the operation.  However, I know a lot people who like to brag about their standing with the Lord even though, as Paul wrote here, they really don’t have anything to do with it.  Again, I’m not talking about celebrating.  Celebrate all you want because it’s something worth celebrating.  I’m talking about boasting about what you did to give yourself that standing with the Lord.  God gives each one of us our position with Him, “it is a gift from God, not a result of works.”

                You see, this is the application of Ephesians 1:3-14.  Chapter 1, as I mentioned earlier, is the revealing of God’s plan of salvation through Christ and carried out by the Holy Spirit through the instrument known as the Church.  Chapter 2 is the position that the Christian has in that plan.  It’s not our plan for our lives; it’s God’s perfect and righteous and holy plan for our lives.  God is the one who is the architect of the plan.  God is the one who executes that plan in Jesus Christ.  And God is the one who applies the benefits of the execution of that plan to our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Paul is writing to the Ephesians and telling them of the work of Christ that is to be done to them and in them.  He’s telling them that they “who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [Jesus] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present [them] holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Col. 1:21-22). 

                You see, these 10 verses that we have for us in our text for today are basically a summation of much of what we looked at during the first part of our look at James’ epistle.  It’s great that we’re found in Christ and that we have a relationship with God.  It’s great that despite our faults and our failures that we are still able to enjoy such wonderful blessings.  However, don’t think for one second that it is because of your own doing that you have that relationship.  Yes, you make the decision every day to follow Christ, but it is because God has put that burden upon your heart.  As we’ve already said, if we completely fell during the fall so that nothing good exists in us naturally, then how could we come to saving faith without God first planting that seed of faith within us.  It is by grace that God grants to us that faith.  It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved.  How do we come to know about Christ?  We come to know him through the Church.  Remember that this entire epistle is centered around the Church and the one on whom the Church is founded and built.  Christ must be at the epicenter of all that the Church does and is. 

I’ve been giving this text a lot of thought this week and it’s been a bit strange.  I mean, just think about the last couple of weeks.  We’ve had websites hacked that exposed countless marital affairs, news crews shot on air, potential school shootings, police officers shot, and even today we remember Hurricane Katrina.  I mean, that’s a lot of bad stuff.  However, in the midst of that Amy and I have been able to celebrate the birth of our niece, spend time with our kids, and wake up each morning and praise God.  In other words, yes there’s a lot of bad stuff out there, yes there’s evil in the world, and yes sometimes it seems like we’re almost fighting a losing battle being Christians who are trying to raise and make Christian disciples, but God.  Because God is who He says He is, we know without a shadow of a doubt that not one promise that He makes will fail.  We know that He will see us through any storm, any season, and problem that may arise.  It may not be pretty, and it may not be without some discomfort and hardship, but He will see us through it.  And that’s the hope that we all must have.  Despite who we are and what we actually deserve, God gives us so much more.

Ephesians 1:15-23 "God Revealed in Christ"

                What does it mean to know something or to know someone?  I don’t mean to know about them, but if you were to say that you really know someone, what does that mean?  When two people begin a relationship, the entire process is all about getting to know that person on a deeper level.  A man or a woman know instantly whether or not they are physically attracted to one another.  The entire process of dating is for them to truly get to know each other, and then see if they love each other along the way as they get to know them more and more.  You see, we all know about a lot of folks, but we really only truly know a much smaller group of people.  I bet most of you in here can count on your two hands (doubtful you need all 10 fingers) the number of people who actually truly know you, at least beyond a superficial or surface acquaintanceship.  Sure, you may know a lot of facts about someone else (where they grew up, their family, birthday, and things like that), but you probably don’t know what makes them tick, what drives that person, what their true desires are; not like, say for example, your spouse if you have one.  Your spouse can probably predict what you are going to say, how you are going to react, and what you will do in any particular situation without being given any hints.  Maybe you have a few friends who fall into a similar camp, but only a few.  Why is that; how do these folks know you so well?  Well, it’s because you actually really and truly know each other on an intimate level.

                In our text for today, Paul is calling the Ephesians to go beyond knowing God in a factual sense, and to come into a relationship with Him where there is a level of closeness and intimacy that is beyond compare.  Paul wants them to go beyond a mere head-knowledge of God and get to something much greater.  We might could say that he wants them to move from head-knowledge to heart-knowledge.  He starts off by commending them in the first few verses about how well the church is doing and how they seem to be growing rapidly since the time of Paul’s planting of the church.  Paul’s excited by that, but he tells them that there is much more to it than physical and numerical growth.  He tells them that there must be spiritual growth as well.  Paul calls them to grow in their “knowledge of [God], having the eyes of [their] hearts enlightened, that [they] may know what is the hope to which he has called [them].”  You see, it’s great that so many are professing Christ as their Lord and Savior and that such numbers are being added to the church there, but that isn’t the goal.  The goal is to bring them into a relationship with Christ.  The goal is to bring them to a place where instead of simply knowing about Christ, they know Christ, and know him intimately.  You see, that’s one of the problems that we face in the modern church.  For so long, the focus was/has been on simply growing churches in terms of numbers with little thought being paid to really training Christians, or “to equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” as Paul says later on in this epistle.  And all of that led/has led to in Paul’s time and in recent history a group of uninformed and apathetic members of churches who really show no impact of the gospel upon their lives.  That’s not what the Christian faith is to be about.  The Christian faith is to be a relationship, a devotion, and an all-encompassing new way of life.  It’s not just life-altering, but life-changing.

                Paul tells the Ephesians that he wants them to “know what is the hope to which he has called [them], what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”  In other words, Paul wants them to know about the hope they are to have in God, the inheritance that is to be theirs, and the power that God bestows to those who believe in Him; and all of that is manifested in the work of Jesus Christ.  “According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”  Paul’s reminding the Ephesians what a great opportunity we have to know God on such an intimate level because not only has He revealed Himself to us throughout the ages, but He has given us the ultimate revelation of Himself in Jesus.  One of Jesus’ titles, Immanuel, means God with us.  The second person of the Trinity took the form of a servant.  Jesus, i.e. the Son, felt hunger like we do, pain like we do, and temptation like we do (although not succumbing to it).  John 11:35 is a pretty popular verse for a lot of reasons.  Do you know what they are?  Yes, the most obvious is that at only two words, it is the shortest verse in Scripture; Jesus wept.  However, think about the power of those two words.  Jesus wept; he wept even though he knew that in mere moments he was going to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead.  Even though Jesus knew what was to come, the sheer emotion of the death of his friend was enough to drive him to tears.  You see, Jesus is a wonderful chance for us to truly know God beyond head-knowledge and facts and commands and laws.  Now, Jesus is most assuredly much more than a chance for us to get to know God.  Jesus is most importantly the plan of our salvation that had been unfolding since the time of the fall.  One of the just mind-blowing things about the Christian faith (and there are many), is that Jesus became man and died.  In any other religion of the world, the Supreme Being is held in such high regard that you can’t even begin to think about relating to them, and in some cases even imagining or depicting them is a sin or crime.  Yet, when it comes to God, we feel this intimacy and closeness that at times causes us to be too casual with Him.  The fact that Jesus Christ, God Himself, took the form of man and lowered Himself to our level so-to-speak, ought to cause us to be more in awe of God and not create a sense of flippancy within us when it comes to our relationship with Him.

                Paul goes on to talk about Jesus being entrusted with all power and authority and dominion.  He talks about how the Son is eternal, just as the Father is eternal.  He talks about what we’ve already mentioned several times in this letter, that Christ is the head of the Church and that the Church “is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”  One of the main responsibilities of the Church is to help others grow in their faith, i.e. their relationship, their intimacy with God.  We do that by means which have been instituted and commanded by Christ.  We also know that we have access to God through worship, singing, and prayer because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ.  I mentioned earlier that Christ gives us a revelation of God.  I mentioned as well that that revelation is something that is unique to the Christian faith that no worldly religion can claim.  I also mentioned a bit about the failure on the part of the church (for the most part) to adequately help Christians grow in their relationships with the Lord.  So, where am I going with all of this?

                Well, I want to take two seconds and remind you of the purpose of the letter.  Paul is teaching them about the Church.  We said last Sunday, and have it reinforced for us this Sunday, that Christ is the head of the Church.  The Church is built upon Christ.  So, what understanding about the Church can we take from God’s being revealed to us in Christ?  What can we take from Christ’s work that speaks to the Church?  As I’ve pondered that question this week and read countless commentaries, it’s a question that doesn’t have a unified answer.  As I was cleaning off our kitchen table the other day, I noticed a few marks in the wood that weren’t there a few months ago.  You see, I know that table well because I built it.  I took these old canning shelves from Amy’s great-uncle’s house and turned them into a very imperfect table (imperfect by design).  I know every mark on there because I had Amy inspect the thing to tell me whether or not to leave it or sand it out in the making of that table.  These new marks weren’t there originally, but have since been put there by our kids.  At first I got a little upset because I had put a lot of time and work into this table and they were just treating it like no big deal.  And that’s when it hit me that many Christians treat the Church just like my kids treat that table.  Now, for me, it’s just a table and I’ll get over it (and already have to some extent).  However, for God, I can’t imagine what it must feel like when someone neglects or harms His Church, the very thing that is built upon the sacrifice of His Son.  Tim Keller once wrote, “Relationships are costly.  Whatever it will cost you to be with God is nothing compared to what it cost Him to be with you.”

                Paul is trying to tell the Ephesians that Christ died for the Church.  God gave up His only Son for the Church.  The Church is built upon the very one in whom we have our hope for salvation.  The Church is built upon the one who willingly and voluntarily gave himself up for us and bore the price for our sins upon the cross.  Paul is reminding the Ephesians of the price that was paid for them.  They (as well as us today) should want to get to know this God so intimately that we almost feel as if there isn’t anything left to know.  You see, that ought to be our desire as a church.  It’s not about bigger buildings and larger gatherings, but about knowing God.  It’s about knowing God and coming to know Him through the work of Jesus.  It’s about coming to know Jesus through the Church, the body of Christ.  That’s what we’re here to do; that’s our purpose.  And we have to strive to make every effort to see that our true task is accomplished each and every day, no matter the cost.  Even when it’s difficult and even when it causes us hardship, our goal is to know Christ and make him known to others.

Ephesians 1:3-14 "Elected, Redeemed, and Sealed"

                Last Sunday I felt kind of like a guy was about to propose to his girlfriend.  I know that sounds a little strange, but follow me for just a second.  When a guy knows that he’s about to pop the question, he has to muster every ounce of strength he can to not just blurt it out.  Seemingly every sentence could begin with “Will you marry me.”  You see, the anticipation of what he knows is coming (hopefully) is so much that it completely consumes him.  Well, that’s what I was fighting last Sunday.  I wanted so badly to get into the text that we have for today that I was mere seconds away from breaking into a second sermon.  Sure pieces got out, but thankfully I was able to restrain myself somewhat.  However, I did introduce our text for today and I want to remind you of that introduction, as well as a quote that I gave you last Sunday.  The quote came from John Stott, and it talked about the epistle to the Ephesians being a “magnificent combination of Christian doctrine and Christian duty, Christian faith and Christian life, what God has done through Christ and what we must be and do in consequence.”  Well, the first half of each of those three pairs (Christian doctrine, faith, and what God has done through Christ) is where Paul begins this letter.  In other words, Paul begins his letter by stating the position of the Christian before moving on to the desired practice or behavior of the Christian.  It’s the standard Pauline format of theology first, followed by the application of that theology.

                The other thing that I mentioned last Sunday, and what I’m going to spend the rest of our time this morning focusing on, is the work of the Triune God as it’s laid out in vv. 3-14.  I said last Sunday that 3-6 describe the work of the Father, 7-10 the work of the Son, and 11-14 the work of the Holy Spirit.  Well, let me give a little bit more information to those sections in terms of the type of work that we see done.  Vv. 3-6 describes the electing or choosing work of the Father.  Vv. 7-10 describes the redeeming work of the Son.  Vv. 11-14 describes the sealing work of the Holy Spirit.  So, we’ve got chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  That’s going to be our working outline for today.  That’s going to be our framework for this passage.

                Now, I know that as I read the first part of today’s text that there might have been some ears cringe as I read the words chose, predestined, and adopted.  Amy and I had some friends who years ago wouldn’t come to church with us because they were convinced that all Presbyterians talked about was predestination and baptizing babies.  You see, they couldn’t even hear the word predestination without getting upset.  My response to them (and others who have made similar comments) is to not blame me, blame God.  After all, God is the author of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16), and He’s the one that inspired Paul to use those words, not me.  You see, we have to have an understanding of what this word predestination means because it’s a biblical word.  It isn’t something made up by Presbyterians, but a word specifically used here by Paul to describe our relationship with God.  What does it mean to say that “God chose us in him before the foundation of the world” or that “in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ”?  What does that mean?  Well, this is one of the main texts for the support of the biblical doctrine of election.  Well, what is election, biblically speaking?  Simply put (maybe even overly so), the doctrine of election teaches that God choses those whom He will call to saving faith.  In John 6, we find Jesus telling his disciples that no one can come to him unless the Father who sent him draws that person to him first.  He later says that no one can come to Jesus unless it is granted him by the Father.  Now, for many this concept of election takes different forms.  Some view it as a pre-knowing on God’s part about the choices that the person will make.  Others, myself included, view it as the understanding that God choses whom He will save and bestows upon them the gift of eternal salvation.  Now, I will admit that this is difficult to understand.  Beyond that, many will call it unfair.  How could God choose some and not all?  However, for us to think that it is unfair is to only look at half of the story, and in reality less than half of the story.

                If we start with the position of what is called the total depravity of man, then it seems not unfair, but completely generous and loving.  When Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, how far did we fall?  Did we fall a little, a lot, or none at all?  You see if we didn’t fall or didn’t fall that far, then we could earn our way back to salvation; we could earn our way back into heaven, into a right relationship with God.  However, if we fell completely (which Scripture clearly teaches is the case), then it is impossible for us to get back to good; it’s impossible for us to earn our salvation.  Also, without God choosing to bring us to saving faith, then there is no way for us to earn our salvation, thus no way for Him to foreknow salvation and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior without Him placing that upon our hearts in the first place.  If there is nothing good in us (from a Godly perspective), then we are incapable of complete obedience.  It is impossible for us to transform ourselves from slaves to sin to worshipers of Jesus Christ without God doing that work in us.  God’s choosing, electing, or whatever other word you want to use of those whom he will bring out of slavery and into the light is the work of the Father.  It’s not an unjust work, but a loving work that He would choose to save any of us at all.  Now, unfortunately I could talk about this topic for hours, but time doesn’t permit and there are still two other persons of the Trinity that are mentioned here as working in us.  If you want to discuss this issue in greater depth just let me know.

                The second person of the Trinity that is mentioned is the Son.  Specifically it is the redeeming work of Jesus Christ that is given attention.  While all three members of the Trinity were at work in Christ’s accomplishing this, the Son was central in this work.  “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”  In other words, we are delivered from a state of slavery to sin to a state of mercy in Christ through the shedding of the blood of Jesus upon the cross which atoned for our sins.  Because of Christ’s death upon the tree at Calvary we are not only delivered from sin to freedom, but ultimately (much through the work of the Holy Spirit that we will get to in a moment), we are ultimately to be delivered into a state of glory.  Paul wrote to Titus in Titus 2:14 that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.”  Peter writes in his first epistle that Christ was ransomed on our behalf, that his precious blood takes away all blemishes, and that all of this was the plan of God before the foundations of the earth.  To redeem something is to compensate for a fault.  To be redeemed means that our faults, our shortcomings, our failures, have been compensated for by something or someone, and that someone is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The shedding of Christ’s blood is what redeems us, sets us right with God.  It’s not our actions or our good deeds, but Christ’s atoning sacrifice that restores us.

                I love the flow of Paul’s teaching here.  Between Father and Son, as a transition, he says that “we are blessed in the Beloved” and then goes on to talk about the Beloved.  In vv. 11-12 he talks about our inheritance, our being chosen in Christ by the Father who is the architect not only of the plan of salvation but all things, and talks about how glorious all of this is for us.  Then, he gives us the guarantee, the Holy Spirit.  What good does vv. 3-12 serve if it’s left up to us?  Time and time again even the most Godly of biblical figures prove that we will mess things up if left to our own doing.  Forgetting Adam and Eve for a second, look at Noah.  Look at Isaac and Jacob.  Look at Moses.  Look at David.  All of these men were very Godly, but all of them committed some type of sin that by definition should have placed them outside of God’s covenant promises and blessings.  I mean, David was God’s anointed, and the most famous thing people know about him aside from his slaying for the giant Goliath is his adultery with Bathsheba.  If the Lord’s anointed failed, that certainly doesn’t give a positive outlook for our chances.  However, God doesn’t elect us, redeem us, and then send us on our way.  Instead, He gives us His Holy Spirit in order to seal our election and redemption.  To seal something means to make it secure, to guarantee it.  When we seal something, we are promising that it is solidified for good.  I’m not talking about some television infomercial lifetime guarantee that’s filled with all kinds of fine print and loopholes.  I’m talking about God’s guarantee.  You see, God’s sealing our salvation is His promising that salvation is a guarantee for those whom He has chosen to be found in Him.  The “Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”  The Holy Spirit is not just a fulfillment of God’s promise to indwell His people, but is a guarantee that He will bring them to their final inheritance.  The Holy Spirit is but a foretaste of the glory of the age to come.  Paul writes about this in Romans 8 about how the frailty, brokenness, corruption, and futility that we experience in this lifetime is no more in the age to come.  God doesn’t just tell us that He’s going to do something; He tells us that He is going to do something in us, to us, and through us, and then He does it.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

                So, why all of this?  Why did Paul begin this letter to this church by getting into the work of the Trinity?  Remember, there isn’t a problem here.  Paul isn’t trying to correct some misguided theology or a misunderstanding of the Triune God.  Also, remember that Paul is writing to the Ephesian church about the church, about the body of Christ.  Why, if he’s writing about the church, does he talk about election, redemption, and sealing?  No less than 10x in this one Greek sentence that makes up vv. 3-14 does Paul use the phrase “in Christ” or “in him”.  Some particular translation decisions could give more, but 10 is a conservative number.  Don’t you think that’s kind of a lot of times to use one phrase in a sentence?  If I were to use one phrase 10x in an entire sermon y’all would think that that was all I wanted y’all to take away from it wouldn’t you?  Well, if Paul’s writing about the church here, what role does Christ play in the church?  Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.  It’s a simple thing really, but it’s often forgotten.  Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.  I don’t care what your tradition may be; the pastor isn’t the head of the church, nor the elders, nor the deacons, nor the trustees, nor the priests, nor the bishops, nor the cardinals, nor the pope are the head of the Church.  The one and only true head of the Church is Jesus Christ.  The Church exists in and through Jesus Christ.  Paul, at the time of his writing this epistle, had already written to the church is Colossi and given them these words, “And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.  And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” 

The work of the Triune God as displayed through Christ’s sacrifice is the foundation of the church.  You see, the Church isn’t built on people or preachers or programs or buildings or anything else that we can rattle off.  The Church is built on Jesus Christ and Christ alone, just as our lives should be.  Last Sunday Amy and the kids talked about the story of the 2 houses in Sunday School.  I don’t have time to recount the story, but I’ll just tell you that I asked the kids about it when we got home and Thomas simply told me, “If you’re house ain’t built on Jesus, then it’s gonna fall.”  He’s going be a great preacher one day.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.