Date: April 26, 2009
Title: Bringing Praise To His Glory
Text: Eph. 1:7-14
Subject:
Complement:
Main Idea:
Intro: I have felt a bit like Job recently in regards to my cars. One car was our 1996 VW and it died. Then my Durango had its transmission die, then two Friday’s ago my Volvo had it’s engine blow. So, from three cars to zero and unfortunately we have had to get a new transmission installed and are looking at purchasing a car.
One thing about buying cars is that there are thousands of options! All sorts of things that are added on to entice you to buy. The list goes on and on, moon roofs, power door locks, alloy wheels instead of steel, radio with MP3…
What is really great, though, is when you buy a car and later on find out that something came with the car you weren’t aware of. I remember buying a car a few years back and we had test drove it, heard the salesman go on and on about all the features and sort of tuned him out. Well, a week or so later, I’m driving the car and I flip open the arm rest and there I find a great treasure! An added feature I didn’t know I had! They had this loose change thing that I could put all my coins! How cool is that! And, it was spring loaded.
I was so thrilled I couldn’t wait to get home to tell my wife, Pat! “Honey, come out to the car and look at this!”
Patiently she comes and then says, “Yes honey, that’s nice!”
Then she walks away mumbling something about boys and their toys”, but I didn’t really here her because I was hunting around for change to put in the spring loaded coin holder. This discovery was going to revolutionize car ownership and driving!
I share all this, because I believe there are some added features to this life we call Christian that some of us are not even aware of, or we have forgotten about and I hope that once we are made aware, we can live more fully! We can learn to embrace these benefits and enjoy life more completely!
Background:
Last Sunday we started to study together this letter written to the church in Ephesus and we saw that Paul wanted them to know just how blessed they were to have all the riches they have in Christ. He started out by saying, “praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Paul was excited to be able to write to those early Christians and us today about the added features, the blessings we have in Christ!
So today we are going to continue where we left off last week at verse 6.
As we read this text, it is obvious that Paul is excited about Christianity. In the Greek, these first twelve verses, 202 words, form one long, very complex sentence. It almost seems as if Paul gets a little carried away. In fact, one commentator says, "These verses are like a snowball rolling down the hill, going faster and getting bigger each second." As Paul writes about how God has blessed us and the benefits of being a Christian, he finds it difficult to stop. For Paul, knowing Christ was clearly the greatest thing he could ever imagine. And, Friends, today it is my hope that God will use His Word to remind us of the marvelous benefits of knowing Jesus, and to help us better realize how great it is to be a Christian. Let’s pray that would happen.
PRAY
Can anyone imagine what the theme of the Bible is?
I. In Christ We Have The Spiritual Blessing Of Redemption. (vss. 7-8)
A. Biblical redemption is a gift that God purchased by His Son’s death. (v.7)
1. Redemption is the theme of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation!
a) If someone asks you, “What is the theme of the entire Bible?” you are correct in answering them by saying, “Redemption!”
b) One great theological scholar by the name of B.B. Warfield wrote, “There is not one of the titles of Christ which is more precious to Christian hearts than ‘Redeemer.’”
2. The problem is, what does redemption mean?
a) When we think of redemption the first thing that comes to my mind is redeemable bottles.
b) We can take our bottles to the redemption center and they “buy back” the bottles from us.
c) The entire theme of the Bible is God’s buying back a relationship with humankind!
d) In the garden, Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God until the Fall.
e) Then from there on, all the rest of the Bible is the story of God buying that same kind of relationship back again.
f) God wants intimacy with us just like back in the garden before the whole thing got broken!
3. If you want to have a snap shot of what yours and my relationship with God is supposed to look like, then read Genesis 2:4 and following.
a) There you will find that God and man commonly spoke to each other.
b) The relationship with God was alive and vital!
4. When Paul uses the word redemption here he is using a metaphor taken from the customs of ancient warfare.
a) It was a frequent practice for the conqueror to take captives who could then be made slaves to work in all sorts of useful service.
b) However, if they were people of importance then they could be set free and restored to their rightful place by a process called redemption.
5. The word was also used in the realm of slaves who by going through an elaborate process, could buy their freedom by paying a ransom.
6. However the word is used it is always that a person has been a captive of which they are totally unable to break free from, and yet they are set free due to the payment of a price paid for their redemption.
7. Paul uses this powerful word which paints such a profound picture of what we have in Christ because it so clearly demonstrates what happens when sinners are set free by Christ.
B. Redemption provides for us the forgiveness for sins! (7-8)
1. The primary result of redemption for the believer is forgiveness.
a) John the Baptist said it best when He first spoke about Jesus as he saw Jesus coming to the Jordan River. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
b) Forgiveness means that God has no record of any of our past sins.
c) One man put it like this, He said it’s kind of like God took our personal individual sins and bundled them all up and threw them into the deepest part of the sea and then placed a sign there that said, “No fishing!”
d) Because of Jesus we have total forgiveness, but that forgiveness comes at a price!
2. That forgiveness came at a price and the price that Jesus paid for us was in blood!
a) Shedding of blood as used here in our text is the same as death.
b) Christ’s own death in giving His blood, was a substitute for our death.
c) He made payment for what otherwise would have condemned us to death and to hell.
3. In the OT the blood sacrifice of animals was continually offered on the altars of the Tabernacle and the Temple.
a) That blood was never intended and was never able to take away the sins of those offering the sacrifices.
b) Those animals were only symbolic substitutes.
c) Just as the author of Hebrews writes in 10:4, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
4. In 1 Pet. 1:18& 19 we see that it was not with perishable things like silver and gold that Christ purchased our freedom from the condemnation of our sin.
5. It is no wonder that John saw the four living creatures and the twenty four elders singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9)
6. We are told that this forgiveness provided to us through Jesus’ shed blood was given to us for a reason.
a) Now we might want to think that we were selected to receive this benefit of redemption because of our goodness.
b) Or possibly because we at least aren’t as bad as someone else we can think of.
c) The bottom line is that it is lavished on us with no connection to merit.
d) The Living Bible puts it that God showered down upon us His Grace.
ILL. I was having breakfast with my dad and my younger son at the Real Food Café on Eastern Avenue, just south of Alger in Grand Rapids. As we were finishing our meal, I noticed that the waitress brought our check, then took it away, and then brought it back again. She placed it on the table, smiled, and said: "Somebody in the restaurant paid for your meal. You’re all set." And then she walked away.
I had the strangest feeling sitting there. The feeling was helplessness. There was nothing I could do. It had been taken care of. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what she said was actually true and then live in that—which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice: to live like it was true or to create my own reality in which the bill was not paid.
That is our invitation—to trust that we don’t owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something has already been done, something has been there all along.
To trust that grace pays the bill.
Trans: So we find that one of the benefits of being in Christ is that we have had Jesus Christ pay in full the cost necessary to buy us back into relationship with Him.
But there are other benefits!
II. In Christ we have the benefit of knowing the real purpose for life. (vss. 9&10)
A. Christ followers have the deep answers for life’s most problematic issues.
1. Most people go through this life with no sense of purpose or direction.
a) One French philosopher put it well when he wrote, “The universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we on this puny mud heap, spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea, and I am convinced that no one has the least idea.”
b) It is not surprising that those who do not even recognize that God exists, much less trust and serve Him, do not have the least idea of what life, the universe, and eternity are all about.
c) Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” Matt. 11:25
d) James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
2. When God takes away our sin, He does not leave us in a spiritual, moral, and mental vacuum where we must work things out for ourselves.
a) He lavishes wisdom and insight on us.
b) He gives us the answers that have eluded humankind since creation.
B. He has made known to us the mystery of His will.
1. Paul’s use of the word “mystery here is ironic, because what he is saying is a mystery to many who read this text.
2. It doesn’t need to be a mystery to us though.
a) In Bible language a mystery is something that was formally unknown but now is revealed.
b) Because of being in Christ, we now are those who have revealed to us God’s purpose in all things.
3. What Paul reveals in this verse is that God’s ultimate purpose in redemption is to “bring all things in heaven and on earth together” again under Jesus Christ.
a) What is interesting is that in most English versions of the Bible there is an omission of a word which is key to understanding this verse.
b) The word is “again” and it occurs in the Greek in connection with the verb “bring under one head.”
c) The verb is a strange one and its root is kephale which means “head” or “headstone” or cornerstone.”
d) The verb here in Ephesians 1:10 has the Greek word ana linked to it which means “again.”
4. The word really says that it is God’s purpose “to bring together, unite, or sum up” all things “again” in Jesus Christ.
a) In other words, everything was together in Jesus once, ceased to be united to Him in the Fall of Gen. 3 and will be reunited in Him again by redemption!
b) When times have reached there fulfillment simply means when it is truly finished and Jesus returns again we will be going back to the way it was in the garden.
c) Intimate communion with God always!
Trans: So we find two benefits of being in Christ. Redemption, which is the buying back of humankind by God at the price of His son, and the inside scoop on what God is all about in bringing things back again united under the Lordship of Jesus. But there is yet one more benefit for being in Christ.
III. In Christ we have the benefit of being predestined to be a Christ follower! (vss. 11-14)
A. We have the spiritual benefit of being chosen by God before time began!
1. There is always something good about being chosen for receiving a blessing!
a) But there are two sides to it.
b) It’s great to be chosen, but what about those who aren’t chosen? My heart always goes out to the poor kids that aren’t chosen till last to be on a team.
c) That’s the real essence of the whole debate about predestination.
2. What does being predestined mean?
3. As I mentioned last week, the word for predestined means literally “to mark out before hand.”
a) It has about it the idea of election and that God chose us before time to be His.
b) We would not have expected that, for it is natural for us to expect that we make the initiative, that we decide whether to be saved or not.
c) There is a place, of course, for the human will, and the New Testament never regards people as mere robots or marionettes moved about by God without regard for their own desires or the exercise of the free will God has given them.
d) We are mistaken, however, if we see salvation as something we decide by our own choice.
ILL.
4. Because we like to think that we have all the say, we tend to be suspicious of such teachings as election, divine call, and predestination.
a) It cannot be said that predestination is a wildly popular idea today.
b) Some Christians find it completely unacceptable, saying that it reduces us to the level of puppets, people who are simply moved around as God chooses and who have no wills of our own.
c) But this is not the way the New Testament views it.
5. For the New Testament writers, predestination is a way of saying that the whole of our salvation, from first to last, is a work of God.
a) Left to ourselves, we would never make the effort of giving up evil and turning to God.
b) It is only because God works in us first that we come to him. And because he does this good work in us, we have a deep assurance that we could never have if it all depended on ourselves.
6. One scholar feels that the question to settle in order to truly get to the heart of predestination is: How far did the human race fall when it fell?
a) Did man fall upward? That is the view of secular evolutionists, that we are all getting better and better.
b) Did man fall part way but not the whole way, so that he is damaged by sin but not ruined? That is the view of Pelagians or Armenians.
c) It affirms that we are affected by sin but insists that we nevertheless possess the ability to turn from it and believe in Christ when the gospel is offered by our own power.
d) Or did man fall the whole way so that he is no longer capable of making even the smallest movement back toward God unless God first reaches down and performs the miracle of the new birth in him? That is the view of Scripture.
1) The Bible says that at we are "dead in ... transgressions and sins" (Eph. 2:1).
2) It says, "There is no one ... who seeks God" (Rom. 3:11).
3) ’Jesus declared, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44).
4) It is written in Gen. ,,the LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5).
7. The truth is clear from Scripture humankind fell all the way when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit.
a) At that moment all of humanity was predestined to be separated from God for eternity.
b) Their action in the garden sealed the deal.
c) But God had a plan whereby His own son would pay the penalty, the ransom, to redeem us back into a relationship with Him.
d) And God knows who will accept His son and who will not.
e) Otherwise we have a God who is not God! Not all knowing and outside of time, the alpha and the omega.
8. We are too hopelessly lost in sin ever to partake of God’s great spiritual blessings on our own.
a) Instead, God in his mercy chose us and then made his choice become reality in us.
b) First He made our salvation possible by sending the Lord Jesus Christ to die for our sin.
c) Then He made us capable of responding to him by sending the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truth and glory of the gospel.
d) Thus, all the blessings we enjoy must be traced back to this sovereign electing purpose of God toward us in Jesus Christ.
Trans: So we have the spiritual benefit of being chosen by God before time began. But we also have that election made secure today because we are sealed and given a deposit of guarantee.
B. We can have security in knowing that we are marked in Him with a seal of approval. (vs. 13)
1. In his commentary Charles Hodge points out rightly that there are three purposes for which a seal is used and that each illustrates the Spirit’s work:
a) A seal is used to confirm an object or document as being true or genuine, or a seal is used to mark a thing as one’s property, or a seal is used to make something fast or secure.
b) The first may be illustrated by the seal of the United States which appears on paper currency or by the seal affixed to a passport.
c) The second is like a nameplate on the inside cover of a book saying, “This book belongs to the library of….
d) The third is illustrated by the seal of the Sanhedrin placed upon the tomb of Christ.
2. Each of these illustrates something important about the Spirit’s work.
a) The Holy Spirit verifies that the one receiving him really is God’s child, as Paul says in Romans 8:16 ("The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children").
b) The Holy Spirit is also God’s claim on us that we truly are his possession. The phrase "God’s possession" is used explicitly in verse 14.
C. We also are secure because we have a down payment guaranteeing God’s good intentions. (vs. 14)
1. This comes through in the idea of the Spirit’s being "a deposit [or down payment] guaranteeing our inheritance" until our full redemption.
a) Like a security deposit given when renting a house or an apartment, whereby we are not only promising to take care of the landlord’s apartment by giving our word, maybe even signing a statement that says we will be conscientious in how we take care of the property.
b) But the thing that really gives that Landlord some sense of security is knowing that she has your money guaranteeing that you will do what you say.
2. Guess what, God’s Word is always true, but He, as usual goes beyond what is necessary as He blesses us by giving us a security deposit!
3. Sealing with the Holy Spirit answers to all our needs. It assures us of God’s favor. It shows that we belong to him. It renders our salvation certain.
Conclusion: To God Be Glory
The bottom line to all this is that we have so much blessing and benefit from being in Christ. How should we live as a result. The answer, I believe is found in the last words of this great opening sentence of the apostle Paul. They are "to the praise of his glory." It is an appropriate end, just as it was an appropriate beginning. In verse 3 Paul began by exclaiming, "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." Then, after he has enumerated those blessings, he returns to the place from which he set out, saying that this is "to the praise of his glory."
Twice in this long sentence of blessings heaped on blessing Paul has declared in verse 3, 6 & again in 12 & 14 God’s ultimate Goal in redeeming humans is The praise of His Glory! We are not saved and blessed for our own glory but for God’s. When we glorify ourselves we rob God of what is rightly His. He saved us to serve Him and to praise Him!
We need to live our lives to the glory of God! 1 Cor. 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Can you live that way? It means telling people about how God is working in your life.
