Chosen ¡V Eph. 1:1-6
Steve Simala Grant ¡V July 15, 2001
When I was growing up, we used to play a lot of street hockey with kids in the neighborhood. I always liked to be the goalie, probably because then I didn¡¦t have to run around so much. I like sports, especially if I can just stand in one place¡K Anyway, when we all first arrived, we had to pick teams. Two people (usually the two best players) would be captains, and they would take turns choosing their players. You can imagine how the rest of us felt, standing around, shuffling our feet, trying not to look too eager yet inwardly yearning to be chosen. Our hearts would rise with expectation, then plummet with despair after every choice. Until the magic moment ¡V when my name was called. My head would snap up, and I¡¦d jump to the side I¡¦d been chosen too.
I hope you can relate. I hope you can remember the feeling of being chosen ¡V maybe for you it was for a job, or for acceptance into a certain school, or for an award. Because that is the message of the first few verses of Ephesians ¡V God chose us.
BACKGROUND:
Turn to Eph. 1:1-6. As you are looking that up, let me set the context of the passage. The message begins like most of the other NT letters, identifying the author, recipients, and with a greeting. And then verse 3 begins a section of praise to God for all that He has done. And incidentally, verses 3-14 are actually all one sentence in Greek ¡V its kind of like a rollercoaster ride where it feels like Paul starts praising God for one thing, which reminds him of the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, and it keeps building and building. This makes it a bit hard to follow sometimes, but the cumulative effect of reciting all of these marvelous works of God is an outburst of praise and of lifting of our hearts to God as we are confronted with His greatness and His grandeur.
And that is what I want to talk with you about this morning ¡V how great and awesome is our God. The big task of preaching is to understand what God¡¦s Word says and how it applies to our lives ¡V and in this passage, our response, our application of this truth, is found right in the middle of the passage itself: it is all to the praise of God. God is so amazing, we need to praise Him. We¡¦ve turned the service around a bit this week, because it didn¡¦t make sense to me to preach a message that calls us to praise God for how great He is, and then end the service and go home. Instead, I wanted us to have the chance together to reflect on how great God is as revealed by His Word, and then we can praise Him together this morning, (and then as we go we can continue to praise Him throughout our weeks???)
Now you might be wondering, if 3-14 are all one sentence, why is Steve stopping at verse 6? Though it is all one sentence, it is highly structured: there are three distinct sections, the first addressing God the Father, the second God the Son, and the third God the Holy Spirit: each ends with the phrase ¡§to the praise of His glory¡¨ ¡V vs. 6, 12, and 14. This morning we are going to tackle only the first section, of praise to God the Father. In the next two weeks we¡¦ll look at each of the other two in turn.
READ PASSAGE.
There are three reasons to praise God the Father listed here: verse 3 tells us ¡§he has blessed us¡¨, verse 4 tells us ¡§he chose us¡¨, and verse 5 says ¡§he predestined us.¡¨ Lets look at each in turn:
1. ¡§He has blessed us.¡¨
in heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing
in Christ
This first reason to praise God actually serves as kind of a heading for the entire passage from 3-14 ¡V ¡§Praise God because has blessed us: here is a whole bunch of ways He has done this¡K¡¨ but before beginning this list, Paul gives us a few descriptors of God¡¦s blessing, ¡§in the heavenly realms, with every spiritual blessing, in Christ.¡¨
What does it mean to be blessed ¡§in the heavenly realms¡¨? Well my friends, we need to begin by recognizing that there is a spiritual dimension ¡V what we see and touch and can verify is not all there is to life. And when you and I become Christians, we become an active part of life in this spiritual realm. This particular phrase occurs several times in Ephesians, one of the most well recognized is from chapter 6 where we learn that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
You know, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the here and now ¡V in the immediate stuff going on in our lives ¡V that we forget we are spiritual creatures. We forget to pray, we abhor silence, our Bibles collect dust, we show up and sing but don¡¦t worship. Paul is reminding us here that there is more to life than the immediate stuff around us. You know what I am talking about, otherwise you wouldn¡¦t be here this morning. You know there is more¡K You understand that God desires us to experience His blessing in the here-and-now.
The second phrase is ¡§with every spiritual blessing¡¨. We do not serve a stingy God. He is not a cosmic miser, doling out carefully rationed little bits of blessing. No, on the contrary, the Bible says ¡§every¡¨. Not ¡§some¡¨. Not ¡§many¡¨. Not even ¡§Most¡¨. The promise of God is every spiritual blessing. We serve a God of abundance! A God who desires to lavish us with spiritual blessings, without limit.
What are these ¡§spiritual blessings¡¨? The rest of the passage, to vs. 14, makes this clear ¡V that God has chosen us, that we can be holy and blameless, that he adopted us, that through Christ we have forgiveness, etc¡K The adjective ¡§spiritual¡¨ refers to the Holy Spirit, as the person who applies these blessings to us, and with that in mind I think it is pretty safe also to include in this list of spiritual blessings those things Paul mentions in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are some of the things God desires for us in abundance.
The third and final phrase which qualifies the blessing of God is ¡§in Christ¡¨. Now if you were here two weeks ago, you heard Gail Smith preach on what it means to be ¡§in Christ¡¨ ¡V so if you missed it get the tape or ask her for a copy of that message. It is a key theme here in the passage to vs. 14, occurring 11x (including ¡§in Him¡¨ and ¡§in whom¡¨) in the sentence. This frequency drives the point home hard ¡V it is only in Christ that we experience the blessings of God. There is no other way.
repeat verse.
A benevolent person gave Mr. Rowland Hill a hundred pounds to dispense to a poor minister a bit at a time, thinking it was too much too send him all at once. Mr. Hill forwarded five pounds in a letter with only these words within the envelope, "More to follow." In a few days’ time, the good man received another letter this second messenger contained another five pounds, with the same motto, "And more to follow." A day or two after came a third and a fourth, and still the same promise, "And more to follow." Till the whole sum had been received, the astonished minister was made familiar with the cheering words, "And more to follow."
Every blessing that comes from God is sent with the same message "And more to follow." "I forgive you your sins, but there’s more to follow." "I justify you in the righteousness of Christ, but there’s more to follow." "I adopt you into my family, but there’s more to follow." "I educated you for heaven, but there’s more to follow." "I give you grace upon grace, but there’s more to follow." "I have helped you even to old age, but there’s still more to follow." "I will uphold you in the hour of death, and as you are passing into the world of spirits, my mercy shall still continue with you, and when you land in the world to come there shall still be \italic(Quoting more to follow).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
2. He chose us. (read vs. 4).
This verse has long astounded me. The truth in it is almost overwhelming::
God didn¡¦t need to choose us. He certainly didn¡¦t need to choose me! There are many people far more eloquent, far more compassionate, far more holy, that He could have chosen for His service. God looks out over the whole of humanity, knows every skill and every weakness, knows every sin and every act of goodness in every person, and out of all of those choices, He decided to chose me and to chose you. There is nothing in me that makes me worthy of this choice ¡V nothing that I have that is so great or so valuable that God looks down and says ¡§yup ¡V pick that one cause I need what he has¡K¡¨ It is not about me ¡V its about God. He chose me and He chose you ¡§while we were yet sinners!¡¨ While we were yet helpless. Later on in Ephesians Paul talks about this more; what we need to see here is that God chose us.
It gets better. This next part is what completely astounds me: ¡§before the creation of the world.¡¨ Do you realize what this means?? Before creating anything ¡V before the first _______ was created, God looked ahead and chose you and me. He could see humanity¡¦s sin. He knew we would turn away from Him and sin. He knew the pain that would cause Him, and the even greater pain that would be required in order to re-unite us to Him. He knew Jesus would have to come and die on the cross for us. And He knew that you and I would accept Jesus as our Lord, and live lives of victory sometimes and defeat at other times. So the question becomes ¡§why did He bother creating us in the first place?? Why not write it off as a bad idea and avoid the pain altogether??¡¨ The answer is because of how great His love is for you and I. He looked all the way through time, saw the pain, and loved us enough to create us and chose us. Do you realize the perspective this puts on the importance of our response to God?? Our responding to God¡¦s great love by loving Him in return, and expressing that love through worship, is worth so much to God that He was willing to create us and go through the pain of the cross so that we could love Him back. Wow.
I encourage you to try to look at life from this eternal perspective this week. As we respond in praise in a few moments, as you go about the rest of your day today and in the week ahead, keep in mind that God chose you before the creation of the world. Allow that perspective to influence each decision you make, each action you do, and each thought you think. God chose you before the creation of the world.
For what are we chosen? ¡§to be holy and blameless in his sight in love.¡¨ That is the verse in the NRSV, which I believe is better that the NIV which puts those last two words ¡§in love¡¨ with the next verse (note NIV footnote). We are chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight in love.
Those two words, holy and blameless, are the same two words used to describe the unblemished animals which were to be sacrificed to God in the OT. I¡¦m confident that this is not by accident ¡V I think Paul had in mind that God has chosen us to be pure before Him, just as in the OT the animals sacrificed needed to be pure also. The difference is that the animals were to be ¡§unblemished¡¨ physically, while we are to be ¡§unblemished¡¨ spiritually. That is what God chose us for ¡V moral and ethical purity. And while there is an element here of our own effort to live obediently and purely, the context reminds us that it is God¡¦s choice for us to be holy and blameless, and in Christ we have this. This holiness and blamelessness is to be coupled with love ¡V this is the specific characteristic that needs to be manifest in us as we live out our chosenness.
And that is where the power comes from to impact our world. When our holiness is expressed in love, people around us will be impacted.
repeat verse.
3. He predestined us.
This topic of ¡§predestination¡¨ has caused no end of controversy. If God has already ¡§destined¡¨ us, before time, to be adopted as His children, then we have no choice in the matter, and thus no responsibility. I¡¦m not going to spend time talking about all the different arguments and endless debates: instead, let me say simply that the Bible teaches that God chose us, He predestined us: AND it teaches that we must believe (see vs. 13). Both are true. Don¡¦t ask me to explain it, or make it all work out logically ¡V All I can know for certain is that God chose us, and we must believe.
The big reason I don¡¦t want to get sidetracked into some debate about predestination and freewill is because then we might miss the point of the passage: God chose us and adopted us as His children, and the response on our part is to praise Him. THAT is the point!! Through Christ we are a part of God¡¦s family.
Have you ever really stopped to think about being part of God¡¦s family?? The Bible doesn¡¦t teach that God welcomed us back as mere acquaintances. God does not even invite us to be best friends. He adopts us into His family. It¡¦s a place where we can be real ¡V a place of un-brushed teeth, un-masked emotions; sometimes of uninhibited laughter and sometimes of deep sorrow. It¡¦s family ¡V we don¡¦t pretend or wear masks or hide behind some perceived need to pretend everything is just great. It¡¦s inside where the warmth is, the love is, where the acceptance is, and where we can be accepted for who we are becoming. It¡¦s inside where the tears flow freely and without embarrassment, where the despair is shared, and where the burden is shared.
Experiencing life as part of God¡¦s family means you always have someplace to come home to. God¡¦s door is always open, there is always food in the refrigerator, warm blankets on a comfortable bed, and there is always a wise, supportive, loving God waiting to talk with you.
The verse ends ¡§in accordance with his pleasure and will.¡¨ What strikes me here is that it is not just about God¡¦s will ¡V it brings Him pleasure also. He enjoys having you and I as His children. His joy is greatest when we are living lives that are holy and blameless in love, and when we recognize who God is and respond to Him with praise.
God has blessed us.
God has chosen us.
God has predestined us to be part of His family.
Conclusion „³
The group of us kids that used to play street hockey got to be pretty good friends. And despite the fact that kids can often be cruel, especially when picking teams, that wasn¡¦t always the case. I distinctly remember one spring break when we played every day ¡V the same group of us. The two captains would step forward to pick their teams ¡V now I don¡¦t know if they talked about this before hand or if they just both understood ¡V but they would flip a coin to see which captain would pick first, and then he would look down the line of players. And he would deliberately pick the weakest player. The other captain did the same. And all the kids that usually ended up last got to be picked first. And then, boy would they play hard for their team.
God didn¡¦t look down through history and chose the best. He chose you and I. And my, has He blessed us. Let¡¦s praise Him and live for Him with the same intensity as those street hockey kids.
