Today we’ll finish up with the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Because of holidays and our communion schedule we haven’t done the chapter in order. Some weeks ago we started looking at the trinitarian opening of the letter, with Paul’s introduction of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All of life flows from this incredible God. We talked about two of the three last month and then went other directions for Easter and such. Today we’ll back up and finish that.
In the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he overflows with praise for God the Father, telling us what he did long ago, choosing us before the foundation of the world to receive good, holy lives; destining us to be his children, weaving into the very nature of creation goodness and love. That all happened long ago, but understanding it can change the way we see everything today.
He overflows with praise for God the Son, for what he did on the cross, winning our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He opened the door to heaven for all who trust in him. That’s an incredible act of love, a gift that none of us would have anticipated. But heaven is somewhere off in the future for us. What about now? Don’t we all need help here and now?
We all battle to see God in our lives in a world that is very happy to ignore God completely. Sure, we intend to put God first, but how many times do we look back on a week and realize that we haven’t even talked to God much, we have done things that make him sad, that there have been days when it would be hard to tell whether our Christian faith has made any difference in the way we lived.
The things that God did centuries ago and has prepared for us in the future are wonderful. But what about here and now?
Today we come to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And Paul’s language changes. Instead of saying what he, God the Father did or what Jesus, God the Son, did, long ago or far in the future, when he comes to God, the Holy Spirit, he talks about how the Ephesians have been touched personally.
I feel profoundly inadequate to explain our God, truly one God, truly functioning as three persons. He’s too big for my little brain. There are many things I don’t understand. But Paul tells us some things that are clear in our passage today. We need to know that it is the Holy Spirit who brings the life of God very close to us, marking us with himself, giving us a taste of heaven. And when we receive this gift it makes all the difference.
Would you please stand for the reading of God’s word? This is our fourth Sunday looking at Ephesians 1:3-14. Bob will read the whole passage, but our focus will be on the last two verses.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
Look at verses 13 and 14 with me. They make up one sentence, but its just filled with added phrases, he is so eager to give us the whole picture. It makes me think Paul is fired up here. This means a lot to him. But it’s hard for us to sort out today.
And that’s a time to go back to high school English grammar. What’s the subject in verse 13, the one involved in the action? It’s “you”, referring to the Christians in Ephesus. And if you strip away all the subordinate clauses, what does it say about “you”?
Jump over “also.” Jump over “when you had heard the word of truth.” Jump over “the gospel of your salvation” and “had believed in him.” And you come to the basic flow of the sentence. “You… were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.”
You were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. This isn’t something that happened to some great hero of the faith long ago. It isn’t something that’s happening up in space somewhere far away. It’s not something that’s just for the pope or bishops or super saints. It happened for average Joe Christian in Ephesus, folks like us. When you believe, God marks you for his own.
Paul is using an image similar to the way that people used wax seals on letters in times past. They would write the letter, close it in an envelope, then put a glob of wax on the edge of the flap and, while the wax was still soft, impress their signet ring into it so that it would be very clear that the letter belonged to them and that they were taking it seriously.
God claims you for his own. He marks his people as his own. It’s deep on his heart that you know you belong to him, that he loves you, that you belong in his family.
And how does this happen? Look at verse 12. There are two conditions. Did it happen when they were born? No. When they were baptized? No. When they were confirmed or joined the church? No. Those are important but they mostly happen on the outside.
Verse 12 says two things about the timing of when they were marked with God’s seal.
“You were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and had believed in him.”
To be marked with God’s seal of the promised Holy Spirit, you need to hear the gospel. And give it a good listen! Much of the gospel doesn’t make sense at first. It contradicts so much of the conventional ways of the world. It’s really revolutionary. But keep listening. It will all fit together. It will become beautiful to you.
And the second condition was that they were marked with God’s seal when they believed in Christ. Learning about the gospel is very important. But it doesn’t take you anywhere until the day when you make a commitment, when you say: “All right, I’m on board; I’m ready to put my life in the hands of Jesus Christ.” And that’s scary because the gospel is nothing that can be measured or controlled scientifically. It takes a step of faith.
The modern mind avoids taking a step of faith, often in the name of keeping an open mind. Play it cool. Play it safe. But that’s a copout. Ask all the questions you want. But the goal is to make a commitment, to live for something. A search for truth is a fraud if you refuse to accept the truth you find. In that case it’s a game and perhaps an avoidance of truth. Endless procrastination goes no where. A full life requires commitment, choices, and real steps of faith.
A relationship with God is by faith, by stepping beyond what we can understand, by daring to trust where we don’t understand everything. It’s a leap of faith into the unknown. That can be scary. But the more you hear the gospel, the shorter that leap becomes. And when we do take that step into the unknown we find him there waiting for us, and then we know.
And what is this seal, this mark that tells you that you belong to God? The seal is the Holy Spirit Himself, inside you. This is one of the main themes of the Bible, God with us, an experience of God, himself, here and now, a taste of heaven.
Paul explains it a bit more by calling this a “pledge of our inheritance.” The Greek word that our Bibles translate as ‘pledge’ is the word that would be used as the down payment on a purchase. So you could say that when God marks us by putting his Spirit in us, he is giving us a down payment on what’s ahead, a taste of heaven. And if you have put your house up for sale and a buyer has given you a down payment you are free to enjoy it and you can feel pretty confident that the rest is coming. But if it’s a pledge from God, he wants you to be totally confident with it. What parent doesn’t want his or her children to be confident that they are loved?
In this morning’s passage Paul moves on very quickly without saying much about what this pledge is, or what a taste of heaven actually tastes like. But it’s easy to fill it in by looking at his other writings because this is very important to Paul. He comes back to it again and again.
In Romans 5:5, he tells us, “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That’s the desire of every parent, to fill each child’s heart with love. Every time I see my grandchildren I want to hug them. That’s God’s heart for you. He wants you to know his love, to feel it, to be really secure in it because it is deep inside you, because he is deep inside you. Can you feel that?
Farther down in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, Paul prays that they would be “strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit.” That’s not God long ago and far away. That is the life of God in our very souls, as deep inside you as you can go, something that can carry you through the batterings of life on this earth. Can you feel that?
In Ephesians 4:3, Paul talks about “the unity of the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit, living in us, who changes the church from an organization that is held together by rules and job descriptions and traditions into a living organism, where life flows from one member to the other, where love is the glue. And those rules and job descriptions and traditions can be very important. But they can’t create life. The Holy Spirit in our hearts, flowing in love among us brings life. Can you feel that?
In chapter 4 we’ll learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which God gives real power to his church to turn the world from darkness to light.
God’s heart for you is that you would have today a taste of heaven, that you would be marked with his love, his very self, so that you would know he is in your life.
Bone marrow transplants are one of the wonders of modern medicine. When cells go bad because of cancer, and they start multiplying, pouring out more and more cancer bad cells, poisoning the body, the doctors can kill off the bad cells with radiation and then implant some healthy good cells into the bone marrow. And those good cells, take root deep inside you. They start producing more good cells and more good cells until the day you are healthy again. And it happens from the inside out. That’s what the Holy Spirit wants to do for us, change us from the inside out.
God’s Spirit is called the Holy Spirit for a reason. His desire is to make us pure and holy and healthy in every way. And our bodies cannot become temples of this Holy Spirit if we refuse to clean up the dishonesty or immorality that blocks him from making us whole. And we can’t do that with just one series of radiation treatments, that’s a decision we make every day for the rest of our lives. But he is here to make us new, to work from deep inside us, to bring health and wholeness, holiness. This morning I encourage you to open yourself to receive, more than a spiritual bone marrow transplant, to respond to the gospel of your salvation in faith, to say, “Lord, I hear your invitation anew today. I respond in trust to you. Fill me. Change me. Live out your life in me.”
The Praise Team will lead us in a couple of songs to help us pray that prayer from our heart. You’ll find the words on the back of your bulletin so that you can sing along. Then, if you would like to take a step of faith in response to God’s Spirit, as we sing the last hymn, you are invited to come and pray at the communion rail and I’ll be pleased to pray for you.
