Today's reading is in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 of the book of 14. Praise be to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed enough to heavenly let-mounds with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chosen us—sorry, but he chose us in hand. Today's reading is in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 of the book of 14. Praise be to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed enough to heavenly let-mounds with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chosen us—sorry, but he chose us in hand before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight and love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ and accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, and accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything and conformity with the purpose of his will. In order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory and you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in him with a seal the promise of his spirit who was a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory, the word of the Lord. Dear village turd and welcome to visitors and guests with us this morning.
We dove in at an event swimming around in this passage from chapter one of the book commonly called Ephesians. And I imagine by this time just thinking maybe some of you are wondering aren't we supposed to be going through the book of Ephesians? How come like it's the fifth week and we're still in chapter one? For a lunch of be honest I'm going to actually actually raise your hand. Just to know if you're sitting here and you're thinking that you know how come we're still in chapter one you know after so long why don't you just raise your hand anybody's going on? One, two, three, maybe, four, okay. Five, four and a half. So then I take it that the rest of you are sitting there wondering oh are we going through the book of Ephesians? And maybe the rest of you are thinking oh am I in a church here? Where do I wander in? Or maybe you're happy with what we're doing like I am. Just enjoying this passage. But let me give you two reasons. I give you two reasons why we're still in chapter one. First is that typically an ancient Hellenistic letter begins with a well-wishing. The Apostle Paul, he didn't invent you know this genre in which he's writing the Hellenistic epistle. It's actually an established form there. He didn't invent it but he certainly owned it. And typically those letters these epistles that people would write would begin after a greeting, standard greeting, they begin with a well-wishing section. Which in the Apostle Paul's writings is a doxology, a praise to God and a prayer. Praise or a prayer in this case bold. And we looked at the prayer first and then went back and looking to praise which constitutes chapter one in the letter. And typically what Paul does in his letters is brings up the theme in the praise that he's going to be discussing and expanding upon in the letter. He actually foreshadows what the letters about. So it's appropriate for us to take time maybe more time and look at this passage to orient ourselves as to the content of the letter. And the other reason we're still in this passage is because I don't think we have really got to the main point of it yet. We've been studying it and looking at important themes in it. But I don't think we've arrived at the main thrust of the passage which we will now attempt to do today. Because the main thing, the main thing that Jesus is bringing together in heaven and on earth, the main things that are being unified under one head even Christ are not things at all. They're people. In verse 11, you look and you notice he talks about this group he calls we, which he then identifies in verse 12 as we who first hoped in Christ. And then in verse 13 he turns and up to water. And then in verse 13, he includes in this salvation this group he calls you also who heard the word and believed. Who is he talking about? And without going into it, there are other structural clues going on in this passage that give us insight into Paul's praise here, dividing up his thought and showing us that you could see it as in verses 7 through 10 he's talking about a redemption in Christ. And then in verses 11 through 12 he's applying it to a group of people he calls we. And then in verse 13 to 14 he's applying it to another group this you also. Okay, we who first hoped in Christ and then you also. So now again, who are these we and you also who is that? Well, it is they are the Jews and the Gentiles who make up these churches in the geographical region of the modern city as it is mirror. And it's important to be clear on this from the beginning because this is largely what the letter of Ephesians is about. So we are the Jews who first believed in Christ. And the other guys are the God's fear of other nationalities who are being brought into the space. And the mystery is bringing together of these different kinds of people these Jews and Gentiles into one family of God in these churches that are now in what's modern day Turkey. And that's why if you read through this letter you'll notice throughout the letter there's this theme of unity of bringing together. You'll see it in expressions like in a bringing together breaking down the dividing wall of hostility. You know, discussion about how the Gentiles are being incorporated. Chapter 4 takes up unity and diversity, et cetera, et cetera. You see this theme throughout because that's the thing he's trying to address to establish these churches that are made up of both Jews and Gentiles and actually community together working together, living together, loving the Lord together in one community. And I'll tell you right out that of the three dimensions of unification that we've been looking at going on in this passage, the main one is this mystery of bringing together a Jews and Gentiles. It's the main one. Now, I can imagine when you hear this, okay, it's like the punch line, okay, this is the big unification. You say, oh, no, is that all? I thought this was going to be interesting. Now, I want to say that I don't think you're right about this because it's not interesting. But I know that when I say this, here it is, it's about bringing together Jews and Gentiles. You say, you know, whatever, I got out of bed for this. I mean, I heard this preacher was halfway decent, but, you know, Jews and Gentiles, like, this is my problem. I don't think so. Well, yes, huh. I pause it that you're understanding what the Bible is saying about these problems is what you need to hear today. You don't think that you and Gentile thing is your problem. Well, I just want to say, I think you're wrong. Now, I know you're saying, no, huh. Well, yes, huh. No, yes, huh. All right. Let's just stop arguing. It's supposed to be about unity. You don't think this is your problem. Let me ask you something. What do you think is wearing you out? What's burdening you down? What is it that's making you want to give up? You may think, oh, it's your work that's wearing you out? No, huh. It's not your work itself. You're made to work. You're worse off if you're not active. Just ask some of your unemployed friends. It's not your work. It's conflict. You think this isn't your problem? It's conflict. It's wearing you out. It's the stress of relationship that is making you want to crawl into bed at night and die. And you need some honest and truthful and healing way to bring peace into your relationships if you are going to have rest. And furthermore, this is your problem on a national scale. Maybe you're wondering why war is or how could there be not war? How could such a thing go? There seems to be agreement among people that among writers and speakers of people achieving unity starts out on an individual basis. When the fame is an important right to speak about human brotherhood or unity among races or people with differences and things like that. You wait a while, they eventually get around the same as they thought about it. That this needs to come about through individuals changing and being able to live together on a smaller scale first. Something like countries don't get along because individuals don't get along, something like that. I'll put your wondering about war next to Paul's words and the scriptural contention that there's going to be a kingdom uniting from all different peoples of the earth. And how's that ever going to be possible? On what day? Now, why don't you listen to me while I talk about Judaism Gentile? I mean, look at the way we've been talking about it. All these themes that Paul is bringing up actually are in service of this unity that he wants to establish in his churches. Pre-destination, the idea of God's selection of his people, pre-destination of certain ones, it's brought up in the Bible for different reasons. He's always brought up for reasons. And here, when it's brought up in verses 4 and 5 or 11, in light of Paul's discussion and Ephesians, he's praising predestination to celebrate the surprising diversity of people in the churches. You have all different ties to try to show them they belong there. And there's two different implications for your life I can see in this. First, essentially what says in verse 6, make you grateful for your church. Many of you have entered the Jewish church community and experienced great joy just to enter into this community. And Paul is trying to get you to say thank you to God. Later on in the letter, he goes on to, you know, into how to use your resources to reflect that thing. But here he's just trying to get you to reflect on how you're here because you're chosen by God. So the praise is his glorious grace. And secondly, he wants to combat this feeling that the people I'm involved with, these people sitting around me, it's all just chance. So it's the time to be thinking and talking about God's choice of you and the people around you, predestination, things like that. It's not when you're trying to win an intellectual argument with your roommate and you're trying to prove your superiority and things spiritual. It's time to be thinking about predestinations when you're having problems in your relationship in your church. It's not chance that you're with these people. You've been chosen to be a thing. They were with you. He's setting up the combat in this letter, this attitude of, oh, you know, I can take them or leave them. I can take them or leave them and add to you with which you are often tempted. Like, I don't need these people. Now, don't tell me you don't think that way. How do I know you think that way? Because I've read the book of the Ephesians, is to appreciate the community into which you can call, and to combat this taker or leave an attitude. That's also why Paul brings up Abraham's inheritance, of which we spoke last week. He talks about the riches of God's grace in verse 7. Riches, meaning there's so much, it's enough to go around. There's enough inheritance to go around to all types of people, even a Gentile. Abraham's inheritance goes that far. So, you could see then that in verses 11 to 12, Paul is using predestination to try to get the Gentiles in these churches to appreciate the Jews. He's asserting to the Gentiles that the Jews have converted to Jesus Christ should be honored among them. Because, you know, as Jesus put it, salvation is of the Jews. There were the people to whom God granted His progressive revelation. There were caretakers of the oracles. It gave birth to the world's Messiah. All according to God's plan, so Gentiles love these Jews. And then in verse 13, Paul turns around and encouraging the Jews to appreciate the Gentiles among them that have accepted Christ. They were included in this salvation. They shouldn't be considered second-class citizens. Because they've also been sealed with the same Holy Spirit. And Paul calls upon this fact because we see that it was the definitive word in the book of Acts when the Jews and Jerusalem were arguing about whether the let the Gentiles in without circumcision. Big argument about that. And the definitive word comes out. The figure's decisive point was, well, you know, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit just like we were. So they must be in. So Jews love these Gentiles. So see, there's this theme going on here. But how is it actually done? How are people united in the community of Christ? How is this really built a community? How does this really build a community among different people? Well, today, we look at the main thrust of this passage, how unity is achieved under one hand. And, you know, that quote that you have in the beginning of the Bolton by the French aviator, the Saint-Exubery, as, you know, here and as well as other writers, recognize that there needs to be some common trade to unite people. Unity is only achieved around something. That people share together, can unify people without unifying them around something. Okay, very good. Yeah, good point. But what is it? Freud said that this is a process of civilization that happens in people if they're governed by eros, but he didn't know why. And, you know, as original thinker as Freud was, even he was influenced by strong opinions of his day, he was very strongly ingrained idea of the inevitable progress of civilization in his day. So he thought that it had to happen, he didn't know why. But some of us might question whether being governed by eros really brings about unity. Especially those of us who spend a lot of time being quite governed by eros. But if it's not that, then what is it? What then is so deep in people that it can unite them? In Christianity and Paul in this passage say that, you know, it's not eros and it's not flower power and it's not Adam Smith's invisible hand. What's needed by all is redemption. That's what's needed by all is what he's saying in verse 7. What's so deep, all of us have a need for it, is redemption from many failures along many different axes. That's what we all need. So verse 7 through 10 Paul explains what that is. Now, this word redemption, you know, many authors bring up this word these days because it carries a certain weightiness to it. It's a power that's in it, this word redemption. And we've become, I think, just enough of a post-Christian culture to have forgotten what it actually means in Christianity. But, you know, using the word has a way to tap into the feelings of a Christian heritage without facing the content. So you can see it in movies too. You know, you put that word in a title and you give weight. You give import to a film. Redemption. Sin and redemption. The path to redemption. The Shawshank redemption. Beyond redemption. Redemption. Kickboxer fire. Did you cast that one? Didn't that line in a movie? The fight club. Where is Reed? Ah. Okay. Well, let this be a lesson to us all. If you missed church, you never know, and your pastor is going to call on you without warning and ask you to recite from your expertise. Professor Shushart would say, you know, there's this line. I talked about in the fight club where, you know, this guy hits the pavement. There's this blood and something like that. And we all felt redeemed. Usually, usually, oh, this word is brought up. And it's in current fiction too. You find it when the author wants to come to a climax in a paragraph. You know, there's that word. And we were all various redemption. But usually what it means is that the character has made some comeback from the failure of the beginning of the movie. Usually it's something that they do to make a comeback and redeem themselves. You're redeemed from your failures. But redemption and Christianity means that yes, we're failures and we're lost, and we need to be bought back. But the Bible makes it clear that we don't have the ability to buy ourselves back. That making an exciting movie come back, you know, it's not going to cancel our debt before God. You go, ah, redeem. You can't do that. Verse 7 tells us what the essence of our redemption is. How are we brought back? It's God's forgiveness of us. Forgiveness, Paul's essentially saying, is the essence of our redemption. When Paul says in his blood, he means that Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood. When he did that, it's paid for all the sins of those who had become Christians. All their failures, even the ones they have yet to achieve. And that redeemed us. Not through anything we do to make a comeback. But by a free act of God's own will, we're forgiven. And you see, this is the way Jesus does it. He does it by recognizing the deepest bond that all people fear. The deepest need that, if you will, unites us all. The need that these authors were looking for, to send our unity around. And Malcolm X was rather to the point when he spoke about unity and brotherhood. We could see it in the quotes there in the beginning. You know, he observed that there's a problem, which you're immediately confronted with when you try this unifying stuff. And that is other people sending against you, other people wronging you. Now Malcolm X said that he wasn't interested in people who weren't interested in him. An attitude which will leave you with an increasingly small subset of people with whom to deal. The Christian community does something else. To all these forgiven sins in verse 7, they include the sins that were sin against each other in community. And the ways we neglect and lack and bludgeon each other in community. And so here is the way Jesus unites people in community. He forgives them for everything. And he lets him know that the other guy is forgiven as well for everything. This means when someone in your Christian community sends against you wrongs you. You can immediately think, not what we normally think, what we normally think is, this sin must be paid for. Justice must be done. But what Jesus allows you to do is to think instead, this sin against me is already paid for. This wrong has been canceled. I'm allowed to forgive it. You see Christ's blood gives you the authorization to not to need to count sin against yourself. Christ's blood gives you the authorization to not to need to count sin against yourself. And if that's too hard a step for you to take, the resources of God's grace go even further. If you're having trouble forgiving someone in your community, you should begin by thinking about how you have been forgiven. Many times you can think back to a similar sin, similar wrong, maybe even a worse way in which you similarly treated someone else. But even if there is not a similar sin, you can think about all those moral faults and failures from which you have been redeemed by us today. And allow that to bring you to want forgiveness for your brother, for your sister's blood. It's Christian marriages, Christian families, they all work this way. They must work this way. Or else they don't work. In verse 8, when it says he's a lavish, he's grace on us. Lavish means that there's plenty. There's so much that there's even more to spare. There's no sin that his grace cannot reach to cover. That's what the lavishing means. There's just spread out so much that there's over and over abundance to spare. There's no wrong or sin in you or your brother, you or Gentile, it's grace cannot forgive. And through that forgiveness, begin to transcend. You know, when you go to a special party or brunch with a restaurant, and some meal somewhere where nobody present is concerned about money, you've had moments like that. Maybe not a lot recently, but the moment when no one was concerned, you got to eat as much as you want. And no one was worried about the check. The food was lavish on you. Well, this is what Jesus did on the cross. It's a conflict for you and your friends for goodness. It's forthcoming. It's free and ample. It doesn't run out. It's already paid for. It covers all the sin that constitutes a conflict in which you're currently involved with in this community. And that vote is also why unity among people can only take place in him. It's the only way it's going to happen. Because it's only on the rock solid foundation of mutual forgiveness that you can really maintain a community. That true unity is even possible. And get past the problem that Malcolm X raised. So that's the Christian contention. That's how he makes it possible. It cannot happen. It will not happen outside of Christ for goodness. And that's what Bob Dylan was talking about in that song that Lee just so beautifully rendered for us. The only in Christ can piece on any scale really come. And this concludes our brief examination of the Ephesians chapter one. Let me close up and prayer.