Life in and From the Heavenlies- Ephesians 1:1-14

(These are the notes I worked off when preaching yesterday morning in our church service. Will put the link for the video here once it is uploaded).

So there was a meeting….While this meeting happened around 2,000 years ago there have been many such meetings in many cities since. I don’t know if Satan himself was there. If he wasn’t some of his top demon commanders I’m sure were present. And they had brought in all of their demon underlings to make sure all of their bases had been covered. For you see their job was to insure that the strategic city of Ephesus remained in bondage and darkness and oppression. The fallout was seen everywhere much to the delight of these evil spirits as people blindly worshipped the demon inspired false god Artemis. Sadly Artemis did not speak, hear, know or do anything and therefore was absolutely unable to act on behalf of those who worshipped it. Marriages continued to crumble as greed and covetousness and unrestrained sexual passions ruled the day. Pride that leads to destruction was rampant. Fathers pursued their careers and hobbies rather than God, their wives and their children. Government leaders governed out of their deep insecurity, pride, selfish greed and ungodly ambition – growing more entitled and foolish and reckless by the day.        The god of this world, who has a very sinister and well thought through plan to keep all cities under his thumb had another notch on his wicked belt ….or so it seemed.

Sadly the people of Ephesus were oblivious to these diabolical meetings and schemes - all aimed towards their destruction.     But our triune God was quite aware and yearning to invade the darkness of Ephesus with His glorious light. He had formed a plan for His gospel and His church to burst forth in Ephesus before the beginning of time, but God is amazingly methodical and patient. First His only begotten Son had to die for our sin, and rise again and ascend to the right hand of the Father; second His church had to be birthed in Jerusalem; third the leaders of His church in Jerusalem had to get clarity about God’s heart for the gentiles and clarity on what the gospel message truly was and wasn’t; fourth Ephesus had to have time to experience the full weight of their sins and the bankruptcy of their man made religious system; and fifth a man named Saul had to be delivered from his self righteousness, violent rage, and hatred of Christians, and brought into a relationship with the risen Christ.  For you see it was Saul – later called Paul whom God had chosen before the foundations of the world to bring the gospel – the good news about Jesus to the city of Ephesus.

God used Paul in powerful ways in Ephesus. He actually stayed longer in that city upon his second visit there than in any other city he ministered in on all of his missionary journeys.  As he reminded the elders of the church in Ephesus in his last conversation with them, “…for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” (Acts 20:31). And at the end of that last time with these dear fellow shepherds of the sheep author Luke tells us, “…they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again.” (Acts 20:37,38).

Indeed they never did see his face again. But years later they received the letter of all letters, the epistle of all epistles from his hand. Paul, knowing he would never be able to visit there again, and having poured out his life for them, and knowing there was so much more in Father’s heart for the church in that city and for that city – Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote the most complete guide to individual, marital, family, church and societal transformation that has ever been written.

If you have ever had a moment or more of honest reflection wherein you realized your life isn’t what it ought to be, and perhaps your marriage is not what it ought to be, and perhaps your family or extended family is not what it ought to be, or perhaps your church is not what it ought to be – especially your intended fruitful involvement in it, or perhaps your city is not what it ought to be - - this book called “Ephesians” is the book for you.

This book is God’s answer to the unseen but very real meetings being held in your city by “world forces of this darkness” as Paul refers to them in Ephesians ch. 6. It is a complete handbook to enable you and me to be a part of the glorious plans God has for us and our family and our church and our city. It is a manual on how to fight and win in the spiritual realms, realms that though unseen are very very real.

To make sure we don't miss a beat as we dive into Ephesians 1:1-14 let’s pause for a moment and ask for our Father’s help. (I prayed a short prayer here for illumination, revelation and anointing).

Who is the author and the initial intended audience of Ephesians? Vs. 1,2  “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.”  Paul was an apostle, a messenger, a spiritual father to many – appointed and called and sent by Jesus Christ Himself – not any human agency or organization. These believers were growing in faith and faithfulness as they found their very life and breath increasingly rooted in Jesus Christ.

“faithful in Christ Jesus”….. Were these the spiritual elite? Is that who this letter is to? Absolutely not. But it was those who had found their identity and value and purpose and salvation in Christ that would most profit from it. By the way this phrase “in Christ Jesus” or “in Christ” or “in Him” is a very important reoccurring theme in this chapter and in this book; and it speaks to how intimately and closely our lives revolve around and are rooted in our Savior.

Because Paul operated in the spiritual realm by the Spirit of God, and he knew these disciples in Ephesus were facing many battles and challenges, and he knew he was getting ready to unload bucket loads of truth on them, he paused to bless them with two commodities that are foreign to the kingdom of darkness but which abound in the kingdom of light.  Look at vs. 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Any society that is ruled by the forces of darkness as Ephesus was and as ours mostly is knows nothing of the grace and peace of God. We work for what we get!   

This word grace appears twelve times in the book of Ephesians – mostly in the first 3 chapters. Its basic idea in Scripture is  “non meritorious or unearned favor, an unearned gift, favor or blessings bestowed as a gift, freely and never as merit for work performed.” Also in some passages like this one grace is the supernatural divine ability God gives us to do His will and live life His way. Grace knows nothing of performance; nothing of striving to please and impress. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve day after day after day from our amazingly gracious heavenly doting Father.     

Peace is that deep inner condition of the soul that helps me know I’m loved, I’m valued by God, my life is secure in His hands, and thus I do not have to worry or fret about anything.  If you have studied the gospel accounts of Jesus’s ministry on earth you know He often imparted peace to His disciples so they could calm down and stop manipulating, worrying and stop taking things into their own hands. Our father God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ live to pour out grace and peace on their children. In light of that reality - I bless each of you right now with an abundance of grace and peace in Jesus’s name!

After Paul extended that blessing by faith through the spiritual airwaves to everyone who would read this letter in the days and years to come, he wanted to make sure they knew all blessings ultimately come from God. God lives to bless His children, and He should be praised for doing so. Let’s look at vs. 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”  The NIV translates this, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”, which better captures what Paul is after here. If you have been born again by the Spirit of God and know you are a blood bought child of God, your heavenly Father has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in or from the heavenly realms because you are in Christ - - that is you through your expressed faith and trust in Him have been supernaturally joined to Him and because of that a whole new unseen world of blessing has been opened up to you.

This phrase “in the heavenly places” is the first of nine similar phrases scattered throughout this book that demonstrate that there is a huge unseen world of both wicked and heavenly or godly activity going on around us every day. And while the lost or unbelievers are blind to this and have no access to the good and winning side and the resources therein, we disciples of Jesus are increasingly going to be alert to this and know how to cooperate with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and all the angels who live to obey their every command, and who are ministering spirits to us.

So what are some of the specific spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ?

Well unlike so many around us who believe they were just kind of randomly born into this world – part of the evolutionary cycle I guess, We were chosen in Christ by our loving heavenly Father before the foundation or creation of the world and the universe – Look at the first part of vs. 4  “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,” . This means the living God of the universe – before He created the universe set His loving eyes on me – though yet uncreated – and determined that I would be His. He goes on to state the ultimate goal of choosing us which is “that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (vs. 4) and thus able to enjoy fellowship with Him, and thus able to reflect His glorious image and likeness. If you by God’s grace and power have been converted or born again, there is nothing random about your life. You were specifically chosen to know and walk with God and to emit His fragrance to others.

Because the Holy Spirit knows we often don’t get the significance of certain truths like this, He next has Paul reinforce it with an even stronger word or verb. But because we sometimes stumble over this concept he prefaced it with two key words, and ended it with an important supporting phrase. I’m going to read the end of vs. 4 & then vs. 5  “In love    He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,”

So not only has He chosen us to know Him, walk with Him, be transformed by Him so that we can live a holy and blameless life before Him, He has also adopted us as His very own son or daughter with all the privileges that come with that status of being one of God’s adopted children. But to really appreciate the gravity of this spiritual blessing, you need to understand this concept of being chosen, or predestined or elected by God.

 (BTW - I wrote an article about this on my website a few days ago knowing I would have very little time to explain it in this sermon  - so if you want to read that you can find it here: https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/the-glorious-doctrine-of-divine-election ).

So one of the clear teachings of the Bible from beginning to end is that we are all born in sin and are by nature sinners. One of the most sad and destructive aspects of our sin nature is that we do not, will not and cannot on our own seek God. David stated this in Psalm 14:2,3 and the apostle Paul quoted this in Romans chapter 3 vs.10 which states, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.”         QUESTION: How many people in human history up to his moment have sought God on their own….out of the goodness of their wonderful heart? Answer: Not one.    God of course knew this would be the case before He created the earth and humanity. So He could have just aborted the mission and called the whole thing off, which is what I would have done.  Or He could have mercifully and graciously intervened. Thankfully He chose the latter. And in the holy councils our triune God routinely has with Himself and perhaps other heavenly beings - He determined before the creation of the earth- -  in November of 1955 I’m going to create Randy Nash, and even though he will be introduced to this evil world system very early in life and foolishly embrace it and run after it and all of its illicit pleasures, I’m going to intervene and invade and intervene in his life and circumstances, his heart and mind, exposing and destroying every lie of the evil one  until he bows his knees to Jesus, sees Christ’s great worth, and becomes one of His disciples. Sadly it took many interventions but He finally got my attention and allegiance. And I will be forever grateful that whom He chooses and predestines – He gets; - and as a result we get Him instead of this perverted and corrupt world so full of lies and blind, deaf and dumb idols.

When you and I see the significance of all of this, our response should be as vs. 6 states, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  You know God could have finally saved me, which He did in my Sophomore year at a Young Life camp in North Carolina, and then let me just struggle on through life with one big foot in the world and one small one in the kingdom of Christ. He could have just let me wallow in the consequences of all my sin. But instead He just kept pouring out grace and mercy and favor and forgiveness and more of His Holy Spirit and more grace and more grace on me resulting in more praise to Him.  “The beloved”  btw at the end of this verse- being His precious and only begotten Son who was willing to pay the awful price necessary for me to experience all of this grace and blessing.

In Vs. 3-6 the focus is on what the Father has done for each of us who know Him. Now there is a bit of transition to a focus on the Son starting in vs. 7. So not only have we been chosen in Christ to live a transformed life and not only have we been predestined to all the privileges of adoption as His son (or daughter) by this amazing heavenly Father, but we also in Christ have redemption and forgiveness, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us…” (vs. 7,8a). This word “redemption” denotes release or deliverance from a state of slavery. And the good news for all of us here this morning is our Risen Savior – according to the riches of His grace – lives to forgive us and free us from every sin we’ve every committed through His blood. Its wonderful to have the stain and the shame and the guilt of my sin forever forgiven. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He also lives to free us from the grip or the hold sin has had on us. That’s lavished grace folks.

But Jesus didn’t stop there. Here’s another spiritual blessing He has poured out on us - - the knowledge of His will.  “In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him” (vs. 8,9) The living God of the universe who knows and sees and hears everything; who has planned out all of human history in and among every nation and is methodically accomplishing those plans – - because we are His chosen and adopted children in and through His beloved Son – we get fresh intel every day that can only come through revelation and through relationship with Him.  None of these things could we have ever figured out on our own - - they were beyond human comprehension or human knowledge - - and this according to His kind intentions or good pleasure – out of the goodness of His heart toward us - - all purposed in Christ.

He has also given us a view – a glimpse - of a coming governmental administration of Christ which will be over all the earth and the heavens and everything in them, - vs. 10 -  “with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth…” - - some say the fullness of the times will be in the millennium - - others say it will be at the end when Christ finally assumes His full Lordship over all. Whenever it is there will be no more resistance or opposition to the full rule and reign of Christ at that point over all the earth, and all will see His greatness, power, wisdom and goodness like never before.

Now I want you to notice a change in Paul’s wording in vs. 11,12. Up to now in most every verse he has used the pronoun “us”. But please notice the change of pronoun as I read these two verses, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”  vs. 11, 12. What Paul is doing here is letting us all know that the Jews who were the first to believe in Christ in Jerusalem and the first to establish a Christian church there in Jerusalem are included as full recipients of all these spiritual blessings as they find their real identity and only righteousness in their Savior and Messiah Jesus. Paul will speak more of the supernatural joining of Jewish and Gentile believers in Ephesians chapter 2.

In vs. 13, 14 Paul reverts back to the Gentile believers in Ephesus as well as the rest of we Gentile believers who would believe in subsequent generations. In this verse for the first time the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is introduced, and it is yet another of our spiritual blessings in Christ. “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” vs. 13,14

If you have lived at least a couple of decades on planet earth, you have most likely experienced some disappointments…some broken promises… and some fractured relationships.  If you’ve lived as long as I have you’ve experienced a number of these. So when folks like us come into a relationship with Christ those broken promises and unfulfilled vows and intentions are always in the back of our minds somewhere. God knows that so He determined that the moment you and I place our faith and trust in Christ to save us from our sins and bring us into a relationship with God - - God the Holy Spirit would begin to reside in our spirits – never to leave us. And His continual presence with us and in us would be an ongoing reminder from God that we belong to Him and nothing can change that.  That’s why believers are called “temples of the Holy Spirit” in I Corinthians 3.

Because I came to Christ earlier than some of you did, and because I had a large foot in the world by then, I dragged God the Holy Spirit through a whole lot of crud and corruption.       As I’ve grown in the Lord and reflected back on those sad days, I often praise Him that He never left me in those days. And one of the ways I know He didn’t is I never could really enjoy sin and I always knew I was sinning. Tis a pretty miserable existence actually. But another way I know He was still with me is I always felt if I stopped and prayed He would listen, which He did.  God knows we need assurances that He will never leave us or give up on us in this long process of cleaning us from the inside out. God is very jealous for His possession… His adopted sons and daughters. And He does not just sit idly around while we worship idols and pursue the lusts of our flesh and live foolishly.

One of the big reasons some of us in this room worship Him with all of our hearts is because He over time has won our hearts and delivered us from all of our foolishness by His matchless grace.

It is possible there are folks here today who came into this service not knowing where you stand with God. You do not need to leave in that state. It would be foolish for you to leave in that uncertain confused state because you are not assured of unending chances to get right with God; and every moment you spend apart from your maker and heavenly Father is a terribly wasted moment.

Most of us experienced a glorious end to this kind of spiritual darkness by finally coming to a point where we were ready to ask Him into our lives. And you can do that right now with a simple prayer of faith and trust like this one - - you might even want to pray this after me,

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die in my place and to pay the penalty for my sins and to bring me to God. I want Him to be my Savior and Lord right now. Please adopt me as Your child and give me this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen

(Then I prayed for them – for God to save them and deliver them, etc)

(Then I gave this word to the saved to help us make the most out of this series on Ephesians)

So towards the end of my preparation for this sermon I was drawn more than once to the story of Elisha the prophet and his servant in II Kings 6. The king of Aram and his armies were attempting to attack and wipe out Israel. But Elisha kept getting intel from the heavenly realms and then getting that intel to the King of Israel, which enabled him to foil the Arameans attacks. The king of Aram got furious thinking there was a spy or traitor among them. Then someone among them informed him that this was probably the doings of the prophet Elisha. So the king now sent his armies to wipe out Elisha. Elisha’s attendant walks out of the house and sees all these armies surrounding the city, freaks out, and tells Elisha “we’re toast!”. At which point Elisha calmly tells him, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  (vs. 16). Elisha’s attendant looks around and sees no one but him and Elisha. “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Meaning all around Elisha’s house and property.

So this sermon series can just be another sermon series or we can so posture ourselves to have God open our eyes to the unseen but very real world Ephesians talks about and how we are to live and walk and minister in that unseen heavenly realm.

(I then prayed for our congregation in that regard).

((For those of you who knew I've been sick and prayed for me God gave me sufficient voice to preach. Praise God! Thanks for praying!!)).