Ephesians 1:1-4
Matt Rawlings
Ephesians 1:1-4 "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: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him."
There is a lot of confusion in the world today about
identity. So many people are suffering from an identity crisis – but this is
nothing new really. In first Century Greece, the phrase “Know Thyself” was
inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Then idea of knowing
who you are is a theme that comes up repeatedly in Ancient Philosophy and
modern Psychology alike. Back in 1978, a British band
named The Who wrestled with the idea of identity in a song called “Who are
You”. But the world hasn’t ever really answered the question of who we are
sufficiently. We can find our identity in all sorts of things.
·
When we are kids, we can find our identity in
whose child we are. We are a Rawlings or a Smith or a Jones. Sometimes we are
confused because our parents are divorced. At other times, we might be confused
about who we are because we are adopted. When we are younger our identity can
be forced upon us by others. We might think of ourselves as ugly or pretty or
smart or dumb or weird.
·
We can think of ourselves by the sports we play.
He’s a basketball player or she is a field hockey player or a gymnast. As if
the sport we play is where our identity is found.
·
Maybe you think of your identity as a jock or
Emo or Punk or Preppy or a Skater or an Outcast or Goth or Nerd.
·
Maybe you are confused and you think you are a
loser because someone dumped you or your parents don’t love you and you feel
worthless.
·
Maybe you are a victim of physical or emotional
or sexual abuse and you don’t know who you are and you feel defined by what has
been done to you.
·
Maybe you’ve done bad things and you feel like
that thing - or all the things you’ve done - defines who you are and you feel
like you will never be good enough – you’re spoiled now.
·
Maybe you’re an alcoholic or an addict. Or maybe
you think of yourself as an angry person or a bitter person or you’re sadness
defines you.
·
Maybe you find your identity in what kind of car
you drive or where you live.
·
You think of your identity as poor or rich.
·
Or you find your identity in what country you
are from.
·
Or maybe you find you identity in your ethnicity
– so your identity is black or white, Latino, Asian, German, Italian, European,
Jewish, Polish, Hungarian, Irish, Scottish, African or some other ethnicity and
you use your ethnicity to define yourself... “Well, I’m Italian, so I’m loud or
I’m Irish, so I get angry or I’m Russian and we don’t get very emotional or whatever - I’m Latino, so I’m passionate”.
·
Maybe you think of yourself as a Southerner, a
Northerner, a mid-westerner, an intellectual or an artist, Republican,
Democrat, Independent, Libertarian.
·
Maybe you’re the first-born or middle child, or
you’re the baby of the family or an only child.
·
Maybe your identity is in being a therapist or
doctor or lawyer or teacher or an engineer or a salesperson or pick your profession and that is where you
find your identity.
·
Or maybe you find someone else and get married
and you identify yourself as a husband or a wife. Then, maybe you have kids and
you’re a parent now.
·
Or maybe your entire life revolved around kids
for so many years and now, your kids have left home and you don’t know who you
are because your identity was all about being a parent. That has changed and
you feel empty and purposeless now.
·
Or maybe your spouse has died and you don’t feel
like much of anyone on your own now.
·
Or maybe your spouse left you and you identify
yourself as divorced.
·
Maybe you haven’t married and possibly you may
never marry and your identity is as a single – and you either hate it or you
are proud of it and it defines who you are.
·
Maybe your identity was in your job, but you
lost your job and were fired or you can’t work now because of a disability and
you feel like you aren’t useful anymore or like you aren’t worth much and your
identity is in what you are not.
But what is the truth? What is reality? Who are you? To find the answer, we can’t turn to psychology or sociology or anthropology or self-help books and certainly not the government – they’re confused about that still. So who are you?
The Bible tells us the truth of who we are. Mankind was made
in the image of God. God made Adam and Eve equally in His image. Humanity was
made to bear His image and to glorify God and testify to the goodness of God.
But in Adam, all died, when he sinned against God and rebelliously sought glory
for himself. In Adam, all of humanity was cursed and under the sentence of
death, awaiting the inevitable wrath and punishment of God for sins. Each and
every one of us as descendents of Adam (since we are “in Adam” so to speak) are
under the same destiny, unless we are saved from sinful humanity, saved from
ourselves and saved from the wrath of God that we all deserve.
But, God had always planned to show His glory and His mercy,
His grace, His kindness and His love by providing a way to rescue all of those
who are in Adam. This is because He so loved the World, He sent His only Son to
come and take our place. God had always planned to rescue humanity by creating
a new humanity through His own Son. And that is really what the letter to the
Ephesians is all about. The Apostle Paul, as he wrote the letter to the
Ephesians answered the fundamental question of
“Who Are You?” for Christians. The answer in Ephesians is you are “A Radical New Humanity in Christ".
In these first four verses, I believe the main idea that we can get and that
applies to the entire letter and frames up the entire letter is that...
Prior to placing our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who came to the earth and lived the perfect life, we should have lived and died in our place, taking the punishment we deserved as sinners and descendents of Adam . Prior to becoming a Christian, we were “in Adam”. In Ephesians 2:12 – it tells of our condition prior to being found in Christ and it says, “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:12-13)
This is a major theme of the book of Ephesians. God is
about rescuing those who were without any hope, whose identity was found in Adam, and creating
a radical new humanity in Christ. Why do I call it a radical new humanity? Because,
used as an adjective, the word radical means, “Relating
to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough”.
The new humanity that God has created in Christ affects the fundamental
nature of humanity – it is a far-reaching, a thorough re-creation of humanity
in Christ. And how does this change occur? I’m glad you asked. The first point that we can
see from this passage and that we will see repeatedly throughout the letter to
the Ephesians is that...
1. God is the one who
calls us to Himself
In the very first sentence of the letter, Paul lays the foundation for this when he
references himself and when he references the people he was writing to. Look in
verse 1, it says, "Paul, an apostle
of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are
faithful in Christ Jesus..." (Ephesians 1:1) The very first thing that
Paul draws the reader’s attention to is that God called the apostle Paul to
Himself.
Now picture where the apostle Paul was for a minute. Paul
was likely in prison in Rome when he wrote this letter, sometime around 60AD.
He had planted the church in Ephesus and the church had grown and become
influential. He was thinking about this church and what was important for them
to know about who they are and how they are to live in response. Ephesus was a
major city, located centrally along the coast of Asia Minor – what today is the
country of Turkey. At one point, Ephesus was a major port city and the center of
trade and agricultural commerce. It was an urban hub and influenced many cities
around Asia Minor. And Paul wrote the letter that we know as Ephesians, likely
as a circular letter that also went to Ephesus, to encourage and exhort
churches about who they are in Christ and what it means to live “in Christ”.
And as Paul wrote to them from his prison cell, he didn’t
identify himself as a prisoner, his identity was found in Christ. The reason
Paul was who he was, was because Jesus Christ had called Him. Jesus had chosen
Paul when he was Saul. Jesus was the one who renamed him from Saul to Paul,
which means little or small or humble. And I think that was to always serve as
a reminder that he was little but Christ was great, because Paul would be used
greatly by Jesus. But in order for him to be used greatly, Jesus had to become
big to Saul - and Saul had to become small in his own eyes. Jesus Christ had
made him new.
Now, Paul is writing to them as an apostle. He is calling
them to his teaching as a representative who was called and sent to them by
Jesus Christ. Paul knew that he didn’t call himself though. His calling was by
the will of God.
It was God’s unlikely choosing of Paul that saved him,
changed him, commissioned him and made him fit for serving the Lord. It was by
the will of God – by God’s choosing - by the unmerited grace of God on the life
of a man who once was a hater of Jesus and who persecuted the followers of
Jesus and thereby Jesus Himself. He once stood giving his approval to the
stoning of Stephen. He was once deceived and blind to his own self-righteous
legalism. He thought he knew God, he thought he was doing the right thing,
until God literally stopped him with His light, knocked him off his horse and
revealed the truth to Paul. So, when Paul writes that he was an apostle by the
will of God, it is a loaded statement and it carries much meaning with it.
Now, skip down to the first part of verse 4 for a moment,
it says, "just as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world...". Verse 4 tells us that God is
the one who has chosen us in Christ. Salvation and all of the blessings and
gifts that we receive are all based on the initiative of God and are ours in
Christ Jesus. Paul is trying to get our attention at the very opening of this letter.
Paul is communicating some big ideas here – He is an apostle of Christ Jesus,
chosen by the will of God and we too have been chosen in Christ before creation
ever was. It says “He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world was laid." I like the way that
theologian Peter O’Brien puts it...
“To say that election took place before creation
indicates that God’s choice was due to his own free decision and love, which
were not dependent on temporal circumstances or human merit. The reasons
for his election were rooted in the depths of his gracious, sovereign nature.
To affirm this is to give to Christians the assurance that God’s purposes for
them are of the highest good, and the appropriate response from those who are
chosen in Christ from all eternity is to praise him who has so richly blessed
us.” – Peter O’Brien
God chose us to be in Christ Jesus before what we know as
Creation and the world even existed. In eternity past, God chose us. Yes, we
must choose Him in return and yes, it is clear in the Bible that we must
respond. We must repent, we must believe in Jesus, we must confess Him with our
mouths, we must trust in Him. But if we have a desire to follow Jesus – if we
have responded to Him or if we want to respond to Him, the Scripture is clear,
the initiative is on God’s part – He chose us. This is meant to give us
confidence, that no matter how we feel, no matter how fickle our obedience, we
can have faith in God that He chose us and that since He chose us, He will
sustain us. He will not fail to save us.
Paul also begins the letter by reminding them that they
are saints. What he is saying by calling them this is that their entire
identity has now changed. He writes to the saints and faithful in Christ
Jesus. What he is saying is that in Christ Jesus we are a new humanity. That is
the second point we can see in these verses and one of the main ideas of the
letter...
2. In Christ we are a
New humanity
Julie brought home some Queen Anne’s Lace flowers a few
weeks ago. And one day, little caterpillars hatched from them. About 3 weeks
later, the caterpillar attached some silk anchors to the stem and the next
morning, his skin was gone – he had shed it from his head down and now the
caterpillar is a chrysalis. Soon, the caterpillar will be a butterfly. There is
a complete and total transformation from one thing to another when little
hungry caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
The transformation when we become Christians is nothing
short of the same dramatic change. God is at work in us. We can’t see it until
one day, He changes us – we shed our old skin and we become more like Him and
one day, the transformation process will be complete. But we are a radically
new humanity now. Paul says they are a radically new humanity in Christ because
God had called them. The purpose of God in choosing you wasn’t just to
undo the damage done by sin to mankind. God’s purpose in choosing you from
before the very foundation of the world was to fulfill the original intent that
He had for humankind in the first place.
You see, God always planned to create a new Humanity – a new
people for Himself that would be perfectly made into the image of His Son. This
doesn’t mean that God’s radical transformation in us is complete. It isn’t. But He is in the process of making us more and more like His
Son, now that the core of who we are is holy – set apart for Him.
In the Old Testament, God clearly called out a people to
Himself, to be His chosen people, who God had set His affections on, not
through any merit of themselves but through His choosing. And God continually
displayed His power and might as He saved His people who never deserved or
earned His favor. Now, remarkably, Paul is writing to the churches in the
general area of Ephesus and he is calling them saints. What he is saying is
that they too have been chosen by God as His people. They have been brought
into relationship with God, that was once only reserved for the people of
Israel. They have been chosen not by their own merit or based on any good
works. They have been chosen and they are saints because they have been brought
into God’s people in Christ Jesus.
Then, Paul addresses them as those “who are faithful in
Christ Jesus”. He is not saying that the letter is addressed only to those
saints who are reliable. And he is not only writing to those saints who are
trustworthy. But he is
saying that the saints are those who in Christ are faithful. Jesus Christ has
made them saints and He is the One who makes them faithful. And they are saints
who are faithful, “In Christ”.
They have a new and different identity now. They have placed their faith, their trust in Jesus Christ. And now, they are found in Him, not having a righteousness that is their own, but now being identified by their relationship to Jesus. No longer are they to think of themselves in terms of what they have done or what has been done to them. No longer are they to think of themselves based on what they do for a living for a little while. No longer are they to view themselves based on their season of life or their role for a while. They are to now see themselves as radically different, as wholly different. They are completely defined now not by what anyone says about them or by how they feel or how they look - they are fundamentally defined by their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Being a Christian is not about hanging around Christians
or being a part of some club. Being a Christian isn’t just about what you do
and it isn’t just about going to church. Being a Christian means a total life
transformation. It means you are no longer “in Adam” and now you are “in
Christ”. Now, you belong to Jesus and now your entire life is oriented around
Jesus. And this is meant to have an effect on how you view yourself. No matter
whether you are geeky or a jock, loud or quiet. No matter whether others think
you are ugly or you do – He chose you and because He chose you, you are
precious and valuable in His sight.
You are now His saints. You are not defined or limited by
what you can and can’t do. Your identity isn’t in any other lesser thing. This
is a truth that if you get it will be completely freeing and change the way
that you live.
If you get that you are saints now in Christ, you will
not worry so much about what other people have said or thought about you or
what they may say or think about you. You are not who your parents said you
were when they said you’d never amount to much or that you would never be good
enough. You are saints – you are faithful in Christ, because Jesus was perfect
in your place. Now God credits all of the perfection of Jesus to you and makes
you a holy saint in his sight.
You don’t have to be defined by what that coach or
sibling or spouse or neighbor or friend or what the person who sinned against
you called you. You are no longer indentified by your sin or by your weakness –
your identity no longer lies in what you have or haven’t done. Your identity is
not in your failures of faults anymore. Your identity is not in your past and
in the fallenness that you share as a descendent of Adam. The devil and the
world try to tell us lies. Our own thoughts condemn us and we can still hear
those hurtful voices in our heads telling us who we are – condemning us. But
hear God’s voice today as louder than any other. Hear God’s voice today as more
important, more definitive, more authoritative, more powerful than any other
voice. Because you are God’s chosen saint – you are loved by God. You are now
righteous in Christ.
And this morning, maybe you need to pause for a moment
and breath in the goodness of that. Let this truth saturate your soul. Receive
the new identity that God has for you. Because God desires to heal broken
humanity – God desires to restore. God desires to make you completely new in
Him. What God says about you is what matters. What can man do to you now? If
God is for you – if God defines you, no one else’s opinion matters and nothing
anyone else says about you or what you say about you should define you. If you
have placed your trust in Christ Jesus for all of life, you are a saint and you
are faithful in Him.
And this is a truth that Paul will unpack even more in
the first 3 chapters. In Chapter 2, we will see that we are no longer dead in
sins and that we have been raised up with Christ. We will see that we’ve been
saved through faith by the gift of God and now we are His workmanship. We will
see that Jesus is our peace. And in verse 19 of chapter two we will see that...
"So then you are no longer strangers
and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God..." (Ephesians
2:19)
Now, there are some here today who may not be in a relationship with Jesus and cannot say that you are “In Christ”. Please hear me today – you are in Adam and there is only one destination for all those in Adam. Being “in Adam” results in spiritual death and you will one day receive the punishment that you deserve for all eternity. But today – hear God calling you and respond – ask Him to forgive you for your sins and place your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and start to get to know Him and make sure that you are in Christ. Because the purpose of God’s calling is to create a new Humanity.
If you have become a
Christian and you can say that your hope is in Christ, your forgiveness is in
Christ, your trust for all of life is in Christ, then you too are saints, you
too have been radically transformed and brought into a completely new humanity.
You are the faithful in Christ Jesus – not because of your efforts or
faithfulness but because of the faithfulness of Christ to keep you in Him. And
because He has called us and chosen us and made us a new Creation in Him, we
have every spiritual blessing in Christ. That is the third thing we are going
to look at in these verses – it says...
3. In Christ, we have every spiritual blessing
Paul says in verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ”. Paul’s intention in the letter is that they may experience the
grace of God and have the peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
and peace come to us through God our Father and Jesus Christ – because we are
in Jesus. We have received the grace of God – the unmerited favor of God. If we
are saints, we have His grace. And we have received peace with God. He isn’t
angry with us. And we can know and experience the peace of God in our daily
lives.
So, the themes of God’s grace and peace run throughout
the letter itself. Paul mentions grace in 1:6-7, in 2:5,7-8. And again in 3:2,7-8, then again in 4:7,29
and lastly in 6:23. Paul mentions peace in 2:14-15,17 and then again in 4:3. In
chapter 6, verse 15 he tells us to put on the gospel of peace like shoes that
protect every step you take.
In fact, the last two verses of the letter end with Paul
saying, "Peace be to the brothers,
and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be
with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible." (Ephesians 6:23-24)
Paul is so aware of all the spiritual blessings that we have been given that he erupts in verse three of
the first chapter of his letter with praise. He says, "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..." (Ephesians 1:3)God is the be praised because He has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
You may not feel blessed because you are more aware of what
you think you don’t have than what you have. Like my two year old may scream
when I take candy away from him, because I want him to enjoy all the good
things that his mom has prepared for him to eat and enjoy and not have his
appetite spoiled by some small, empty treat that doesn’t nourish, doesn’t
satisfy and won’t ultimately be fulfilling. We can be more aware of when we don’t
have that sweet thing or that thing that we think is sweet and good for us –
when our Heavenly Father knows what is best – He knows what is good and He has
prepared a feast of truly satisfying, truly fulfilling, spiritual blessings for
us.
Because we are in Christ, we have been blessed with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Every spiritual blessing is given to
us and comes through Jesus Christ. Every blessing that the Holy Spirit gives is
given to us in the heavenly places in Christ. In verses 4-14 of this chapter,
the nature of these spiritual blessings is made plain. The blessings that we
have received include election to holiness, God adopting us as His very own sons
and daughters, redemption and
forgiveness, a knowledge of God’s gracious plan to make everything complete in
Christ, the blessing of the gift of the Spirit, and the hope of glory.
Notice that the word bless or blessed occurs three times
in this verse. This is because the idea of us receiving blessings in and
through Jesus Christ is important. God is the Father of Jesus Christ, and verse
two tells us that He is OUR Father as well. Because of this,
we have the right to receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And
God, our Father is the one who in verse 3 has blessed us. In verse 4 He has
chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world. Look down in your Bible –
in verse 5, God has destined us to be His sons and daughters. In verse 6-8 he
has lavished His grace upon us. In verses 9-10, He has made known His plans and
purposes for the world. And in verse 11, He promises to accomplish all things
in accordance with His will.
God, the Father of Jesus Christ and our Father too, has
chosen us, given us unlimited love and showed us with unmerited favor and He is
working out His eternal plan in and through us. And lastly, the final
thing we will see very briefly as a hint at the rest of the contents of the
letter is that He chose us to be holy. The fourth and final thing we see – at
the end of verse 4 is that He chose us to be holy.
4. In Christ, He chose
us to be holy
Verse 4 says, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him." Maybe you were never chosen
for a sports team or chosen as most likely to succeed. And maybe no one chose
you to be the homecoming king or queen. Maybe you feel like you still haven’t
been chosen and no one likes you and no one ever will choose you. But God has
chosen you. The most powerful, all
knowing, all loving God has chosen you to be His. What a dream. Better than any
knight in shining armor or any princess choosing you. Better than being chosen
for any earthly reward or medal of valor or state honor.
God chose us and He has given us His
name and His blessing. God has made what was unholy holy. God has made
blameless what was only full of blame. God is the One who redeems people and
makes a new humanity. And although we are already made holy in His sight, He
desires to make us completely holy in reality. Isn’t that good news? We won’t
always be as sinful as we are now. And we don’t have to wait until later to
grow. We don’t have to wait until heaven to grow to be more like Him. We are
holy and blameless before Him and now because of this, we have hope that we can
actually be made more holy and more blameless in this life.
And how we can grow as His disciples – how
we can actually learn to live more holy lives and be made more like Jesus here and
now will be the focus of chapters 4, 5 and 6. In chapter 5, we see that
Jesus died to make us holy before God. And not only that, He has promised to
make us without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that we might be
presented holy and without blemish to Him.
In the meanwhile though, let’s remember
the question we began with. “Who are you?" God has made you a Radical New Humanity in Christ. We are
in Christ Jesus – that is who we are. We have been called and chosen by God –
He has called us to Himself. We are saints and faithful in Him. We have every
spiritual blessing. And now, everything is different.
