Ephesians 1:1-14 ‘Do you realise how good God is to you?

Thelma Howard died in 1981, unaware that she was worth a fortune. 

You see, she had served as a maid to Walt and Lillian Disney for twenty years, and every Christmas they would give her a piece of paper with some writing on it.  She didn’t realise that these pieces of paper were bonds and stocks and shares in the company.  So, she died in poverty not realizing that she was a millionaire. 

She had vast riches, but she never knew it.

This morning we are thinking of the riches that God has lavished upon us.  If you are a follower of Jesus, you might not realize how blessed you are.  I want to show you that God has been incredibly good to you.

But first, I want to look at the greeting that begins this letter, and make a few comments on Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians.

God has called you to be holy (1:1-2)

The earliest manuscripts don’t actually include the words, ‘in Ephesus’ (1).  It may have been that these words were added latter to explain to whom the original letter had been sent.  But this letter reads like a circular, so it is likely that Paul wrote to a number of churches in the region.  The region was the Roman province of Asia Minor (in what is now Turkey), and Ephesus was one of the leading cities in that region.  We might say that this letter was written to the churches in the area of Ephesus and its surrounds.

The author is Paul, who writes with the unique authority of a New Testament apostle.  He is writing from prison.  It would seem that this is the imprisonment of the end of the book of Acts, where he is under house arrest in Rome.  It is probably A.D. 62.  About thirty years after the risen Jesus ascended to heaven.

We might divide this book in two: the first three chapters primarily being doctrine, and the second three being duty.  The first section shows that in grace God has called us to be His people.  In the second section, he shows us how to live out that grace in the community of God’s people.  This letter has a lot to say about the church, but whereas Paul’s other letters focus on church in terms of local congregations of believers, here the emphasis is on being part of the global body of Christ.

He describes us, his readers as saints.  A saint is not some special dead Christian, a saint is every Christian.  The word refers to a people who are set apart for God.  Notice that he says that as saints we are ‘faithful in Christ’.  Look at verse 4, God has chosen us to be holy and blameless.  Becoming more like Jesus is His calling on our lives.  God has made us a holy people, and he calls us to live out what we are.  If you are not pursuing holiness then it might be that you have not understood God’s calling on your life.  Christians desire to become more like Jesus.  We cannot be content to hold a grudge.  We want God to give us control over our words.  We want to get rid of every hint of sexual immorality.

Paul regularly opens his letters wishing grace and peace on his readers.  The order is significant. It is because we have been shown grace that we have peace with God.

God has chosen you in love (3-6)

There are certain subjects that make Christians uncomfortable.  One of those subjects is predestination.  I remember the pained looks on some of your faces when this topic came up in one of our small groups.  I have thought about this doctrine for years and I am happy to hold together some things that go beyond my understanding.

God desires the salvation of all people (Ezek. 33:11).  Jesus’ genuinely invites all who hear the gospel to come to Him (Matt. 11:28).  If people refuse the offer of grace, the fault is theirs not God’s — ‘but you were not willing’ (Matt. 23:37).  The Bible never says that people miss heaven because they were not chosen, but because they neglected so great a salvation (Heb. 2:3a).  By nature, we are dead in sins (Eph. 2:1) and hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7).  When someone, like Lydia in the book of Acts, becomes a Christian, it is because ‘the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message’ (Acts 16:14).  Jesus who calls all people to repent and believe (Mark 1:15), also speaks of God’s choosing when He declares ‘all that the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never drive away anyone who comes to me’ (Jn. 6:37).

All this can be hard to get your head around.  It might go beyond our current ability to understand.  But when I walk down the streets of Limerick, I think about every person I see, and say to myself, ‘there is someone Jesus wants to rescue.’  Yet when come into church and see people who love and follow Jesus, ‘isn’t God so kind to change our stubborn hearts and bring us to himself?’

Notice that God chose us before the foundation of the world (4a).  That means God’s saving us cannot be the result of anything that we do.  For his choice was made before we did anything.  As one woman said to the hymn-writer, John Newton, ‘God must have chosen me before I was born, because I have given Him no reason to choose me since.’

Paul says that God saved us in love (4b).  Why does He love you?  He loves you simply because he chose to love you.  You don’t need to look at your life and find reasons for Him to love you.  His love is not conditional like that.  To the Israelites of the Old Testament Moses explained: ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God.  The LORD your God has chosen you out all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.  The LORD did not set his affection on you and chose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt’ (Deut. 7:6-9).

You may feel that people will only love you if you look good, are successful or are good fun to be around.  God is not like that.  He loves you because He loves you.  Having set His affection upon you, He will never stop loving you.  Having chosen you, He will never un-choose you.  He chose you to be an adopted son (5).  You are not only forgiven, you are cherished by God.

God has redeemed us in grace (7-10)

Redemption is the payment of a price or a ransom.  We were slaves.  We were slaves to power and condemnation caused by our sin.  How were we set free?  Paul explains that we were redeemed through Jesus’ blood.  He paid the price to set us free from the slavery and condemnation for our sin.  The angels sing a new song in heaven: ‘with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (Rev 5:9).  We are redeemed through the cross and resurrection of Christ.

This redemption gives us the forgiveness of sins.  The issue is never how terrible our sins are, but how great His redemption is.  He has paid an infinite price for our sins, so no matter how awful you feel, remember that Jesus’ death was more than sufficient.  God lavishes His grace on us.  Paul speaks if the riches of Christ’s grace.

I usually describe grace as being God’s unmerited, unearned and undeserved favour.  That is what it is.  Grace is a rich term, having roots in the Old Testament word ‘hen’ (referring to the favour shown by a superior to an inferior) and chesed (referring to God’s covenant keeping love, that is often translated ‘unfailing love’ in our Old Testaments).  For the Greeks grace referred to things caused delight and rejoicing, like beauty and kindness.

The word ‘mystery’, in verse 9, is different than the way we use mystery.  In New Testament thought a mystery is something was hidden but is know known.  So, I was talking to Elijah Chaila, and he told me that Denise, his daughter, is going to release a new album (I am sure that they don’t use the term album any more).  But I don’t know what that album is going to be called.  In our understanding, the name of the album is a mystery to me.  However, after the album is released I will know what the album is called.  The New Testament would still refer to the album’s name as a mystery—it was something that had been kept secret, but is now known to us.

What is this mystery?  All through the Old Testament, God had promised that He gather to Himself a people.  Now we see that this is happening because of the cross of Christ.  We can now see how God is blessing the nations of the world through a descendant of Abraham.  This mystery silences all accusing voices, it brings us together of one people in Christ and it even points forward to a renewed creation.

God is holding on to you

Finally, notice that all three members of the Trinity are involved in bring the people of God (the universal church) into being.  The Father choses us, the Son redeems us and the Spirit keeps us.  In the Greek verses 3-14 are one long sentence.  At the end of this sentence we see the work of the Holy Spirit.

Whereas the word ‘we’ has been used of all Christians up to this point, in verse 12 ‘we’ and ‘you’ are two different groups of Christians.  The ‘we’ seems to be the Jewish believers, who received the gospel first, and the ‘you’ are those non-Jews (Gentiles) that have been brought to faith.

He rescued that ‘we’ for the prise of Christ’s glory.  This plan of salvation that involved the choosing of Abraham, with work in the Old Testament among the people of Israel, and now shown in the cross of Christ, should cause people to praise Jesus.  That is why the songs we sing in church should not simply be about how I feel about Jesus, but also a celebration of what Jesus has done for us. 

We end with mention of the promised Holy Spirit.  In the Old Testament God had promised a time when all God’s people would be indwelt by the person of God the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:26).  The Holy Spirit seals us.  A seal was a sign of ownership.  As the Holy Spirit gives us new desires to love and live for Jesus we see the evidence that we belong to God.  The Holy Spirit is a deposit or down payment guaranteeing what is to come.  We have a privileged life and a glorious future in Jesus.

Conclusion

Remember Thelma Howard.  Walt Disney had given her great riches but she chose to live and die in poverty.  Don’t be like that.  If you are in a living relationship with Jesus (and if you don’t understand what that means come and speak to me), them you are the recipient of every spiritual blessing.  God has chosen to set His affection on you, so you must never feel unloved.  God has called you to live a holy life, to act as He has made you, so never be complacent.  He has forgiven you according to the riches of His grace, so never feel condemned.  He has sealed You with His Spirit and paid the deposit for your eternity, so look forward in hope.  He has done all this for the praise of His Son, so delight to worship Him.