Meadowbrooke Church

Greater than the Power of 300 Billion Suns

Two Thursdays ago, my wife and I left our home around 8AM for a doctors appointment in Colorado. Every time I get into our Subaru Outback, I plug my phone into our car so that I can use my maps app and listen to my favorite playlist during my drive, our drive down to Colorado on Thursday was no exception until about 15 minutes into our drive the radio let out a irritating high pitched sound prohibiting me from listening to my newly downloaded navigation voice from one of my favorite movies of all time: Po, from Kung Fu Panda. We have a 2021 Subaru Outback, there was no reason for the audio to have abruptly stop working, but it did. However, nearly an hour later, after stopping for a pit stop, the audio mysteriously was fixed as soon as I started the car to continue our trip to our doctors appointment.
After we reached our destination, I immediately google searched on my phone to see if anything weird happened that would cause the audio in our car to do what it did. Here is what popped up in my search: Two outbursts from the sun occurred as widespread cellphone outages were reported throughout the United States on Thursday morning (Feb. 22). I am not sure it is related, but on Sunday we learned that all but four of our brand-new pagers stopped working over the weekend, our live stream audio stopped working properly, and a sim card in one of our Elders phones weirdly got fried.Thats not all, on Monday while checking out from Albertsons, I was told that they were having trouble with their computers.
Now, I dont know if any of this is related or if it has anything to do with Solar flares or the mysterious balloon that happened to be floating 43,000 feet above, the mountainous Western United States. Here is what did come to mind though: Our electrical grid is fragile, and it is vulnerable. With all our military might and power as a nation, we are not in control! I dont know what happened on Thursday, but here is what was reported in New Delhi, India just this past Wednesday (2.28.2024) on WION with the news caption: Massive sunspot wider than Earth is now aiming directly at us. Is it cause for worry?
Recently, scientists noticed that a hyperactive sunspot, first detected on February 18, is now swelling at a faster rate and is pointed right towards Earth. In 2024, the biggest sunspot named AR3590 first appeared on February 18, on the Suns Earth-facing side. It quickly started swelling into a dark patch, much wider than our planet.
On February 21, AR3950 spit out a pair of X-class solar flares, which are known as the most powerful type of solar flare, with magnitudes of X1.7 and X1.8. On February 22, the same sunspot released a massive X6.3 flare, the most powerful solar explosion recorded in over six years.
All three flares caused temporary radio blackouts on Earth, but none of them launched coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are clouds of magnetized plasma that can ram into Earth's magnetic shield as they fly through space.[1]
We are fragile and we are not in control! You, dear friend, are fragile and have little to say over whether or not you will survive the next 24 hours. Consider that reality against the backdrop of the fragility of your faith and determination to live a life pleasing to the One who made the sun, and billions like it, that has the power to wipe out all of Earths power grid in seconds. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light; and there was light (Gen. 1:1-3).
Christian, the same God who spoke into existence more than 300 billion suns like ours, is the One of whom we are told in Holy Scripture, has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). This is the God who called you, redeemed you, and sealed you. This is the God who is keeping you because He will receive His inheritance! The question before us and the one that Ephesians 1:19-23 answers for us is this: How can I know that I can rest in the hope of that same Gods calling upon my life; that I can stand on the reality that I am His inheritance because of all that Jesus has done, and experience the greatness of His power through the indwelling and sealing of the Holy Spirit? Let us turn our attention to Ephesians 1:19-23 to find out!
The Christians Salvation is Held by Resurrection Power
The power Paul described in Ephesians, among other places in his epistles, is a power that enables those of us who are redeemed by Christ to fight against sin, doubt, worry, and any other adversary that threatens to undo those of us who have been called by God, are the inheritance of God, and have been raised to new life by God.
To have the eyes of our hearts enlightened in such a way that we know the hope of our calling, the riches of His inheritance, and boundless power toward us who believe, is the kind of knowing involving the mind, heart, and will. After all, Jesus did say that the greatest commandment is, You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (see Matt. 22:35-40). But it is also more than that. James Montgomery Boice said, Christianity is knowledge, yes. But it is also power, power from beginning to end. Without the power of God not one individual would ever become a Christian. The salvation of the soul is a resurrection, the recovery of a person from the dead. Without Gods power not one individual would ever triumph over sin, live a godly life, or come at last to the reward God has for all his own in heaven.[2]
The word Paul used for power is the Greek word dynamis, from which we get the word dynamite; it is used over 100 times in the New Testament, Acts 1:8 being one of them. He used it to describe a raw and supernatural power that comes from God. This power is available to the Christian, and it is described as boundless and great. The word Paul used for great is the Greek word megathos, and the word he used for boundless literally means, to surpass, go beyond, to outdo, or to exceed. This is why almost every trustworthy English translation of the Bible reaches for words to capture the kind of power available to the Christian. Here are some of the ways these words are translated: surpassing greatness (NASB 95), incomparably great (NIV), exceeding greatness (KJV), immeasurable greatness (ESV), and incredible greatness (NLT). It is the boundless, surpassing, incomparable, exceeding, immeasurable, and incredible greatness of Gods power that is available to the Christian.
Paul then describes that this power, along with the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance that he wants us to see with the eyes of our hearts, is, in accordance with the working of the strength of His might (v. 19b). The boundless power is working in you Christian, it is producing a strength to resist the devil and your flesh, and the might is what is required for you to persevere to the end without throwing in the towel of your faith in Jesus. Notice how we get this power from what Paul states next: which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and all of it is from the God who, raised Jesus from the dead (v. 20a). In other words, the Power is Gods, and the victory is yours in Jesus.
What is it that will keep you when everything seems to have been pulled out from beneath your proverbial feet? What is it that will keep you when nothing you treasured on earth remains within your grasp? Who will be keeping who in your weakest and most fragile moments in life?
The Christians Identity is Guarded by a Preeminent Christ
So, how is the boundless, surpassing, incomparable, exceeding, immeasurable, and incredible greatness of Gods power available to the Christian? Paul tells us in the next verse: It is a power available to the Christian, which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (v. 20).
Before I go any further, you need to understand that what I mean by preeminent is what the Airbus A380 is to a paper airplane. The Airbus A380 can seat between 525 and 853 passengers on its two full-length passenger decks: the Airbus A380 is preeminent to the paper airplane.
There is a reason why Paul emphasizes the phrase, In Christ repeatedly in his epistle to the Ephesians. Your identity as one who has been called by God and who is now the inheritance of God, is solely because of the redeeming work of Christ: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (vv. 7-8). What did our redemption cost? It cost Jesus His life! He was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who was, pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (v. 5). Jesus was crushed because He became our curse: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.
Christian, all of your sin was laid upon Jesus for all of your redemption. Isaiah 53:10 states that, the Lord desired to crush Him, causing Him grief and the reason why God crushed the Son was not only for our redemption, but was to redeem a Bride for His Son! This was always the plan and was never plan B! The Lamb of God was slaughtered because of your sin, was then buried, and was raised! How come Jesus didnt stay dead? In his sermon, the apostle Peter explained: God raised Him from the dead, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power (Acts 2:24). The reason why death had no power over Jesus is because He is the author of life! So, Paul wrote to the Ephesians that all of the blessings that now belong to the Christian are, in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (v. 20).
Listen, just as the cross of Christ is the display of Gods immeasurable love for you Christian, the resurrection is the display of a power that no other power manufactured by or through creation can compare not even the power of 300 billion suns have the ability to do what God did, when He raised Jesus from the dead. This is why Isaiah 53 does not end with the Suffering Servants affliction for our sin, but continues with verse 10, But the Lord desired to crush Him, causing Him grief. The Hebrew word for desired (חפץ) can also be translated take pleasure or delight in. This is the way Isaiah 53:10 should be translated: But the Lord delighted to crush Him, causing Him grief. Why? Is it because God the Father is some cosmic child abuser? No! We are told in the last verse why the Father delighted to crush the Son: Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, and was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the wrongdoers (Isa. 53:12). Do you hear Isaiah 53:12 in Ephesians 20-23? Listen to it again!
He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Eph. 1:1923)
To be clear, Jesus was not exalted because He lacked something before He took on human flesh. There was nothing lacking in Him at all because He is not a part of creation but the agent of creation! This is why Paul wrote to the Colossian Church of Jesus: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authoritiesall things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16).
God the Father exalted the Son at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named (v. 21) not because Jesus wasnt exalted before He took on flesh. God the Father exalted the Son because, He emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross (Phil. 2:7-8). In other words, God the Son became human to accomplish all that was needed to make the redemption of a sin-cursed and lost humanity possible.
Jesus is exalted as our Kinsmen-redeemer! What is a kinsmen-redeemer? He is a person that had to meet three requirements to redeem property lost due to a debt; the three requirements were that he had to be related to the family who suffered the loss because of a debt, he had to be willing to redeem what was lost, and he had to have the means to redeem what was lost. Because of Adam and Eves sin, creation is under a curse and every single human being since Adam, have been born into sin. Jesus took on flesh to become our kinsmen redeemer, and as our Kinsmen Redeemer, God, put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Why did Jesus willingly take on human flesh to become our Kinsmen Redeemer? He did it for a Bride! He did it for His Church! Our sun is capable of producing a flare big enough to completely wipe out all of the earths power grid, and yet 300 billion suns cannot do what God did through His Son for your salvation Christian! The reason why Jesus could say to His disciples, they will put some of you to death. And yet not a hair of your head will perish (Luke 21:16-18). The reason Jesus could promise the Christian: My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand. I and the Father are one (John 10:2730). And, the reason Jesus has assured us: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matt. 16:18), is because of His cross and the empty tomb, Jesus has double headship. What do I mean by double headship? I mean that as Kinsmen Redeemer, Jesus is head over Creation by dominion and He is head over the Church by union.
What this means for you, Christian, is that you are His Church, and because you are His Church, you now share in His triumph because He has joined Himself to you as your Groom! What this means Christian is that you are the apple of His eye and not even the power of 300 billion suns can ever change that! Now wrap the eyes of your heart around that! Amen.
[1] Riya Teotia, WION: Massive Sunspot wider than Earth is now aiming directly at us. Is it cause for worry (New Delhi, India: WION; February 28, 2024)
[2] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 40.

The Three What’s of the Christian Life

Let me begin by stating some truths about what it means to be a Christian that most of you already know: because you are in Christ, you are a son/daughter of the almighty God (v. 5), you are forgiven (v. 7), you are a new creation (vv. 9-10), and you have a glorious inheritance waiting for you that will never fade with time, can never be destroyed, and will forever be untouched by sin (v. 11; see also 1 Pet. 1:3-5). If you are a Christian, your reality and identity include all things made new (Rev. 21:1-5), all things for your good (Rom. 8:28-30), and all things for Gods glory! If you are a Christian, the God of Isaiah 46:9-11 is for you and not against you, for He has declared: For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My plan will be established, and will accomplish all My good pleasure. When it comes to your struggle(s) in living out the Christian faith, it has more to do with a lack of knowledge of who you are in Christ or an ignored knowledge of who you are in Christ.
All of what we have read and studied in Ephesians 1:1-14 can only be true of you if verses 15-17 are true of you: For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. The four character traits Paul lists in these verses are true of those who have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ:
A faith that is IN Jesus.
A loyalty to the LORDSHIP of Jesus.
A LOVE for those who belong to Jesus.
A pursuit to KNOW Jesus.
Two Types of Knowing for the Christian
Now, I want to show you something that I did not have the time to show you last week, but you need to give me a little space to geek out a bit over two different words that Paul uses in the original language (Greek) that you cannot see in your English Bible; all that you see in your Bible is the word, knowledge (v. 17), and know (v. 18). The word for knowledge in verse 17 is ginōskō, and I made a big deal over that word for good reason. The knowledge of Jesus that Paul refers to in verse 17 is the kind of discovery that involves more than your mind, for it includes the experience of your whole person and is the kind of knowledge that is relational.
The second Greek word for know is used in verse 18, and that word is oida. This kind of knowing can be experiential, but it is also a cognitive awareness of something or someone with certainty; it is the same word Paul used for know in 2 Timothy 1:12, For this reason I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know [oida] whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to protect what I have entrusted to Him until that day. In the case of Ephesians 1:18 and 2 Timothy 1:12, you cannot have oida unless you have a relationship (ginōskō) with Jesus. Let me say what I just said differently for clarity: The kind of knowing Paul is praying for in verses 18-19 by way of the enlightened eyes of your heart cannot be experienced unless you ginōskō (know) Jesus (v. 17). In other words, there is no life-giving calling from God (vv. 3-6), no belonging to God (vv. 7-12), and no resurrection power from God apart from knowing Jesus.
Illustrations tend to fall short when it comes to explaining who God is or the dynamics of what it means to know Him. However, when it comes to what Paul means by the eyes of your heart the best illustration I can think of for what he wanted these Christians to discover is the experience Roimaw and I had when we decided to have children. There was a difference between knowing Nathan with the first store-bought pregnancy test that was positive, and the first images we saw of him on the ultrasound. With every test and ultrasound image measuring Nathans development, Roimaws knowledge as a mother and my knowledge as a father grew, and what began as an understanding that we would soon be parents grew into something much, much more. While he was unseen in his mothers womb, we prayed for him, we read to him, and we loved him. But I got to tell you after Nathan was born and we held him for the first time, both Roimaw and I saw him with the eyes of our heart! We saw him with the eyes of our heart in such a way that neither she nor I could ever imagine life without him.
There are three blessings Paul lists in verses 18-19 that he wants Christians everywhere to see with the eyes of their hearts, and it is to these blessings we turn our attention now. I want you to wrap your arms around the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power towards all who believe.
What is the Hope of His Calling
It is Pauls prayer that these Christians will have the eyes of their hearts opened in such a way that they know what is, the hope of His calling. Notice that Paul did not say: the hope of your calling. What is the hope of Gods calling upon your life Christian? Well, we already know something of that calling from what we read in Ephesians 1:3-6; God knew you before the foundation of the world, saw all the rotten fruit of your spiritual deadness, and chose you anyway. To be chosen is to be called, and it is the calling of God that Paul wants the eyes of our hearts to see so that we can know just what that means practically.
If your salvation and faith are rooted in the call of God that predates earth itself, then dont you think that God is doing something in your life that is much bigger than anything that you may suffer on this side of eternity? Paul elaborates on this very point in Romans 8:28-30,
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
What is the hope of His calling? Listen to Romans 8:31, If God is for us, who is against us? God called you therefore He is for you! What does that mean practically? Well, Jesus said this to his disciples: But you will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, other relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all people because of My name. And yet not a hair of your head will perish (Luke 21:1618). In other words, man may do his worst to you, but the worst he can do is kill you; what he cannot do is destroy you because of the One who called you! The hope of Gods calling is this: He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (v. 5).
Listen, the hope is yours because the calling was His. This is good news because your love is fragile, but His love is infinite! The hope of His calling is rooted in this reality: Gods infinite love for you, Christian, is as great as His infinite sovereignty.
What are the Riches of His Inheritance in the Saints
Just as your hope is rooted in His calling, the inheritance Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts will see so that we will know belongs to God. What inheritance belongs to God? Gods inheritance is all those whom He called, all those He predestined to adopt as His children, and all those who have been redeemed by the blood of His Son. I will say it another way: The Christian is counted as Gods inheritance. Yes, the Bible indeed teaches that God is our inheritance, the apostle Peter even said as much in his epistle: For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). However, we are Gods inheritance, and that is good news!
In what ways are we Gods inheritance? For starters we are told in the first fourteen verses that God chose us as a Father (v. 4), to redeem us through His Son (v. 7), to seal us through His Spirit (v. 13) to make us His holy and blameless (v. 4) adopted children (v. 6) with all the rights that come with being His children (v. 11)! In Ephesians 1:14, we are told that the Holy Spirit, is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods possession. In 1 Peter 2:9, we read: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 that the reason why it matters what we do with our bodies is that we belong to God: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
It is one thing to understand that we are Gods possession, but Paul explicitly prays that the eyes of the hearts of his readers would be enlightened to know, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance. Yes, it is true that Jesus died for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and yes, it is true that we are Gods treasured possession, but to be put into the category that we, who are the redeemed, are Gods inheritance is staggering! How is this staggering you may be asking? Well, if we are Gods inheritance, He will get what belongs to Him and no one absolutely no oneno demon, no power, no authority, no government, not Satan, and not even death will keep God from receiving His inheritance! Now against the backdrop of that reality, wrap your arms around Jesus promises to His people: My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand (John 10:2729). If you belong to Jesus, then it is the Father who sings over you as His inheritance: The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will rejoice over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy (Zeph. 3:17).
Listen, the reality that you are Gods inheritance is rooted in Gods infinite love that is equal to His infinite power, and that love has been, is being, and will forever be lavished upon you! Mark my words, the One who, declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My plan will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:9-10), will receive His inheritance!
What is the Boundless Greatness of His Power Toward Us Who Believe
The third and final thing Paul prayed for was that the eyes of the hearts of the Church would be enlightened to know the, boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (vv. 19-20). Listen to how the NIV translates these verses from the Greek: That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:1920, NIV). Bryan Chapell, in his commentary on Ephesians, said of these verses, The promise of Gods affection is not our only hope; Paul also prays for the Spirit to give eyes to see Gods incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:19a). The promise is not only of an inheritance to come, but of power, great power for us.[1]
Think about it, who can avoid the power of death? No one can, for death is coming for us all! Yet, there is One who conquered death, and the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is at work in you Christian! This power would be beyond our reach apart from knowing Jesus; but now that you have been called by God, and are the inheritance of God because of the redeeming work of the Lamb of God, this power is now ours. Jesus is our groom and we are His bride; He has declared, I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it" (Matt. 16:18b). nor the grave have any power over Jesus Church, and you dear Christian are the Church!
You have been given the Holy Spirit as a Helper by Jesus, and sealed by the Holy Spirit through Jesus to empower you to live your life for Jesus for the glory of God and the good of all those who are merely hanging by a thread over and the only hope of escape and salvation is the hope that is now ours in Christ! We are a walking testament to the power of God to change lives through the good news of the gospel and can claim with the apostle: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16). It is the same power that rescued us that now keeps us, and we can know with confidence the same thing the saints of old experienced as the Church:
For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:610)
This power that is ours in Jesus, is the power of the risen Christ to fight against sin, doubt, worry, and any other adversary that threatens to undo those who have been called by God, are the inheritance of God, and have been raised to new life by God. Our strength is His strength, and because of that truth, which is now our truth, we can celebrate with the apostle Paul: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6).
Amen.
[1] Bryan Chapell, Reformed Expository Commentary: Ephesians (Phillipsburg, NJ: PR Publishing; 2009); p. 69.

You Were Saved to Know Jesus

There is a story about a baby eagle who fell out of his nest and into a chicken coop. As the little eagle grew up, he began to cluck like a chicken, strut like a chicken, think like a chicken. But every day he noticed the eagles soaring high in the sky, always sensing that he was meant for something more than the chicken coop, but never realizing who he really was. The difference between the eagles that soared and the one living in the chicken coop was his understanding of who he really was. I think the Christian can go through life in the same way.
I said at the beginning of our series in Ephesians that Pauls epistle answers two questions for us: 1) What does it mean to be a Christian, and 2) what does it mean to be the Church. When it comes to your identity as a Christian, some of you may be living like you belong in the chicken coop.
Think about what it means to be a Christian according to Ephesians 1:3-14. You, Christian, have all the spiritual blessings listed throughout Pauls magnificent sentence of more than 200 words! You, Christian, have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). You, Christian, have been predestined to be the adopted son/daughter of the living God through the redemption of Jesus Christ (vv. 5-7). You, Christian, have been completely pardoned of past, present, and future sins only because of the grace of God that has been lavished upon you as a result of the Fathers wrath that was lavished upon the Son for all of our wrongdoings (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). You, Christian, have an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). You, Christian, have been sealed by Gods Spirit as His guarantee of salvation that will be completed and the full experience of all Gods blessings that you will receive (vv. 13-14). You, Christian, are loved by the God of Isaiah 46:9-11, and you are the beneficiary of all His good pleasure.
Christian, you were saved not for the sake of being saved, not for the forgiveness of your sins, not for a pain-free eternity in heaven, not for loved ones who preceded you in death, or for any other reason but for the purpose of knowing Christ, and by knowing Christ, you can know God. I can say this because of the first three words in Ephesians 1:15-23, which state the reason for why Paul prays, what Paul prays, and how Paul can pray for the Christians in Ephesus, and those three words are: For this reason
Now, I know that these verses teach us something about how we can structure our prayers. I believe that the way Paul expressed his thanksgiving for the Ephesian Christians and why and how he prayed for them can serve as a model for how we can structure our prayers for one another, but that is not how I want to use our time this morning. What I want to do with our time together is glean what we learn from these verses.
Why Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 15-17)
How do you follow one of the most majestic statements about the salvation of lost humanity found in Ephesians 1:1-14? You do it with Ephesians 1:15-23. The apostle Paul begins, For this reason. For what reason, Paul? For the reason contained in the over 200 words that make up Ephesians 1:1-14. For the reason that the Christian has been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (v. 4). For the reason that the Christian has been predestined to be the adopted child of God the Father through the redemption of Jesus the Son (vv. 5-7). For the reason that the Christian has been fully pardoned of past, present, and future sins because of Jesus (Eph. 1:8; 2:1-4). For the reason that the Christian has an inheritance that will not fade with time, cannot be destroyed, and will never be stained by sin (v. 11). For the reason that the Christian has been sealed by the Holy Spirit as Gods guarantee of salvation and redemption that will one day be fully complete (vv. 13-14). For all of these reasons is the reason the apostle wrote of the Ephesian Christians that he did, not cease to give thanks for them, while making mention of them in his prayers (v. 16).
Notice what the apostle says about these Christians against the backdrop of the first fourteen verses: having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints (v. 15). What did Paul hear about these Christians? He heard about their faith in Jesus and their love for one another while in prison. In other words, the reality of who these Christians were was expressed through the way they lived. Paul specifically and intentionally notes that the faith of these Christians was in more than facts they agreed with, but in the Lord Jesus and the evidence of their faith was seen in the way they treated each other.
Because Paul heard of the faith and love of these Christians, he prayed for them, and what He prayed also teaches us something about what it means to be a Christian. Pauls prayer for these Christians is simple: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him (v. 17). Notice what it is that Paul does not pray for; he does not pray for more power, or success, or easy living, or any other thing but that God would give them, a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The wisdom and revelation Paul prayed for can only be given to them by God; this is why many theologians believe that the word, spirit is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Others believe that the word spirit is not a reference to the Holy Spirit but the spiritual part of us that lives on after the physical death of our bodies. Regardless of whose spirit Paul is referring to here, what is clear in light of the sealing of the Holy Spirit and His work in the life of the Christian (vv. 13-14), is that it is the Holy Spirit who enables our growth through the authority of the Word of God (revelation) when it is applied to the way we live our lives (wisdom).
What does the Word of God (revelation), and its application (wisdom) to our lives, produce? It produces the kind of knowledge of God that Paul longed for in his own life as he expressed in Philippians 3:10-11, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The same word Paul used in Philippians 3 for know (ginōskō), he also used in Ephesians 1:17. The Christian was saved by the grace of God to have a relationship with God and Pauls prayer is that the relationship would only deepen through a faith rooted in Jesus as Lord of their lives.
What Paul Prays for the Christians (vv. 18-19a)
In verses 15-17, Paul lists four character traits of those who have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ; those character traits mark the person who has truly been born again, and they are as follows:
A faith that is IN Jesus.
A loyalty to the LORDSHIP of Jesus.
A LOVE for those who belong to Jesus.
A pursuit to KNOW Jesus.
It is because of these character traits that Paul prays for a deepening knowledge of God that is intellectual, experiential, and emotional - because it is a knowledge that involves the mind, the will, and the heart. In verses 18-19, Paul unpacks what specifically he is praying for. His prayer is that the eyes of their hearts will be enlightened. What Paul is praying for is that the hearts of these Christians would see and understand what God has done for them. The word Paul uses for heart is kardia; he could have used a word for mind as he did in Philippians 2:5, Have this mind [proneō] in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. Or Paul could have used a different word for mind that Luke used in his gospel to describe the way Jesus opened the minds of two disciples who were confused over the death and news of his resurrection: Then He opened their minds [nous] to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).
However, Paul used the word kardia (heart), and he put an eye on it. What are eyes on a heart good for? They are good for seeing what God has done for you so that you can see the heavenly blessings listed in Ephesians 1:1-14, which are yours, and that you will know that they are yours not only with your mind but with your heart. Permit me to put it in a way you may understand more clearly. At the beginning of this series in Ephesians, I listed several truths that are rooted in the identity of the Christian. I said that if you are a Christian and your faith is in the Lord Jesus, then the following is true of you:
You are saved by the will of God.
You have the grace and peace of God.
You have the blessing of God.
You are redeemed to be holy and blameless before God.
You are a son/daughter of God.
You are favored by God.
You are forgiven by God.
You are rich in the grace of God. You now know God.
You have a future with God.
You are secure because of God.
You are treasured by God.
Listen, if you are a Christian, the reason why Paul does not pray for your adoption as a son/daughter, or for more salvation, or more purpose, or more of the inheritance, or more resurrection power, or more of the Holy Spirit is because they are already yours in Christ.What Paul prays for is the thing that we need, and what we need is to know (ginōskō) that they are ours in Christ (v. 17), and to know that they are ours is that they are ours; as you know it is the word used for when Abraham knew Sarah, but maybe what you have not considered is to have known her was to experienced her fully with a mind, a heart, and will that was bound to her as his wife.Paul uses uses a different word for know in verse 18 (oida) that also is the type of knowing that is tied to a persons experience: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know [oida].I will say more about this next week, but for now, I want to show you what specifically we are to know as Christians.Paul lists three blessings that he wants his Christian readers to know: 1) What is the hope of His calling, 2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and 3) what is the boundless greatness of His power.I will revisit these three whats that Paul mentions next week, but I will briefly mention what they mean for you now as a way to whet your appetite to come back next Sunday:
The hope of His calling: The calling is the kind of thing Paul described in Ephesians 1:3-6 and 2:1-4. You were not looking for God because not only did you not know God, but you were also dead and unresponsive to God spiritually, and then He called you in the same way Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb even though he had been dead for four days (see John 11:1-46). If you are a Christian, you are only a Christian because God called you by breaking into the tomb of your unbelief to give you life. God called you out of His great mercy to make you alive in Christ!
The riches of His inheritance: Oh, this is so good, and I cant wait to unpack this with you next week, but for now, what I want you to know is that the inheritance is you Christian! I know this grammatically, but also because of what we read in verses 13-14, In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods own possession, to the praise of His glory. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit as, Gods own possession and because of what He has done to secure the salvation of wretched sinners through His own Son, we are now His inheritance! If you are a Christian, you are now Gods treasured child and because you are redeemed in Christ, what God sees is not a wretched sinner, but a treasure. The riches of His inheritance are that you are loved and given all the rights that come with being his treasured child.
The knowledge of the boundless greatness of His power: The power is what we already have as those who have been called by God and belong to Him as His inheritance. What sort of power is it that we have? It is the power of the risen Christ. Paul tells us that this is the power that is ours in the rest of these verses: These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead (vv. 19b-20). Think about it, who can avoid the power of death? No one can, for death is coming for us all! Yet, there is One who conquered death, and the same power that conquered the grave is at work in you Christian! What Paul wants us to know with all our being is that because of our faith in Jesus as Lord, we are progressively moving from death to life.
Because you are called by God and because you are His inheritance, the power of God is at work in and through you just as Paul described in Romans 8:11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. As one person wrote of this amazing promise that is for the Christian: This power is ours to witness, to overcome sin, to pursue holiness, to fight against the schemes of the Devil, and to have great faith for mission.[1]
There is a magnet on my filing cabinet in my office with one of my favorite quotes from Jonathan Edwards that says, You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. The one who made your salvation possible is the One you were made to know through and in Jesus. If you really know that it is He who called you, that it is you who are now His inheritance and treasure, and that the power that raised Jesus to life is the same resurrection power at work in and through your life then dont you know that you will be with Christ with a resurrected body on a resurrected earth one day and while with Him, with 10 billion years behind us, we will still know only a joy that will increase with every moment we are with Him. Paul prays that we will live our lives in light of a knowledge that not only acknowledges and understands that truth; but with a knowledge that encounters that truth with the eyes of our hearts.
[1] Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman; 2014), p. 39.

The Assurance of Our Salvation

Before we can jump into Ephesians 1:13-14, I must address what or who it is that Paul is talking about in these verses. Until you understand what or who the apostle is talking about in these verses, you cannot understand or feel the gravity of Ephesians 1:13-14 upon your life. So, to feel the full weight of these verses, permit me to introduce you to the Holy Spirit.
The first time we are introduced to the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:1-2 with these words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for Spirit is raḥ, which can also mean wind or breath, but when used in association with God, it often refers to the Holy Spirit, not as a thing or a characteristic like love or holiness, but a person. This same word is used in Ezekiel 36: And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances (v. 27). So, when we read through the Bible what we discover about the Holy Spirit is exhaustive.
Of the Holy Spirit, we discover that He is the giver of life (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6; 104:27-30). As the giver of life, He raised Jesus from the grave on the third day and will give life to the body of every person who is joined to Him by faith, through a physical resurrection like the one Jesus experienced (see Rom. 8:11). As the giver of life, He caused Mary to conceive with the incarnation of Jesus (Luke 1:35, 41-42). The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus before He performed any miracle, after He was baptized by John, as a way of giving life and power to His earthly ministry; it is important to note that at Jesus baptism all three persons were present and witnessed: After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on Him, and behold, a voice from the heavens said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:16-17; see also Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32).
Throughout the Bible, what we discover is that the Holy Spirit sustains and empowers the people of God to do the work of God. The Holy Spirit indwelled and led Israel out of the slavery of Egypt into the wilderness (Isa. 63:11-14), the Holy Spirit empowered Israels judges after they entered the promised land (i.e. Judges 6:34), and anointed Israels kings to lead the nation (i.e. 1 Sam. 9:27-10:1; 16:1, 13). From the beginning Gods plan was to do the same not just for a select few, but for all of His people as foretold in Joel 2:28-29, It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days (Joel 2:2829).
Gods promise from the beginning was that a deliverer would come, and that deliver was God in the person of Jesus the Son; this is the great theme of the Bible. This is why the Bible declares: For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you was not yes and no, but has been yes in Him. For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us (2 Cor. 1:19-20). In other words, there is no pouring out of the Holy Spirit apart from the redemption that can only come through the shed blood of the Son of God for, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us (Eph. 1:7).
Against the backdrop of all we have considered so far, I want you to listen to Ephesians 1:13-14, for it will help you feel the weight of these verses for your life today: In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods own possession, to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:1314). But the question still must be answered: Who or what is the Holy Spirit?
Not long before Jesus died to redeem lost sinners by going to the cross, He made a promise to His disciples, and that promise was the coming of the Holy Spirit. We find Jesus promise in John 14; Jesus told them He would be betrayed and would go to a place that they would not be able go (John 13:33). Jesus then consoled His disciples by telling them that He was going to prepare a place for them where they would one day live (14:1-6), but consider carefully what Jesus promised to His disciples that they would receive in His physical absence:
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you. (John 14:1620)
How will Jesus not leave His disciples as orphans? He will ask the Father to send them the Helper who is the Holy Spirit. It is possible that verses 18-20 are referring to Jesus resurrection, but even after His resurrection, He ascended to heaven after He again promised to send them the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). I think that when Jesus assured them, I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you that He was referring to the Helper because of what Jesus said in John 16:13, But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come (John 16:13).
Who is the Holy Spirit? Well, when Ananias lied to the apostle Peter about what he and his wife had sold and given to the Church, Ananias was told: Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land? You have not lied to men, but to God (see Acts 5:1-16).
The Holy Spirit is not a power, a force, or a character trait of God; the Holy Spirit is a Person, and He is God. As God, the Holy Spirit can be everywhere at once (Ps. 104:30), He is all-knowing (1 Cor. 2:10-11). Jesus said that the one unforgivable sin was the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which I believe is unbelief in the Jesus that the Holy Spirit anointed and affirmed to be the Christ (Matt. 12:31-32). And like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirt can be grieved by the way we live our lives and how we treat one another (Eph. 4:3-32).
The Holy Spirit is not an awkward member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father as He is equal to the Son because He is also fully God. In his book, Simply Trinity, Matthew Barrett put it this way: The Father does not exist without his Son, the Son does not exist without his Father, and the Spirit does not exist without the Father and the Son[1] The Trinity is not God divided into three parts as if 1/3 of God is the Father, 1/3 of God is the Son, and 1/3 of God is the Holy Spirit. What we see in Ephesians 1:1-14 is a Father who orchestrated our redemption, a Jesus sent from the Father to purchase our redemption, and the Spirit sent by both the Father and the Son to secure and preserve our redemption.
How is the Holy Spirit Preserving Your Salvation?
Look at verse 13 again: In Him (that is God), you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed YOU WERE SEALED! What does that mean? To be sealed in the Holy Spirit simply means that I am secure in Jesus Christ and now I belong to God as His child and the only One who has the authority to remove the Holy Spirit from me is the God who chose me in Jesus (v. 4), and who purchased my redemption through the blood of Jesus (v. 7). I am sealed because the blood of Jesus secured for me the forgiveness of my wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on me (vv. 7-8). I am sealed because in Jesus, I have obtained an inheritance by Gods sovereign decree to make me His son before the foundation of the rest of creation was even laid (v. 11), and what is the guarantee that God has done all of that through the Son is the preserving power of His all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-pervasive Spirit.
The moment you heard the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Rom. 6:1-7). This is not a mystical event where you feel something strange, but it is a supernatural event where upon your belief in Jesus Christ, you experience what Deuteronomy 30:6 and Ezekiel 36:25-27 spoke of when the Holy Spirit regenerated your dead soul just as Jesus said had to happen for new birth to happen (John 3:1-15). The supernatural phenomenon that happens with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that you are now able to respond to God in love and faith in a way you were unable to previously.
Why the Holy Spirit Cannot be Manipulated.
For about two weeks now, there has been one thought that has haunted me during the day and in the night hours that I believe that if I did not share it with you, I would be disobedient to my God. Because the Holy Spirit is not a force, and because He is God, you must understand that He cannot be manipulated by cheap tricks or recipes couched in religious language. He is God and nothing less!
There is a passage that has overshadowed my thoughts as I prepared this sermon, and it is found in Isaiah 46:9-10; here is what it declares: I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:910). He declares the end from the beginning because He is infinitely sovereign, and what He is doing from beginning to end and beyond is that He is accomplishing all His good pleasure! His good pleasure includes sealing you with His Holy Spirit, which is a first instalment (down payment) of an inheritance that is guaranteed to all He has chosen and redeemed.
If you are a Christian, the inheritance that we are sealed for includes the reality that today you are a son/daughter of the almighty God (v. 5), you are forgiven (v. 7), you are a new creation in Christ (vv. 9-10), and you have glorious inheritance waiting for you that will never fade with time, can never be destroyed, and will forever be untouched by sin (v. 11; see also 1 Pet. 1:3-5). If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit guarantees that your inheritance includes all things made new (Rev. 21:1-5), all things for your good (Rom. 8:28-30), and all things for Gods glory!
Think for a moment what that means in light of all that we have considered in Ephesians 1:1-14,
Why has God blessed the Christian with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ? Because He is God, there is no one like Him, He will establish His plan, and will accomplish all His good pleasure.
Why did God choose you before the foundation of the world? Because He is God, there is no one like Him, He will establish His plan, and will accomplish all His good pleasure.
Why did God predestine you for redemption through His Son? Because He is God, there is no one like Him, He will establish His plan, and will accomplish all His good pleasure.
Why did God seal you with His Holy Spirit as a guarantee for an inheritance we do not deserve? Because He is God, there is no one like Him, He will establish His plan, and will accomplish all His good pleasure.
According to Ephesians 1:1-14, you have all of Gods love you will ever need, all of the redemption in Jesus that you will ever need, and all of Holy Spirit you will ever need. The question I have for you is threefold: How much of your heart does God have? How much of your loyalty does Jesus have? How much of your life does the Holy Spirit have?
We will eventually get to Ephesians 4:30, but consider this verse in light of your identity in Christ: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. In Ephesians 5, we are told: Be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil but be filled with the Spirit (vv. 15-21). When the Holy Spirit has all of you, then you will begin to experience the kind of manipulation that only He can do in your life by shaping you like clay, pruning the dead branches from your life, and applying His holy fire upon your life to remove the dross out from your life. Dear Christian, your sin and unbelief is robing you of the kind of life God intends for you now. How long will you hold back the sin that is sucking the joy out from the life God has purposed for you as His child?
In closing, I want you to consider Isaiah 46:9-10 before each section of Ephesians 1:3-14; I want Isaiah 46:9-10 to settle upon your heart like it has for me this past week as I prepared this sermon. I would like you to see Ephesians 1:3-14 in light of Isaiah 46:9-10 before each statement about the Father (3-6), the Son (7-12), and the Holy Spirit (vv. 13-14) in his majestic sentences concerning Gods role in our salvation:
God: I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:9-10)
Paul: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Chris, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:46)
God: I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:9-10)
Paul: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory. (Eph. 1:712)
God: I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure (Isa. 46:9-10)
Paul: In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvationhaving also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of Gods own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Eph. 1:1314)
[1] Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books; 2021), p. 144.

The Three R’s in God’s Salvation Plan

What does it mean to be saved? When sharing the gospel with people, we often focus on getting them to decide to follow Jesus which often is concluded with a prayer where the person acknowledges some form of allegiance to Jesus as his or her savior. In sharing the gospel, we rightly focus on the need for a person to believe and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins because after all, the Bible does say: if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Rom. 10:9-10). However, biblical salvation and what it means to be saved is so much more than the forgiveness of your sins.
There are over two hundred words in the apostle Pauls long sentence that makes up Ephesians 1:1-14; within these verses we discover what it means to be a Christian. When it comes to what it means to be saved, Paul shares with us the role of a God who is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When it comes to the salvation of our souls, we discover that the Father planned our salvation (vv. 3-6), the Son provided our salvation (vv. 7-12), and the Holy Spirit applied our salvation (vv. 13-14). It is in Ephesians 1:7-12 that we now turn our attention where we discover the three Rs of what it really means to be saved, and the three Rs are redemption, regeneration, and reconciliation. It is my hope this morning that by plumbing the depths of these very rich verses, that you will discover that your salvation is so much more than the forgiveness of your sins.
Because you are in Christ, you are saved! But what does it mean to be saved? That is the question I hope to answer with the time that we have left.
Gods Plan for Redemption is by Jesus (vv. 7-8a)
To be saved is to be redeemed. To be redeemed is to be ransomed. And for the Christian, to be ransomed is to be freed from the captivity and slavery of sin; to redeem something is to reclaim or take back something that has been taken away or is held captive. One person said of redemption, Sin (both our personal sin and the sin nature we inherited from Adam) takes away the righteousness God intended to characterize our lives and holds us hostage to Satans purposes.[1] How was this redemption accomplished? Through, His blood. Not through your pedigree, not through your religious devotion, not through your Christian upbringing, and not by showing up to Church today, but through his blood you have been redeemed. No, your redemption is owed to one person through one act, and that one person is Jesus and His one act was His death upon a cross for all your sins.
There are three Greek words used in the New Testament for redemption. The first word is the Greek word, agorazōand means to buy or to buy in a marketplace. When used in the context of Jesus death, it refers to the price he paid for our salvation, and what it cost Him was His own life. The second Greek word used for redemption is closely related to agorazō and that word is exagorazō, which means to buy out of the marketplace; it is the kind of purchasing that once purchased, that thing or person might never return to the marketplace again. When Jesus died for our sins, both words are used to describe what it was that He accomplished upon the Cross:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought [agorazō] for a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Cor. 6:1920)
Christ redeemed [exagorazō] us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a Tree (Gal. 3:13)
Now, when it comes to what Christ accomplished on the cross, He purchased us as His own (agorazō) and He purchased us from the slave market sin (exagorazō), and Paul no doubt looks back on both of these ways in which Christ redeemed us. It is in Christ that we have been redeemed to be holy and blameless, and it is in Christ that we are, adopted as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself (v. 5).
But there is a third Greek word used for redemption, and it is used here in verse 7, and it is completely different than the other two words. The third Greek word used for redemption is lutrǒsis, which literally means, to fully liberate. The kind of redemption the Christian has is one where he/she has been purchased, but that is not all. The kind of redemption the Christian has is one where he/she has been purchased from the bondage of sin, but that is not all. The kind of redemption the Christian has is full, complete, and guarantees a redemption free from all the curse of sin.
The kind of redemption that you have, Christian, is one that not only includes the forgiveness of your sins and the freedom from slavery to sin, but also the eventual freedom from the tyranny of disease and death, the promise of a physical resurrection, and the assurance of an inheritance that can never be destroyed, will never again be stained by sin, and will never ever grow old (see 1 Pet. 1:3-5). This is the redemption we have through the blood of Jesus, and it is a redemption that cannot be added to because it is complete; it is a redemption that includes, the forgiveness of sins of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace. It is a redemption available through the riches of His grace, which He alone is qualified to lavish upon those whom He has redeemed (vv. 7-8).
Gods Plan for Regeneration is in Jesus (vv. 8b-10)
Regeneration as it relates to the Christian is the work of God where He grants spiritual life to the Christian that raises him/her from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is what is described in Ephesians 2, And you were dead in your offenses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (vv. 1, 4-5).
Jesus used the metaphor of birth to describe how a person goes from spiritual death to spiritual life in his conversation with Nicodemus in the gospel of John, where Jesus said things like: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (v. 3). Jesus also said to Nicodemus, That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit (v. 6). What was Jesus point? His point was that the way a person is born again is through a supernatural miracle that only God, through His Spirit, is capable of doing.
A picture of regeneration is given to us in Ezekiel 37:1-14 with the prophets vision of the Valley of Dry Bones where Ezekiel was told to speak the Word of God over the dry human bones, and when he did, God breathed life into them. In Ezekiel 37:14, we read these words: And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your won land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord. What Jesus said in John 3 to Nicodemus and what we read in Ezekiel 36 and 37 is picture of regeneration that only God is capable of doing; regeneration is the act where God makes the spiritually dead, alive in Jesus Christ. To be saved, is to be regenerated in Christ.
The mystery of Gods will in verse 9 is the plan God had from before dirt existed to make the dead live through the work of His Son and the power of His Holy Spirit (see 13-14). If you are a Christian, God has regenerated your dead soul to life through Christ! What this means is that if you are a Christian, you are not only born again, but you are a new creation: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). If you are a new creation, then you have a new life and a new heart. Are you seeing how these verses are connected to Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. Or how about their connection to Ephesians 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The evidence that your faith is in Christ is marked by the kind of desire that loves and longs for Christ more than you love and long for sin (see Romans 8:12-25).
The mystery Paul mentions in verses 9-10 is the redemption and regeneration of people that must take place before the rest of creation, under the curse of sin, experiences the same kind of liberation the Christian is experiencing in Jesus. All of history is moving to the subjugation of all things in heaven and on earth under the eternal and universal lordship of Jesus Christ. The first to experience this are Christians, those who have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of their sins and are experiencing the riches of His grace lavished upon all whose faith and hope rests in Jesus alone.
Jesus Plan for Reconciliation is Through Jesus (vv. 11-12)
When I read Ephesians 1:11-12, I cannot help but think of Jesus parable of the lost sheep where the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the open pasture to go after the one that is lost until he finds it, and when he finds that last sheep, puts it on his shoulders while rejoicing of that which was lost and now is found (Luke 15:1-7). When I read these verses in Ephesians, I think of the parable of the lost coin about a woman who rejoices after find the one coin she searched her entire house to find (see vv. 8-9).
But the parable that overshadows them all, and to me has the strongest connection to Ephesians 1:7-12 is the parable of the Prodigal Son - who left his father to live a life free of all moral constraints, to the point where he squandered his inheritance and seemingly destroyed any hope of reconciliation. The son decided to return not as a son, but as one of his fathers hired hands, he even rehearsed in his mind what he would say to his father upon seeing him: I will set out and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers (Luke 15:1819). But you know how the story ends, for when the father saw his son, he ran to his wayward son, embraced him and kissed him, and said to his servants: But the father said to his slaves, Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and lets eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate (Luke 15:2224).
Now against the backdrop of these parables, especially the parable of the Prodigal Son, listen to Ephesians 1:11-12, In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:1112). What is our inheritance? It is redemption in its fullest sense. It is a life regenerated in the fullest sense. It is the eventual freedom from the curse of sin and the inheritance of a new heaven and new earth. It is the city that motivated Abraham to leave his home because, he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Heb. 11:10).
The city Abraham longed for is a resurrected earth free of the curse of sin when all things that started with the spiritually dead are made new. All of history is moving toward that end when, what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4), for when our salvation is complete, the redeemed will be able to celebrate a new reality where we will finally be able to say: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting (1 Cor. 15:54-55). The Christian will finally know what it means to be saved when our redemption is complete, the rest of creation experiences a type of regeneration we have experienced, and the kind of reconciliation that will culminate is what we read in Isaiah 51:11, And the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Conclusion
Christian, all your redemption, all your regeneration, and all your reconciliation to God, is all because of Christ alonenothing more and nothing less! Can you see now how evil and demonic it is to add anything or to take away from what only Jesus Christ can provide? There is no other application or advice I believe is appropriate to give in light of these verses today: Your salvation is owed only to Jesus and nothing else! This is why the apostle could write what we must treasure: For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). Dont you dare try to add to it or to take away from what only God can and has accomplished by hanging on a cross for your sin and defeating death through His resurrection! Amen.
[1] Bryan Chapell, Reformed Expository Commentary: Ephesians (Phillipsburg, NJ: PR Publishing; 2009), p. 34.

God’s Love is Older than Dirt

On January 16, 1994, sometime after I read the verses we are going to explore this morning, I reflected on the tension I felt over how a loving God could choose and predestine a person before the foundation of the world for salvation. I wasnt angry over what I read in these verses, but I was disturbed; I was disturbed to the point of a near crisis of faith even though I had only been a Christian for just over two years.
While I read over Ephesians 1:3-6; I also read similar passages such as Romans 8:28-30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; John 6:44, and the entire chapter of Romans 9. I read these passages without the aid of books or commentaries, for it was only me and my Bible. I knew nothing of John Calvin or Jacobus Arminius, nor was I aware of their teachings by which we get Calvinism and Arminianism. I share this with you because I want you to know; that if some of you currently struggle with what you see in Ephesians 1:3-6, I also struggled with these same verses, and it took a lot of time for me to work through it, with just me and my Bible. What is clear, however, is that Gods love for you is older than dirt.
There are three words that are linked to what it means to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (v. 3) that I want to focus our time on that I believe will help you work through what it is Paul is saying in these verses, and those words are: chose (v. 4), predestined (v. 5), and favored (v. 6).
God Chose the Christian to be Holy and Blameless (v. 4)
What was so hard about my struggle with verses 3-6 is that this verse could not have been any clearer: God chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world; the Greek word used for world is kosmos, and it refers to creation. When did God do it? Before He invented dirt. How did God do it? Through His Son, Jesus. Why did He do it? That those who were chosen, would be holy and blameless before Him. Before we can get to why God chose, we need to understand what it means for Him to choose.
To choose is to pick or select someone or something. Every November we vote and when we vote, we choose certain candidates that we hope receive enough votes to be elected to whatever office it is that they are running for. In the case of verse 4, to choose is to elect. From verses like the ones before us this morning and others like it, we get the doctrine of elections (aka the doctrine of predestination). No person or theologian who believes the Bible to be the word of God denies what Paul is saying here, but where theologians, pastors, and Christians throughout the ages have disagreed is how it was that God chose the Christian before the foundation of the world.
Let me summarize the most popular ways people have explained how it was that God chose.
God chose you for salvation because you freely chose Him. You were drawn to him, but it wasnt until you chose Him that He chose you.
God chose not only you but the body of Christ that is the Church to be the group of people who receive salvation freely by faith in Jesus. So, God does not choose individuals for salvation, but he has chosen before the foundation of the world that it would be through Christ that people would be saved.
God chose you for salvation because he sees all things eternally, and because He can see peoples and events both present and future, He sovereignly chose you because he already knew you would freely choose Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.
Of the three views I mentioned, the third is the one I gravitated towards and believed was the best of the three options; I even stated in my journal on January 20, 1994, Due to the Scriptures and that all scripture is inspired by God, my conclusion on predestination is made: God is all-knowing therefore He predestined us for salvation, but allowed us to choose him for salvation. At the time, my conclusion seemed to reconcile Ephesians 1:3-6 and others like it with passages like 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
There is a fourth view that I have come to appreciate due to two realities I never considered back in 1994, the first concerns the fact that God stands outside of time because time is a part of creation, therefore He is not bound to time and does not make choices based on what He can see down the corridors of time because He stands outside of time. The other reality I did not consider back in 1994 was Ephesians 1:1-4, which states: And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest (Eph. 2:1-3).
In light of Ephesians 1:3-6, how can a person respond to God in faith when that person is spiritually dead? Can the spiritually dead do anything spiritual? Can the spiritually dead will themselves alive just enough to believe in God? What does Paul mean by dead in Ephesians 2:1? The Greek word could not be any clearer, it is nekros. Do you want to know what nekros means? It means this: no longer having life. So how dead is dead? So, the question I had to answer is a question you must answer as well, and that question is simply this: How can the spiritual dead do anything apart from God doing something? Paul gives us the answer in Ephesians 2:4-5, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:45).
The point of verse 4 is simply this: You, who were once spiritually dead. You who once, lived in the lusts of your flesh, indulged the desires of your flesh, you who followed the prince of this world, and you who were once a child of wrathHe chose you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in Christ. Whatever you are doing with verse 4, whatever you want to do with verse 4, and whatever you plan to do with verse 4, one thing is very clear: God acted first. When you had no ability or desire to find Him, He found you. John Stott was right when he wrote The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not a human speculation.[1]
God Predestined the Christian for Love (v. 5)
What does it mean to be chosen? It means that God predestined you to something. What does predestination mean? It means, to determine something ahead of time before its occurrence.[2] So, according to verse 5, before God invented dirt, He planned for your adoption as a son or daughter through all that Jesus would do on your account for your sin on a cross that we all deserved.
We know we deserved the cross because of what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:3, which is that all of us at one point in our lives were, by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. In Romans 3:10-11, we are told just how bad our spiritual deadness is: as it is written: There is no righteous person, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks out God (Rom. 3:1011). Since when have I been spiritually dead? According to Psalm 51:5, Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, and in sin my mother conceived me. Just in case you are not sure what to make of Psalm 51:5, consider Ecclesiastes 9:2, Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of mankind are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives.
So, with Ephesians 2:1-3 and a whole bunch of other verses about our spiritual problem as our backdrop, lets read again Ephesians 1:5 more closely and thoughtfully: In Love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. In other words, among the mass of spiritually dead humanity that has postured themselves against God as, sons of disobedience who walk according to the course of this world, God chose you, Christian, in Jesus, before He created dirt, to be holy and blameless.
God chose you because you were dead, dead, dead, and because you were dead, He did the thing that no one else could have done! God raised your spiritually dead and helpless self. Why did He do it? Well, we are told that He did it In love and if that is not enough for you, Paul elaborates and tells us that He did it, according to the good pleasure of His will. And if that is not enough for you, he further elaborates on that point in the next chapter: being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead made us alive together with Christ (2:4-5). It is because of Gods love, His will, and His good pleasure that you who were once dead, now stand before Him as a son or as a daughter solely because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Dear Christian, the point of Ephesians 1:3-6 is this: you are only a Christian because of a merciful God who set His affection upon you by sending His son to endure a wrath you deserved for the purpose of adopting you to be His child out of an infinite love no one deserves.
God Favored the Christian in Christ (v. 6)
So, lets walk through these verses now that we have observed the scenery of Gods word that surrounds Ephesians 1:3-6. If you are a Christian, you were once dead in your sins, you were hostile towards God, and there was no real motive in you to seek the true God, and in spite of all of that, God the Father chose to make you alive in His Son, Jesus, before Genesis 1:1 ever happened, and He did it so that you, would be holy and blameless before Him. The point of verse 4 is that God did something you were powerless to do.
Not only did God the Father choose you to be holy and blameless by making you alive in His Son, but He predestined us to be His adopted child with all the rights and privileges that come with being a son or a daughter, and He did it by putting His Son, who kept the Law, on a cross to atone for your guilt from breaking His cosmic Law just as the Bible declares: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). If that is not clear enough for you, we also are told in Colossians 2:13-14, And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (Col. 2:1314). You were not only dead in your sins before Christ, but the Bible informs us that we are now redeemed by Jesus who were once enemies of God: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:10). What this means dear friends, is this: You were once dead in your sins, are now alive in Christ, and are now reconciled to God. You who are reconciled to God, are now a friend of God (John 15:14-15).
If you are still confused as to why He did it, look no further than verse 6. Not only did He save your sorry soul because He simply loved you, and not only did He redeem you as his child out of His good pleasure of His will alone, but He did it, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored you in His Beloved Son (v. 6). By the way, the word favored literally means, to become the recipient of Gods freely bestowed, beneficent goodwill. What this means is that you were saved from your sins, and it was not due to anything in you, but solely because of the love of the Father who sent His Son who willingly became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). In his book, Friendship with God, Mike McKinley wrote what I think is a good way to end this sermon: Your status before God doesnt depend on your performance, or work, or obedience; it depends on Jesus, and he did everything perfectly to make you Gods friend. Nothing can ever separate you from Gods love in Christ (Rom. 8:38-39). Once He has made you His friend through faith in Jesus, you can never be his enemy again.[3]
In closing, permit me to give you some pointers that will help you listen, understand, and submit to the authority of the Bible:
Do not try to bend what you read in the Bible to your will. If you want to grow as a Christian, you must submit your will to the authority of the Bible as Gods Word.
The Bible is one book, therefore read every verse in the Bible within the context of its surrounding verses, chapters, and books.
When you study your Bible, pray to God to help you understand and apply His Word to your life.
Read every verse in the Bible with the understanding that God does not need to get better. So, if you read a story, chapter, or verse in the Bible that you do not like, understand you are the one who needs to improve at being good, not God.
Just because you do not understand or do not like something you have read in the Bible, does not mean that it is untrue.
At the end of the day, what matters is what Gods Word says, not what you think the Bible says, what your pastor says the Bible says, what your family says the Bible says, what your friends say the Bible says, or anyone else says that the Bible says. What matters is what Gods Word says about who He is, who we are, and what we are called to do in this short life we have been gifted.
If you have heard anything this morning, I hope you have heard this: Ephesians 1:3-6 teaches us that you are a Christian not because of what you have done, but because of everything God has done, and because of Jesus, you are now a child and a friend of God Almighty!
[1] John R. W. Stott, Gods New Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), p. 37.
[2] From Lexham Research Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.
[3] Mike McKinley, Friendship with God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2023), p. 11

What it Means to be a Christian

Ephesus was a city whose economy depended on trade. It was frequently visited by people wishing to see and experience one of the seven wonders of the world of their day known as the Temple of Artemis/Diana.
The economy, culture, and ethics of Ephesus all centered on the goddess of Diana and the temple built in her honor. The temple was supported by 127 giant pillars believed to have been given as gifts by 127 different kings. The temple housed many priests and priestesses who operated under a castrated male who functioned as the high priest. The male priests were in charge of offering the sacrifices to Diana, which also included human sacrifice. The female priests were unmarried women given the responsibility to be channels of worship to Diana which was performed through intercourse of any male wishing to worship Diana with her priestesses. You can see why worship in the temple of Diana was so popular.
Because the worship of Diana was the main religion in Ephesus, ritual prostitution was a dominant feature of the religious atmosphere in Ephesus. Spirits, we know as demons, frequently possessed the priestesses as well as the worshiper which should come to be no surprise, for the Bible says: that the things Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God (1 Cor. 10:20). Anytime an offering is given to an idol, it is an offering given to a demon not merely an image Diana was no exception.
When the apostle Paul stopped in Ephesus to preach, the gospel disrupted the worship of the goddess of Artemis/Diana as people in the city heard the good news about Jesus Christ and gave their lives to Him. So profound was the gospels impact upon the culture of Ephesus that some who made their living off the worship of Diana expressed their great concern: in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence (see Acts 19:2328).
Paul spent over two years in Ephesus where God used him to establish the same church to which he would write the epistle to the Ephesians years later, while in prison. The city of Ephesus was a very scary place full of demonic activity, full of women who were held as slaves, full of all kinds of perverts seeking to get cheap thrills under the guise of religion, radical feminists who distained the existence of men, public baths, and bathrooms, where modesty was considered taboo, all of which were ruled by a demon posing to be a free-spirited goddess. It is in this city that a church was birthed, cultural norms challenged, and lives transformed.
What you also need to know is that years before Paul brought the gospel to Ephesus, he tried to prevent its spread because he was convinced Christianity had to be destroyed. Of his former life as a pharisee, Paul wrote in Philippians 3, If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless (Phil. 3:46). Paul approved of the stoning of Stephen, who was sentenced to death because of his outspoken faith in Jesus (see Acts 7). Regarding his salvation and faith in Jesus, Paul wrote to Timothy (who would eventually become the pastor of the church in Ephesus): It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost (1 Tim. 1:15).
What does it Mean to be a Christian?
Fred Sanders, in his masterful book, The Deep Things of God, wrote of the gospel, The gospel so outstrips our created measurements that it can be measured only against something as immense as God himself. Sanders further comments, There is one place in Scripture where this sheer greatness of the gospel is most profusely described: the blessing with which Paul opens the epistle to the Ephesians.[1] In the weeks to come, we will plumb the depths of Ephesians 1:1-14, but for now, I only want to show you who you are if you are a Christian and who you can be, by the grace of God, if you are not.
The Christian is Saved by the Will of God (v. 1)
In the very first sentence to these Christians surrounded by some of the darkest evils, Paul attributes his salvation and apostleship to the will of God. The stoning of Stephen and his part in the imprisonment and persecution of Christians was not too much for the grace of God to overcome. In fact, a survey of the Bible will show you that when it comes to the will of man and the will of God, it is the will of man to run from God and it is only because of will greater than our own that God is able to pursue us and find us.
The Christian has the Grace and Peace of God (v. 2)
Before salvation, Paul and the Ephesian Christians stood before a holy God guilty, awaiting a judgment under the wrath of God, and the same can be said of you and me. The Bible says, because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:5). But now, because of what Jesus accomplished, the Christian has received the grace and peace of God.
The Christian has the Blessing of God (v. 3)
What the Ephesian Christians had before Paul brought the gospel to them was wrath. In fact, Paul describes what it was that they had before they met Jesus in the next chapter: And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3). However, because of the saving work of Jesus, the Christian has received, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
The Christian is Saved by God to be Holy and Blameless Before God (v. 4)
Paul was committed to the idol of his religious legalism while the Ephesians were indulged in their worship of Diana; both were far from God, yet it was God who rescued them from their idols and from their sin. Why did God save Paul and those who made up the Ephesian Church? Why did he save any of us? Well, verse 4 answers that question for us: that we would be holy and blameless before Him. God saved you to change you, and that change is moving you closer and closer to holiness and blamelessness.
The Christian is Made a Son/Daughter of God (v. 5)
Before Jesus, the Christian was a child of devil (1 John 3:7-10) and a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3). But through Jesus, the Christian is adopted, as sons and daughters. As a son and a daughter, you who once stood under a wrath deserved, now stand as a child of God with all the rights and privileges of a God who now takes pleasure in you! Because you are a child of God, our inheritance is no longer condemnation, but the riches of the glory of His inheritance (v. 18).
The Christian is Favored by God (v. 6)
According to verse 6, the Christian is favored by God. But why is the Christian favored by God? The Christian is favored by God because of the Beloved. So, who is the Beloved? The Beloved is the Son of God. The NET Bible rightly translates verse 6 this way: to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. So, what this means dear Christian, is that the only reason why you are favored by God is because you are now in His Son, Jesus Christ. You are favored not because of anything you have done but because of everything that Jesus has already done on your account and on your behalf!
The Christian is Forgiven by God (v. 7)
You who once stood condemned by God now stand forgiven through the Son. You have been redeemed through the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of all your sins. The forgiveness of your sins through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is owing only to the immeasurable riches of the grace of God.
Lord, I did not freely choose youTill by grace you set me free;For my heart would still refuse,
Had your love not chosen me.
The Christian is Rich in the Grace of God (v. 8)
If you are a Christian, you have redemption through Jesus and nothing owning to yourself! If there was or is any confusion as to what it was that caused a Holy God to look down upon you with favor for the purpose of redeeming you, it is simply this: We have redemption through His blood according to the riches of His grace. In what way did we received His grace and how did the Almighty distribute His grace? He lavished his grace on us (v. 8)!
The Christian has Been Permitted to Know God (v. 9)
When it comes to knowing God, we are told, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). Furthermore, the Bible informs us that, a natural person [sinner] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14). So how does a person come to know the will of God? Only through Jesus according to the good pleasure of God.
The Christian has a Future with God (v. 11a)
The One you sinned against, the One before Whom you once stood against in arrogance, the One you were blinded to, the One before heaven and earth has no place to hid and recoils before His infinite holiness (Rev. 20:11), and of whom the angles declare: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8), you, Christian, are now known and favored by! This is why Jesus said, My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand (John 10:27-29).
The Christian has the Security of God (v. 13)
You, Christian, who was once dead in your sins (Eph. 2:1-3) and are now alive in Christ (2:4), are sealed by the Holy Spirit. This means that the One who holds you in His hand will keep you in His hand, and according to verses 13-14, He has given you His Spirit as a seal which serves as a down payment of more to come! Dont you ever forget the words of our savior dear Christian: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand (John 10:28-29).
The Christian is Treasured by God (v. 14)
Finally, you who were once far off, spiritually dead, and hostile towards God are now treasured by God. The apostle Peter put it this way: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). One way to translate verses 13-14 from the Greek is this way: In Jesus, you also having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the initial installment of our inheritance, until the redemption of His adopted children, who were purchased to be His treasured possession to the praise of His glory.
Conclusion
So, who are you Christian? You are saved by the will of God. You have the grace and peace of God. You have the blessing of God. You are redeemed to be holy and blameless before God. You are a son/daughter of God. You are favored by God. You are forgiven by God. You are rich in the grace of God. You now know God. You have a future with God. You have the security of God.
You are treasured by God. Who are you? If you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you are a Christian!
So, I leave you with only two questions. First, how did God save you? He saved you through Jesus Christ; this is why the apostle Paul used the phrase in Christ, in Him, and through Him ten times in just fourteen verses. Second, why did God save you Christian? God did it for the praise of His glory. And he uses that phrase at the end of his explanation of the Fathers role in your salvation (vv. 3-6), at the end of his explanation of the Sons role in your salvation (vv. 7-12), and at the end of the Holy Spirits role in your salvation (vv. 13-14).
Amen.
[1] Fred Sanders. The Deep Things of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2017), p. 105.

The King Who Makes All Things New

After the Sand Bernardino shooting in California, the cover page of the Daily News read God Is Not Fixing This with highlights from some tweets from conservative leaders concerning their thoughts and prayers being with the victims of the mass shooting. The irony in The Daily News cover is that in an effort to fix our world without God, we have made more of a mess of it. In fact, human history has shown us that every effort to create a better or utopian society apart from God has not moved us closer, but rather further away from a utopian society.
When we started this sermon series, I told you that Gods plan was always for a King to rule the nations, but a different kind of King, one that the world could never manufacture. What the world can manufacture is what the devil manufactures, and that is a life lived apart from God, which is only a cheap substitute that robs a person of the kind of life God designed for us to experience.
From the manger to the cross was One who lived among Adams helpless race as Gods plan A to mankinds sin problem. God is fixing this! God has been fixing this! God is sure to fix this! Jesus was always the King intended for Israel and the nations and the remedy to reverse the curse of sin!
This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. (Isa. 44:6)
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, The Lord Our Righteousness. (Jer. 23:5-6)
The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the rulers staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (Gen. 49:10)
He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Sam. 7:13)
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11).
Jesus said: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. (Rev. 1:17-18)
Jesus is the fully divine and fully human King! He is the first and the last, and there is no other like Him! He is not only the King of kings and Lord of lords, but He also bears the name, Yahweh our Righteousness. Jesus is the only One qualified, able, and willing to redeem lost sinners as the Lamb of God who, takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus is our Kinsmen Redeemer who is qualified to take the deed of creation by reversing the curse of sin and why all of heaven celebrates: Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth (Rev. 5:9-10).
God is fixing this one life at a time through the Son: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). It is through the Son that the Father is restoring all that was lost, and so we are promised that the way God is fixing this will exceed our wildest imaginations:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And He said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. (Rev. 21:15)
There is so much that is packed into the final two chapters in the book of Revelation that there is no way that we can plumb the depths of what is promised to those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. However, there are some things that we do have time to reflect upon that ought to encourage you.
Life Will Be Purged of Sin, Death, Evil, and the Devil
There is not a whole lot I need to say on this point, but I simply want to point out that what will follow Jesus second coming is His final victory over the antichrist (who is yet to come), the false prophet, and the devil (the unholy trinity). All three will be thrown into the lake of fire where they will never again be able to tempt, deceive, and harm. Their destruction will be in a place of eternal torment that Jesus described, where their worm does not die, and their fire is not extinguished (Mark 9:48). Satans judgment will be the final crushing of his head that was promised in Genesis: And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel (Gen. 3:15).
After the antichrist, the false prophet, and the devil are judged, we are told of a final judgment where Death and Hades will also be thrown into the lake of fire, which is described as, the second death. What is most sobering about Revelation 20:11-15, which describes this coming judgment, in my opinion, is what we read in verse 15, And if anyones name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Ultimately what the second death means for the Christian, is the death of death, sin, and the devil.
Mortality will be Swallowed up by Life
The new heaven and earth that we read about in the final chapters of Revelation will not be new in the way you trade in your used car so that you can afford a new one. The new heavens and earth will be new in the same way Jesus resurrected body was; think about what had to happen for Jesus dead body to come back to life again. Jesus body began the process of decomposition several minutes after he died on the cross. When His heart stopped beating, the cells in His body became deprived of oxygen forcing them to break down. Within 24-27 hours after death, Jesus internal organs were already decomposing, and his body was beginning to bloat. For Jesus body to be resurrected, the DNA in His body had to change.
The resurrection of the heavens and the earth will be like Jesus resurrection, and it will include a DNA change. We are told in the Bible, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people (2 Pet. 3:7). Randy Alcorn, in his book, Heaven, writes of the coming Day: The earths death will be no more final than our own. The destruction of the old earth in Gods purifying judgment will immediately be followed by its resurrection to new life. Earths fiery end will open straight into a glorious new beginning.[1]
Of the resurrection the Christian will experience, the apostle Paul describes it this way: For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:1, 4). Quite literally, the resurrection we will experience, the earth will experience too, and when the earth is resurrected what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
What I find so amazing about Revelation 21 is that God will not stop with making all things new; He will also move His dwelling place from the present heaven to the new earth. God making His dwelling place with man on a new earth is His promise: Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them (Rev. 21:3). This has been the plan from day one.
Do you remember the two principles that God operates on? They are not the only principles, but they are important principles. The principles are the Incarnation Principle and the Grace Principle.
The Incarnation Principle: God does not need a building because He intends to dwell with His people.
The Grace Principle: God will do what only God is capable of doing apart from any help from any other person.
The plan was always for God to tabernacle with His people and the way that he would do it would be through a grace not conditioned on His creation, but totally and unconditionally upon His own sovereign will and infinite love.
Joy will be the Serious Business of the New Earth (vv. 5-8)
When God makes His dwelling place on earth with mankind, all that clouds your joy now will be no more. The love, joy, and happiness we will experience on the new earth will never crest, abate, or recede. As C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his books, Joy is the serious business of Heaven.[2] This is why we are told that only when God resurrects this dying and cursed creation, will He wipe away our tears: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there by mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away (21:4).
The new earth will be like the Garden of Eden but better; it will also be like heaven today, but better. We will enjoy physical bodies and a physical planet. We will enjoy a full and perfect creation that will include trees, mountains, and rivers. There will be one City the City of God where we will be able to go in and out of. We will run through the forests, climb mountains, eat amazing food, run barefoot through the prairies, enjoy the light of something more powerful and radiant than the sun, which will be the Glory of God Himself. We will dwell on a new earth that will never again know the cold of night, but only the light of a day illuminated by the Glory of God.
The new earth will be a place where, The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpents food. says the Lord (Isa. 65:25). On the new earth, we will walk on streets of gold with those who have gone before us men and women like Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Daniel, David, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We will be able to sit at a table and share a meal with Joseph and Job who suffered much in their lifetime. We will laugh with the Apostle Paul and Peter, and we may even go fishing with the rest of the apostles. When God makes all things new, our world will be a world of love in the purest sense.
Application
In his final book in his Narnia series, The Last Battle, on the final page, C.S. Lewis concludes his epic story with words that resonate with what we are promised in the Bible. Aslan, the great Lion and Christ-figure of Narnia had won just as Jesus has already won:
And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
[1] Randy Alcorn. Heaven (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; 2004), p. 157.
[2] C.S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt Brace Company; 1963), p. 93.

The King Who is Coming

In Revelation 19:11-18 is a description of Jesus that proceeds His reign on earth as promised King who will bring peace on earth. In our passage there are eight descriptions of King Jesus that highlight His authority and character as the Only One who is able to make what is wrong in our world right. Jesus is coming and will come to make peace in our world by waging war on the antichrist who is to come and all the peoples who will align themselves with Him. It will be the realization that perhaps there was some truth that all roads do in fact lead to God, with the major clarification that many lead to Him as judge and only one leads to Him as savior. All I want to do with the time that we have this morning is to show you who He really is.
Jesus is a triumphant King.
The color white does not symbolize purity here as it does when used to describe garments. The white war horse that Jesus descends from heaven on symbolizes His role as a conquering King, and what is impressive is that, in Revelation 19:1, the battle has not yet begun.
Jesus is coming back. You dont have to believe it and you dont even have to live like it, but the fact of the matter is this: Jesus is coming again, and He is not coming to die like He did the first time He came, He is coming to judge! The Bible says, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11; see also Isa. 45:22-23).
The Roman Senate had to give Julius Caesar permission to drive a chariot drawn by white horses through Rome to celebrate his victory in North Africa, but only after he defeated North Africa. When Jesus comes, He comes as a victorious King whose power will be demonstrated in such a way that every living creature will have no alternative but to bow before Him as the Lord. He rides a white horse signifying His victory because none can stay His hand.
Jesus is a Faithful and True King (v. 11a).
The second characteristic of Jesus is that He is faithful and true. When King Jesus comes to set up His kingdom, He will have no need to boast in a facade of faithfulness and truth because He is the very embodiment of faithfulness and truth.
There is a lot of suffering in the world today. Every time there is a catastrophe in the world, governments rush with promises of help and often those who are left in the wake of tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, ethnic genocide, and the like, are left with empty promises of deliverance. Not so with Jesus!
My dear brothers and sisters, many of you have been touched by divorce. Some of you have grown up with one broken promise after another. Some of you have been disappointed, have been hurt, have been mistreated, or perhaps taken advantage of. Take a look at verse 11 again, and permit me to ask you, Who is sitting on the white horse? Jesus is planning an eternity with His Bride, and He means to make a home for her that is characterized by holiness and righteousness.
Jesus is a righteous King (v. 11b). When Jesus comes, He will come in righteousness to judge the nations. There will be no room to accuse Him as being harsh, rash, or unjust in the execution of His judgment.
For many of you, the idea of righteousness and justice is something you have been thinking a lot about because of the politicking we are seeing on television. An election will be coming soon in the United States; promises will be made, and every candidate will claim some measure of integrity while maligning the other candidates.
The wars we read about in our history books and the ones we hear on the news often leave a wake of injustice and suffering. Books have been written about The Just War. Whatever your views are concerning war and the one we may find ourselves in the future, one thing is sure: When Jesus comes to wage war on the nations, it will be completely and categorically just, for the Bible says of Jesus:
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make decisions by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the humble of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the belt around His waist. (Isaiah 11:15)
Jesus is an all-seeing King (v. 12a).
This is the third time in Revelation that Jesus is described as having eyes like fire (see 1:14; 2:18); every time He is characterized this way, it is metaphorical of His ability to see all things, including the human heart. As King, Jesus will execute justice on all those who have rejected Him as the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus does not have to pretend at being able to see all things; He is able to see all things; He is all knowing, and the entire world will be held accountable for what they do and think, both in public and private. When He comes to judge the nations, He will do so intelligently, there will be no civilian casualties.
Jesus is the King of kings (v. 12b).
In verse 12b, John notices something on Jesus head: many crowns. The Greek word for crown is also diadēma (we get the word diadem from it), it also means rulers crown. It is used only three times in Revelation. It is used to describe the crown worn by the dragon (12:3), the beast (13:1), and Jesus Christ. The point that is being made here is that the dragon (Lucifer) and the beast pretend to be what Jesus is. Their authority is temporary and given by God, Jesus authority is absolute and universal (This is why John records that Jesus had many crowns. The use of many is one way of saying innumerable).
When Jesus comes, not only does John see many crowns on His head, but John also sees the title King of kings and Lord of lords on His robe and thigh. Every king or ruler that had been born into this world has had a temporal reign limited by age and mortality. When it comes to our lifespan, we are all like blips on a radar flashing on the screen of life and fading out just as quickly as we came in; James 4:14 asks, You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. Jesus reign and authority is eternal and genuine, He does not need to pretend.
Jesus is a One-of-a-kind King (v. 12c)
There is a lot of debate and theologizing over what name Jesus has that no one knows. There are two things we know about the ancient world of Johns day that may help us understand why Jesus has a name that no one knows. First, it was common in the world of Johns day to believe that both the gods and humans had a hidden name that contained their true essence, that defined their fundamental nature. Second, it was believed that to know a persons name was to exercise some level of control over that person. What is revealed of the Rider on the white horse is that His revealed name is called, The Word of God and what is tattooed on His thigh is the title: King of kings and Lord of lords.
What we see in Revelation 19:11-18, Paul described in Philippians 2:9-11, which I believe helps us understand the unknown name that only He knows: For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11 would have given his readers goosebumps because of what is written in Isaiah 45:22-23,
Declare and present your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this long ago? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. (Isa. 45:2123)
According to Isaiah, only Yahweh has the right to judge the nations, and it is to Yahweh that every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance. Yet, Paul tells us that it will be before and to Jesus that, every tongue will swear allegiance and every knee will bow. Revelation 19:11-18 described the day when that will happen. The name that Jesus has that no one knows is reveals his absolute authority as God in the flesh who will not nor cannot be manipulated.
Jesus is a just and holy King (v 13a).
Why is Jesus robe dipped in blood? Is His robe dipped in blood to symbolize what He did at Calvary? I do not think so. I think Isaiah 63:2-3 gives us a clue to the meaning behind what John sees, Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no one with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My clothes (Isa. 63:13). Jesus robe is dipped in blood to indicate how He intends to deal with the nations that conspire against Him. How will He accomplish this? Look at verse 15, From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron
The justice Jesus will execute will flow out of His perfect holiness; it is the kind of judgment described in Psalm 2
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Lets tear their shackles apart And throw their ropes away from us! He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will announce the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have fathered You. Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware. (Psalm 2:29)
Jesus, as the Word of God, is the Promised King.
Jesus is the Word of God, a title that is not unfamiliar in the New Testament. It is fitting that John closes his description of Jesus with this title because it gets at the reason why Jesus is qualified to come and judge the nations: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it (John 1:15).
However, while on earth, even with all the miracles that include His power over demons, disease, and even death (see Mark 5:1-43) the feeding of thousands with some kids five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:1-14), walking on water (6:15-25), and even His power over storms (Matt. 8::18-27), there were people who still refused to believe that He was the promised Messiah. This is why John continued in the opening statements of his Gospel account something to consider against the backdrop of what you have seen in Revelation 19:11-18, He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God (John 1:1013).
Conclusion
As I consider this sermon series for Adventespecially what we have reflected on in Revelation 19, I am reminded of the conversation Lucy had with Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tried to help Lucy understand who Aslan was (Aslan is Narnias Christ figure):
"Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion, the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king I tell you."
The Lion of Judah is not safe, but He is good. Hes the king I tell you, and His name is Jesus Christ.
The question I ask of you is simply this: Who do you say Jesus is and do you really believe it? Have you come to know Him? Do you really believe in His name? Is Jesus a religious icon to you, is He only a baby in a manger, or is He the King? Wherever you are in your thoughts and convictions about Jesus, I leave you with the last two verses of Psalm 2, Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way, For His wrath may be kindled quickly. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him" (vv. 11-12).

Behold the King in a Manger!

I was thinking the other day that the manger that Jesus was laid in was dirty compared to our standards today. It is estimated that Jesus was most likely born in March or April. We are not entirely sure what kind of room he was born in, but the fact that there was a manger (feeding trough) gives us some idea that it was where the animals were kept.
So, what was in the stable Jesus was most likely born in? If there were donkeys, cattle, sheep, or chickens, there was also the smell of manure and urine, cattle-biting lice, a whole bunch of annoying species of flies common in the middle east known as the Bazaar Rly (known to spread trachoma an irritating eye disease). Do not forget the common Stable Fly that would have been feeding on the blood of the livestock surrounding Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. By the way the Stable Flies Mary and Joseph shooed away from Jesus may have carried anthrax. My guess is, there were most likely rats and mice along with all the diseases they carry.
The manger was a feeding trough and before they prepared it to lay Jesus in, there was no Clorox to disinfect it from it being used for animals to eat from, drool into, and maybe even sneeze out an occasional maggot that crawled up into the snouts of certain animals to live in their throats. I am sure Joseph did his best to clean out the manger, but then you have the bedding to consider, which would have been straw infested with straw itch mites. So the first group of people invited to see the Christ-Child are dirty shepherds?
My point is simply this: The One born King of the Jews made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable. But why that way? It was of Jesus that the ancient prophets declared:
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14)
For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)
But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. (Mic. 5:2)
Why a stable? Before I answer that question, I want us to reflect on Hebrews 1:1-3 briefly. In only three verses, we are given nine reasons for why there is a good reason for the shepherds, a stable, and a manger.
Jesus is the Only Way to Know God. The best and greatest revelation of who God is according to the author of Hebrews, is Jesus. According to the prophet Micah, Jesus did not become the Son of God at Marys miraculous conception as a virgin or at His birth; no Jesus was always God the Son long before His birth, for His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity (Mic. 5:2).
What did happen when Mary was told that she would have a child, is that Jesus took on human flesh, and He did so to live a life while remaining fully divine and fully human, and the life He lived was the life we could not live for the purpose of dying a death he did not deserve on a cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus said of Himself: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
Jesus is the heir of all things. The One laid in the manger, was and remains the heir of all things. All of creation belongs to Him; it was His from the beginning, but it is especially His now! The Bible says that all of us are sinners from the moment of conception in that we are all born sinful. When Jesus took on human flesh by way of the miraculous conception that did not include a human biological father, he was born without a nature to sin. Jesus was fully God while remaining fully human.
For sinful humanity and a cursed creation to be liberated from sin, a kinsmen redeemer was needed. If a family member lost their inheritance and property for any reason, a kinsmen redeemer was needed who met three requirements: He must be related to the person who suffered lost, he must have the ability to purchase back what was lost, and he must be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to restore what was lost. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God, the curse of sin has been passed down from one generation to the next. The child that was laid in a manger is the kinsmen redeemer qualified to restore what was lost through Adams sin.
Jesus is the Creator of the world. Jesus not only existed before His birth on the first Christmas, but we are also told that it was through Him that God made the world. The Bible says of Jesus: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authoritiesall things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16). The one who was laid in the manger, was responsible for the material that human hands used to fashion it, which also shows us that only is Jesus a qualified redeemer, but He is also an able redeemer.
Jesus radiates the glory of God. Jesus does not reflect the image of God like the moon reflects the Suns light. No, Jesus radiates the glory of God like the Sun radiates light. Jesus was not created by God but is God. There was never a time when Jesus was created because there was never a time when He was not the Son. The God of the Bible is unlike any other god that people have created to worship, for the God we learn of in the Bible is Yahweh as One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.
Jesus is exact representation of Gods nature. I have two sons; they share my DNA but they are not me nor are they the exact representation of me. There is a Son who shares the exact representation of Gods nature, and that Son is Jesus, for the God the Son and the God the Father are of the same divine essence; this is how Jesus is the climax of Gods revelation of Himself to lost humanity. When one of his disciples asked Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. To which Jesus answered: The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? (John 14:8-9).
When Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds saw the face of Jesus, the saw the face of God.
Jesus is the sustainer of creation. The mystery of the incarnation and miracle of Christmas is that the one who was laid in a manger, is the One who sustains and keeps creation, by the word of His power. What the author of Hebrews is trying to say here is that the Son of God is not only responsible for creation, but actively preserves creation! This is why Jesus could walk on water, cure diseases, raise the dead, and quiet storms with the word of His mouth.
Jesus is a qualified and willing redeemer. The One who was laid in the manger was born to make purification of sins, and the way that he did it was through a cross of wood for sins we committed and are guilty of. This is why, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! Hundreds of years before Christmas happened, the prophet Isaiah wrote of Jesus: But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5). The Christ-Child was born to become a curse for us so that we could be pardoned, redeemed, and made the children of God (Gal. 3:13-14); or as the Bible states: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
Jesus is the only one who can save. After Jesus died upon the cross for our sins for our redemption, we are told that Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high What this means is that because of who He is and why He took on human flesh, after He died, Jesus rose from the grave because how can death keep the Author of Life? After Jesus rose, He ascended to heaven, and He sat down! He sat down because his sacrifice for sin only had to be offered once and for all! This is why Jesus said of Himself: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Besides Jesus, there is salvation found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts. 4:12).
Jesus is to be worshiped because of who He is. The child born on the first Christmas and laid in a dirty manger surrounded by dirty creatures, of which Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and every other human is the dirtiest; He was born to save sinners. Of Jesus the scriptures testify: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:810).
The question for you my dear friend, is what will you do with Jesus today, on this Christmas Eve?
The reality of Christmas is simply this: Jesus was really born. Jesus really did live, Jesus really did die on a Roman cross, and Jesus really did rise from the grave. J.R. Tolken, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, once said of the story of Jesus: The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story is supreme, and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of menand of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.[1]
The reason Jesus made His grand entrance into our world through the mess of a stable is because He was born to enter into the mess of sin-cursed humanity. The message of the manger is simply this: If you were a hundred times worse than you are, your sins would be no match for His mercy.[2] Jesus came to save us!
[1] J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories, (1939).
[2] Tim Keller.