Ephesians 1:7-12
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us…
Sermon Transcript:
Here’s a quick summary for Ephesians. Salutations, a unique Christian greeting for both Jews and Gentiles. Adoration, praising God for our spiritual blessings in Christ. Intercession, prayer to understand the blessings we have received. Salvation, by grace through faith, not by our own doing. Reconciliation, to God and between Jews and Gentiles.
Proclamation, of the mystery revealed that Jews and Gentiles are co heirs in Christ. Intercession, for love and power through Christ. Walking in unity. Walking in holiness. Walking in love. Walking in light. Walking in wisdom. Walking in family. Walking in the workplace. Standing in the victory. Final greetings of grace and peace.
Good morning, how we doing? Here’s a quick summary for, oh, run it back, okay, one more time. Good morning. It’s good to see you. My name is Jared. I want to say a special good morning to those watching in Collingswood. I’m the youth pastor here at Fellowship. My name is Jared and I just wanted to say a warm, happy St.
Patrick’s Day. we’re going to be talking about the Trinity a little bit today. And if you don’t know why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, or maybe you’re like, I don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, it’s not to wear green. And to go on a bar crawl, even though that happens sometimes. St. Patrick is actually known to be the first person to bring the gospel to Ireland.
So, he did a pretty cool thing, and he’s, he’s worthy to be celebrated as well. And, and actually, He described the Trinity using a three leaf clover, which isn’t a perfect illustration, but he used what he had to, convey truth, which is pretty cool. So a couple of fun facts about St. Patrick. We’re actually, we’ll be starting a prayer with him, of his, and we’ll be ending, our time here with a prayer of his as well.
But So, before we jump in, if you have no idea what that video was, we are going through a series, for the past couple weeks in Ephesians and we came, well, we didn’t come up with these motions, actually Dave Merck did, but we’ve been doing these motions and we’ve been doing it in youth group and it’s a really awesome way to kind of remember, the book of Ephesians.
It’s sliced up really neatly and cleanly. So. So, if you would, we’re going to learn some of the motions today, okay? Leave it up to the youth pastor to get everyone up and moving. So you can stand. Go ahead. We’re going to stand. Go ahead. I know you just got your Bibles out and your notebooks. So we’re going to learn a couple of the motions.
And if you look at, in your, if you have an Ephesians journal as well, afterwards, you can see that these are section by section, the journals. So the first opening, couple of verses here in Ephesians Can you do that? Salutations. Come on, get involved people. Wake up. Here we are. Salutations, right? It’s a unique Christian greeting to both Jew and Gentile, right?
He says grace and peace to be you. That would be a unique Christian, greeting to both Jew and Gentile Christians. So I have salutations and then we have adoration. So we’re going to praise. Praise, hands up. Adoration, right? We’re praising God for our spiritual blessings in Christ. And then we’re going to intercession, right?
We, we, we’ve just praised, so we’re gonna go to prayer to understand these blessings we have received. Then salvation, right? By grace you have been saved through faith, this is not your own doing. And salvation brings reconciliation, right? So we go from salvation, reconciliation, that is between God and us, and also between Jew and Gentile.
And then after reconciliation, you’re gonna proclamation, Yeah, thank, thank you. Proclamation. Man, we are, whoo, loosen up a little bit guys. We’re having fun today. It’s okay. and you’re proclaiming of the mystery revealed that Jews and Gentiles now are co heirs in Christ, and then we’re going back to intercession, right, for love and power in Christ Jesus.
Okay, we’re going to do it one more time through the top. Okay, so salutations, adoration, intercession, salvation, reconciliation, proclamation, that was way better, intercession. And then after that, you get into the walking, all the different parts. So we’ll just, we’ll just start there this morning. Give yourself a round of applause.
Good job. Good job. You didn’t know you’re participating. You can take a seat. Thank you for humoring me with that. Notice how Pastor Mark put me up to that. He didn’t want to do the motions, you know, so. I just want to read our passage this morning. If you have your Bibles, you can flip to Ephesians. if you have your journals, you can flip there as well.
looking in chapter 1, and we’re gonna be reading in verses 7 through 12. If you don’t have your Bibles or you can’t find it, it’s gonna be on the screen too, don’t panic. It says this in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 7 through 12. It says, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.
Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will According to his purpose which he set forth in christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things In him things in heaven and things on earth in him. We have obtained an inheritance Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will So that we who were the first to hope in christ might be to the praise Of his glory let’s pray together this morning.
I just want to start off my prayer with a prayer of saint patrick May the strength of god pilot us May the wisdom of god instruct us May the hand of god protect us may the word of god direct us Be always are be always ours this day and forever more lord. We look to you This morning on this day god, and we’re trying to come and understand Just what your son has accomplished for us
God, and I know firsthand this knowledge cannot be revealed by me, Lord, but only an outpouring of your Spirit and your Father calling us to him, God. This is a supernatural thing. Lord, we can hear words and hear knowledge, Lord, but you’re the one who impacts the heart. You’re the one who prepares the soil God and I just pray I just pray that you’d open up our hearts lord even if there’s people here who’ve heard this message a hundred times that you would just they would You’d bring them to a greater knowledge and understanding of who your son jesus is and what he has accomplished for them Lord, if there’s anyone here this morning That just doesn’t know you As a personal friend and savior god that they’d come to know you as their rescuer As their accomplisher this morning god we pray That you’d shut my mouth and speak through me, Lord, and bless our time here.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, this morning we’re going to be talking about Jesus’s role in the story of grace, and I just want to give a disclaimer up front. Pastor Mark talked about the Father’s role in the story of grace, right? The Trinity is hard to understand. The idea that God can be Father, Son, and Spirit is, is difficult to understand, and And you know what?
It’s even harder to explain, and be the guy up here explaining it. So, but I think we don’t have to fully understand the Trinity. I don’t think God ever has required that of us, but it is important to know and believe what each member of the Godhead does and has accomplished for us. And, I took a class in, in Bible college by Professor Dozle.
I love Professor Dozle, but the name doesn’t give him a lot of justice, you know, a little dozing, you know, like sounds sleepy. And he taught a class called Triune God. And Dr. Dozle is like one of the leading speakers on the Trinity. And I sat in the back of that class and he talked for about an hour and a half.
And every single word he said went like this. He was one of those professors that you’re like, dude, you are too smart. to be teaching us. Like you need to write a book and then you, we need to find someone a little dumber than you that can translate that book, but say it to us plainly. So I just sat in the back of the class and I just wrote poetry.
That’s what I did in this class to try and go, I’m telling you. And then, and then I’d start like looking up the words. I’m like, he used 37 different words that I didn’t even know existed before today. So the Trinity is hard to understand, but we’re going to, we’re going to do it together, this morning.
So we’re, we’re going to give it a go. So I believe the God, the son’s role in the story of grace is he’s the accomplisher, right? He’s the accomplisher. The father we saw last week. He is the willer, right? He has willed all things forward from the beginning of time. He set these things in motion. It was his plan.
It was the father’s purpose. But it was through Jesus Christ that His plan is revealed and actualized. Jesus is the accomplisher of the story of grace. You might be asking, well, what did He accomplish? What did Jesus the accomplisher, actually accomplish? We’re going to look at three different ways that Jesus has accomplished the story of grace and we’re, these three different ways will go in order of what He’s done, what He’s doing.
and what he will do. And firstly, we’re going to look at what he has done. Jesus redeemed us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, right? What he has done, Jesus has redeemed us. Verse 7 says this, In him we have redemption through his blood. This word redemption literally means to ransom someone, to purchase, to make a purchase, to set someone free.
Oftentimes it was, used in, A slave trade that you’d actually buy someone’s ransom to take them from an ownership to another ownership, right? Well, why did we need to be ransomed? Why did we need to be bought? Because we were enslaved by sin and under the law of the covenant. Since the beginning, right?
Sin has separated us from God. If you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, they lived in harmony with God. Perfect union. It says the scripture actually says that they walked around the garden with God. But they chose the sin and what happened when they sinned was they were separated from the presence of God, right?
And you might say that’s not fair. That’s not nice. Well, God is a holy God, right? Holy literally without sin. He’s righteous. God cannot be in the presence of sin. So when Adam and Eve chose sin, they were separated from God. They left the garden and started to live life on their own, separated from God.
Right? It’s because of His holy and blameless and righteousness. And, and God introduced the law of the commandments, right? Through Moses. And this law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, you’ve probably heard some of them before. Thou shalt not steal, kill, murder, commit adultery, all these different things, right?
They were to expose that we weren’t righteous, right? If we could live a righteous life and follow all these commandments perfectly, then we wouldn’t need to be redeemed. Amen. Right? The price to get into heaven is righteousness, right? That’s why God is in heaven, but we are separated from him because none of us is righteous.
Galatians 4, 4 through 5 says this, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption, as sons, right? At the fullness of time, Jesus lived a perfect righteous life on earth. He came and he fulfilled the law.
He did everything. They couldn’t, the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to get him. They tried to say, Oh, are you breaking the law here and all here? And he says, no, I haven’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, right? He lived a perfectly righteous life. And he came to redeem those who were still under this law of commandments, that we would receive adoption as sons.
And I love this idea of adoption comes from the Roman understanding of adoption, which actually attributes full rights. It’s really cool that we got to see, the rentals up here today and see a beautiful picture of that. Right? When you adopt someone into your family, especially in this context, you, they had full rights as a heir.
You actually would take on their debts, their former debts as they’re adopting. You take on them as you adopted this child. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. He redeemed us. He paid the price for us. Scripture says the wages of sin is death. That’s the price of our sin. And how did he pay it? How did he pay for this price of sin?
Verse seven of our passage says, with his blood. He paid our price for redemption with his blood. Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life, fulfilling the law completely. And when he died on the cross, he took our sin on him. As if it was his second Corinthians 521 says this for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is good news. The price was high and Jesus took it because that’s how much he loved you. That’s how much he loved you and I. See the idea that Jesus lived a perfect life, a perfectly righteous life and went on that cross, a substitution happened, right? That we were supposed to be there. The penalty for our sin was supposed to be paid out on the cross by us and Jesus took our place.
The price had to be paid, and instead of God pouring that price and that, his wrath out on that, he poured it on his son, Jesus. Colossians 2, 13 through 14 says this, And you who were dead in your trespasses of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. The debt has been cancelled. Your sins have been forgiven, past, present, and future. The price has been paid, and paid in full. If you ask a bunch of people, you know, what, what, how do you get into heaven? And they’ll probably say, well, you know, you, you live a righteous life, you do good things and as long as you, your good things outweigh the bad things, then God says, all right, you beat the cosmic scales, come on in.
That’s not what happens, right? God says the wages of sin is death. The price to heaven is perfect, complete righteousness. I can’t achieve that. You can’t achieve that. So God made a way through His Son, Jesus, to redeem us, to pay that price, and actually take on our sin on Him. And the exchange was, He took on our sin, and He gave us His righteousness.
So when we go, those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we go before heaven, God the Father is going to go in there, and He’s going to look, Okay, Jared Hacking, here He is, and He’s going to go, and He’s going to try to find my track record, and my, and my, and my report card, and He’s going to pull it out, And it’s going to be covered in the blood of Jesus, and it’s going to say paid for in full.
Right? It’s not anything I could do. The Son, Jesus, He’s accomplished it. He’s already done the work. He’s not asking me to pay for any of my sins. He’s done it. He’s redeemed me. The price has been paid. There’s no change to be said. It’s done. It’s full. He has redeemed us. And I wanted to put this first and foremost, and in the past tense.
Because it’s done already. This is what Jesus accomplished for us in the story of grace. But what is he doing now? What is he accomplishing now for us? What he is doing is Jesus is interceding for us. It’s a really cool thing. Jesus is literally going to the Father and interceding on your behalf. Jesus did not just die on the cross.
He was resurrected from the grave. Three days later, he literally was resurrected and went into heaven. And when he went into heaven. Right? Sometimes we have a picture of this, like, Jesus, like, did all his things. He died on the cross, lived the perfect life. And then he’s like, man, I just want a break. Kick the feet up, get a glass of water, something like that.
No! He didn’t retire into heaven. He went right back to work. And he’s interceding for us to the Father. He’s not in heaven with his feet kicked up enjoying retirement. He’s working overtime, 24 7, reminding God the Father of what has already been accomplished for us. See, the idea that God is perfect and holy and righteous, right, created a separation.
Jesus fixed that separation because of his righteousness. So his inter, him interceding for us, I see the picture of him in front of the Father as the Father looks at us as we’re just trying to get by and we’re broken and we’re trying to do things right or whatever. Jesus is jumping in front of him saying, Hey, remember, remember what I did for these people?
Remember? Remember? And when God sees us now, He doesn’t say, man, look at that broken, sinful Christian just trying to get it right. When God the Father sees us, He sees the completed work of His Son, Jesus. He sees the completed work of Jesus, the Accomplisher. There’s no more charges to bring against us.
There’s no more accusations. Romans 8, 33 through 34 says this, Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. I love this truth that Jesus is interceding and mediating for us.
Makes you think of a time we used to go to this place, whenever it snowed, to go, to go sledding, right? Who, who, who loves to go sledding? It’s an awesome time. Adults can go sledding too now. You know, you don’t have to give it up. Don’t do anything crazy because you do have to work in the morning. You have to think that through now.
But we used to go to this place as kids. And we’d sled and there was like, people would build ramps and do all kinds of crazy stuff. And there was a group of kids there that were kind of just like punks and they kept picking on me. And for some reason, I was, I was just like in my own world trying to sled.
I was sledding down one time and these kids like literally laid me out. Like, like as I’m sledding, like ran right into me. And I kind of fall and my lip was bloodied and I’m like looking up and there’s, I see these couple kids approaching me and I’m like, dude, this is it. This is it for me. Right? This is how I die.
These kids are approaching me and I’m like, I’m like looking down and then I look up again and all four of my older brothers have stepped in between and are standing in front of me. And I’m like, they’re taller and bigger than those guys. I think I’m going to be good, right? I think I’m going to be good.
This is the picture of Christ interceding for us. He stepped in front of us and saying, I got you. Stay behind me. Stay behind what I’ve already accomplished for you. What I’ve already done. I am the go between. I am the mediator. I will work for you. I will talk to the father. I will intercede for him. This is what Christ is doing for us.
And he’s the only one who does this. 1 Timothy 5, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 5 through 6, it says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. No one else, no one else but Jesus is our mediator.
No former saint, or loved one, or angel, or Mary, or anybody else. God the Son alone is doing this for us, and He’s actively doing it. He’s actively doing this. Jesus has redeemed us. Jesus is interceding for us. And third, what he will do, Jesus will restore us. Verse 11 says, We have obtained an inheritance in Jesus.
The restoration is partial now, but one day will be fully complete. 1 Corinthians 13, 12 says, For now we see only as a reflection, as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. We live right now in a state of already, not yet. We have been redeemed, purchased by Jesus, has made it so we no longer have to be slaves to sin, but we can actually resist sin, yet we are still wrestling with our flesh, right?
The price has been paid. Jesus, by His power of resurrection, has actually given us the ability to resist sin. He’s given us the ability to say no to sin. Before Christ, before, in Ephesians, it actually talks about, In chapter two, it says, you were dead in your trespasses. You were dead in the trespasses of your sin.
You were dead, separated from God, enslaved to sin. Now that we are in Christ Jesus, we’ve been redeemed by Christ Jesus through his resurrection. He has given us resurrection power over our sin to actually say, No, to actually say no to our sin. And some of you know this in your life, through your process of sanctification and getting closer to God over years, sin that you used to have an issue with or whatever.
You’re like, you know, that used to be an issue and God’s just taking that from me and as real as that is, You know, it’s just as real that this is a partial restoration right now that we are still wrestling. I am still wrestling with my flesh, right? I’m still wrestling with, do I really need the second and third donut?
Right? I’m not like, oh, yeah, that’s an easy answer for me. No, it’s a still wrestling that if I’m going to choose myself, my selfishness, my flesh, or am I going to choose God’s way for me in my life? But this is future sense that He will restore us fully. We’ll be, one day we’ll be fully dead to sin and fully alive in Christ.
When we are fully raised with Christ in the fullness of His glory in His presence. Not only will Jesus fully restore us, but he will actually fully restore all of creation. Romans 8 21 says that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Creation is groaning as we groan with it to be fully glorified in Jesus. The accomplisher, Jesus Christ, will one day make all things Right again, right? This is a already not yet. We’re dead to sin, but one day we’re gonna be fully dead to sin. We’re alive in Christ, but one day we’re gonna stand in the fullness of his presence.
This is something that should give us hope. This is something that we should long for, that Jesus the Accomplisher will one day fully restore us. This may have been new to you this morning. This may have been, reviewed for you this morning. But I just want to talk about how we respond to the Son’s role in the story of grace, right?
Because it’s, it’s great to know things, but how do we respond to the Son’s role? And first I want to talk about how we shouldn’t respond, but often how we do respond. I think in one way we respond to the Son’s story of grace is legalism. I think in one way we respond to the Son’s story of grace is legalism.
Right. My definition of legalism, you’ve never heard that term. Term is, is, is trying to pay for something that’s already been paid for. The Pharisees were guilty of this, right? They would see God’s law as this circle, these are God’s commandments. And then they draw a smaller circle and say, you know, if you, if you do these things, you’re even a, a better Christian.
You’re even holier, you’re even more righteous, right? But legalism is trying to pay for something that’s already been paid for. Like we just went over earlier, it was the perfect work of Jesus Christ that redeems us. Nothing we can do ourselves. But what happens is, we try to self righteously earn God’s favor or forgiveness ourselves.
I remember Many, many times in college, and I was just, I was wrestling, and I had a period of, of, of wandering, and I was just, I was messing up a lot, and whenever I’d mess up a lot, and just do something that I knew I shouldn’t have done, and, and, and I was regretting, I’d get so guilty, and I’d get, I’d start feeling condemnation, and I knew that what I did was a sin against God, I knew He wanted me to repent of these things, I knew all these things, But I wouldn’t go to him.
I wouldn’t pray. I want to open up my Bible and read it because in my mind I believe I got to clean myself up a little bit before I can appear before God Almighty, right? I got to clean myself up. I got I got a button my shirt I got to do all these things just so I can get into his presence again. So I would literally I would literally try to live out, like, two, three, four days of righteousness.
Like, this is a real thing. And I wouldn’t read my Bible because that was going into the presence of God. I couldn’t do that. So I’d try to live out. I’d try to be kind. I’d try to be loving. I’d try to do my homework on time. I’d try to do all these things. And then I would come at the end of that day, three or four, and I’d beg God for His forgiveness.
I’d beg God, please take me back. Please, please help me repent of these things. I was believing a false gospel. I was believing a false gospel. God the Father was waiting. Jesus Christ was waiting with arms open saying, Son, please return to me. He wanted me to turn from my sin. He wanted me to repent of my sin.
But he was saying, Please come into my presence again now. Don’t wait. The price has been paid. It’s accomplished already. Legalism is like trying to earn your dinner when someone just paid for your dinner. Right? You’re at a restaurant. Someone says, yo, I got this. You’re arguing over the bill. And they say, no, I got it.
Don’t worry. I got it. You’re like, okay. And then you get up from the table and you go back to the kitchen staff. You’re like, hey guys, you mind if I just wash a couple dishes? They’re like, why? They’re like, I just want to pay for my meal. I just want to, I just want to earn a couple of wages so I can pay for the meal.
And they said, sir, your, your bill’s been covered. Yeah, well, maybe I can just mop the floors or sweep the floors. Or you have any toilets I could clean? Is there, is there something I could do that would pay for my bill? And they said, sir, your bill’s already been paid for. You’re free to go. Legalism is trying to earn your dinner when someone’s already been paid for.
Legalism focuses on what we can do for God and loses sight of what God has already done for us. Legalism is arguing with Jesus and telling him his sacrifice wasn’t enough.
Hebrews 9 24 through 26 says this, As for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself. Now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own.
For then he would had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Jesus sacrifice is the perfect one and done sacrifice. There’s no need for any more atonement. There’s no need for any more payment.
The work is finished. This is different than any other form of religion. Any other religion says, what can you do to appease that God? Christianity says, Jesus has done the work, just receive it. You see the difference in that? The work has been paid for. Don’t cheapen his sacrifice. The opposite side of this spectrum of legalism is a fancy word I learned in college.
I did retain some things from college. It’s called antinomianism. It’s a fancy word that literally means no laws, right? This is the belief that since God covers us and the price has been paid and grace covers us, let’s do whatever we want, whenever we want. This is no better than legalism. This is cheapening the sacrifice of Christ as an excuse to do what we want.
You may have heard some of your friends talk like this before. Well, the Bible says we just need to have faith. You know, yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but so what if I get drunk? So what if I watch porn? So what if I scream at my wife? So what if I flip people off in traffic? So what? It’s all covered by the grace of God.
In the book of James, he says, Faith without works is dead. It’s not real. Jesus didn’t die so that you could have an excuse to sin. He died and rose again so we could have power to resist sin and turn to him. Good works don’t save you. But real faith bears fruit. I think this is perfectly summed up in Ephesians two, eight through 10.
It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship. Create it in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Good works don’t save us, but we, who were created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them.
And we can’t even take credit or boast for these good works, because it says God prepared them beforehand. He already prepared and went ahead of us and prepared them for us, right? This is no better than legalism. It’s cheapening the sacrifice of Jesus. I don’t know where you are this morning, but my prayer for this sermon was that all who heard it would come to a deeper understanding, a deeper knowledge of what Jesus did for you.
My hope is that we wouldn’t sway to either side of the spectrum, but we would stop trying to do things for God. And embrace what he’s already done for us. Jesus accomplished us. Jesus accomplished it for us so that we could live it out with him. My hope is that we would do all things to the praise of his glory.
That we’d embrace the perfect work of Jesus Christ and live it out. I want to end, this morning with a prayer of St. Patrick. And if you guys just want to read it with me, this is prayer of St. Patrick. It says this, Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me. Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me, salvation is of the Lord, salvation of the Christ.
May our salvation, Lord, be ever with us. Lord, thank you so much for the story of your grace. Thank you, God, for your Son who accomplished all things for us, that we might walk in them. God, please help us to respond to this, Lord, that you would convict hearts and turn us away from sin. And to you, Lord, we pray in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. You guys can stand.