Ephesians 1:3-6
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
Sermon Transcript:
We’re going to be looking at Ephesians chapter one verses three through six. I’d like to read them for you this morning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Father, we come to you this morning, we’re overwhelmed with this portion of scripture and the perspective that is presented there of a God that pursued us.
Lord, I pray as we reflect on this passage that we might fall more in love with you. More awed with what grace really extends to in our lives. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. In his classic book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, author C. S. Lewis presents a world, a magical, mysterious, animal world held in the grip.
Of an individual called the White Witch of Narnia. She has cast a spell over the whole land, which means it is, the result has been that it is in permanent winter time. And Aslan, the lion, the savior king, appears. And ultimately, as he appears, he is brought to a place called the, the, the stone table and offers himself at that place and is brutally slain by his enemies and then rises victorious.
The stone table is broken. he rises victorious over death. And he explains later that his resurrection fulfilled a magic that the white witch was unaware of. He says this, there was, there is a deeper magic from before the dawn of time. It is not only in Narnia that there is operating a deeper magic from before the dawn of time.
In the Bible we learn that before creation, before the dawn of time, God’s wisdom and love was designing a plan that would be ultimately for his glory. But also the gathering of a people to himself forever. Chapter 1 verses 3 through 14 are presenting that picture that was designed before the dawn of time.
It’s one sentence in the original Greek. It is a building upon building upon building presentation in which all three Godhead are featured players in the drama. Father, Son, Spirit, the Triune God, three persons in one being. As I’ve regularly mentioned, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, God existing as a community for all eternity is the picture of eternity past.
God was not lonely, God was not struggling, God was not missing something, but God as a three person being determined that they wanted to share the relationship that they shared as a community with others. So he created humans. He wanted then to make a way for humans to share in that community, that dance, as they had rejected him as the Lord and sovereign in their life.
In this passage, in verses 3 through 14, all three participants in that drama are talked about. In verses 3 through 6, we will see the first of those, God the Father. And in two great Earth shattering scenes of recorded history, God is presented in his three person being involved. One is creation. Creation, when God created the cosmos, he created the Milky Way, he created, and all of the, the billions of galaxies that are similar to our Milky Way, he created the Earth as the center of that.
enterprise as he placed those that were made in his own image, humans. In the creation account, father, son, and spirit throughout scripture are recorded as playing a part. The second great endeavor in human history, in world history, in cosmic history, is the work of salvation of human beings. In which all three members of the Godhead are involved.
This passage in Ephesians 1 tells the story of that salvation experience from God’s perspective. And what it does in verses 3 through 6 is talk about God the Father. In verses 4 through 7, in verses 7 through 12, it talks about God the Son. In verses 13 and 14, it talks about God the Spirit. But I want to just, by way of introduction to this passage, which is going to take us three sermons to get through, give a snapshot at the different roles of each member of the Godhead.
It is true in creation, and it is true in salvation history. First of all, God the Father is the one who authors the story. Both, He is the one that designs creation, He is also the one that designs the plan of salvation. He is the architect. He is the designer, the one who initiates it all. It’s God who so loved the world.
And they’re talking about the Father. God so loved the world that He sent Secondly, the son accomplishes the story of grace, even has he accomplishes and, and, and is the, agent. of creation. He pulled it off. Jesus spoke creation into existence. Jesus created the cosmos. There were New Testament passages that make it clear it was God the Son that did that.
It was the Father that designed, the architect. But Jesus is the agent in both the work of creation and in the recreation of salvation. Third, there is God the Spirit. He applies the work. He applies the story of grace. He utilizes the grace that has been provided. He utilizes. The creation that is there in the creation work.
He is the one that that, is the one that is described in Genesis one as moving on the waters. It says the world was without form and void. Jesus had created the spirit came and brought order to it. And he’s the one that utilizes that. He does this in salvation, bringing shape to people’s lives where the work that God, the father ordained of the cross, the work that God, the son did.
And being incarnated and coming and being one of us and dying and rising. The Spirit then applies it, utilizes the work of the cross and the resurrection and applies it in people’s lives. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. Involved in these great eternity shaping experiences of creation and salvation.
This morning we’re looking at God the Father’s role in the story of grace, in that salvation experience. And I’d like to look at three things we find in this passage related to that. First of all, God the Father designed the plan of grace. It began with his desire to extend grace. He says this in verse 1, in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
He says, It’s God that started it all and these are some phrases as we bring up this visual There are some phrases here that talk about what God the Father did throughout these verses He blessed us with all spiritual blessing in Christ He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world in love.
He predestined us. He lavished grace upon us It was all according to his purpose. It was all according to his plan for the fullness of time It was according to the purpose of him The father who works all things according to the counsel of his own will. Sometimes when we talk about salvation, which is simply the term that refers in the scriptures to a person being rescued, delivered from the bondage of sin and the ultimate penalty of sin, of separation from God, and being brought into a relationship with God through what Jesus did on the cross for us.
It, it, we talk about, it, it’s almost as if God the Father is, is on one side, he’s the judge, and Jesus is the one that’s placating and that is, that, that is, trying to remonstrate with him and trying to, to overcome what the Father’s will is. It’s not that picture at all. Years ago, when Pastor Ralph and I were younger, and we’re the only guys on staff, I guess we had a couple other guys, Jim had joined us by then, but, but Ralph and I would play one on one basketball.
We had the gym. And we were both, and are, very competitive. We had both played basketball in high school and college, and we, we, we, it, it was pretty, intense. And I came up with the idea, it happened after, I had won one day, that I got, we had just had a, a Red Cross blood drive where we got a trophy.
And I took the, if you’re a Red Cross person, I apologize for this, but, I took the, the, you know, the, The plate that celebrated our church off and I put my own plate on it and it said FCC one on one champion. And I put it in a very prominent place on my bookshelves just waiting for the time that Ralph came in my office.
It was a great moment, until he stole it, but, which he literally did. But, so we had this relationship that, that was going on, and went on for years, and, and various things competing, and it sometimes moved into the realm of pranks. And one of mine, that I look at very fondly, although my wife still says it wasn’t, anyway, it was a great idea.
well we did. Back in the gym, we used to have a stage, temporary stage, and when we had baptism services, we wheeled out a, portable baptismal tank, which, which sat there and actually was above the platform. Here would be the platform. It was about this high. And so, one Sunday morning, Ralph was doing the announcements.
Now, Ralph didn’t do the announcements the way Mike does, or Jared do, where they sort of are wandering all around, you know, just, and ad libbing effectively. Ralph wrote out every announcement, and read his announcements, and he had done a couple of pranks, and so I, we were pretty big into puppet ministry at that time.
And so, I got two people to go into the baptismal tank, which was void of water. And one was a 65 year old woman named, Gail Davis, the nicest, godliest woman. I don’t know how I got her to do it, but, but she did. So they’re down in the baptismal tank, waiting for Ralph to come up to do the announcements.
And Ralph starts doing the announcements and the puppets. are going on in back of him. And he’d say something, and they’d both nod their head no. And, and, and of course, everybody is out there laughing. And poor Ralph, which I didn’t really feel poor Ralph at the moment, but. So there’s this, this, this.
euphoric moment for me. Everybody’s in hysterics. Finally, he discovers somebody just can’t take it anymore, and they’re gone. So he finally turns around, and there are the puppets. Now, of course, he retaliated later, but, but, Ralph, afterwards, came to me and said, I’m after you and I responded, I said, Ralph, I was not involved.
I mean, I wasn’t, I wasn’t in the, I didn’t, I didn’t do the puppets. I, you know, I just, and he said, I know you masterminded this whole thing. And of course he was, he was right and he, he, he knew I knew. I was culpable. I was responsible. Here’s the reality of the work of Jesus Christ. The father is culpable.
He masterminded the whole thing. It was his idea. That he is not in conflict. That it was the father’s motivation to have this. He was the architect of everything. And the God who sits on the throne of heaven. The God who sees every sin. Knows every thought of whom he’s described in Hebrews. The book of Hebrews, it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
This God, it says, is a consuming fire. It’s His idea. This whole plan of God rescuing people through the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s the Father’s design. Secondly, it not only began with His desire to extend grace. It brings glory to Him for His grace. You notice what it says in this little box that comes up in verse 6.
It’s to the praise of His glorious grace. To the praise of His glory. To the praise of His glory. It’s all His glory. Until Copernicus came along in 1543, we earthlings held center stage in the universe, at least in our minds. For centuries, fathers had been able to put their son, their arms around their sons and look out at the starry sky at night and say, Here on Earth, we’re the center of everything.
Everything goes around us. And then Copernicus shows up. And Copernicus, later in his life, actually he wrote it in the middle of his life, but he never published until he was almost dead. He published a book, and the book was entitled On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. In it, he argued that the sun Not the Earth, was actually the center of our solar system.
He delayed, having the book published, and actually, there is a story of, he was on his deathbed, that they finally had the manuscript, and they brought it to him. Of course, everything was handwritten in those days, because they didn’t have the printing press yet. But they brought him this, his copy, and he held it in his hand, and, and there’s this thing, it’s the first time that he’s seen it.
And then he died. And, it, it’s to me, it’s the perfect example of the old maximum. Speak the truth, and leave immediately afterwards. Because he, he knew if he, if, if, if it was known, a matter of fact, Galileo, 50 years later would be thrown into prison when he would echo the same sentiments. The earth is not the center of the universe.
We still have a hard time not being the center of the universe. It’s natural for us to want it to be all about us. God in the dock is a book that was written by CS Lewis. And in the book, CS Lewis is saying this is what has shifted in modern history. In this series of articles, he says we have changed from the historic position that we are on trial before God and now he is on trial before us.
We expect our wants and desires to be fulfilled. We expect God to answer for it. If he allows suffering and hardship. If he does not do as we assume he should. If he acts in a way that does not fit with what I think is good or fair or appropriate. We even want God to explain elements of grace to us and perhaps Nowhere is that more true than in the next role of God the Father in the story of grace.
The second role of God the Father in the story of grace is that God the Father chose the recipients of grace. Here’s what it says in verse 4. He blessed us in Christ, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. In the scriptures, there are three groups of people that God is highlight as choosing.
One is the nation of Israel. He chose them to be His people. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, it says this,
For you are the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you. He chose you. There’s nothing meritorious in you. There was nothing unique about you. There was nothing special except that God chose to set his love upon you. The second thing that God chose, a group of people that God chose, are individuals for specific acts of service.
There are many of these, the Levites were the, of the twelve sons of Jacob. The sons of Levi were called to be the priests, nothing special about them at all. It wasn’t because Levi was the most godly man on earth, as a matter of fact he was far from it. But, but, God chose them to be the priests. God chose 12 disciples.
They were certainly not the greatest, the sharpest tax in the box, but God chose them. And there are many other individuals that God chose to specific acts of service in the scripture. And then the third group is the one that’s mentioned here, people to be a part of Jesus kingdom in salvation. Now this of course, is dicey for us, right?
It’s challenging, I mean, where are you going with this? Can we jump to number, can we jump to point three? We can’t. Because it’s right here, in verse four. In the book of Acts, it says this in chapter 13, verse 48. When the Gentiles heard this, the gospel being shared, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
The word appointed means that they were specifically chosen out for that. In John chapter 6 verse 37 and 44, Jesus is talking and says, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I’ll never cast out. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. The word draws here is the same word that’s used in the Gospel of John of a fisherman with his net.
And he sends his net out in the water and he pulls it back. And he’s pulling this, this, this group of fish, the catch of fish into the boat. Now none of those fish are in that net saying, Oh good, oh good, oh good, oh good. Pick me, pick me, pick me. No, they’re being dragged into the boat and the picture of, he says, my father drags people to me.
My father draws them and nobody comes except my father draws them to them. They’re trying to get away, but the fishermen relentlessly draws them to the boat. In John 17, Jesus talks about all those that are believers are those whom the Father has given me. This is, of course, a challenging concept for us.
It doesn’t seem fair. One of the hardest concepts to embrace and trust God with. So, what is God saying with this? Well, you’ll notice that it says in verse 3, All spiritual blessings to those who are in Christ. And if I asked you today, if you’re, if you have believed in Jesus Christ as Savior, and I asked you,
why do you think you are in Christ? Why are you in relation with Christ? And I think we would appropriately give the answer, well, because I put my trust in Jesus Christ as my only hope and received him as my Savior. I chose Jesus. And that’s true. That’s absolutely true. But what Ephesians 1, 4 and other passages in the New Testament is saying, you chose Christ.
Because the Father chose you. Now, here is why that makes sense. Although it is difficult for us to embrace. And I understand the journey, the questions, the, the, the arguments. Years ago, I was wrestling with this concept of God choosing people to choose Him. And my thinking, ultimately, went something like this.
And this was over time.
I thought, Mark, why are you a Christian today? Because I received Christ as my Savior. Okay? Why did you receive Christ and other people don’t? Because I saw the sin in my heart. I saw my need of Jesus forgiveness. Why did you do so and other people don’t? Because I was just broken with my need and the emptiness of my life without Him.
Why were you broken and not other people? I don’t know. I guess they, I guess there’s something in them, they were hardened, they’re proud just like I had been. They chose not to face themselves, but for me, I couldn’t avoid the reality of it. Mark, why did you come to the place of humility and desperation and others didn’t?
Were you more humble? Was there a spark of goodness in you that others didn’t have that made them harder, prouder, less desperate? Was there a sliver of inclination in you that others didn’t have? Were you a tiny bit less dead in your sins? Maybe mostly dead, maybe terminally so, but sick, seriously sick.
The more I went through that question, the deeper I got. Ultimately, I had to indicate that either God totally enabled me to believe, or there was something in me that was a little more God oriented, a little more righteous seeking than the guy that rejects Christ his whole life. But there was no difference in me.
I wasn’t clamoring on my own to get in the boat. I wasn’t thinking, well, yeah, you know, God dragged. And look back over the circumstances of my life, I realized I was headlong trying to do life without Him. And God just dragged and brought circumstances, and I came to the conviction that is rock solid in my soul today.
That I chose Jesus because the Father chose me to do so. And my father in law, who is a college professor in biology, but actually his lifelong gift is storytelling and humor. He is, my father in law was dying and seemingly totally incoherent. And the last day or two of his life he would come out of it a little bit.
And would catch snippets of a conversation and somehow would immediately come back with a story that was perfect in its humor. It’s just, it was, it was, he was brilliant at this. But he always had lines, he always had one liners or something. And he had, to me, the best description of this whole concept.
Theologically of talking about God’s part and our part and salvation and he did it by a story that he met up in the north woods of Michigan and a guy had lived there for many years. But this guy was explaining how he came to Michigan. And here’s what he said. He said to my father in law, God brought me here, but I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t come.
Who’s going to argue with that one? And my father in law would say, That’s how I view salvation. I had to come, but God brought me. That’s what Paul’s saying. Do you have to believe on Jesus Christ? Yes. Is there any other way to experience salvation? No. But as Spurgeon once reminded us, It’s all of God. It’s all of grace.
And he said it this way, If God didn’t choose me before creation, He certainly would not have done so afterwards. It’s about God. The third thing is God the Father determines the destiny of grace. Verse 5 he says this, verse, the end of verse 4 of the phrase, In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose
He destined us to full rights of adult heirs. He said, you were predestined for adoption. The word predestined is just how it sounds to us, but from the original, it’s a little, a little richer. It’s, it’s the word pre, which means before. And the word destined or destiny is actually the word portion. It was used of boundary lines in property.
And he says, Your portion was pre assigned. That portion of anyone who embraces Christ as Savior is that they are destined to the full rights of an adult heir through adoption. Paul talks about this throughout the book of Galatians, which he’s trying to say to believers, Man, embrace who you are. Embrace what your destiny is.
What your portion is as adopted children. He says this in Galatians to 7, God sent his son to redeem us. To redeem us that we might receive the full rights of sons. So you’re no longer a slave, but a son. And since you’re a son, God has also made you an heir. He says the new heavens and new earth which are coming, the, the entire Garden of Eden being, the entire cosmos.
He says that’s your inheritance. That’s just your, your physical inheritance.
You’re God’s kids, he said. And all he has is and will be yours to enjoy. This is a rock solid reality. It is your predetermined portion. And so Paul’s saying, count on this. Hold on to this. Live with the security of this in your lives. And yet, we all as Christians struggle, how does God really view me? God seems distant.
He’s scary. And Paul is constantly saying in the book of of Galatians, man, you’re living, sweating the small stuff. You think I got to get it right. I got to get it right. And he says it’s not about getting it right. It’s enjoying God. It’s enjoying the God that says my portion for you is that you’re Inheritors!
You are my children! I remember reading this story many years ago. I was reading, it was back in the late 1800s. It was out in the far part of the Midwest, where a farmer was there and his wife was sick. And the only way he could get the medicine that she needed here in the heart of winter was he had to cross a river.
And to get to the closest town, he had a long walk, then he had to cross this wide river. And he got to the wide river, and he was very nervous as he got to the river, because he wasn’t sure if the river could hold his weight. At times it was a pretty fast moving river, strong current. And so he got the largest board he could find.
And he got on the board to distribute his weight as far and wide as he could. And he started slowly sliding, laid down on it, and started sliding this thing along. Step by step, or it wasn’t step, slide by slide to get across. And all of a sudden he’s in the middle of the, the, the, the river. And he hears this, this roaring sound.
Well, this is the ice. It’s gonna break open. I mean, this is it. He’s done. And he’s, he’s there just frozen in fear. A wagon drawn by two horses goes zooming past him. And that was the roaring noise. That’s how I live my Christian life a lot. I’m acting like, man, I, I gotta get it right. I gotta do this. I, I, I, God’s waiting to just say, Mark, you’re not And I could be racing across the river, enjoying life that We are God’s kids.
If we’ve been brought to Jesus Christ, we stand in a standing that He is saying My inheritance for you ultimately is in a life to come. He’s going to talk in the latter part of what it means that the spirit is the down payment of that. But he says, enjoy this reality because I’ve destined you to the full rights of adulterers.
Secondly, he says, he has destined them to be conformed to the image of Jesus. When the term predestination is used And a lot of people think that’s the problem issue. It’s not. I would say none of you have a problem with predestination if you understand it. It’s just saying, this is what we are destined to as God’s children.
We are destined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. If you look down at verse 11 in this passage that we’re looking at this morning. 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 own will. Here’s what He’s saying.
We’ve been predestined to the one that’s working in all things in our lives. This is what he says. And many of you that are believers and have been for a number of years, I’m going to quote one of the most well known verses in your life. Romans 8 28 to 30. Listen to what it says. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.
For those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknow, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. He says this is the purpose. That everything that God is allowing in your life has the purpose of conforming you to the image of Jesus. To change you into the likeness of Jesus.
That God is not wasting experiences. That he’s got, using all those life experiences, which means that everything that is going on in your life is what you would pray for if you knew everything that God knows. That he’s conforming us to the image of Jesus. He says, God’s not wasting stuff in your life.
The stuff that you would say, please, erase this part. It’s all part of this process of designing you. Your portion is to be like Christ and to be Jesus life within you. So why does all this matter? These truths we’re looking at this morning, why do they matter? I want to say three quick things as I close.
Number one, these truths matter because they give us incentive to know all three members of the Godhead. Father, Son, Spirit. To speak to them in the awareness of this is the role, this is the role, this is the role. Well, Mark, you talk like they’re completely three different guys. Well, they are, but they’re all one.
I know! Figure it out! I haven’t! But to know all the remembers of the Godhead and do life with them. Secondly, it matters because it is encouragement to you in your lowest times.
God the Father is crazy about his kids. He wanted you. A number of years ago, we didn’t have this building. we did have the gym. It was probably the lowest point of my life to that point. I was very aware of myself. I had received, I’ve talked about this before, the letter from my wife at our 10 year anniversary.
It was calling me out appropriately for my own self centeredness and pursuit of She said, if you were a, if you were a businessman, you’d just be called a workaholic. But because you’re a pastor, you get a pass. And I was just overwhelmed with the failure of my life as a pastor. Pastor as a husband, as a man of God.
And I remember wandering this property and just going back there. And one reality was what I cling to. I said, God, I feel failure in every part of my life.
But you wanted me. You chose me. I wouldn’t choose me. I’m not sure my wife would choose me. I’m not sure anybody should choose me. But you wanted me. Verse 4, to me, is a precious doctrine. And I understand the issues and the tension and struggles with how does this But there is also an incredibly precious side of knowing that God wanted you.
The third thing, it is motivation to turning to Christ. Harvey Kahn, a missionary to Korea, tells of sharing the gospel with young prostitutes in Korea. And he could not get them to accept Jesus because they were overwhelmed with their lives had become, what they’d done. And finally, he told them about God choosing people.
And he said this, Do you know that the Christian God has chosen people from out of the world to be His very own before the creation of the world? And they said, you must be kidding. How can a person know if they are one of those he chose? And he said this to them, Well, do you want that gift of forgiveness?
And they said, more than anything. And he said, then you must be chosen, because only a person who is chosen by God has that desire, and draws to God in his salvation your desire. is evidence of the fact that God has chosen you. They gratefully received the gift of God’s grace. Maybe you’re here in the same place and you say, Ah, this, this whole thing is kind of confusing to me.
I’m a sinner. Yeah, need forgiveness. But he could never want a person like me. I’ve done too much, too far down. Then I would ask you this question. Do you want His forgiveness? Would you long for the life and inheritance that Jesus came to provide? If your response is yes, it’s because God is at work in your life.
It’s because God is drawing you. The beautiful reality is, we do that. We respond because God is at work in us. It is a supernatural work of grace in our lives. God the Father is the architect of salvation. He got this whole thing running in eternity past. He’s the one that designed it. He’s the one sovereign even in the Godhead by their choice of, of, the structure, the chain of command, if you will.
But he is also a beautifully, preciously, approachable being. He’s our Father. He’s your Father if you belong to Him. And if there’s a hunger this morning to want to belong to Him, understand that you don’t have that of yourself. It is the Lord speaking into your life this morning. Lord, we come to you today.
We sit back and we say, Lord, man, there’s things in this message that are hard to figure out. I don’t understand how you’re a three person, one being God,
but I want to worship you as you are.
And there’s parts of us that really are confused by this concept of verse four and a God that chooses. But Lord, I want to wrestle through and say, I want to worship you and I want to love you and I want to bow the knee to you to how you say you are and to worship what you say you do. For me, Lord, you know how these truths have been in some ways a bulwark in my own journey with you in life.
I pray that your spirit would draw us to a deeper awe, a deeper love, a deeper longing for the God that pursues us in your grace. In Jesus name, Amen.