back to indexWed Bible Study Ephesians Lesson 2
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I'm going to read for us Ephesians, and we're going to start from verse 1 and go down to 00:00:12.080 |
verse 14, and then we'll pray and jump into the study. 00:00:16.400 |
So let's take a look at the passage, and it says, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by 00:00:21.120 |
the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, 00:00:26.040 |
praise to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:00:30.160 |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every 00:00:34.800 |
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before 00:00:39.920 |
the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. 00:00:44.460 |
In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according 00:00:50.440 |
to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he 00:00:58.520 |
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according 00:01:02.880 |
to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us. 00:01:06.440 |
In all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his 00:01:13.280 |
With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is a summing 00:01:17.320 |
up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. 00:01:22.160 |
In him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, 00:01:27.760 |
who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the 00:01:32.480 |
first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. 00:01:36.300 |
In him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, 00:01:42.340 |
having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given 00:01:47.500 |
as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, 00:01:56.980 |
Lord, we thank you for your incredible grace. 00:02:01.620 |
And Father, as we study this passage, we recognize that your grace is abounding. 00:02:06.820 |
Lord, the way that you have expressed your love, it's incredible. 00:02:11.620 |
Father, in the many multifaceted ways in which you have blessed us, God, we can only begin 00:02:20.500 |
We pray, God, that you grant to us just hearts of faith, hearts of gratitude. 00:02:26.140 |
Lord, as we look upon all that you have done for us in Christ, we thank you it's in Christ 00:02:32.460 |
Okay, I'd like to begin with some just introductory remarks. 00:02:36.460 |
As we read that, I mean, that is a pretty incredible section of scripture. 00:02:41.180 |
As a matter of fact, there are lots of people who will note that this portion of scripture 00:02:47.180 |
in Ephesians is their favorite passage of all time. 00:02:52.060 |
Because in such an incredible way, just in these short verses, 11 verses or so, it summarizes 00:02:58.340 |
like what God has been doing in redemption, right? 00:03:03.420 |
It summarizes the heavenly things that we can look forward to. 00:03:09.420 |
And that's the kind of introductory remark I would like to say is that verse three through 00:03:15.460 |
And what a rhapsody is, is when you think of somebody who is just giving this eloquent, 00:03:19.860 |
lyrical, almost like genius kind of expression of intense emotion, intense thought, that's 00:03:27.820 |
And that's exactly what Apostle Paul is doing. 00:03:30.180 |
He is enthusiastically expressing how we ought to bless God because God has blessed 00:03:40.300 |
And the incredible thing about all this is that although in the English language, as 00:03:46.300 |
it's translated, it's broken up into about three sentences, this long, long paragraph 00:03:51.820 |
starting from verse three all the way to verse 14 is actually one incredible run-on sentence 00:03:59.020 |
There is this like overflowing excitement in Apostle Paul. 00:04:04.580 |
And a lot of people actually look at this and they'll say, "This is one of the most 00:04:07.820 |
lyrically and literally like genius pieces because it almost feels like it can be sung." 00:04:16.260 |
And a lot of people say there's this rhythm and there is this movement to this section. 00:04:20.660 |
And the reason why I'm highlighting this to you is because then what you see in Apostle 00:04:25.860 |
Paul is somebody who is just so enamored with the truth of Christ. 00:04:31.580 |
And if you've ever seen somebody who really gets it, right? 00:04:34.900 |
If you've ever interacted with somebody who really truly understands, what you'll see 00:04:39.300 |
is that that person has looked at this precious truth, this precious faith that we have in 00:04:45.860 |
multiple angles so that he can summarize incredible truths into short, condensed ways. 00:04:51.540 |
And when you see that, you realize like this person understands. 00:04:54.420 |
But what's more, he can extrapolate and say, "Let me give you examples." 00:04:58.900 |
And so what we say, you know, in a kind of idiomatic way is, "He knows it in and out." 00:05:05.020 |
That's what you feel when Apostle Paul is walking through with us. 00:05:12.460 |
And then he can summarize it all in such great ways. 00:05:15.660 |
And so as we say this, I ask you this question, "Do you feel Apostle Paul exhorting us to 00:05:24.720 |
And what's really interesting, the answer is yes and no. 00:05:30.340 |
There is actually no verb in verse 3, which is kind of weird, okay? 00:05:34.620 |
And what's more, what Apostle Paul is doing is he is just, in a weird way to say, is going 00:05:44.080 |
But there is a thrust there because when you look at verse 3, he says, "Blessed be God." 00:05:56.260 |
But he puts it right at the beginning of that long, long paragraph in an emphatic way to 00:06:05.740 |
Praise be to God because of the incredible multifaceted way by which he has blessed us, 00:06:13.420 |
So then as we look at that, what we're gonna do now is walk through the passage together. 00:06:19.940 |
And just to kind of remind us, remember that our number one step in good Bible study is 00:06:25.520 |
to make sure we're making keen observations about the passage. 00:06:29.660 |
Please know, especially in a passage like this where it's just rich, right? 00:06:37.140 |
There's tons of truths coming at us in rapid fashion. 00:06:40.780 |
You're gonna probably have to read that passage a couple times, right? 00:06:43.960 |
And what I like to typically advise is when there is this kind of paragraph and there's 00:06:48.020 |
long stretches of thought, it is good for you to observe the flow of thought, okay? 00:06:54.500 |
Because as you read, you wanna just track with him because there is very organized flow 00:07:01.380 |
And what's more, break it down phrase by phrase. 00:07:04.820 |
And you guys know that I like to do this in the Bible studies whenever I get an opportunity 00:07:09.180 |
is, if there's a long, long sentence, trying to read it in a paragraph form is tough. 00:07:14.860 |
Visually, it really helps to break it down phrase by phrase and then ask the question, 00:07:20.220 |
what is the relationship between those phrases? 00:07:23.620 |
And then when you look at this long list, actually create a list. 00:07:27.780 |
I hope that when you did your Bible study and you recognize like, "Oh, he's just listing 00:07:33.340 |
off every single way that we're blessed in Christ." 00:07:36.100 |
I hope you actually then created a list, one, two, three, four, five, six, and start to 00:07:39.900 |
appreciate, look at the many ways I can number them, right? 00:07:44.480 |
I can number them so that you too, just like Apostle Paul, know in and out detail but also 00:07:53.180 |
So that's just an encouragement on observation, especially in a passage like this. 00:08:01.120 |
It says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us 00:08:05.220 |
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." 00:08:10.540 |
I may mention for you that that little portion right there is not a verb, but it's an adjective, 00:08:18.960 |
It is an emphatic adjective where he's saying, "God is blessed." 00:08:22.300 |
But as he's doing that, I believe there is then kind of an exhortational expectation 00:08:28.780 |
as Apostle Paul is praising, "You need to too." 00:08:32.660 |
Now when, again, when you take a look at this passage like this, sometimes it's hard to 00:08:41.440 |
And this is what I've done for you on your handout, right? 00:08:44.140 |
I did that so that we can run through it pretty quickly where we make observations on the 00:08:51.500 |
So when we take a look at this, in my mind as I see that first segment, that first phrase, 00:09:01.260 |
again, I would like to label that as a command and say, "Apostle Paul is challenging us. 00:09:07.540 |
And the thing about it is he gives us to us then several phrases describing that concept. 00:09:13.940 |
And the way that I like to do is I like to make these arrows and show you that when he 00:09:17.700 |
says, "Blessed be God," he has this positive phrase where he says, "Who has blessed us?" 00:09:26.540 |
These spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places in Christ. 00:09:31.060 |
You see how I broke it up into little phrases? 00:09:34.140 |
And the thing is, these little terms, which are, whether it be a positive just pronoun, 00:09:39.980 |
whether it be a preposition, I know we're getting into English grammar now, okay? 00:09:44.460 |
Preposition, they all help to signify for you the relationship between these phrases, 00:09:51.900 |
In order to do good observation, again, I like to label so that I can see, okay, this 00:09:56.980 |
is what he's saying, and then quickly, easily see patterns. 00:10:03.020 |
First, there is this kind of command adjective at the beginning. 00:10:14.820 |
And then there are the second and prepositional phrases where it says, "With every spiritual 00:10:20.300 |
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ," okay? 00:10:24.100 |
And as we do good Bible study, when you break it down like that, that's how you start asking 00:10:28.920 |
really good questions or just questions that are more specific and detailed. 00:10:33.580 |
You could ask the question, "If he's blessed us, how has he blessed us?" 00:10:37.140 |
That sets you up for the rest of the paragraph. 00:10:39.780 |
If it's every spiritual blessing, what does this even refer to? 00:10:43.340 |
The question should be, "What is this every spiritual blessing?" 00:10:48.820 |
What is his concept of every spiritual blessing? 00:10:58.620 |
Here we have a great topic sentence for the paragraph. 00:11:03.060 |
Remember how I was saying that you want to just follow Apostle Paul's flow of thought? 00:11:06.500 |
It's incredible as Apostle Paul has a way, he's very organized, of giving us this amazing 00:11:14.940 |
You know, when you guys write essays, you guys have to write that. 00:11:19.620 |
God is to be blessed because he's blessed us with everything. 00:11:29.940 |
And so, not to make much of this, but the transition is there for us. 00:11:34.180 |
He says, "Just as," and I gave you some other translations too, "Just to show us," Apostle 00:11:39.580 |
Paul is extrapolating the every spiritual blessings in the heavenlies that he's thinking 00:11:45.140 |
He is showing us what they are line item at a time. 00:11:49.220 |
And again, he says, "The first one, as he's thinking about the spiritual blessings that 00:11:53.260 |
we receive, is he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy 00:12:01.220 |
Now, I'm going to again break that up for us into small, succinct phrases. 00:12:06.860 |
It's a little bit different than what I have in the packet. 00:12:09.180 |
Your packet was just kind of like a cursory run. 00:12:11.500 |
So then I broke down little smaller sections. 00:12:19.180 |
We could even break this down and separate, "Just as," separate it, "He chose us." 00:12:23.660 |
The idea of him choosing us is an incredible blessing. 00:12:28.420 |
Have you guys ever thought about it that way? 00:12:31.100 |
Predestination, election is not a theological topic just to be debated. 00:12:37.340 |
Here he's presenting to you in his mind of the list of ways that God has blessed you, 00:12:45.820 |
And he says, "He chose you," chose us, "in him before the foundation of the world that 00:12:55.580 |
Here now I broke down those phrases, but as good students of the scriptures, as trying 00:13:01.540 |
to make strong observations, we have to now identify and tag the phrases. 00:13:08.420 |
And the way I'm going to do it for you is like this. 00:13:13.780 |
So I'll just tag it as this is number one on the list of things, the blessing that he 00:13:19.060 |
But what's more, he describes in detail when. 00:13:24.660 |
I'm saving the "in him" part of it for an emphatic point later. 00:13:28.620 |
By saying, "before the foundation of the world," think about that. 00:13:32.740 |
Before the expanse, before the waters and the waters, and before the land coming up, 00:13:38.380 |
before the light, the foundation, before the foundation of the world, that is when God 00:13:46.220 |
What's more, the why, that we would be holy and blameless before him. 00:13:50.740 |
This is an incredible, incredible blessing for us. 00:13:54.940 |
And I'm going to make much of this a little bit later on when we start drawing some conclusions, 00:13:58.240 |
but I want you to just take a moment to think about that. 00:14:01.100 |
This blessing that God has for us is not a blessing by which he simply permits you to 00:14:11.900 |
God in his redemption, he's transforming you. 00:14:15.940 |
He is radically changing every single one of us, taking us from stained, unholy, rebellious 00:14:22.420 |
sinners and making us so pure that we are blameless before the holy eyes of God. 00:14:37.080 |
This is an incredible, heavenly blessing in Christ. 00:14:41.900 |
When he's thinking blessings, he's thinking, "Think about the way he chose you." 00:14:52.180 |
He says, "In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according 00:14:57.860 |
to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he 00:15:04.860 |
See, again, if we just run through a passage like this in paragraph form, it's very difficult 00:15:11.180 |
So you break it down a little bit, and we again want to label. 00:15:15.740 |
Notice how the concept of choosing and predestining is repeated there. 00:15:22.020 |
But this time, he adds the idea that the predestining was to adoption. 00:15:28.000 |
And so I want you to think about that for a moment. 00:15:31.580 |
Some people will say the doctrine of election is cold, mechanical, and fatalistic, but not 00:15:42.140 |
There is incredible purpose to the election that God exercises. 00:15:46.660 |
And it is an election to adoption, an incredibly intimate and unique relationship between father 00:15:57.220 |
And what's more, we see the similar phrases that you probably saw as repetitions. 00:16:02.060 |
There is through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will. 00:16:09.340 |
There is clearly a pattern that's going to start building. 00:16:14.260 |
He's going to talk about the means that by which that blessing came, which is through 00:16:19.460 |
And then he's going to talk about the purpose, to his praise, to his glory, to himself. 00:16:28.260 |
How would you identify, how will you classify this phrase? 00:16:46.900 |
What about when he starts to reveal like this is all in accordance to the kind intention 00:16:59.780 |
I want you to take a moment to just do it, like on your sheet. 00:17:04.780 |
Because these are the moments that you start to classify and you say, oh man, God is revealing 00:17:21.940 |
And all of a sudden you start to appreciate that phrase even in greater fashion when you 00:17:29.540 |
So perhaps you might want to put in there, this is God's motivation. 00:17:35.860 |
Verse six, he talks about to the praise of the glory of his grace, which is purpose, 00:17:41.540 |
which he freely bestowed on us, that I label as a blessing, okay? 00:17:46.300 |
I'm not sure if you were making your list, you saw adoption, clearly blessing. 00:17:53.160 |
But this idea of his grace, there should be this weird thing where he says his grace is 00:17:58.860 |
to be praised by how just the reality of how marvelous it is. 00:18:04.060 |
But then he says that grace he freely bestowed on you. 00:18:13.820 |
We see purpose, we see another blessing, and we see the means. 00:18:20.820 |
Next, verse seven, he says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness 00:18:27.840 |
of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us, okay? 00:18:37.840 |
Second is you have forgiveness of our trespasses. 00:18:40.200 |
If you're studying and you label it like this, this would be like blessing number four, blessing 00:18:46.140 |
And then you should ask the question, hmm, the sentence runs on, is he trying to see 00:18:55.860 |
What's the difference between that and forgiveness? 00:18:58.400 |
Is there conceptually some nuances that I should appreciate? 00:19:02.600 |
Those are some questions you should be asking, right? 00:19:04.820 |
And then he has that phrase again, according to the riches of his grace, which is so similar 00:19:09.140 |
to according to the kind intention of his will. 00:19:20.020 |
So we ran through verses three through eight, and I hope that was an encouragement to you, 00:19:26.020 |
If you're able to take those paragraphs and those phrases, and then you divide it by the 00:19:33.620 |
phrases that you see, what you'll realize is you're getting his thought and flow. 00:19:39.120 |
And once you ask and you highlight these terms through, oh no, through, according, which 00:19:46.780 |
now you see relationships between his thoughts. 00:19:54.500 |
Lavishing means this is according to his heart. 00:19:57.060 |
This is his motive, or you can even say this is then his agenda, his pattern, his heart. 00:20:02.780 |
And then which he lavished, this is manner, right? 00:20:07.620 |
So as we walk through that, I hope that was an encouragement to you. 00:20:14.140 |
Within this general outline, I ask you this question, like in verse three through 14, 00:20:20.180 |
And what we see in this general outline is Apostle Paul summarizing why God is to be 00:20:26.860 |
And as he's doing that, he is basically in a rapid fire fashion giving us all the different 00:20:36.340 |
Since we're dealing with verses three through eight, we see a couple main blessings that 00:20:41.580 |
Namely, he chose us for holiness and adoption. 00:20:45.780 |
Secondly, he has graced us with redemption and forgiveness. 00:20:51.220 |
Now, what's pretty incredible is this is not the only outline that you can use. 00:20:56.060 |
What's really incredible is for the next study, I'm going to ask you, how is the Trinity involved 00:21:03.420 |
How is the Trinity involved in all of salvation? 00:21:05.980 |
And what you'll notice is Apostle Paul not only categorized it in the choosing in the 00:21:10.620 |
redemption, a lot of commentators noticed, wow, so there's past blessings, present 00:21:17.500 |
Later you will realize there is seal for the future, right? 00:21:21.720 |
But then there's also an organization between the Trinity as God is decreeing and he is 00:21:26.180 |
working what the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplishing and what the Holy Spirit is accomplishing. 00:21:32.660 |
So what you'll find in the organization of this passage is Apostle Paul kind of beautifully 00:21:36.580 |
applying multiple categories to help us conceptually understand, look how blessed you are. 00:21:49.000 |
So drawing some conclusions, we want to move to really appreciating some of these elements. 00:21:56.860 |
I just mentioned by segue, the first conclusion or I guess like exhortation, first takeaway 00:22:03.060 |
that we should really see from this passage is that we should recognize truly how spiritually 00:22:14.420 |
I mean we're getting a laundry list of blessings, but emphatically so we're seeing some like 00:22:20.900 |
monumental, monumental blessings that we have in Christ. 00:22:25.780 |
And the very first thing that we see is being chosen, but I wanted to show you and highlight 00:22:31.660 |
that in terms of repeated concept, this is the greatest. 00:22:36.620 |
So here I'm going to read the passage for us again, just highlighting the things that 00:22:40.760 |
Apostle Paul highlighted for us as blessings to us. 00:22:44.600 |
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every 00:22:50.200 |
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. 00:22:53.920 |
Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless 00:23:00.940 |
In love he predestined us to adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according 00:23:05.360 |
to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he 00:23:12.160 |
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according 00:23:16.760 |
to the riches of the grace, which he lavished on us. 00:23:20.480 |
One of the brothers in our table group, he said, man, when you look at this, you feel 00:23:30.480 |
You should feel a sense of this incredible, overflowing grace upon you. 00:23:37.600 |
And we can appreciate that just by thinking about the one concept of being chosen. 00:23:44.560 |
As we looked at this passage, this is one of the clearer passages, one of the main passages 00:23:49.240 |
people go to when they talk about the doctrine of election. 00:23:55.240 |
They're like, no, it just doesn't sound fair. 00:23:57.920 |
It just sounds like God's going, you and you and you. 00:24:05.560 |
That's not the way the scripture describes it. 00:24:08.800 |
When we take a moment to appreciate the doctrine of election, and we actually ask those questions 00:24:13.960 |
of when, why, how, who is doing the electing, which persons is he electing? 00:24:22.400 |
All of a sudden, that whole doctrine becomes an incredible, incredible blessing of his 00:24:31.440 |
When we think about God's choosing, and we think about when, have you ever thought about 00:24:37.600 |
the fact that then that means, yes, God is eternal and he is beyond time. 00:24:44.920 |
But we can't just bypass the fact that then his kind heart intention has been expressing 00:24:56.240 |
I want you to take a moment just to think about time. 00:25:04.160 |
That's the person you should be most grateful for. 00:25:09.480 |
There are people in your life who have become close friends really fast, and you're so thankful 00:25:16.020 |
But there is a different kind of gratitude you give to somebody who has been for a long, 00:25:21.900 |
long period of time being faithful and loyal to you, laboring with their kind intention 00:25:33.260 |
I gave this example a long time ago in one of the sermons I gave. 00:25:37.260 |
I could buy you a meal tomorrow and say, "Let me take you out." 00:25:48.600 |
But you owe a different kind of gratitude to your parents who have fed you for like 00:25:53.860 |
18, 20, some of you much longer than that, fed you every meal, planned for your nutrition. 00:26:08.960 |
But somebody who has been intentionally taking care of you for the course of your life, you 00:26:20.300 |
But when you think about this, he reveals to you and opens up a mystery that God has 00:26:26.140 |
had his perfect plan for you prior to the foundation of the world. 00:26:38.180 |
What's more, his choosing was a kind of choosing for the purpose of making you holy and blameless. 00:26:51.420 |
That means making you so pure and holy that you can stand before the holy eyes of the 00:27:02.900 |
What is going to cause those who are in Christ to be so pure, you stand before God without 00:27:08.820 |
an inch of nervousness like, "Oh my gosh, is he going to?" 00:27:15.840 |
And I want you to appreciate this even from a greater degree because the kind of love 00:27:19.880 |
that we have for people, when we love somebody, we want their good. 00:27:24.660 |
But I want you to think about it in just that whole concept of who it is he's loving and 00:27:34.140 |
Ladies, if you see a guy who's just filthy, his hygiene is like negative 10. 00:27:45.060 |
And clearly he's been to the gym with it and he hasn't changed. 00:27:50.260 |
And there's grease coming out, dripping from his locks. 00:27:54.900 |
Is your thought to be like, "Oh dear, I need to wash you. 00:28:07.860 |
You'd just be appalled like, "Do you not see yourself?" 00:28:14.140 |
The kind of mercy and kind intention God must have to see the utter filth of mankind where 00:28:25.820 |
And then to desire to wash us, to make us holy and blameless. 00:28:31.900 |
Have you ever conceded that God's push for you to be holy is one incredible blessing? 00:28:40.500 |
If we've ever been burdened by the scripture's expectation for us to be holy and sanctified, 00:28:45.980 |
have you ever considered that that is not a burden to us? 00:28:52.900 |
He rephrased it, "It's an ongoing incredible act of love." 00:29:00.660 |
And then to say, "I have predestined you for adoption." 00:29:09.220 |
If we took a moment to think, the kind of choosing that God chose us, it's God Almighty. 00:29:20.300 |
He's not one incredible authoritative figure. 00:29:22.460 |
He is God Almighty of the universe choosing wretched children of the devil. 00:29:30.140 |
And if proponents who are minions or whoever it may be who deny the election of God, they 00:29:36.100 |
think, "It's just this cold, it's just this arbitrary, mechanical, fatalistic choosing 00:29:47.900 |
God's choosing is not just simply some lofty figure, some distant king saying, "I give 00:29:59.900 |
This is Father figure coming to bring you into his home. 00:30:07.300 |
That is so different from the mechanical, cold election that people think it may be. 00:30:26.300 |
You know, I have this quote from J.I. Packer. 00:30:28.420 |
I was reading his commentary on Ephesians and it's really awesome. 00:30:32.780 |
And he says, "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out 00:30:37.940 |
how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. 00:30:43.580 |
If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole 00:30:47.740 |
outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. 00:30:53.900 |
For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new and better 00:30:58.100 |
than the old, everything that is distinctly Christian as opposed to merely Jewish is summed 00:31:02.980 |
up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God. 00:31:17.620 |
And so he repeats that multiple times in the book. 00:31:21.900 |
We have an incredible blessing to be able to call him Abba Father. 00:31:25.540 |
What's more, there is being redeemed and forgiven. 00:31:28.700 |
And for the sake of time, I want to challenge you. 00:31:36.500 |
I want to highlight the fact that for us, redemption typically means like, "I overcame." 00:31:42.780 |
It's like, you know, back four years ago in the Olympics, I utterly failed. 00:31:47.140 |
I tripped and I fell and never even made it to the goal line. 00:31:50.500 |
This time around in the Olympics, I go on gold. 00:31:55.620 |
Like that's typically redemption in our thought is you fail but you overcame. 00:31:59.580 |
Now there is that kind of concept in Scripture. 00:32:01.980 |
But Scripture's concept of redemption is even more rich than that. 00:32:06.180 |
What you have to do is you have to look at where the times in the Bible he uses the word 00:32:11.820 |
And typically what he says in the Scriptures is that he purchased you. 00:32:18.900 |
And that's why even in this passage he says, "You have been redeemed through the blood, 00:32:23.380 |
the payment of the priceless life of Christ." 00:32:31.460 |
Scripture talks about redeemed as individuals, let's say, who are slaves, who are owned. 00:32:36.540 |
Redemption doesn't mean just simply like, "Woohoo, I'm free." 00:32:39.080 |
Redemption means you have been bought under new ownership. 00:32:42.760 |
Redemption even in the, like, you know, kinsmen redeemer, right? 00:32:45.520 |
You have somebody who passes away and now this person is without protection, without 00:32:57.900 |
Really rich, really rich concepts that we should look into. 00:33:01.340 |
But the goal, again, the effect reminding us when we walk through this passage we should 00:33:07.940 |
come out with the sense, "Oh my goodness, I am so blessed." 00:33:19.220 |
And you should feel like, "Oh my goodness, if I sat here and counted all the ways I'm 00:33:26.220 |
And what's more, that's one of the conclusions that we have to make is that we find as a 00:33:30.340 |
repetition in this passage that every blessing is in Christ. 00:33:40.660 |
Remember he says that every spiritual blessing is in the heavenly places in Christ just as 00:33:48.900 |
In love he predestined us to adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ to himself. 00:33:53.860 |
And then all this to the praise and glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us 00:34:03.740 |
There is no blessings for heaven outside of Christ. 00:34:08.140 |
There is no eternal weight outside of Christ. 00:34:11.900 |
There is only one place we should be looking for things that last, for things that are 00:34:18.380 |
When it comes to even your self-esteem, when it comes to even your identity, we as believers 00:34:24.020 |
have to understand it is all wrapped up in Christ. 00:34:27.580 |
And then the third point is all the blessings are in accord to his kind intention. 00:34:33.060 |
And I wanted to make mention of this just briefly because man, praise be to God. 00:34:41.220 |
Because one of the things we see highlighted in this passage is the manner by which he 00:34:50.300 |
I don't know if some of you have ever sat and took an account of how you perceive God. 00:34:57.780 |
Where if God is this far, for a lot of people, God is this far and distant figure waiting 00:35:17.100 |
Sometimes it's slow going and very difficult. 00:35:20.260 |
God is watching from far, far away and he's waiting to see if you'll be faithful. 00:35:34.340 |
Because look at the way that scripture is talking about the way God loves us. 00:35:38.680 |
He is freely lavishing his children with his kind intention. 00:35:46.100 |
So if all of a sudden we have this moment where we're like, "Why in the world do I feel 00:35:52.940 |
We have to start asking the question, "Have my eyes been opened to appreciate and see 00:35:59.300 |
what are the actual blessings that God is trying to give me?" 00:36:03.300 |
The fact of the matter is scripture paints it like he's overflowing and freely giving 00:36:14.140 |
So by way of application, I want to ask you this question. 00:36:19.300 |
Have you been seeing by faith what it means to be blessed by God? 00:36:25.940 |
Have you been seeing by faith what it means to be spiritually and in heavenly fashion 00:36:35.220 |
Have you been walking in a way where according to Psalm 1, "I am blessed, I am rich, I'm 00:36:40.300 |
strong and healthy because I've been abiding in the presence of God. 00:36:43.660 |
I've been meditating on his word and it's richly dwelling in me." 00:36:48.440 |
Have you been operating by the faith that knowing I have been chosen by God Almighty 00:36:58.300 |
You are filthy rich because your father has everything at his disposal. 00:37:11.100 |
I pray, I pray against this many times that I fall into this duped thinking when I see 00:37:17.220 |
that guy with the truck that I want, when I see that guy with the house that I want, 00:37:20.660 |
when I see that guy with the height, the intellect and the blessings that I want, then all of 00:37:24.660 |
a sudden I conclude, "Man, that guy is blessed." 00:37:28.620 |
I pray that our church and our Christian individuals do not interpret life like that. 00:37:35.060 |
You see some guy, he eats all that he wants and he doesn't get fat. 00:37:52.100 |
Because we need to be concluding and interpreting with faith. 00:37:56.620 |
Every single one of us, by the mercies of God, when we have been united with Christ, 00:38:06.740 |
And it is a challenge to us that we not walk by sight and that we not interpret the world 00:38:13.820 |
of what is blessedness and what is not blessedness by what we see. 00:38:20.580 |
And that's why if you turn to a future portion, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18, this is what 00:38:28.820 |
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is 00:38:33.660 |
the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 00:38:37.980 |
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe. 00:38:42.180 |
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought 00:38:45.660 |
about in Christ when he raised him up from the dead, seated him at the right hand in 00:38:51.540 |
Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, 00:38:56.220 |
not only in this age, but also in the one to come." 00:39:04.900 |
And the spiritual truth for us is that by faith, it'll all be ours in inheritance. 00:39:11.740 |
Christ is going to share his glory, his authority, the blessedness that he has with the Father 00:39:24.340 |
"Even when you are dead and in our transgressions, you made us alive together with Christ. 00:39:29.420 |
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, seated us with him in the heavenly 00:39:33.180 |
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show," what? 00:39:37.780 |
"The surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." 00:39:48.440 |
And so if any of us are feeling like, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sad, I'm so disappointed, 00:39:52.860 |
I'm so joyless, I'm so joyless," we have to make sure that we are exercising this faith 00:40:01.580 |
And so the last application is, after seeing a portion like this, we should be ready with 00:40:11.100 |
If your mind is on the level, like you're just this technical dude and you're just like, 00:40:14.820 |
"Wait a minute, I don't understand how choosing works. 00:40:19.100 |
Did he long see us and then he's a," if you're like that, just take a moment to pause and 00:40:31.100 |
I have predestined to adopt you that I might have a unique relationship with you where 00:40:41.380 |
I will be your father and you will be my child. 00:40:45.140 |
Why in the world do we sometimes, "Wait a minute, but how does that work? 00:40:52.060 |
What we should do in application when we see stuff like that is we should thank him. 00:40:59.400 |
Thank you for choosing me to have this unique relationship with you. 00:41:12.900 |
And Father, I pray that we would never grow tired, we would never grow weary, and we would 00:41:16.340 |
never grow so accustomed to giving you thanks and praise and prayer that God may it never 00:41:24.060 |
But Lord, may we be enriched, may our hearts be so thankful and overflowing with gratitude. 00:41:39.200 |
We thank you so much that you operate according to your heart and your kind intention towards