Studies in Ephesians - Chapter 1:7-10

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1 Studies in Ephesians - Chapter 1: Introduction a. When God determined to save you and adopt you it was in love. And now, even today, at this very moment, God s eye of love is on you. This is not just a past tense reality, but this is a present reality that we can experience He and now. b. The subject of God s emotions, especially towards us, is one of the most important things we could ever seek to understand. It is not enough to know the theological and theoretical constructs about how God saved us. i. We must become students of God s emotions and His heart towards us. When we touch His heart towards us it releases power in our lives and spirits like nothing else. c. But it is not good enough to understand what happened on Calvary. We need to know what happened. It is crucial we understand what happened to us as Christ shed His blood. Our lives are forever changed when we understand what was made available to us on that day. d. Many people stay in bondage today simply because they do not understand what Christ did for them on the cross and in the resurrection. We must know what Christ did for us. e. But it is not enough to simply know what happened. We must know why it happened. The why behind the what is actually where the power lies. Knowing the what is like having a door opened in front of you but it is only when you understand the why that you have the power and courage to walk through that door. f. Paul, in Ephesians 1:5-6, tells us two different facets of God s heart for us: i. He loves us as sons ii. He finds pleasure in us 2. The Storyline of Redemption a. After Paul beautifully expounds upon the lovesick heart of God for you and He turns his attention and focus on to what the Father both has done and will do out of this heart of joyful love. i. Love, in its true and purest form, requires action. It cannot stay stagnant and passive. Love is aggressive. It purposefully and intentionally seeks out the object of its affection. ii. Therefore anyone who claims love, in any form or fashion, and does not seek an avenue for that love to express itself does not truly love. Love demands expression. Love has a voice, it is not silent. iii. This is what John tells the church as he uses Christ as the model for the expression of our love for one another and for the world. 1

2 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. - 1 John 3:16-18 iv. The principle is this: You cannot claim an internal reality that does not at least attempt to manifest itself outwardly. The proof is not in the success of the attempt but in the reach of the heart. v. True love for God, for other believers, and for the world must be manifested in some way, shape, or form in our lives. Again, perfect is not success, the attempt and reach in our hearts is success. I fail to love God, I fail to love others, and I fail to love the world on a regular basis but my heart is not okay with it. I am reaching and striving to show love in a greater way and to give expression to what God has done in my heart. vi. Jesus was the greatest example of this and He also taught the same principle: If you love Me, keep My commandments. - John 14:15 vii. Love, true love, has to have an expression otherwise it is just a mental claim that does not mean anything. Love must work its way into our hearts and hands. It cannot remain merely a mental claim. True love is jealous to show forth its power and lay hold of its desired object. b. Paul takes the love and delight described in verses 5 and 6 and launches into the action plan of Jesus to express that love. This action plan really is the gospel messaged summarized. The basic storyline of redemption that comprises what the gospel is can be found in these three verses. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him. - Ephesians 1:7-10 c. Jesus was and still is very intentional in His feelings and in His heart towards humanity. He is the sovereign Lord who created and sustains all things. He could have set this whole thing up any way He wanted, including your life and mine. d. Yet He, in His wisdom, chose to write His grand storyline this way. He chose to live His life, die His death, and pour out His Spirit the way that He did. e. Everything He did, is doing, and will do is done through the eyes of His brilliant love and tender mercy. Make no mistake about, our God is a jealous God, His eyes burn with fiery love and vehement flames of jealousy for us His bride. f. He will stop at nothing until He has our hearts responding and our lives cooperating with His love. This is His chief and premier goal (Matthew 22:37). 2

3 g. In these verses, which encompass the gospel of Christ, we see two different sections. We will look at each of these sections in some depth. They are: i. The Riches of His Grace (verses 7-8) - What God has done and accomplished in Christ Jesus (past and present). ii. The Mystery of His will (verses 9-10) - The ultimate goal and desired end of the gospel (present and future). h. We will work in reverse order and begin with The Mystery of His Will. By doing this it should help us better understand what Christ has already done and what He is still doing today. If we understand where everything is going we can more easily understand why Christ has done what He has. 3. The Mystery of His Will a. Numerous times in the Book of Ephesians Paul uses this phrase, the mystery of His will (1:9, 3:3, 3:9, 5:32, 6:19). This theme of the mystery is a prominent one in Ephesians. b. Paul introduces to the mystery in verses 9 and having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him. - Ephesians 1:9-10 c. A mystery in the biblical sense speaks of something that was hidden but now, through revelation knowledge, has been made known by God to man. The mystery of His will therefore speaks about the will (plan) of God that was hidden in times past but now has been made known to man....how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets - Ephesians 3:3-5 d. Since the fall of man God had been speaking to humanity about His plans and intentions yet much of what He spoke was shrouded in a cloud of mystery. The prophets in the OT saw and understood a portion of what God was about to do but what they did not understand or comprehend was His burning heart of love for all of humanity that was driving the storyline of human history. e. Paul continually, over and over, mentions this mystery and the will of God in his letter to Ephesus. So what is it? What is the mystery that has now been revealed? f. Another way of asking this is, Where is this whole thing going? g. Paul in verse 10 tells us that the end goal, or the mystery, is that Christ might gather together in on all things. Meaning what? That it is God s chief aim and desire, both now and forever, to have an intimate heart connection with all His people. 3

4 h. The Father, Son, and Spirit are all yearning and seeking a people that will adore Him, love Him, worship Him, and commune with Him forever and ever. i. In chapters 2 and 3 of Ephesians Paul elaborates on the fact that this reality involves not only Jews but Gentiles as well. For centuries Yahweh was the God of the Jews only but part of the mystery that was revealed to Paul was that Gentiles (non-jews) would also partake of this. ii. For roughly the first 10 years of the church (Acts 1-10) it was entirely a Jewish church. It wasn t until Peter preached to Cornelius in Acts 10 that the gentiles were brought into salvation. iii. When this happened it actually enraged the Jewish church leadership and Peter had to defend what happened (Acts 11). The fact that you and I are saved is part of the mystery that Paul is referring to in Ephesians 1:9-10. i. Friends, for all of eternity we will be experiencing and participating in loving fellowship and communion with the Godhead. You could say that we will be operating in Ephesians 1:4 holy and blameless before Him in love. j. The will of God, the plan of God, and really the end goal of the gospel is that all things both in heaven and on earth would be gathered together in loving fellowship in Christ Jesus. This is God s desire, that you and I would be with Him forever in a dynamic relationship. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You love Me before the foundation of the world. - John 17:24 k. The incredible part about this reality is that we do not have to wait to experience it. God has given us His Spirit and allowed us to come before Him in prayer and worship just like we will be doing for all of eternity. i. It sounds outlandish but it is true, what we have available to us in the place of prayer and worship is actually what we will be doing forever. ii. Obviously when we are with the Lord and sin is done away with our ability to experience this will increase dramatically but we cannot discount what we have access to through prayer and worship. iii. God is so anxious to spend eternity with us in nearness that He pulled back the curtain early and invited us in. l. One of the ways the Bible describes this reality is through the picture of priests. After the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been made priests to God, meaning that we have access to Him through prayer and worship. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Exodus 19:3-6 4

5 They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into Hs marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2:8-10 To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6 m. The great common denominator of humanity is that each of us are called and anointed by God to function as priests to Him. When we walk outside of this calling we begin to misuse and abuse our time, money, body, family, and fellow humans. Many of sin struggles originate in our lack of understanding who we are in both function and identity as the priestly image-bearers of God upon the earth. n. This is what Jesus was ultimately pointing at when He gave us the First Commandment. Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all? Jesus answered him, The first of all commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:28-31 o. Priesthood is the first and greatest of all commandments and serving our fellow man comes second. The order Jesus lays out here is vitally important because it shows His priorities. p. You and I, and all of humanity, were created to stand before the Lord and minister to Him. And it was to this end that Christ came and did what He did. His coming, death, resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit were all focused on Christ having a people (the church/bride of Christ) gathered together before Him forever. 4. Riches of His Grace a. This end goal of eternal companionship and love was the dream of God s heart from the dawn of time. It is why He created Adam and Eve in the first place. They were created in the image of God, by the hand of God, for the eternal purpose of God. b. However part of the equation was the power of choice and free-will. Adam and Eve were the first to reject God and every human since has quickly and gladly followed suit. The consequence of our choice is that humanity was sold into bondage, death, disease, and the devil. c. Our master is the devil. Our wills have been taken captive and we serve a horrid task master, sin. 5

6 ...and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. - 2 Timothy 2:26 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered...for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. - Romans 6:16-17 & 20 d. You and I were sold as slaves to a wicked master. We worked, strived, labored, and toiled in life only to have everything taken from us. We lost our hope, our joy, our peace, and our soul. And in return we were given nothing. e. Our old master, the devil, promised us everything and delivered nothing but more heartache and death. We were slaves in the ultimate sense. f. This presented Christ with a problem; that He is holy and perfect and desired eternal relationship with sinful people that were slaves to sin. g. This is the situation that Paul is addressing in verses 7 and 8 in Ephesians 1. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence - Ephesians 1:7-8 h. Paul outlines two different things that happened to us when Christ shed His blood on calvary: i. We were redeemed 1. Because you and I had willfully sinned, rebelled against God, and become a slave to sin there was a debt over our life that needed to be paid. We could not just walk away free. We were slaves therefore payment was required to set us free. 2. And because we gave our entire life over to sin (body, soul, and spirit) a life was required as a payment to redeem us. Justice had to be met; a life for a life. We gave our lives completely therefore Christ had to give His life completely to buy us back. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God s. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ii. We were forgiven 1. Not only were we purchased and bought were have been forgiven. All of our past sins, failures, and rebellious actions have been wiped away from our accounts. God has cast them far from us and actually doesn t remember them anymore. 6

7 2. It was not good enough to just redeem us in our present state, our past had to be dealt with as well. Forgiveness wipes away the guilt, shame, and condemnation from all our past decisions. 3. In the blood of Jesus we have been washed from all of our filthiness and made clean before God. And you, being dead in your trespassesand the uncricumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. - Colossians 2:13-14 i. Both of these acts were done by and through the grace of God. Meaning it was not of your own works, or your own strength but it was all Him. You did not find Him, He found you. You did not choose Him, He chose you. You did not save yourself, He saved you. j. It was all by His grace. It was all His working therefore it is all His glory. Paul would summarize the first 10 verses on his letter later in Ephesians 2:1-9. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us (Eph. 1:4-5), even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3) in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:6)(Eph. 1:9-10). For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves (Eph. 1:7-8); it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 1:6). - Ephesians 2:1-9 k. God s gospel was and is very intentional. He is jealously in love with you and desires to be with you forever. So He came, in the form of a man, to give His life a ransom and pay our debt, and invite us into our eternal calling here and now. What a glorious gospel! 7