Ephesians 1:1-14 God’s Plan for the world

Ephesians 1:1-14

What is God’s plan for the world? For your life?
Is it the same as yours?

Where are we headed? What is our destiny? Is this world chaos headed for destruction, or is there a plan, a purpose behind it all?

Well, the letter to the Ephesians answers those questions in its magnificent opening chapter. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.

All things are working together for this goal: to glorify God. Everything that happens in your life will glorify God. Your purpose is to glorify God. That is why you were created. That is why you have breath in your lungs and the spark of eternity in your soul. 12 God’s purpose was that we [Jews first and then Gentiles (non-Jews)] would bring praise and glory to God.

And God the Father will be most glorified when all things are brought under the rule of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the goal to which all creation is moving, because that is what gives God most pleasure.

As you will have noticed, we have completed our time with the prophet Amos, and a magnificent time it was indeed, tasting the deep truths of God’s awesome power and majesty – and marvelling at his ability to save the unrighteous, the sinful, those deserving of death, and give them an eternal hope, an eternal future.
Ephesians, you will note, has the same themes, because it is the same God.

Today we’re going to look at the passage under 3 points:

1. Introducing Ephesians (more general)

Then, into tonight’s passage

2. We have EVERY spiritual blessing

3. Guaranteed by GOD

1. Introducing Ephesians

Ephesians is a letter, written by the Apostle Paul. Remember that the Bible is a library of different books, from different genres (types) of writing, written by different people, but all under the inspiration (control) of the Holy Spirit. That means they wrote what they wanted to write – and what they wrote was what God had decided they would write. That’s why we can say “Paul says in Ephesians” and “God says in Ephesians”. Both are true.

So far this past year we’ve read through Mark’s Gospel, which is (mainly) historical narrative (telling what happened); Amos, which is a book of prophecy: God speaking directly to his people, warning them of the consequences of their actions, and promising a Great Rescuer (Jesus); and now Ephesians, which is a letter to a church, like us! We need to keep in mind what kind of book we’re reading, and when it was written. The Bible’s like Telen. Telen has sports, letters from the readers, news, and comics – and you automatically change how you read each of those. Remember to do that when you read the Bible!
Particularly important is remembering where you are in salvation history – that is how much has God revealed of his plan to bring everything together under the authority of Christ. The Old Testament looks forward to the coming of Christ, the New looks back to his death and resurrection, and forward to his return as the conquering King.

Now Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul. Paul you can read about in the book of Acts – he was a Pharisee (the religiously self-righteous guys we met in Mark’s gospel, who ended up putting Jesus to death because he kept making them feel like the sinners they were. They didn’t like being called sinners, so they murdered him...!). Paul was like that. He started off opposing Christianity, and, zealous for God, he went around arresting Christians. That is until Jesus met him on the road to the city of Damascus, and turned his life upside down. There Jesus commissioned him to be his missionary, his Apostle, to the Gentiles. For a Jew of Jews, a Pharisee, ritually clean, this was a HUGE shock – he had spent his whole life looking down on Gentiles, thanking God that he was not one – and now God was ordering him to take the gospel to Gentiles?! To proclaim to them that they too could be united to Christ, take part in the blessings of God given to Israel, could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jew in the throne-room of Heaven, equal before God because of the work of Christ.

Mind. Blown.

That’s why Paul begins his letter like this: 1. This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
“chosen by the will of God” – you can almost hear him saying “it wasn’t MY idea!”.

No it was God’s plan, God’s amazing plan, his mysterious plan to glorify his name even amongst the Gentiles.

Who do you think is beyond salvation? Who do you think is so far away that God cannot reach them? The Muslim? The Taoist? The New Age believer with her crystals and her runes? The Nietzschen nihilist? The Hindu?

No, says Ephesians, no-one is beyond the reach of Christ. 3:6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Even the Gentiles! There was not a bigger gap between people than between Jews and Gentiles. To a Jew there was a hierarchy of Jewish men, Jewish women, dogs, and then Gentiles.

But Jesus does the impossible. 2:12 You [Gentiles] were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

The church united, a great song of praise to the majesty and glory of the Living God – that is the great theme of Ephesians. A theme that we will be exploring over the coming weeks. A theme that, I’m grateful to God, we represent! Look at this room, all the different nationalities, different religious backgrounds, different ages, different genders – all brought together, united in Christ. Brilliant! We are an advert to God’s grace, proclaiming “glory to God, glory to God, glory to God”. (see 3:10)

Another big theme is God’s sovereignty (which we see in today’s passage) – his good rule over all things. And so we don’t need to fear any darkness, any spiritual powers, any curses or evil spells. Jesus has authority over them. Jesus is sovereign. In Christ, we fear no darkness.

As we read through Ephesians we’ll look at what the church is for; how we need to be taught the Bible as our lifeblood; and how we should behave as a church, the church of Christ, God’s family, in our workplace, with our wives, our children, and with each other. But before we get onto all that, we need to first start with God, and what he has done for us.

Because Christ is the way into all these blessings. He is the beginning and end of our salvation. In him we are complete. In him, we have

2. EVERY spiritual blessing

Ok. Imagine that you are a Gentile (that should be easy) in the 1^st century (ok, a bit harder!), in Ephesus (hmm!). You’ve heard the good news about Jesus and have accepted him as your Lord and Saviour. But you’re overawed by the Jewish Christians. They have all this history, all these promises from God. They are the chosen people. How would you feel?
Maybe a bit “second-class”. I mean, you’re in – but they’re really in!

Paul nails that thought immediately in the opening of his letter. v1 I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. If you follow Christ you are holy. You are a saint! St. Daniel. Etc.! Now holy means holy. There’s not different levels of holiness. And in case we were confused: 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. If we are in Christ we ARE holy and without fault, blameless. In the language of Romans: righteous. Remember what we’ve learnt from Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been made known. Jesus is God’s righteousness and if we are in Him, we have His righteousness.

That’s why there’s no such thing as second-class citizens.

You may have come from a church tradition which says you start with Christ, but then you move on to greater or deeper things. You need to say Hail Mary’s, you need to wear the sign of the Cross, you need the second blessing of the Holy Spirit, you need to follow the law, you need prophecies, you need tongues, you need to dress like this, you need to meet on a certain day and no other, you need to be part of our church and no-one else’s, you need to be baptised in this way. It’s that experience or this religious duty or this secret knowledge and then you’ll be a truly fulfilled believer. It is Gospel PLUS. And Gospel PLUS is no gospel at all – God’s gift of grace, his salvation, is made worthless by adding all these things that we must do. It is a huge mistake, forgetting that we are sinful, unable to please God, forgetting that God is sovereign in salvation (as in all other things), that it is HIS good work. Gospel PLUS is no gospel at all.

And v3-14 absolutely DESTROYS that kind of evil, Satanic thinking. In the original manuscript vv3-14 is all one sentence! One magnificent hymn of praise to God who has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing. If we are in Christ we have (past tense) every spiritual blessing. We lack nothing.

Have a look what we have in Christ: 4 we are loved, holy, without fault, 5 adopted in God’s own family, brought (reconciled) to God, 6 grace is poured out on us, 7 our freedom is purchased, our sins are forgiven through his Son’s blood, 8 we have all wisdom and understanding (how? Through this Book + Holy Spirit! We have all we need for life and godliness), 9 he has revealed his mysterious (secret) plan to us, 10 we are under his authority, 11 we have an inheritance, 13 we have the truth, 14 we are Gods own, we have the Holy Spirit. And so we do indeed want to praise and glorify him with pur whole lives, at every minute, with every breath: praise be to God.

What do we lack? Nothing! Don’t let anyone fool you by saying you need to move on from Christ, you need to claim this or that blessing, you need this secret knowledge which only we can give you. Trust and obey, that’s all you need. Read your Bible, pray every day. It’s that simple. God has done everything for us. We are his children. So be his child! Listen to him, talk to him, trust him, obey him.

That’s why every Christian can pray. We don’t need priests to pray for us. My prayers and your prayers are heard in the throne room of God – why? Because JESUS is there, and we are “in Him”. When we pray, it’s like Jesus is praying, and the Father hears the prayers of his Son. Grab hold of this truth. You are blessed with every spiritual blessing. You lack nothing. You have been given everything.
Christian maturity or Christian growth is not adding levels of holiness, “do this and you advance to level 3” – no, it’s simply acting more and more like Christ. It is allowing this truth to so infiltrate (go through) every part of us, every part of our lives.

We have 3 every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. So let us give 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

3. Guaranteed by God

I want you now to cast your eye down the page and look at the subject of vv3-14. Who is taking the action in these verses? Who is standing behind these truths, these promises?

You see, our hearts are deceitful (we tell ourselves lies) – and we may imagine that we somehow deserve all these blessings, or we sought God out and found the truth.

No, the truth is even more magnificent – we were his enemies, and he sought us out to save us!

In verse after verse we see it is GOD who acts. 3 God has blessed us, 4 God loved us, God chose us, 5 God decided, God is bringing us to himself, 6 He poured out grace, 7 He is so rich in kindness, he purchased our freedom, he forgave our sins, 8 he showered kindness, 9 God has revealed, 10 He will bring everything under Christ, 11 the inheritance is from God, he chose us, he makes things work according to his purposes, 13 he tells us the truth, he gave us Himself, His Spirit, 14 and He is our guarantee.

This is his world, and he rules it. He plans, he chooses, he adopts, he decides, and he achieves his plans. He is sovereign.

And that is good news for us. You see, if our salvation, if our blessing, was based on us: our cleverness, our efforts – well, it stands on shaky ground. What if I’m not performing? What if I’m making a mistake? Every other religion or worldview, including the so-called “neutral” secular atheism, has fear of failure at its heart. You must conform, you must act in a certain way, you must think a certain way – or be excluded. It’s uniformity, not unity. In Christ we are united as a diverse church – think of all the different ways around the world people express their love and devotion to Christ. We are good fathers for God’s glory. We are good mothers for God’s glory. We are accountants and creative people, nurses and street sweepers, husbands and wives all for God’s glory. All unique, expressing our love for him in the different roles we have been given. Even church services are COMPLETELY different around the world! But the focus is the same: the glory of God. The joy is the same: we are adopted as his children! The love is the same: his people united, one church, one family.

God brings us together in our diversity, to bring glory to him not as robots all acting the same, but as multicultural, multiethnic people – wonderfully diverse, each one of us unique, given unique gifts to contribute to the song of praise to God. This is his plan, to bring EVERYTHING together under the authority of Christ. And he points to the church as the great picture of his glory and wisdom 3:10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. We are a display of God’s rich wisdom!

Our salvation is guaranteed by GOD. His performance is perfect. He never makes mistakes. In Christ, we are holy, blameless. If you are ever feeling guilty, far away from God, doubting, feeling alone in the world, or that you’ve let God down – remember that Jesus is never guilty, he is never far from God, he never doubts, he is never alone, he never let His Father down, and YOU are IN CHRIST. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Now read it again with your name there 4 Even before he made the world, God loved Daniel and chose Daniel in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Wow. Praise God!

How can he do this, you may ask? How can he declare Daniel, a man know to be a sinner, one who is not perfect (just ask his family) – how can God declare me perfect, blameless, holy, without fault?

Because 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. All your sins – the darkest things you’ve ever done, your shame-filled memories, those words which lashed out and hurt deeply those you love, the horrible thoughts you held on to bitterly, the lies you told. My shame, my darkness, my lies, my pain – covered by the blood of His Son. “Father, forgive them” he cried. And we are forgiven. And not just past sins – future sins! God is not bound by time. He saw your sins in the past and poured them out on the Cross – he saw your sins still to come and poured those out on the Cross. No performance anxiety – if you are in Christ you are without fault. Holy. WOW!

Why does God do this incredible, mind-blowing thing? Because he wants to! God delights in saving people. Did you notice that? V5 adopting forgiven sinners into his family: This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. His plan to glorify his Son v9 is a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure.

God is happy. And he shares his happiness with us. Come, come be part of the great Cosmic party. Soon, very soon, the grey clouds of this world will part, and the bright sunshine of the Son’s glory will burst through in great joy! Come and rejoice. Come and rejoice!