Our scripture reading today is one verse, the third verse in
the book of Ephesians. As with that we're studying
together as a congregation. This verse of just a couple
dozen words includes so much it it points to so much that just
in the few minutes we have together we will not be able to
scratch the scratches on the surface.
We will see how good the Lord has been to us in all that He
has done for His people, the covenant blessings that He has
kept himself that Adam and Abraham, David and Moses could
not. The benefits of our salvation in
Christ will be reminded. This is a great opportunity to
see in just a few words the majesty and love of Jesus in
your life and in mine. And since it's only one verse,
let's read it together, shall we?
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. This is the word of the Lord,
Amen. Please be seated.
Pray with me, will you? Oh Holy Spirit, we thank you for
Your humble, kind, gentle ministry of teaching us this
morning. And we thank You that whatever
You have for Your people, you will bring it to us for the
glory of Your holy Name and for our transformation from one
state of glory into another, according to all that you have
planned before the world began. And so this day, Lord, we stand
in you and give you thanks for all of your blessings in your
holy Name. Amen.
I don't know if you can see it or not, but the light on the
pedal board on the organ is flashing and I hope it's not
distracting. I do feel like the service,
though, kind of needs one of those disclaimers.
This service will include strobe effects for those.
So sorry about that. You know, attending a worship
service is one thing, but living a life of worship is an entirely
different endeavour. You know, we can show up in this
room, attend the service, have fun in our fellowship, but when
we leave and life presses down on us with its continuing whack
a mole complexities and and perplexities, it's a different
ball game. You know, even attending a
worship service reveals our need for Christ, doesn't it?
We we say the words, but we criticize the liturgy.
We sing the songs. What?
We judge the music based on our preferences and prejudices.
We listen to the sermon but wish it would be so much more
engaging. When Mark introduced Ephesians
to us a couple weeks ago, he said that we're going to improve
the eyes of our hearts, the spiritual eyes of our hearts, so
that we will begin to see the riches of our salvation in
Christ with more clarity, with more immediacy, and with more
relevance. And so this verse that we have
before us today starts our worship.
Blessed be the God. It keynotes.
It actually keynotes a run on sentence in the original
manuscript. It's one sentence from verse 3
all the way to the end of verse 14.
And this is the keynote of this beautiful, grand, eloquent, and
powerful list of the riches we have in Christ Jesus.
And the purpose of a keynote, as you know, is to set the tone and
the theme. It's to establish the vision of
what's to come, to unite us as listeners, and to give us
context. So that's why it's worth
spending a whole day on this one verse.
It's such a powerful keynote because it's setting the agenda
of our heart for what we are about to read next week.
A heart of worship. It's emotionally influencing us
before we start to review the doctrines that we so well know
in our age and time. And it sparks our imagination by
the repetition of the Word blessed by Speaking of Christ
and His blessings not only here but also in heaven.
It impacts the congregation. And so this keynote tells us to
bless the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the only true God,
not the one of many gods in the Mediterranean world.
When Paul is writing where the pantheon of deities from Babylon
and Persia and Greece and Rome are flourishing in their own
houses of worship. This is very foreign to our
culture where we have churches on many corners, but in Ephesus
there were temples to deities also on many corners.
Ephesus was the crossroad of culture and commerce and
religion. It was in between Jerusalem and
Rome. You know, if you think of
Jerusalem like New York City and Rome as Seattle, and then in the
middle you kind of smash up Denver and Dallas and you've got
this huge metropolis between those two points.
That's Ephesus. In between Jerusalem and Rome,
the great city of Ephesus. And just as we might consider
Jerusalem as the home to three of the world's religions,
Ephesus was the home to one of the most important of all of the
Greek goddesses. Her name was Artemis.
Her name, Her Roman name was Diana.
And Artemis was born to Zeus and Leto, along with her twin sister
Apollo, on the island of Dallas, about 120 miles West of Ephesus.
The difference, though, between this and Jesus is that Jesus
really was born in Bethlehem and really lived and died and rose
again. But the Ephesians loved
believing that Artemis was real. Her temple in Ephesus was four
times larger than the Parthenon in Athens.
It was considered this one of the seven wonders of the world.
It had a storied history before Jesus was born and long after.
The reason why this is so important is because Paul is
writing against this backdrop. The businesses and Ephesus
became rich and profitable by the sales of wood and metal
figures of Artemis herself. Now, if you were to travel to
Ephesus today, you could still purchase your choice of an
Artemis action figure or bobblehead.
But Paul spent three years in Ephesus and he started teaching
in the synagogues for about 3 months, and then he rented A
lecture hall and he had a prosperous teaching ministry
about Messiah in Ephesus for about 3 years.
It was so profitable. I'm so effective, I mean, and so
blessed by the Lord, that the prophets of the silversmiths
began to be compromised, for people began believing in Jesus
and the sales of these modelled idols began to decrease.
Eventually the tide turned against Paul and what began as a
thriving teaching ministry in one of the most important 1st
century churches cities turned into a battle against the idols
that made Ephesus a signature religious cult and the
silversmiths Rand Paul out similar events in Paul's life in
Colossi and Philippi. And eventually Paul was
arrested. And this letter that we are
looking at right now, that this mail of Paul's that we opened to
read was written from prison, not sure where, somewhere
between Ephesus and Rome, probably in Ephesus.
And he writes this letter, and he writes Philippians, and he
writes Colossians, and he writes Philemon while under house
arrest. We commonly call them the
captivity letters. And he keynotes this letter with
worship. While he's in prison.
He's writing this doxological statement to grab our hearts, to
tell us about the blessings we have in Jesus Christ.
You see, because it's easy to attend a worship service, but
it's an entirely different calling to live a life of
worship, to write about the glories of Christ while in
prison. So let's pick up our verse
again. All right, let's take a look at
it. Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And here Paul is moving
thousands of years past Israel's Shema.
Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God.
The Lord is 1 and now he's saying this very same God is the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is from the pen of the same
person who was committed to silencing by imprisonment and
death anyone who followed Jesus. And now he's the first
missionary to the Gentiles, calling us to worship the second
person of the Godhead. And he uses bless a second time.
Look at the verse again. Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ.
Now the word in the original text for blessed is eulogia.
It's the root from where we get the word eulogy.
It's a piece of writing to praise someone, to honor
someone, to bless someone publicly, and to speak of how
they have blessed us. And he uses this word eulogia 3
times in this verse. Look at it again.
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. So brothers and sisters, this
begs some questions. If we are so spiritually rich in
Christ, why are we so selfish? If He has forgiven us so freely,
why are we so slow to forgive others?
If His grace extends to the worst of the worst, including
the author of this letter and you and me, why do we judge
others so quickly who are different from ourselves?
If He gave his life and died a violent death to reconcile you
and me to our Father, why are we so stone heartedly cold to
reconcile our own broken relationships?
If Jesus lavished His abundant grace on us with an unbounded
generosity, why are we so stingy in blessing others whose lives
are much harder than ours? It's one thing to attend a
worship service. It's an entirely different
calling to live a life of worship.
So Paul is reminding us that our worth and our power for godly
living rest not in our performance, but in our covenant
union with Christ, so that we trust and worship and live out
our heaven realities. Now when we worship as God's
people on Sunday morning, we remember and rehearse our
identity in Christ, confession, the sacraments, the preaching of
the Word, prayer, study and fellowship.
And then we are sent. We're sent out to live
courageously and lovingly in the world as those who are
spiritually blessed, serving, resisting sin, and testifying to
the Lord's love and grace and mercy.
We do this because we have already in possession of these
blessings. While we're slogging through
life, we still have all of the access to the spiritual
blessings in Christ. It's like that depression era
sheep herder in West TX. His name was Ira Yates.
He can barely make it living day-to-day, taking care of the
sheep that needed to be shorn or rescued because they happened to
fall on their back and couldn't get up on their own, or they
needed to be healed or bound in some form or fashion.
And one day the petroleum company comes in and says, Mr.
Yates, we would like to extract natural resources from your
property. He instantly became a wealthy
man and never had another financial worry for the rest of
his life. He was in possession of that
wealth his entire life. He was always standing right on
top of it. And so our verse has these three
prepositions that tell us how we identify these blessings that we
present possess. First, in Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us in Christ, which means we are no longer in Adam
for blessings, we might remind ourselves Christ's incarnation,
the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are eternal and we live for
Christ. Our election as part of God's
people, which Paul's going to talk about in a few words later,
was forged not only in eternity past but represented in the
incarnation. We are in Christ by the gift of
the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus.
How does Jesus teach us? How does Jesus nudge us,
influence us, mold us, shape us, comfort us?
How does he counsel us, mature us?
By the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, His Word worship in
His church. We are in Christ because the
Holy Spirit is revealing the ministry of Christ to us moment
by moment. Galatians 2 says I have been
crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. In Christ we are also eternal.
He chose His people before the foundation of the world.
In the mind of the Trinity. We were predestined in His love
to be brought from the family of Adam, to become a member of the
family of God's people in Christ.
Our redemption was purchased by Christ's sacrifice, planned
before the dawn of time for His people.
We are in Christ, which was purposed in the heart of God
before the foundations of the world were laid.
And if we are in Christ and His death, we are in Christ and His
resurrection. Since we have been united with
Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
Paul writes to the Romans this we know that our old sinful
selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose
its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin,
for when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of
sin. And since we died with Christ,
we know we will also live with him.
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead
and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power
over him. When he died, He died once to
break the power of sin, but now that he lives, he lives for the
glory of God. So you also should consider
yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God
through Christ Jesus. Romans 6 by the way, when we get
to the word you in Ephesians, in English, we have one word for
you. It's you, singular or plural.
And and we, we determined by the context.
But in the Greek language there's 2 words for you, a
singular you and a plural you. And as we start to work our way
through the verses in Ephesians, we will see we and us and we and
us and we and us. And then we get to you and it's
the plural. And when you read Ephesians in
this part of the country, you always want to read it as y'all.
It's the plural. Yes, it's you.
But isn't it beautiful that God chose a people for himself
before the foundation of the world?
It's not about us, it's about God's people.
It's about him always having a people.
It's about Him being our God and we are His people.
Less about this American individualism that every word in
the Scripture is just really all about me.
These are the riches of the spiritual blessings we have in
Christ. The second prepositional phrase
with every spiritual blessing. There's not enough time to talk
about these. Let's pick some, shall we?
Let's talk about how Jesus Christ was able to keep a few of
the covenant blessings promised to God's people.
The covenant blessings with Adam.
If the covenant were kept, eternal life would continue.
We would remain securely in paradise.
We would dwell in God's presence.
In Adam, the covenant was broken.
In Christ, the covenant was kept.
He secured our eternal life in eternity where we will dwell in
the presence of God. What about Abraham?
Also included paradise, a people, God's presence.
But the covenant was not kept because of Abraham's unbelief,
brokenness, and weakness. But Christ remains faithful even
in physical death, and we are his people.
He is our promised land, and by the Holy Spirit we have God's
presence, Moses and Israel. Promise was not kept, but in
Christ's perfect obedience came the blessings of eternal life, a
family of God's making Jesus our promised land.
And not a cloud over the Tabernacle, but the indwelling
Holy Spirit in each one of us. What about David?
The king over all of the nations ended with David's bones drying
up in a grave. But Christ, the King of kings,
the Holy One, anointed over all the nations.
His bones did not see decay, but after three days came to life
and ascended into heaven, where for the first time in history a
human being, all God and all man, is at the helm of the
universe. What about these blessings,
Justification for our sake? He made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
What about adoption? Those of us who long to be in an
intimate family where we're not judged but accepted, He
predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the good pleasure of His will.
What about our sanctification? So Jesus also suffered outside
the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own
blood. What about our eternal security?
Are we really going to heaven? Blessed is the one who
perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that
person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised
to those who love him. No one can pluck his people out
of his hand. These are just a few of our
spiritual blessings in Christ, heavenly blessings that we now
already possess. But there's more.
Our last prepositional phrase in the heavenly places.
Those who have gone before us, now fully living in the radiance
of Jesus presence. Understanding everything.
I'm so trying to explain feebly. They live and breathe and
experience it in Christ. We already have all these
spiritual blessings, but there's more to come.
The consummation of all things is not yet, which is why we call
it already slash not yet. For we have been justified and
adopted and sanctified, and we will persevere, but we will also
be glorified. Who doesn't want to live with
God forever? And those who are in Christ
will. He goes to prepare a place for
you and me. And this is true because He said
it, and it's true because He said it's true.
Otherwise He would not have said it.
And those who have gone before us live that entire verse and
live this verse that we're Speaking of today.
They had every spiritual blessing like you and I have in
Christ and now they experience every spiritual blessing with
Christ. We are in the already not yet in
Christ. They are fully in the presence
of God. No wonder Paul can't help
himself by penning a doxology of praise before he starts talking
about all of these blessings that we have in our
glorification. When Christ returns, they will
be with him. It's like Jesus says to his
Father, I can't go back without them.
They are mine. They are in me and with me.
They belong to me. They are my beloved sons and
daughters, Princess and princesses, vice regions and
royalty with me. If I go back, I must take them
with me. And He will, when he returns,
they will be with him. And if we're still here, we will
join them very quickly. And in the procession of the
king, once again, heaven and earth will be brought together.
I'll close with this. You know, a worship service is a
little bit like heaven and earth being brought closer together.
Like when we live a life of worship, when we offer our lives
and surrender our stubborn wills, when we live self
sacrificially to bless the Lord and to others for His glory and
His glory alone. It's like helping heaven and
earth touch again, like our worship service does every hour
on Sunday morning. Heaven and earth touch a little
bit more. And so Paul says, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his covenant love
and grace enables us to not merely attend a worship service,
but by the power of the Holy Spirit transforms and
strengthens us to live every day as a continual sacrifice of
worship to Him in Christ with every spiritual blessings that
we have already and not yet. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
your Holy Spirit driving these things deeper within our hearts
and within our understanding. And may these words not go by as
another box that's been checked this week, but may we linger in
this time of worship. Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every,
every, every spiritual blessing. Already and not yet.
We so long for that time when we will see this fully and clearly
and be with you. Lord Jesus, thank you for being
with us today. By the power of Your Holy
Spirit, we commit the rest of our worship to You in Your holy
name. Amen.