It s Time to Feel Blessed - Part 2 Pick Me? Sunday, January 17, 2016 All scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated

Transcription

1 It s Time to Feel Blessed - Part 2 Pick Me? Sunday, January 17, 2016 All scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated Introduction: I want to welcome you back to week 2 of our Ephesians series. Last week we focused on verse 3, and the best way to review this sermon is through a little anecdote. There was an old Indian who lived on the plains of Oklahoma, and one day, something wonderful happened to him, oil was discovered on his property and he became very, very rich. He had lived a lot of years in poverty and those difficult years had left a lasting impression upon his mind and even despite the wealth, he could slip into a bit of a depression. He remedied this by going to the bank and saying to the banker, crops are drying up, sheep are wasting away and the well is going dry. The banker knew exactly what to do. He went to the vault and got bags of the old Indian s money and put it on a table in front of him to simply look at. After a couple of hours, he pushed back from the table, got up, smiled at the banker and said, crops are doing well, sheep are healthy and the well is doing just fine. In other words, having a right perspective is everything. Our Heavenly Father is blessed; we are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in Christ because we are God s children. We are very, very rich! Let s read our verses for today and we will take on three of them. Text: Ephesians 1:4-6 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us [b] for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. b. Ephesians 1:5 Or before him in love, having predestined us Many of us have bad memories from childhood as we remember those days on a ball field or another kind of field where it was time to choose up teams. Do you remember, I always get picked last and it is so awkward to stand there knowing full well that I am not wanted! This got a little more serious as we got older with dating and then it gets even more serious when we start to consider marriage partners. For those who don t believe God is in control, this all has to be very stressful, Will I ever get chosen? The other day, I went to congratulate Candace, who had her new ring on the wrong finger, because she just wanted to savor the moment, she had been chosen (or something close to that). I. God has chosen you Today, we are firstly going to look at you, the person of God s choosing. Let s develop things a bit before we get to application. We are talking here about the doctrine of something called election. Election would not have been a surprise topic for Jewish hearers. 1

2 1. Israel was chosen by God As we turn to Deuteronomy this morning, we read, For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. 7 The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. (Deut. 7:6-8 NLT) For Israel, they understood God s choice. Let s back up in time and have a look at the promise that God was keeping in choosing Israel, the oath He had sworn to the ancestors. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. (Genesis 12:3 NLT) I think right away, we get a bit of a hint of the reason for God s choosing Israel; there was a purpose that all the families on earth would be blessed through them. 2. God has chosen us, too And let s progress to us, we have been chosen by God, too. You were not a salvation accident, an afterthought, and a consolation prize because God could not convince the really cool kids to follow Him. This is great news and I bet that a few of you are asking the question, When did this all happen? 3. When were we chosen by God? Paul is quite clear, Before the foundation of the world. In the original Greek, the word foundation is the word katabole and means flung down, so for us we get the notion of the reality that before God started creating, flinging around stars, we were chosen even before He began to create. There were a lot of things going on before the foundation of the world, and here are some words from the high priestly prayer. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24) So we know that Jesus pre-existed with His Father and was loved by Him before Creation began. Here is another verse from the apostle Peter and speaking of Jesus. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:20) 2

3 These verses drive home the truth that I presented a few moments ago, that we were not an afterthought, nor was this church, or anything else we are experiencing. God s love and choosing of existence, our purpose and us existed before the foundation of the world. Let s focus in on that purpose for a moment. Ask your heart the question if you are in agreement with the fact that you have, in fact, been chosen and then ask, If this is true, then what for? 4. We have been chosen by God for a purpose We have been chosen by God for a purpose and there are two of them. i. Chosen to be holy Let s deal firstly with what holiness is not. Holiness is not rules or a behaviourally modified way of living. My friend, Normy, came from a holiness tradition where the poor girls had a long, long list of requirements for dress and overall appearance, if you know what I mean. They did all this in order to conform to the holiness standard. The Greek word for holiness is hagios and it has a few connotations for us. It can mean wholeness. A lot of things were marred at the time of the fall (Our minds, wills and emotions were all affected). To be made holy can refer to the reality of this all being turned around at new birth. We are most familiar with language that suggests that holy things are set apart for, and dedicated to God, sacred to God, to serve only God, and purposed only for God s purposes. When we read Exodus we read of a whole bunch of things fashioned for use in the temple as well as the temple being constructed itself and set apart as holy unto God. But we are talking about people here, you and me. You have been set apart from this world to serve God; you have been consecrated as holy to please God and to be used only for His purposes. You have been made holy for the exclusive use of God alone; you don t belong to anyone else. Every time your mind, will or body or tongue gets put in to the service of the devil and the world, you should be feeling a terrible conviction about being out of the will of God. So how do we know if we are holy? We talk, think, and love like Jesus more and more each day. ii. Chosen to be blameless The Greek word for blameless is amomos and this word means without spot or blemish. Right away we think of the spotless and unblemished lambs to be used in Old Covenant worship or perhaps you might be thinking of Jesus, the Lamb of God without spot or blemish. Surely, Pastor, you are not suggesting that we mere human beings are purposed for a blameless life? That is exactly what I am suggesting. This is not a new term for you because I speak of it a lot at the communion table. I will concede that you will never be sinless, but you can be blameless as you walk in a constant state of seeking and receiving the forgiveness of God for sin. If you are always walking in a state of being ready to repent as soon as you are aware of sin, you are walking a blameless walk. 3

4 5. Chosen, who chose whom? There might be a few of you that would like a little refresher on the question, Did we choose God or did He choose us? Here is the straight answer and this is Jesus speaking: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:16) What an exciting verse because it speaks of one of the why s of our choosing. Those of you who have been serving God awhile understand that not all churches and denominations agree on what choice or election means. I won t be able to spend too much time on it but I do want to expose newer believers to the two schools of thought and only for the purpose of being aware of the discussion, not in order to choose sides. The Arminian view When I use the term Arminian, I am referring to a Dutch theologian (James Arminius) whose view of election goes something like this: God chose us in Christ on the basis that he foreknew in advance who would choose Him. So if you are a movie buff, you know that a movie is normally filmed out of sequence, and the first thing filmed might be the middle scene of the movie. Not so with this view of choice and election. God sees the entire thing from beginning to end. He knows who will choose Him and these are the elect. The Arminian view suggests that there must be a yes to His choosing from you and me! The Calvinist view (John Calvin) The Calvinist view asserts that God elects unconditionally, that He has a certain number in mind for election and that nothing has any bearing on who He is going to choose except His sovereign will. God gives certain individuals faith and makes it irresistible for them to say no to Him. I am obviously in the Arminian camp, and the main reason that I am is the Parable of the Sower, because God wouldn t have them half-elected and let them slip away. This should never be contentious among Christians because the best and brightest minds have been historically on both sides of the debate. II. God has predestined you Our message today will be weighted towards choice, but I want to say a few things about predestination and adoption. If choice is election in a past tense sense, adoption is God s choice of us being activated in the present. By the way, at the end of verse 4 you will see the words, in love (see verse 4 in KJV and verse 5 in NIV) and scholars are not decided as to which verse this belongs. You wouldn t be doing the passage any violence by attaching it to both verses 4 and 5. 4

5 You have had a lot of Greek words this morning but they are necessary, and the word for predestined is prooridzo, and the translation would be before encircled. I was picturing a bit of a swarming here where someone gets encircled by a mob and moved in the direction the mob wants to go. 1. God has predestined you for adoption as sons You were before encircled for adoption. In the ancient world, it was not uncommon for a wealthy person that did not have a rightful heir to choose an older person and often a household slave and adopt them legally in order that they would become the rightful heir. 2. God has predestined you according to the purpose of His will. God has always had a purposeful song in His heart when it came to your life and mine. The word according here gives us the sense of a musical chord, a harmony. God is the lead singer and He is looking for people to jump in on the parts. It is always first the melody, God s intent, and then comes the beautiful sound of the blended harmony. Conclusion So, why the choice, the predestination? It is all for the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us with in the Beloved. (Verse 6) This morning, if you weren t feeling terribly important when you walked in, you should feel very important when you walk out. Before the foundation of the world, you all were in the very heart of God and He had a plan and purpose for you. As for the word potential, how much potential you realize in that purpose will have something to do with your harmonizing with God s will. 5