Ephesians
You were
planned for God’s pleasure Ephesians
1.1-14
What
gives God pleasure, what brings joy to his heart? The Bible’s answer is
that God delights in what he has made and in what he has saved. You were
planned for God’s pleasure
God
is the supremely happy being whose joy and delight is in the world he has
created and in the people he has made his own. Let’s examine this further
The Bible’s story of creation rings with the
pleasure of God. There is a repeated refrain at the end of each day of
creation: ‘God saw that it was good’ The Lord surveys his own
handiwork and he likes what he sees. And just in case we have missed the point,
day six, the last day of creation, concludes with these words ‘God saw all
that he had made, and it was very good.’ Genesis 1.31
In the same way that we take
pleasure in things we have made, so God takes pleasure in all that he has made.
The fact is: You were planned for his pleasure
Ephesians 1.3-5:
3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation
of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--
God doesn’t just take pleasure in
his work of creation, he also takes pleasure in his work of redemption and
salvation. To call into being a people for his own possession, to save them to
rescue them, to bestow upon them every spiritual blessing, to adopt them into
his family, this says Paul was not only God’s will but his pleasure as
well. It was something he delighted in doing
The Church exists because it is
God’s pleasure to have a people for himself and to adopt them in his family. The
secular world regards the church as, at best, an irrelevance, a left over from
a bygone age, but so far as God is concerned, it is his pride and joy. We
were planned for his pleasure
9
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good
pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10
to be put into effect when the times will have reached their
fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one
head, even Christ. Ephesians 1.9-10
God’s ultimate plan is to bring
everything in the universes together under one Lord, one ruler, and one boss,
Jesus Christ. That, too, is his pleasure. At the end of all things when Christ
reigns over all, when every knee bows before him, when sin and rebellion is
finished for good, God’s pleasure will know no bounds. Everything then will be
just as he wanted it to be and as he planned for it to be
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans
12.1-2
Christian worship is always in
response to God’s love, never the means of winning it. We don’t worship God to win
his affection, but in response to his affection
Romans 12 verse 1 contains one of
the great ‘Therefores’ of scripture. In Romans 1-11 we have the greatest
description of God’s love that has ever been written, and then in 12.1 the
Apostle comes to his great ‘therefore’
Therefore, in view of God’s mercy,
in view of everything I have written in chapters 1-11 this is how you should
live, says Paul
We love because he first loved us. Our offering in worship is always a response to his love. But what do we offer? - that brings us to our next point:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
In Paul’s day people were used to
animal sacrifices – to the offering of dead animals to the gods in worship, but
now Paul talks of a new type of sacrifice, a living sacrifice. You don’t offer
a goat or a sheep to God, you offer yourself
In the New Testament, worship is
the offering of your whole life to God. Singing God’s praise, confessing your
sins, hearing his word, enjoying fellowship together over coffee, these are all
part of a worship but so rightly and properly is everything you will do
this week.
A church put this notice its on
exit door for people to read as they left the building: ‘You are now entering a
place of worship.’
This offering, this worship, is for
God’s pleasure. Not ours
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
Offer
everything because Christ offered everything for you
When Paul says offer your
‘spiritual act of worship’ he uses an unusual word, different from the usual
word for ‘spiritual’ in the Bible. It literally means ‘reasonable’ or ‘rational.’
So its not just with our bodies but with our minds that we are too worship God
That’s why in Romans 12 verse 2 he
goes on to talk about the renewing of our minds:
2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
True Christian worship involves the
mind, as well as the body. It is the intelligent, rational, reasonable,
whole-hearted, whole-of-life-response to all that God has done for us
You
were planned for God’s pleasure and the meaning of your life is to be found in
living for God’s pleasure:
Not to us, O LORD, not to
us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. 2 Why do the nations say, "Where is their
God?" Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
Psalm
115.1-3
Chosen and Redeemed: Ephesians 1.1-14
Author The Apostle Paul, writing from prison
in Rome Date 60-61
AD Recipients Probably Ephesus & other churches
nearby What they’ve said about Ephesians ‘The divinest composition of Man’
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge ‘The Queen of the epistles’
– William Barclay ‘The crown of St Paul’s writings’
– Armitage Robinson
Introducing
the Letter to the Ephesians
Our
God is a great big God and he holds us in his hands
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
We all spend a lot of our time
thinking about the small things in life. We
have to. Someone has got to wash the car, buy the new TV license, change
the loo roll, peel the potatoes, complete the tax return, take the kids to
school - but sometimes it’s good to put the small things on hold just for a
while and think about the big things.
This morning we are going to think
about the really big things. We are going to go on a journey from before the
world began to the end of all things. We are going to survey the whole of God’s
purposes
The first man on the moon saw
something no one else had ever seen – he saw he whole of the world in
one view – until then everyone had just seen a bit. Today St Paul takes us up
to similarly high vantage point to consider the whole of God’s amazing plan and
our part in it.
As he does so the Apostle is
breathless with praise, not so much stopping for a pause or a full stop in a twelve
verse marathon expression of praise to the God of grace.
Our journey starts at verse 3
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us
in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight
If you
are a Christian, you have an amazing destiny ahead of you. Since before this very universe was created, long
before dinosaurs walked the face of the earth, before the stars and galaxies
ever came into being, before the big bang, God had a plan for you personally.
And it was this: not just that you would be created in his image, not just that
he would save you through his son, but that he would see to it that you would
appear before him holy and blameless.
What an
astonishing, what an encouraging thought. Are you struggling as a Christian?
Are you battling with temptation? Are you finding sin far more dominant in your
life than you hoped? Take heart, God has chosen you to be holy and blameless in
his sight. It is a settled plan, bound to happen, because God has planned it
that way
God’s
taken care of everything. Sin, the devil, your own weakness and folly will not
deflect God from his purposes. The
powerful grace of God will see to it that you will appear before him, holy and
blameless, ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven
If
you’re a Christian, you have a wonderful future. You will stand before the
creator God transformed by his grace. The whole universe will gasp in wonder at
what God has achieved .
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
But
that’s not all. Not all? Could there be more? Paul has only just started
In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6
to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the
One he loves.
There is
something else God has planned. He has predestined it. In other words he has
decreed it from before the beginning of time and it’s this: If you are a
Christian, God has planned for you to be adopted into his own family. God has
decided that you will have the same relationship with himself that Jesus has.
John
Wesley was a young man who took his religion seriously, he was zealous in
prayer, in fasting, in good work, but despite everything God seemed distant and
far off, but then he came to know Christ personally and his life was utterly
transformed. Looking back he said ‘before
I had the faith of a slave but now I have the faith of a son’
In many
religions of the world men and women are slaves to their religion and slaves to
their god, but the living God of the Bible makes those he has chosen his sons
and daughters, with the rights and privileges of members of his family.
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
But
that’s not all, there’s more:
7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God's grace 8
that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
People
in Ephesus would know only too well about redemption. They would seen slaves
standing in the marketplace waiting to be sold. They would have known that the
only way a slave could be set free was
if someone paid the redemption price for them. Freedom had to be bought.
Paul
says that God saw we were slaves to sin and unable to help ourselves
and he
has paid the redemption price and paid it with his blood.
God’s
redemption is a lavish redemption, a costly salvation, a salvation that is more
than enough, that will more than cover our sins, more than enough to keep us in
the faith in this life and bring us to glory in the next.
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
But
that’s not all, there’s more:
9
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good
pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,10
to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to
bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
God has
revealed the secret of his plan for the universe. God has given us privileged
insight into his master plan for creation which is to bring everything together
under Christ, to place Jesus as head of the creation and to bring everything
and everyone in obedience to him .
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
How
wonderful to know God’s plan
But
that’s not all, there’s more
13 And you also were included in Christ when
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you
were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the
praise of his glory.
In
addition to all the other blessings, God has given us something truly
remarkable: his very self – in the person of the Holy Spirit. Every true
Christian has the Holy Spirit of God living in them
That
Spirit says Paul is like two things.
He is
like a seal - mark of ownership and authenticity. The Holy Spirit in us
is a sign and marker that we belong to God, and that we are the real thing – a
true Christian.
The
Spirit is also like a deposit - first instalment,
downpayment. We’re not there yet, we’re not in heaven yet, we haven’t received
all the fullness of salvation yet. There is much more to come at the end of the
world when God makes all things new, but the Holy Spirit in us is a deposit, a
down payment, a kind of guarantee from God of all the blessing still to come
How
wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan
Of
course, all this is true if you are a Christian, but if you are not a Christian
it can become true for you too
Paul
indicates in verse 13 the way: by believing
in the Gospel. When we come to believe it, we become part of the plan. There is
nothing exclusive about this – everyone who comes to Christ is included in this
plan because all these things are given in Christ
Your marriage
matters to God Eph.5:21-33
Marriage
can be very good for you! It’s a scientific fact.
Surveys
show that, by and large, married people are happier and experience less stress
and emotional difficulties than their unmarried peers.
These
surveys suggest that married people:
·
Live longer
·
Are overall the healthiest, and
therefore go to the doctor less often.
·
Are better able to handle
stress
·
Are consistently happier and
more content than those who are not married.
However,
let me give a few more finding of these surveys.
·
Some unhappily married men and
women live lives that are so difficult they have the highest (instead of the
lowest) levels of stress, anxiety, misery, and emotional as well as physical
illness.
·
In general, marriage benefits
men more than women. Particularly in households where both work.
I’m
aware that as I preach a sermon on marriage, I’m speaking to people with a
variety of experiences of married life. Whether it was that of our parents, or
our own.
Some
of us will be able to say wholeheartedly that our experience of marriage is
that it is life enhancing and good for you. Others among us may be more
aware of the tensions and traumas that married life can bring. You may share
the sentiments of the person who said that it is far better to be single and
wish you were married, than to be married and wish you were single.
But
our passage from Ephesians this morning both affirms marriage, and lays out a
model for marriage with Jesus Christ at the centre.
Leap
into the middle of Paul’s section. Come to the main thrust in a moment.
Marriage
is God’s idea. (OHP) Not an
institution devised by man, but by God.
v.31. Paul is quoting Genesis 2. Read v.31 The wonderful
picture of God creating Eve out of Adam’s rib, and then presenting her to him
as if at a wedding. It sums up beautifully many of the key biblical ideas about
marriage. Matthew Henry’s illustration: ‘Not made out of his head, to rule over
him; nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be
equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be
beloved.’ Aaah!
But
what we’re most concerned with here is that faithful marriage between one man
and one woman is God’s idea, not ours. It is part of the way that he
has structured human society. Therefore were not at liberty to change it, let
alone do away with it. But it’s not
uncommon to read something like this: quote from The Guardian recently:
‘Marriage
is for love, not for life. Life is too long’
Common
to hear marriage spoken of as a great ideal, but unrealistic to expect
people to be faithful to one partner for life. Almost taken as read in films,
TV etc.
But
for Christians, this can never be the case. Genesis lays out for us the concept
of faithful marriage at the heart of human society – Part of the creation
order, and Jesus and NT writers uphold it.
.Secondly,
Paul states that marriage is a picture, or a symbol of the relationship between
Christ and his Church.
Paul
sees the marriage relationship – where two have become one – as a beautiful
picture of the Church’s union in and with Christ.
You’ll
know the bit in the marriage service, where the minister holds up the hands of
the newly weds and just as you’re reaching for the Kleenex, he uses Jesus’
words ‘What God has joined together, let not man put asunder’ – and it’s a
great picture of our relationship with Christ.
When
we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we become united with him – he lives in us,
and we live in him – and the great assurance for us as Xns is that what
God has joined together in that instance, no man can put asunder.
Nothing and no-one can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
When
God joins two people together in marriage, it is a symbol of what God has done
between Christ and his Church.
So marriage
is God’s idea – part of the creation order; a symbol of the unity that a
believer has with Christ.
You
might have heard the story about the man who was on holiday in the countryside,
and was driving along only to discover that the road signs had been removed. So
he stopped and asked a friendly looking local for directions to the place he
was heading. The local took off his cap, scratched his head and said ‘Well, I
wouldn’t start from here if I were you’.
As we
look at Paul’s instruction to husbands and wives, it’s easy to start from the
wrong place. Particularly if we are working from the NIV translation. The
translators have made the mistake of separating v.22 from the verse before it,
by sticking a heading in between.
And
because they’ve separated it, they’ve had to add the word ‘submit’ to v.22. In
Paul’s original, he writes this v.21 ‘Submit to one another out of reverence
for Christ’ and then v.22 ‘Wives, to your husbands as to the Lord.’
Might
seem like a minor point, but it runs the risk of us beginning at v.22 and
thinking that it is only the wife who has to submit to her husband, and not the
husband to the wife. The submission is a mutual one, and importantly, it is to
be done out of reverence for Christ.
Word
submit carries fairly heavy negative connotations, doesn’t it. Tax forms?
Submit them grudgingly. Wrestling bouts – 3 falls and a submission is something
you resist with all your energy. Freedom and liberty are the buzz words in
today’s society.
But
if we start from the right place, we see why submission is a virtue and
essential for Christian relationships.
Come
with me to Ch.5v.1 Paul’s whole desire in this letter has been to see the
believers in Ephesus strengthened by God’s Spirit, so that they can live lives
that imitate Christ Jesus, and bring glory to God the Father. And as he talks
about submission he is simply asking his readers to imitate Christ. READ 5:1
‘Gave
himself up.’ = submission
Christ
came from heaven, with all the authority of God, and willingly gave himself up
for us. He submitted himself to the will of his Father, and freely gave himself
up on the cross as a sacrifice for our salvation.
Christ is the model for the way that Xns should live together
– not self-seeking, but self-giving in order to meet one
another’s needs. Imitating Christ who emptied himself of his status and rights,
and humbled himself to serve.
This is what lies behind Paul’s particular instructions to
husbands and wives in vv.22 onwards.
So lets look at what this says to those of us who are
husbands and wives:
Husbands,
love your wives. (vv.25, 28, 33)
A
sense in which the husband is to take a lead in the relationship – v.22 ‘for
the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of his Church, of
which he is Saviour.’ But the lead he is to take is not that of an
authoritative, domineering husband. Instead he is to follow the example of
Christ in sacrificial self-giving.
John
Stott puts it like this: ‘If headship means power in any sense, then it is
power to care, not to crush, power to serve, not to dominate, power to
facilitate self-fulfilment, not to frustrate it. And in all this the standard
of the husband’s love is to be the cross of Christ, on which he surrendered
himself even to death in his selfless love for his bride.’
Husbands,
says Paul, have a responsibility to their wives to love them as Christ loved
the Church – there’s a challenge! Who is up to that? Well, no-one! We will fail – but we can look to God to strengthen
us by his Spirit for the task. I used to meet to pray with 2 other men every
few months – and our main area of prayer was for our roles of husbands and
fathers. It is a demanding calling!
Husbands,
how often do you ask God for strength to love your wife? Not that oogly-googly
lovey feeling, but for an ability to love her in the way that frees her
to grow in faith, and values her for who she is, and recognises her true worth?
That’s
going to involve more than breakfast in bed occasionally, isn’t it! It’s a love
like Christ’s that sacrifices and serves.
And
if a husband is to love like that, then Paul’s instruction to wives ‘Wives respect
your husbands’, doesn’t seem too hard.
Wives,
respect your husbands.
Respect
for the role that God has given him. Recognise that God has given him a
responsibility to take the initiative in family matters, and respect it. Not
ignore it, or begrudge it.
Paul
may have something else in mind as he says this. Maybe he is thinking of the
wives as they go down to the market place in Ephesus, and get talking – how are
they going to talk about their husbands? Don’t speak in demeaning terms – don’t
call him down in public. Respect him for what is good about him.
And
if he is even halfway towards loving you as he is meant to, then it shouldn’t
be too hard to give him that respect. But wives, like their husbands, need to
pray for God’s strength to fulfil their role in the marriage.
It
may not be that you find it easy to love and respect your husband. You may need
to pray that he will realise his God-given responsibilities.
One
of the commentators on this passage is quite realistic when he says that the
wife’s love and respect is to be given to a lover, not an ogre. It is to be a
grateful acceptance of his care, not an unthinking obedience to his rule.
Paul
outlines for us the truth that marriage is God’s idea, and therefore we are not
at liberty to decide that it is an outdated institution. It points back to
God’s purposes in creation, and forward to the day when we won’t need a
symbol to teach us that we are united to Christ.
And
Paul lays out some instructions for marriage relationships – Husbands love your
wives! Wives respect your husbands!
Mick
Hough
Your Family
Life Matters to God Ephesians
6.1-4
‘Children today love luxury too much. They have dreadful
manners, they flaunt authority and have no respect for their elders. What kind
of awful creatures will they be when they grow up?’
-
Socrates, just before his death in 399BC
What
I am not going to do in this
sermon: I won’t solve all your family problems; I won’t tell you how to become
the perfect parent in three easy steps; I won’t present myself as an expert on
family issues (my only qualification is that like all you other parents I am a
failed parent in need of God’s grace and guidance)
What
I can do is to present to you the principles
laid out in God’s word Your task and my task is to apply this to our own family
situations
Let
us pray
This
new member of the family (picture of new car) will cost you several thousands
pounds, but before you can drive it alone you must reach a minimum age set by
the Government. You must take a series of lessons with a qualified instructor.
You must master the contents of the Highway Code. You must pass a test both
theoretical and practical
This new member of the family (picture of new baby)
comes entirely free – although it will cost you thousands over a lifetime.
There is no minimum age for ownership, except that set by biology. There is no
compulsory training scheme for new owners. There are no national guidelines
from the ministry – no parental equivalent of the Highway Code. There is no
test either theoretical or practical laid down by a Government department to test your suitability. This new member
of the family is yours for life. Take care: the nation’s future is in your
hands
What
an immense and awesome responsibility being a parent is, the care and nurture
of a child made in the image of God - who is equal to this task?
We
need help from God. Let’s turn to his word:
1. ‘MUM AND DAD, YOU’RE IN CHARGE’ – GOD SAYS SO
1 Children, obey your
parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2
"Honour your father and mother"--which is the first
commandment with a promise-- 3
"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on
the earth." Ephesians 6
‘Children
obey your parents’ says the bible not ‘parents obey your children’ - but
sometimes it seems the other way round, at least in Western societies.
Sometimes it seems that it is the kids who are in charge of the family. Even
quite small children seem to rule their parents completely
But that it is not how God intends it to be: if you
are a parent, God has appointed you
in charge of the family. God has given you the authority and put you in a
position of leadership. To let the children rule the roost is to abdicate your
God-given responsibility and authority
Of
course as children get older it is right they take more responsibility for
their lives and become more independent until finally they reach adulthood but,
until that time, parents remain in charge and it is God’s desire that the
children should obey them
Paul
says this is ‘right’ and it is in harmony with the commandment ‘Honour your
Father and Mother.’ Significantly he adds which is the first commandment with a promise-- 3 "that it may go well with you and that
you may enjoy long life on the earth." In other words there is a
built-in blessing to living this way. When parents exercise their authority,
when children obey it, there is blessing, things go well. This kind of approach
to family life is good for the family and good for society
On
the other hand when family relationships go wrong, when parents don’t exercise
discipline, when children flout authority,
children run wild and society suffers.
That’s
why it is so important that as part of their God appointed leadership of the
family, parents take responsibility for appropriate discipline of their
children. Proverbs 13.24 says this
24 He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.