STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
8.2 - Blessings in Christ
The Apostle Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a section of praise toward God as he reflects on what the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have done on our behalf. Join us in this episode as we discuss the blessings we have in Christ and the assurance we can find in him!
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well, season eight in our stands Strong podcast. We are getting started here in the book of Ephesians, and so our calling and our conduct look at six chapters. Look at the book of Ephesians. We want to see what the Apostle Paul was saying to those in the first century that he was writing to these saints, these Christians. And then what do we take from it? Yeah. What do we get out of it today? So, welcome Noah into the studio. Noah is joining me. We're doing this together. I'm, I'm looking forward to what we want to do. In the book of Ephesians, we'll find different translations, I think know us primarily an English standard version. I've got the new King James, but we'll throw some other translations in there. So if you're joining us today, if you're gonna join us in season eight, as we're going through Ephesians, you're welcome to read it through as a letter. You're welcome to go back before every episode and reread again, but we're thankful that you're joining us today.
Yes, we are. It's, it's gonna be a good good season getting to focus in on some of. Of Paul's teaching. This is in, in my mind, Ephesians might be kind of the, the quintessential Pauline letter. It's just, it's extremely deep, it's extremely practical. It's rich with theology. And it seems to be of the, of the you know, letters that we have recorded for us of, of the more average length of Paul's letters. You know, Romans is a, is an extremely long. Almost treatise. And then he also has some, some shorter ones and Ephesians kind of falls there in the middle. And I, I think it's gonna be a really rich study to be able to spend some time on this. He opens the letter, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. I, you know I don't know how many sermons we've heard about what, what an apostle is and Paul's apostleship as, as far as being a messenger, a delegate, a scent, one. But I think it makes sense to, to recognize that when we're reading this piece of mail that someone else received, that Paul opens with, here's my role before God. Here's my role before Jesus. I am an apostle. I have been sent by Christ, by Jesus, by the will of God. And that is claiming a certain level of authority for everything that follows. In this letter, Paul's claiming some authority for those who are reading from it.
Paul:Absolutely. Absolutely. Why? Why should we, why should those saints listen to what was being read? Well, because it came from an inspired source and the authority was in Jesus Christ. Commission. Paul was commissioned by Christ. So yes, absolutely. There's your authority,
right? And, and it, the people that were listening to this, he addresses more directly, you know, he says that they're saints specifically in Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus. It's interesting to see some of the translation differences just there in the first verse because it's kind of a weird wording, but. The idea is that he's addressing people who are called to be holy. They're saints and they're faithful to Jesus. So I, I think for us, as we're trying to read these other people's mail, it's sometimes handy to just kinda look at that first opening and understand who's writing and who they're writing to. Because although we're far removed from this in time we are still saints in Christ Jesus. We're still called to be holy. In Christ Jesus, and we're called to be faithful to him as king. And I think that that's helpful because that, that establishes for us right off the bat that this is gonna be relevant for where we are and who we are. Yeah.
Paul:You know, if, if you're gonna ask a question, who is a saint? Well, part of the answer to that question, who is a saint, is one who is faithful. Mm-hmm. Then the next question is faithful to who? Right. So I think sometimes, no, we, we try to, we try to deal with this concept of being saints. Without thinking about what it means to be faithful. It's kinda like in another podcast, we've been talking about discipleship and we've been talking about Christians. Well, you can't divorce discipleship from Christian,
right?
Paul:I'm a Christian. Well, are you a disciple? Because the two go together. I'm a saint. Are you faithful? The two go together?
Yeah, that that's an excellent point, excellent point for us to consider because. As we move forward, it's gonna become very clear that Paul is talking about people in Christ. Mm-hmm. This is something we see in the book of Philippians. It's something we see here in this book right from the get go. Paul is, Paul is hammering home this idea of in Christ, in Christ through Christ, in Christ by Christ. It's very Christ centric. When we just, if we were to read through the first, you know, 10 or 14 verses of the, of this chapter. How many times we would see that. And, and it makes sense because what Paul opens with is this section of praise, right? He's, he's opening this and before he even gets to what he's gonna talk to the Ephesians about, he praises God, I think sometimes this is called like a doxology, right? Mm-hmm. A section of praise. And I didn't count exactly, but I, I did write down verses that. Somehow reference in or through Christ. Verse three, verse five, verse seven, verse nine, verse 10, verse 11, verse 12, verse 13. I mean, they're at the end. It just, yes, back to back to back, to back to back. It's very much praising God for what has been done and who they are in Christ. That's their connecting factor as he opens this.
Paul:Yeah. What has been done and who they are. How many times, Noah, you and I are preachers, how many times do we call the congregation? Do we commission the people of God to praise God?
Hmm. And
Paul:they're sitting there thinking, oh, why? Well, I'm not saying that's everybody, but sometimes if we don't appreciate who God is and what he has done is gonna affect the ability for us to give him praise. Yeah. And so the natural response to understanding who, who God is, the father, son, and the spirit, the triune God, and and to understand what they have done and now what has been accomplished and now who I am because of what has been done and had been accomplished in Christ Jesus, then that Alta naturally produced praise in us, and he says, as you all mentioned. Multiple times in this first section the, the word praise is used and praise is due to each, the father, son,
and the spirit. Yes. I'm glad that you brought that up because as much as this section says In Christ, by Christ, through Christ, it opens with, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. With every spiritual blessing. He chose us before the foundation of the world. He predestined us for adoption. And then at the end around verse 13 or 14, it says in him, that's Jesus. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. So as much as this section is very much in Christ by Christ through Christ. It starts with God, the father, and his plan, and his provision and his blessings. And it ends with this seal of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee that we have received in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So this is not a this is, this is not neglecting the triune God. It's actually emphasizing the fact that each part of the Godhead. Has, has their role and their place in what has been accomplished?
Paul:Yeah. I mean, what's being discussed here? I mean, as, as we mentioned before, if, if you, depending on the translation, the reading will vary slightly. But if you look in the original Greek, and that was the language of the day, Paul's time, 62, 63, 64 a d. This, this, this is one long sentence versus three through 14.
Yeah,
Paul:202 plus words. Again, depending on the translation, don't get over technical, but translating Greek to English, but it's one long sentence.
Right.
Paul:And in that one long sentence, what is the issue? What is the primary point? It's the concept of salvation and redemption that has been accomplished. Again, the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father planned, the son provided the spirit guarantees. You've
thought about that before,
Paul:haven't you? I've actually preached that sermon. That's, that's a three point, but that, that's that whole long sentence. And when you understand the, the, the role in the function of the father, the role, the responsibility, function of the son and the working of the Holy Spirit. He says it's praise to each. Yeah, it's praised each, probably the father and the son gets a little bit more preaching and attention in our preaching than the Holy
Spirit. Just a little.
Paul:So how are people gonna praise the Holy Spirit today if they don't understand something about
right. The
Paul:Holy
Spirit. Yeah. And, and when it comes to the Holy Spirit side note, we can just put this little plug in there. Something that very close friend of mine recommended to me and I, I have found extremely helpful is if we wanna understand the Holy Spirit better find scriptures that specifically talk about what he does do. I think sometimes, and understandably so, we talk about some of the poor teaching, about the role of the Holy Spirit that. Emphasizes not the the wrong things, the things that scripture doesn't emphasize, but if you go and you find the passages that do say something like, for instance here in Ephesians chapter one, where it says that we have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit and he's the guarantee of our inheritance. That's something you can write down and you can dig, you can sink your teeth into that and dig into that to help us appreciate what it is, you know, that the Holy Spirit is doing. And there are other passages in the New Testament that help us with that as well. You know a couple minutes ago, Paul, you, you said, sometimes we might think to ourselves that we should praise God or we might express to others that they should praise God, and there might be a little bit of a reaction of why, which not. Again, not that any of us would vocalize that, but sometimes I do think we, we. We struggle with. Okay. Like I get that I've been saved and that's amazing.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
But I'm running maybe the way that we might sometimes put it is I'm running out of things to praise God for, which sounds a little bit silly, a little bit ridiculous, but I think that sometimes we struggle with that kind of a a barrier for ourselves and. I think one thing that can help with that, and we can see it here in Ephesians chapter one, is a more comprehensive view of what this plan is that the Father planned for and that the son accomplished, and that the spirit guarantees the final ful, you know, the full future fulfillment of mm-hmm. You know, the full scope of that. And I think something that helps us see that, and something that illustrates that is actually in verse two, which we kind of skipped. It. But Paul says to his readers, grace to you in peace from God, our father, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's pretty typical Paul, you know, greeting what does he mean, grace to you? What what does he mean by grace? You know, we are tempted. I think when we hear grace, we automatically jump to Ephesians chapter two. You've been saved by grace through faith, and we think of grace in that. In that context, we have been saved by grace. True, but that's not the extent of God's grace. If we think of God's grace as simply being the mechanism by which we are saved, we're missing the bigger picture. And I think that when we look, then if, if we kind of think through that lens as we, as we go through verses three and four and five and and so on, if we can appreciate that. It. Yes, it saves us. Or rather, I should say, he saves us by his grace.'cause grace is not, we've talked about this before, grace is not some, you know, star Wars esque force that just that saves us on its own. It's God that saves us. It's by his characteristic of grace that he does that well. Then when we start looking at verses, you know, three for instance, he has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Verse four, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. That's not just about salvation, that's about a, a transformation and a sanctification that is going on. So, and, and we could continue working through these verses and maybe we'll do that here in just a moment, but I wanted to get that in our minds that grace is more than just about salvation, and that sounds like I'm trying to demean salvation. Oh, it's just not just about salvation. Salvation is huge. Praise God for salvation. But we shouldn't stop there. There is more to praise God for than that.
Paul:Yeah. It, it, it's God dispensing and giving to me what I don't deserve. Now that has its, that has its concept rooted deeply in salvation. But again, if, if this is something that God did and he planned any purpose before the foundation of the world, I think sometimes we miss the depth of what those in the first century would've readily understood. We miss that because of Calvinism.
Mm-hmm.
Paul:And we'll make some points about some Calvinistic tendencies and teachings that I don't believe. Have merit. Yeah. But remember that was not an issue in the first century. Now they had false teachers and false teaching then. But this concept that that over time began to be become a perversion, I think in terms of election and predestination. They didn't have to fight that in the first century.
Yeah.
Paul:So when, when Paul would write to Christians, saints holy ones, and remind them of the working of God and the plan and the purpose of God before the foundation of the world, they would readily appreciate and understand it didn't have anything to do with them.
Yeah.
Paul:It had everything to do with God. Now, don't mis, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. When he says here in the first section here that this is something that God will, that God planned, that God purposed to do according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with a purpose of his will in love, he predestined you to adoption his sons. Yes, through Jesus Christ, it was according to the kind intention of his will. Now when he talks about the God that did all this, planned all this and purpose this. The, these people would first make their election in salvation about God, not themselves.
Mm-hmm.
Paul:And that's, that's tough for us today. But if we don't do that, we don't understand grace. Yeah. And if we don't do that, we'll diminish the praise that is due the father, son, and the spirit. Now hear me. Please, please hear me. God's sovereign will and pleasure does not make evangelism or faith unnecessary.
Hmm.
Paul:Man, I just, I feel like I'm gonna have to say that about two or three times every podcast, or especially as we, as we go through the first three chapters.
Yeah.
Paul:But God's sovereign will and pleasure. It does not make evangelism or faith unnecessary. God chose through preaching and the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of Christ to save those, but to save those who, what believe, who did he predestined? Who did he choose? He chose a kind of people that he would save in Christ. The kind of people, the kind of people who would believe, trust, obey, serve. That's the concept. They understood that in the first century, we missed some of that in 21st century because of some Calvinistic tendencies and teachings.
Right, right. And, and we grapple with that in a way that they, they, I don't think would've had to, had to grapple with it. I, I think it's helpful to, to. Zoom out a little bit on this section and just kind of make sure that we understand where Paul is starting so that we can make, you know, application for ourselves. He's starting with praise. Mm-hmm. He's starting with praise for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit because of the, the plan and the action that that took place, that made it possible for. Everyone, anyone to be adopted as sons. We saw that. We see that term in verse five, I believe you referenced that already in verse 11. He talks about the inheritance that we have. This is, this is a relationship that we get to be a part of. Adopted into the family of God. And that is something that is, is worthy of praising God for. And it's something that God has been planning to do before the foundation of the world, which you talked about just a moment ago, that same phrase before, the foundation of the world Peter uses in First Peter chapter one. And in that context, he talks about how Christ was known. Jesus was known before the foundation of the world. Mm-hmm. His role was known before the foundation of the world. The things that he would have to do in order to fulfill this was known before the foundation of the world and the people the, like you said just a moment ago, the type of people that would be added to the body through his actions were known before the foundation of the world. And so Paul starts in this very appropriate place as he writes this letter, is he is praising God and thanking God. For what these people, he and those who are receiving this letter have all received through the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's gonna be the frame for the rest of the letter. That's, that's gonna be the backdrop for the rest of this letter.
Paul:Yeah. You know, I, I keep coming back to, I, I've done this before. It's now I realize Paul is, he's writing to saints those who were in Christ Jesus. But as an exercise to get someone thinking whether Christian or not start in Ephesians and think about, okay, who is this God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? Who, who is this triune God? We, we need to start there. And then secondarily, okay, now who am I? And why am I making that point? Because see. My identity is defined by God. Hmm. That's, that's a problem they were, that they were having in the first century. Man, do we have that problem in the 21st century?
Yeah.
Paul:And we need to let the creator define his creation. Now think about that baby Christian. Think about that person that I immersed in Christ and now I say to them, this is who you are. Mm. In Christ Jesus. This is who you are. This is not who I say you are. This is not who your parents say you are. This is not who your mate says you are. This is not who someone else in your physical family says you are. This is absolutely not what anybody else in the world. Says you are. This is who the creator says you are, the father, son, and the spirit. This is your identity. Now that you are in Christ. And who you are in Christ is, you are forgiven, you are loved, you are sealed. You're a child of the king. With all the rights and privileges, you are no longer under condemnation.
Mm.
Paul:And you say, well, everybody gets that. I, I don't think everybody understands forgiveness.
Hmm.
Paul:What? What it means for the creator, the one who has made you a new creature. Creature in Christ who has saved you, who has adopted you, who says, you are my beloved. You are my child. You belong to me. Alright. What does it mean when he says you are forgiven? What it means is I don't hold anything in your past against you. There's no condemnation. I remember it no more. You are not defined by yesterday. You are defined by today. You're not defined by whatever the sins were in your life a year ago, 10 years ago. And so, look, we all have skeletons in our closet, but the Apostle Paul who wrote this letter, yes, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he knew something about having a past. Now somebody said, well, he did it ignorant in unbelief. He had a zeal. Yes, I get that. So that has no merit to the drug addict or the person that's been in prostitution or the person who's aborted their baby or on and on week ago, or the person who was raised in a family where no one loved them and they dealt with all kinds of abuse.
Yeah.
Paul:When I bring them into Christ, that is so important. If Jesus saves and the gospel is good news, now that they are in Christ Jesus, let the creator define his creation.
Yeah, yeah. In, in the words of Paul, he has lavished this, the riches of his grace have been lavished upon us. Mm. And we want to sometimes we want to. Skim some of that off the top and make it a little less lavish. We, we, we are bringing our own skeletons out of the closet or we are we're not allowing his his grace to change our identity the way that it's intended to change our identity.
Paul:Parents. Make for some of the best evangelists. Now, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. If you're out there listening and saying, I'm not a parent, or I wish I were a parent, we've had some difficulties in that process. I, I'm not trying to say that you cannot understand evangelism or be very zealous in regards to saving. So unless you have fathered or parented a child, here's my point. As parents, what do we understand about love being lavished on a child? About that child being the apple of our eye, about those children being so, so central to who and what we are.
Mm-hmm.
Paul:And sometimes we don't help people to understand what it means for the father to lavish his love on you.
Mm. That's a really beautiful thought. For, for those of us that are in Christ already, that as are, as Paul addresses the letter, you know that are, who are saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. That's a beautiful thought for us to, to be reminded of that. But as you mentioned, it's also a beautiful thought for those who are outside of Christ because th this is something that we're able to point to and say this, this is what is being offered. Again, the grace that he's offering, it saves us. Okay. But it also is, it's something that offers transformation. It offers sanctification. It offers a new identity. It offers us a US a new role. A new meaning, a new purpose. Paul talks about that even later in this letter when he refers to his own work as being a grace from God. That's not just about him being saved. That's something that he's been given to do. This is all thing. These are all things that we can point to and say this is what's available in Christ.
Paul:Yeah. You know I can, I can see we're getting, we're running up against our time here, and I knew that was gonna be a challenge for us. That's why this is season eight, a journey through Ephesians, and so we, we don't have to, we don't have to empty the whole gun here in the first, in the first podcast. There are two prayers, Noah. So again, I think we introduced last week. If you start in chapter four, walk worthy of the calling.
Mm-hmm.
Paul:So four, five and six is very practical in its application, but how can we walk worthy of the calling if we don't understand the calling?
Yeah.
Paul:Chapters one, two, and three are the calling in those three chapters about who is this God the Father, the son of the Spirit. What the, what is the gospel? What is that mystery that is now being revealed? And on and on, and we'll talk about this. There's a reason why Paul placed strategically two prayers in the first three chapters where he is talking about the calling. And in those two prayers, in chapter one, in chapter three tho those two prayers and both Paul's not praying for health or jobs or finances like most of us pray for. Mm-hmm. And there's nothing wrong with that,
right?
Paul:He's not even praying that they would clean up their behavior or work on loving one another. And boy, absolutely. We need to pray on cleaning up for Hare that's walking worthy of the calling, by the way. Right. But in both prayers, he prays that God's spirit would reveal deep foundational truths designed to deepen their understanding so that they would better know and understand who they are in Christ, what they have in Christ, and how much God loves them because they are the beloved in Christ. Mm-hmm. Those are the prayers. If we're not praying those prayers, it's gonna affect our evangelism. If we're not praying those prayers, it's gonna affect our understanding of. Who we are, the creator defines his creation. And that's in the calling and that's in the gospel in the first three chapters.
Yeah. Well, I think that that's probably a good point for us to go ahead and break in our study of Ephesians. We'll be back next week. We'll continue our way through Ephesians chapter one, looking at the very beginning of this, of this letter that Paul. Wrote to the the Christians in Ephesus already. I am even more excited about this journey through this letter than I was before we started this episode. I am, I am. Going to relish the ability to just spend time appreciating God's plan and the love that that shows us, the grace that has been demonstrated toward us, and the way that that calls us upward, that calls us to follow Jesus and how that you know, interacts with every part of our lives. So I'm looking forward to that. To those who are listening, thank you for joining us here in season eight. We pray that the things that we discuss today and in the future episodes will be of benefit to you. And will help you as you consider your calling and your conduct to continue to follow Christ and to continue to stand strong.
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