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God At Work in Our LIves: The Thesaurus Sermon…. on Ephesians 1:3-14
God at Work IN OUR LIVES!
God Adopts US! The Thesaurus Sermon
Ephesians 1:3-14
† In Jesus’ Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ assure you—that you are a child of God!
Double the praise!
As I read the passage that we are looking at this morning, I thought Paul was in what I call “Thesaurus Mode.”
He wasn’t just doing the ancient technique of repeating what he said twice, He repeated, then summarized it, then retaught it, then restated it, then he explained it, then he said it again!
I think that means he wanted us to get the point he was trying to make—
A really basic thought, but one so incredible that he has to surround it with the only thing that made sense.
Verse 3, “3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
And verse 14, “we would praise and glorify him.”
The anticipation and reaction of this incredible message begins with us in awe, worshipping God and ends with us praising and glorifying Him,
So what is the message? What is the word? What is the news?
His Plan, His Decision, His Will, His Promise
Well, the first part of the message is to communicate that this was always what God wanted to happen.
In verse 4 it says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ.”
In verse 5 it repeats the idea , “God decided in advance”
And
“This is what he wanted to do”
He keeps the idea going,
Verse 9, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan”
and going,
verse 11, “for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.”
Verse 12, God’s purpose
And finally in verse 13, whom he promised long ago.
Seven times in 11 verses, Paul tries to reveal that this is not some last-minute reaction to do something about our brokenness, it is something that from before day 1 God determined to do.
I think we need to realize that, more importantly, I think God, who inspired St. Paul to write these words, knew that we would be broken, and that we needed to know how deliberate God was in dealing with that brokenness.
And how the sin of the world, the sin of our community and our own sin breaks us, for it certainly does.
We need to know God was always prepared to deal with this brokenness, this sin, and bring healing to us. He reveals that over and over in the Old Testament, as you see in the Psalms and the minor prophets.
God knew… and God planned to take care of us… even at our most broken.
Even if that is today… He’s loved and chosen, decided, wanted to, mysteriously planned, chose in advanced and promised to act in our lives….
DO you see what I mean by saying this is a message communicated using a thesaurus?
Blessed, United Brought, Adopted , identified, His inheritance, His purchase
But it’s not enough to tell us God’s intent… we have to know what God intended to do to us….
So, verse 3 blessed us with every spiritual blessing because we are united with Christ,
Verse 4, loved us and chose us in Christ, to be holy and without fault in His eyes
Verse 5, God, adopted us into His own family by bringing us through Jesus Christ,
Verse 6, we see God pouring out His glorious grace on us who belong to His dear Son.
Verse 7 He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins,
Verse 8 showered (baptized us ) with kindness and with all wisdom and understanding
Verse 10, God brings us along with everything under the authority of Christ,
Verse 11, He gives us (the ones who were broken) an inheritance from God, and makes it all work according to His plan.
It goes on to describe this as being for all us, both Jewish people who were the first to trust in Christ, and the Gentiles who heard and believed, in verse 13 are saved and identified as His own…
It says there also that He gives us the Holy Spirit , and verse 14, He gives us that inheritance, to all He has purchased to be His own people!
So to summarize, He blessed, united to Christ, loved, chose, made us holy and without fault, adopted us, bring us to Himself through Jesus, poured His glorious grace, purchased all of us with Christ’s blood, baptized us with kindness, wisdom and understanding as He places us in Christ, gives us His inheritance, saves us, identifies us as His own, gives us the Holy Spirit… and again purchased us—so that we can be HIS OWN PEOPLE!
Wowza….
Praise and Value
Seems like we should value and recognize all that work that God has done!
That is what it means to praise and glorify Him, as we recognize all of this!!! That is what it means to praise and glorify Him—because of what happened as Christ died on the cross, and rose from the dead, and what He does as He baptizes us, as He justifies and sanctifies us…..
This is our God, this is the message God wants to us to know, and what He communicates through St. Paul…
This is why we praise Him, not just because He is almighty, and all knowing… but because He reveals to us His love, and the action that love for us who are broken… and He makes us His own….
Amen!
Our Logic and Reason: Can We Trust Them?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
2 The LORD Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words? 3 Now stand up straight and answer the questions I ask you. Job 38:2-3 (TEV)
11 When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways. 12 What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete—as complete as God’s knowledge of me. 13 Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (TEV)
It’s been 30 years since i read it, but I think we need a sequel to the book. Specifically, asking the very tough question of whether we replaced our emotions with what we perceive to be our logic, our ability to reason.
I am not talking about outside our churches, although that might be an interesting study. I am talking about inside the church. We have tried to divorce our feelings from ourselves, and the church has been lifeless because of that. We extoll those who present the faith logically, who try to show, step by step, the logic of scripture. (Side note: It is not surprising that as Dobson downplayed emotions, exegetical preaching – verse by verse – became “the” way to preach. Exegesis is good, but it can be blind to the gospel)
But is our intellect, our reason, our ability to be logical all that reliable? Or does it have the same frailty as our emotions? Can you actually divorce the two? The biggest question we need to be asking ourselves is the same question Job was asked, who are we to question God?
You might say that you don’t, that everything you listen to or teach or preach is in complete accordance with God’s revelation. That your brand of theology is the correct version, and you are sticking to it, come Hell or high water. That everything else is heretical or heterodox or mysticism or pietism or legalism, and you are contrary to all that crap.
At which point, you have sinned, and placed yourself in the place of God.
Get it straight, even as your emotions can betray you, so can your logic. That is why John tells us that if we deny our sin, our brokenness, the truth is not in us, we are liars.
That is why we need Christ, that is why we need Him to come to us, His presence revealed and know by hearts and minds in word and sacrament. Not just emotionally, not just logically, but present here, now, overwhelming us with His righteousness, with His mercy, and with His peace.
That is why we need the Spirit to transform us, to conform us to the image of Christ, and to the will of the Father. That is why we need to lay aside all things, and set our eyes on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, of our life.
It is then, Paul tells the church in Rome,
2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:2 (TEV)
Be still and know He is God, let Him be your place of rest, and safety, and let Him transform you. This is the hope you need, that those around you need as well. That He will reconcile our broken reason and our broken emotions to Himself, and gives us life.
AMEN.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism: Developed and Explained, WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: “The Third Article: On Becoming Holy”.
The Challenge of Preaching this Sunday:
Devotional Thought of the Day:
..simply concentrate on being completely devoted to Christ in your hearts. Be ready at any time to give a quiet and reverent answer to any man who wants a reason for the hope that you have within you. . 1 Peter 3 (Phillips NT)
32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.‘ John 12:32 (NJB)
But only when this message is preached does the real sin manifest itself, the sin of which it is stated here that it makes all the difference, namely, that “they do not believe in Me.” For the world does not want to hear such preaching: that they are all sinners before God, that their work righteousness has no validity before Him, and that they can obtain mercy and salvation solely through this crucified Christ. This unbelief toward Christ becomes a combination of all sins; it leads man into a damnation from which there is no rescue. (1)
As I have watched the internet and twitter today, I have grieved over the entire situation. I have contemplated and prayed about how I and the other pastors (I met with over 200 this morning, as well as laypeople representing churches all over Southern Cal, Arizona and Nevada. We did not meet about this, it was our every three year meeting. But the decision was mentioned). I have wondered about writing about this, knowing I must.
Knowing as well that there will be expectations about sermons on Sunday, and I imagine many pastors will be re-writing their sermons tomorrow. Our sermons will need to confront all sin, and call people to be reconciled to God. People will have different expectations, some thinking we should fall on one side of the issue or the other.
I have to disappoint them, The decision and reaction to it are not the sin we need to talk about on Sunday.
The sin we need to talk about is the one that robs us of our hope, the sin that sucks life out of us, the sin where we forget, or indeed rebel against God loving us. People who agree with the Supreme Court have sinned, as have those who do not agree with the Supreme Court. All have sinned; all have experienced the brokenness of life.
We need to examine ourselves individually and find the Spirit granting us repentance of the sin of not loving God, about not trusting Him to keep His promises. Promises like:
28 We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good. Romans 8:28 (NJB)
and just a few verses later,
38 For I am certain of this: neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, 39 nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 (NJB)
My reaction to the Supreme Court will not reveal to people Jesus, who lived and died for them. It won’t share a love that drove him to suffer and die on the cross to give all sinners the hope of being righteous. All sinners, including gossips, slanderers, idolators, haters, adulterers, people who are so envious of others it consumes them, and those who are so bitter that they cannot love people enough to desire reconciliation and healing of relationships. From sin, we need to be cleansed, to be transformed, not just from individual sins. Sin, as Luther wrote above, is not trusting, not having faith, bot believing God.
My friends, we are called to give the reason we have hope, why we expect something greater that the division of our country and the world. To do so, we have to realize our mission is to not demand purity, to plead with people to be reconciled, to let God draw them to Christ Jesus.
We need to be saved from sin – not just from sins. We need to find the life He promised, that the Holy Spirit gives, the hope that comes in Christ Jesus.
That’s what He does… He embraces us, brings healing to our battered lives, brings holiness and sanctity to those who sins He has died for, to free them.
He is our hope, no matter how shattered or communities, our neighborhoods, our families and our churches. Yes they are shattered, and the sin of our unbelief, our distrust of God is what shattered them. But that sin of unbelief is why He came.
Be reconciled to God, I plead, for there, in His love, there is hope.
The Hope we are commanded to give, the hope that is the reason we preach and administer sacraments. If we do that, if we lift Christ, the hope of sinners, high, if we reveal Jesus on the cross, because He loves us, Sunday will be a day of joy for all who are drawn to Him.
Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s Works, vol. 24: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 24, pp. 342–343). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
