A PATHWAY TO CHRISTIAN LIVING
Seven
Spiritual Blessings In Christ- Part I
Next week, we will be
baptizing a few people after the
service. I invite you all to join that baptismal service and cheer these new
members of the family of God. According to Romans 10:9, they are saved because
they have confessed with their mouth Jesus as Lord and believed in their hearts
that God raised him from the dead." The next step after salvation is to get
baptized.
Through the Baptism
of immersion, people put away their old ways of living and commit to following
Jesus. Let's invite them into the Hope Church family and pray and support their
spiritual growth. As seasoned Christians as we might be, it would be helpful to
remember the gospel truths we have believed throughout our faith journey. To
facilitate the first-time learning of those truths and a refresher course for
the matured believers, I am starting a new series of teaching titled A
Pathway to Christian Living. It is a journey through the Book of
Ephesians.
Let me give you an
overview of Ephesians: What do we know about the ancient city of Ephesus? What
is the beginning of the Ephesian Church? Who is the author, when was it
written, and what is the purpose of this Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians? What
is the outline and the central theme of the Ephesians? We have a bit of ground
to cover; let's get started.
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS
1. What do we know about the ancient city of
Ephesus?
Ancient Ephesus was
the capital of the province of Asia (Asia Minor). It was about one mile inland
from the eastern portion of the Aegean Sea. A great theater seating about
50,000 people was located there (Acts 19:31). Also, one of the world's seven
wonders, the temple of Diana, was found in Ephesus. During Paul's time,
thousands of people from all over the world would travel to Ephesus to worship
in the temple of Diana.
Even today, the ruins
of Ephesus(in modern-day Turkey) still proclaim its former magnificence.
Ephesus was also an important political, educational, and commercial center,
ranking with Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch of Pisidia in southern Asia Minor.
What happened in Ephesus affected the rest of the region. This explains why the
apostle Paul visited Ephesus in two missionary journeys.
2. The beginnings of the Ephesian Church?
Paul
first visited Ephesus during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:18-21). He
left Aquilla and Priscilla to help the believers there. On his third missionary
Journey, Paul spent three years in Ephesus preaching the word. As a result,
throughout the province of Asia, Jews and Greeks heard the word of the Lord
(Acts 19:10), and a Church was established in Ephesus.
3. The author, date, and the purpose of the
letter to the Ephesians
The
Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians is one of Paul's five "Prison
Epistles." An epistle is a long, formal letter. When Paul wrote this
letter around A.D. 60 to A.D. 64, he was under house arrest in Rome. Though he
was a prisoner, he was allowed to have visitors and write letters. He wrote
this letter and sent it through Tychicus not to confront any heresy or problem
but to encourage and strengthen the Church at Ephesus and all believers
everywhere.
4. The Blueprint and the central theme of
Ephesians.
Here is the Blueprint
of the Ephesians. A. Christian Beliefs (Chapters 1-3). B. Christian Behavior (Chapters
4-6). Watchman Nee divided the Epistle into three parts by highlighting three
key action words for us to remember. 1 Our position in Christ—"SIT
(1:1-3:21). 2. Our Life in the World—"Walk" (4:1-6:9)
3. Our Attitude to the Enemy—"Stand" (6:10-24).
The central theme of
this letter is being Rooted in Love. The Key verses are Ephesians 3:17-18,
"Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your
roots will grow down into God's Love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have
the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how
high, and how deep his Love is."
The apostle Paul
began his letter by unfolding "Seven Spiritual Blessings in Christ"
to all those who believe in Him. Let's explore three of those spiritual
blessings and their impact on our daily lives. Ephesians 1:1-6
Vs. 3, "All
praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with
Christ." Every believer in Christ has all the benefits of knowing
God—being chosen for salvation, being adopted as his children, forgiveness,
insight, the gifts of the Spirit, the power to do God's will, and the hope of
living with him forever. We can enjoy these blessings because we have an
intimate relationship with Christ. The "heavenly realms" mean these
blessings are eternal, not temporal. The blessings come from Christ from the
spiritual realm, not the earthly realm of the goddess Diana, as several have
believed in Ephesus. Let's see these blessings in detail.
I. Three Spiritual Blessings in Christ
(Ephesians 1:1-6)
A. We are chosen by Love to be Holy (Vs. 4)
Vs.4, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and
chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes." In the
previous weeks, we have learned that God is Love and everything He does is
motivated out of Love. Here is another expression of God's Love.
In our sinful state,
all of us were broken and unworthy and destined to go to hell. But because of
God's great Love, He chose us. Jeremiah 31:3, "Long ago, the Lord said to
Israel: "I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With
unfailing Love, I have drawn you to myself." Jesus told his disciples that
they didn't choose Him, but He chose them. (John 15:16).
It is a blessing to
be chosen by the God who is Love. Even before he made the world, he chose us to
be Holy. Being holy is not being sinless but being separated from the world.
God is purifying us daily, and it takes a lifetime. Yet, with all our imperfections,
God sets us apart to accomplish His purposes in and through us. They are best
achieved by being in God's family.
B. We have been adopted into God's family
(Vs. 5)
Vs. 5, "God
decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself
through Jesus Christ. He wanted to do this, and it gave him great
pleasure." It's an amazing truth to know that all those who have put their
faith in Christ belong to God's family.
Like how we have not
chosen into which physical family we will be born, we couldn't have chosen to
be part of God's spiritual family. It was God's decision and not ours to adopt
us into his own family through Jesus Christ. As God's children, this is where
we will grow and mature together with fellow brothers and sisters in God's
family. This bond with fellow believers can be much stronger than natural
family ties. Only those who believe in Christ enjoy this beautiful relationship
with one another in God's family because of God's great Love for us.
C. We have been given God's glorious Grace
abundantly (Vs. 6)
Vs. 6, "So we
praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his
dear Son." "To the praise of his glorious grace, with
which he has blessed us in the Beloved." (ESV). In Christ, we have been
chosen by God's Love to be Holy. Through Christ, we have been adopted into
God's family. In Christ the beloved, we have been blessed with God's glorious
and abundant Grace. All these three rich blessings are through Christ and to
those in Christ.
Our selection to be
set apart for God's purposes, our adoption into God's family, and the lavishing
outpouring of God's gloriously abundant Grace are all God's doing, and we did
not deserve any of them. Our response should be to thank and praise God for his
abundant Grace.
What does the word
Grace mean? How is it experienced in one's life? Biblical Grace is the
unmerited favor of God, which means getting what we don't deserve. "Out of
131 or 124 occurrences of Grace, depending on the translation in the NT, 86 are
from the apostle Paul, which means two-thirds of all the uses of the word Grace
in the Bible are in one author: Paul. No wonder he's called "the apostle
of Grace, notes Pastor John Piper in Desiring God.[1]
Paul, for one who
experienced God's Grace more than anyone else in the N.T so that He can write
about it. He considers God's Grace one of the Spiritual blessings that God
lavishly poured in abundance on all His children. What does God's Grace do in
the life of a believer?
God's Grace frees us
from sin. (Romans 6:14). It strengthens us to endure suffering and pain. (II
Cor 12:9-10. It empowers us to obey God ( Acts 6:8). God's Grace gives us hope
(I Peter 1:13). God's Grace is not something we earn, but God gifts Grace to all
those who love Him. (Ps 84:11). We have freely received God's glorious Grace.
Let's give it to others freely.
