God's Glory in our Adoption
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Why choose the book of Ephesians?
What kind of course should we set together? We’re like a ship clearing the harbor, and the whole ocean is open before us. What compass heading do we take? There are many churches setting many courses, and not all of them are worthy routes. What is the purpose of our voyage together? From where will our ship draw its power? What is our ultimate destination?
“All scripture is God breathed, and profitable” for God’s people. So in some sense, any place in the Bible would make an appropriate start. But the book of Ephesians caught my attention because it is so centering, so focused on the very heart of what matters for a congregation in our life together. It is my hope that God will have mercy on us, and open the eyes of our hearts to behold Him in his glory over these next few months as we experience Ephesians together—so that we might chart the course, together, that God would have us chart.
Introducing Ephesians
Introducing Ephesians
A Letter from Paul
A Letter from Paul
(rd 1a)
Missionary/church planter
Apostle
One who saw Christ and received a special commission from him (last Apostle/one untimely born, 1 Cor 15:8)
An official position in the Church
One who also also wrote/taught like a prophet = full authority, God’s words
These are the words of God himself!
A Letter to Who?
A Letter to Who?
(rd 1b)
Ephesus, but probably other congregations too...
Three descriptions:
Saints = those set apart for God’s glory/to his presence
to be fulfilled in holy living…
Faithful = those with faith/those who believe (vice loyal)
In Christ = united with Christ
Ultimately, our identity; letter ultimately intended by God for us…
The Greeting: a Preview...
The Greeting: a Preview...
(rd 2)
Grace and peace
typical greeting...
sneak peak: two vital concepts in this letter
grace —> peace
From God (the one from whom we need… )
our Father (vital for g&p)
and from the Lord Jesus Christ (who accomplishes g&p)
God is Worthy!
God is Worthy!
rd 3a
What does it mean to bless God?
What does it mean to bless God?
“Blessed be” = a way of praising God
But not addressed directly to God = a type of praise that tells others of His worth
A personal statement of worship by Paul, which also alerts us to the worthiness of God
Paul, unable to take his eyes off of the wonder of who God is, revealed to us in Christ
But also hinting… about to reveal something to us about why God is worthy
From the OT pattern:
From the OT pattern:
Not invented by Paul
Form = OT psalms and other passages: blessing God in response to his salvation and generosity
Ex.
18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!
What Paul is about to show us: the climax/high point of God’s wondrous deeds… why God is worthy!!!
Why is God Worthy?
Why is God Worthy?
Blessed in Christ
Blessed in Christ
rd 3b
God is worthy b/c is the one who blesses us…
What does this mean?
The original creation, created good by God, was a place of only blessing and no curse, but…
Since Gen. 3, the whole world has been under the curse of suffering, of death, of exile from God’s presence, and of divine judgement…
To Abraham, God promised blessing, and blessing to all the earth through him/his descendants
To Israel, God gave the blessing of a covenant relationship with him, which included a good law, which if they followed would bring blessing but if they broke would bring the divine curse
How did this turn out?
In the OT, we see Israel’s downward spiral, breaking God’s law…
Experiencing more and more of the curse until finally exile…
But then:
In Christ, at the cross, the curse for God’s people was swallowed up forever
In Christ, through his righteousness, blessing was won for us
The curse brought on by Adam has been overturned in Christ = grace
Therefore, in Christ—united with him—God’s people receive blessing
What kind of blessing?
“every spiritual blessing”
every = God has opened wide the floodgates of blessing on us, his people
spiritual =
blessings that have their ultimate root and shape in our mystical union with the Son… “in the heavenly places”=where Christ himself is enthroned! (as we will see later in chapter 1)
blessings which are completely ours… and yet which we posses spiritually while still living in a sinful and cursed world
Maybe you’ve struggled with pornography, or same sex attraction, or gender confusion. These spiritual blessings do not remove that struggle with temptation (yet)… but they do give God’s very own fatherly care and mercy, and even God’s own armor (ch.6) in the struggle.
Maybe you’ve suffered significant injustice, or been reviled for you faith. These blessings do not immediately make those things right. But they do give you the supreme honor of adoption into God’s own family, and a promise that you may rest in God now: one day he will make all things right.
Maybe you or someone you love is suffering greatly. These blessings do not end your suffering now. But they do give you the God of all comfort as your Father, whose Spirit dwells in you now, who cares for you, and who one day will end all suffering.
Chosen in Christ
Chosen in Christ
What exactly is this blessing? And how achieved?
rd 4
The ultimate foundation and cause of our blessing: God chose us in Christ before the world existed
Note how specific this is:
Not: God had a vague plan for salvation
But: God chose each of his sons and daughters specifically
And: God chose in him, meaning, the plan all along was for our salvation and glory to come through Christ
=> i.e. his cross/resurrection/pouring out of his Spirit on us, etc.
=> (we’ll see this as we move through Ephesians… )
Why bring this up?
For your comfort: you belong to God today not ultimately because of a choice you made for him, but because of a choice he made for you. He set his affections on you before the world existed, and so now you are redeemed--his in Christ forever.
If he chose you before you chose him, and so you are redeemed, and if Jesus prayed to the Father, “keep them in your name” (Jn 17:11) => the power of his eternal love that chose you will also keep you until glory.
Ultimately => to the praise of his glory! (repeated refrain, ex. vs. 6)
Chosen for:
Not just a future destiny, but a present way of living
rd 4b
holy: set apart, more of a status… (see vs. 1)
blameless: a state moral perfection, toward which we move slowly in this life/obtain fully in glory
Adopted in Christ
Adopted in Christ
rd 5
Again we see, this was no vague choice, but a definite plan: we were predestined to be adopted as sons of God
And this is not just a vague idea of adoption—just a random decision by God to make us his people and then try to explain that to us by calling it “adoption”
But => adoption “through Jesus Christ”
Explain Son vs. children in John’s gospel => Jesus is the unique, only begotten Son of God...
yet we are adopted through him = our status as children is like/based on/parallel to Jesus’ own status as Son
different, yet so close that Jesus say that the Father has loved us with the same love that he has loved the Son with from eternity past!
Also here in Ephesians => adoption = an act of love which brings us into the place of love
“in love he predestined us” => God’s mighty act of predestination to adoption was most centrally an act of love
=> Note: in love grammar…
End of vs. 6 => we are blessed “in the Beloved” (= in Christ) => hint: if you are in Christ, you are in the place of infinite belovedness/love
Also a hint:
vs. 2, God = “God our Father”
vs. 3, God = “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
Note:
=> the use of “adoption as sons” here is not to demote or exclude daughters, but to show that our adoption is in parallel to THE SON
=>sisters: if that’s hard, that’s OK; just remember, your brothers have to deal with the fact that we’re part of Christ’s bride…
Possible note: the already/not yet-ness of sonship (Rom. 8)
Struggle? Don’t sense God’s love… don’t feel like his child… reasons:
Tough work/home environment
Depression
Sin
Sonship to God is something you really have now! Yet…
Sonship is incomplete now. Right after explaining that we are, now children of God, in Rom. 8:
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Or as John wrote:
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
God has Displayed his Worth in his Grace so that We Might Praise him!
God has Displayed his Worth in his Grace so that We Might Praise him!
God’s Purpose
God’s Purpose
Why did God do this?
=> Give such glorious grace to rebels?
=> Act with love toward his enemies, to make us his treasured children?
Two answers
rd 6a
Reason 1: In love
“Glorious grace” = the disposition of God’s heart toward those on whom he set his love from eternity past
=> God’s stance toward all people is gracious (explain common grace)
=> yet there is a particular glory in the grace turns enemies into sons
“in love he predestined” = God’s whole plan of salvation, from Gen. to Rev., choice => predestination => adoption => glory = planned/carried out in love
In all of this, God has expressed himself toward us in his perfect attribute of love
Reason 2: For his glory
“to the praise of his glorious grace” = not merely the result, but the purpose behind God’s action
Why did God act to save us? To save any particular person? To save a people for himself?
=> vs. 5b “according to the purpose of his will” i.e. not because of anything about us—anything we would do or choose
He chose us => that he might display the glory of his grace, that we might worship him!
He saved us for the praise of his glory…
=> restoration of creation to a rightful state of worship…
gospel plea: created to worship, but...
The course we set together...
The course we set together...
In light of these truths, what course shall we set together?
If his love for us is so strong that:
it is from eternity past,
adopts us into his very family,
cannot be broken
=> Let us be a congregation that says that God’s love, God himself, is enough for us.
we do not need world’s promises of satisfaction in wealth, fame, comfort, which evaporate => we have the unshakable promise of God that our adoption will one day be completed
we do not need world’s promises of inner peace through self-expression or self-actualization; we do not need to follow the whims of our confused hearts. We only need to look to the one who has adopted us in love.
Let us avoid ways of doing church which assume that the goodness and power of God’s grace is insufficient: that would seek to build us up or make us better/feel better based on human wisdom, rather than the wisdom of God
If he saved us for praise of his glory:
We do not exist for ourselves, but for him
Both as individuals, and as a congregation: “not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your Name give glory”
=> Let us be a congregation that says that we exist for the praise of God’s glory
We do not exist to make friends with the world, or even to have favor with our community
We do not exist to please those who come through our doors, or to make them comfortable
We do not exist as a spiritual social club—a comfortable, secure holy huddle
But we exist to worship God, and to tell others who do not know him, that they also might become true worshipers of God, delighting in his adopting love, by which he has saved us in the beloved
Let us be a God-centered congregation; let us exist for the praise of his glory!
Let us be those who say to each other and to the world, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has loved us from before the foundation of the world, who destined us to be rescued from sin and death by adoption to himself through Christ.”