Sermon Tone Analysis

We have been redeemed!

~~ Ephesians 1:7-8

 

/Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,// //just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love// //He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,// //to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.//

//In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace// //which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight./

Ephesians 1:3-8

 

I.

The Meaning of Redemption

a.    Greek Word - There are basically two Greek words used in the New Testament for redemption.

i.

/Agora­/ – marketplace.

From this root word come other nouns and verbs that refer to buying and trading in the marketplace.

1.

In the New Testament this word is used to denote spiritual purchase or redemption.

/And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and *purchased* for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation./

Revelation 5:9

 

/Christ *redeemed* us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”/ Galatians 3:13

 

The word that is used in our passage this morning is…

 

ii.

/Lutroo – /to release from captivity.

This word was used to refer to paying a ransom in order to release a person from bondage, especially that of slavery.

1.

During the time when Paul was writing this letter the Roman Empire had as many as six million slaves.

The slave market was huge and the buying and selling of slaves was a regular part of the culture.

MacArthur says, If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a slave, he would buy that slave for himself and then grant him freedom, testifying to the deliverance by a written certificate.

Our word /lutroo/ was the legal word designating freeing a slave in this way.

2.    this is how the word is used in vs. 7 where Paul says, “In Him we have redemption…”  Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross purchased our freedom from slavery to sin.

 

1 Corinthians 6:20 sums up the definition of redemption quite clearly, it says…/For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

/                                                                       

 

There are several elements of redemption that I want us to look at today that will help us understand this great gift.

II.

The Elements of Redemption

a.

The Redeemer - It is not a mystery to us who the redeemer is.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Obviously if we have no redeemer we have no redemption.

At the beginning of vs. 7 Paul reminds us that it is in Christ that we have redemption.

This is a point that is made throughout this passage.

Every spiritual blessing is given to us in and through Christ.

Listen to what the scriptures say about our redeemer.

i.

Became a curse

1.    Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—Galatians 3:13

 

ii.

Became an imperishable sacrifice

1.    /knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,// //but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.//

//For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you// //who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God./                         1 Peter 1:18-21

 

iii.

Became the final sacrifice

1.    /and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption./

Hebrews 9:12

 

We have considered the redeemer for a few minutes let’s now consider the redeemed.

b.

The Redeemed – Who are the redeemed?

That’s us!

I cannot speak of redemption without thinking about what we were when we were so graciously redeemed.

Look at what Paul says about us in Ephesians 2:1-3

 

i.

We were dead

 

 

1.

/And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,// //in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.//

//Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest./

Ephesians 2:1-3

 

ii.

We were without hope

1.    /remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world./

Ephesians 2:12

a.

We were so far removed from Christ that we had no hope.

See what Paul says?

We were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel…we are not Jews, we were not part of God’s chosen people and because of that we had no idea of the covenant promises.

No wonder we were without hope!

b.

Paul says later in Ephesians 4 that we were darkened in our hearts and excluded from the life of God.

c.

At that point, we had no helpful understanding of God, no desire to know Him, no desire to pursue Him.

That’s trouble with a capital ‘T’.

We did not know that we needed a redeemer.

d.

You realize, don’t you, that people who don’t know that they need redemption have no desire to know the redeemer.

If we don’t know we are slaves to sin what need do we have to be free?

But God knew we needed redemption and that’s exactly why God redeemed us through Christ’s work on the cross.

That’s the good news isn’t it?

That God did send his son to redeem us.

But at what cost, what was the redemption price?

c.

The Redemption Price – Simply put, the cost of our redemption was the blood of Jesus Christ.

Jesus bought us back from slavery to sin.

We know that the Old Testament sacrifices included…

 

i.

The blood of bulls and goats

1.

But listen to what the writer to the Hebrews says about that.

/For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins./

Hebrews 10:4

a.

You see all the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic Law were a picture of a greater sacrifice to come, that of Jesus Christ.

ii.

The blood of Christ

1.

Because he shed his blood, the writer goes on to say, “/we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”/                                         Heb 10:10

2.    Jesus himself tells us that his blood /is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins./

And God accepted Jesus sacrifice as a fragrant aroma.

a.     What this means is that the blood of Jesus shed at Calvary was sufficient to wash away our sins.

3.

Peter reminds us that Jesus blood is not like the perishable things offered up as sacrifices.

a.     /knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ./ 1 Peter 1:18-19