“God Has Blessed Us” Ephesians 1:3-10

It’s probable that none of us have lived through a pandemic of such major concern for our world and ourselves. It’s possible some of us remember Pearl Harbor and World War II. We can remember where we were in other tragic or traumatic times in our history.

Through it all, however, Jesus has been with us. That’s His promise to us in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:16-20. And, as Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:4-6, we should always rejoice and praise God with thanksgiving in all circumstances, even when the days seem darker than usual.

One of the ways we can praise God and give Him thanks is found in the way He has blessed us through His Son Jesus Christ and in the presence of His Holy Spirit.

Background

Paul’s ministry at Ephesus was one of the longer stays he had in a city. According to Acts 19:10, the apostle spent two years there, teaching and making disciples. The ministry was so effective that the Bible says, “. . . all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 10:10b).

Ephesus was known for their temple to Artemis, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was a place known for learning and culture. As a result of Paul’s ministry there, the church was strong in the community.

Paul’s letter is written while he was imprisoned in Rome. It was written to remind the listeners (since the letters were usually read to the congregation) that God is worthy of praise for the things done for us through Christ Jesus. It is written to encourage the unity of the church because of God’s grace. And that’s found in today’s passage.

In the passage, Paul states that God is worthy of praise, and he lists a number of reasons why God is worthy of our praise. He reminds us of what God has done to bring us into His kingdom and His family. In almost every verse that follows v. 3, Paul tells us of something God has done for us through Christ.

Central Truth: God is worthy of praise because of the numerous ways He has blessed us.

God blesses us by:

Choosing us (4)

There are three things about this verse that stands out and lets us know we are important to God. The first is that God chose us. Choosing someone or something lets us know that the thing chosen is wanted and desired. If I offered you two cuts of meat—one pan-fried Spam and the other a grilled-to-perfection rib eye steak—I think I can know which one you would choose. It’s the preferred piece of meat. The same is true of almost everything. If we are given a choice, we will almost always choose the one we prefer.

God chose us. He wanted us and He selected us. We are His by His decision and His desire. We are God’s chosen people.

Second, we were chosen by God before the creation of the world. We need to be careful here, lest we misunderstand what Paul is writing. There are two ways to interpret. One is that we were chosen before we were created—God predestined us to be saved. The second is that God chose before the creation of time what it would mean that we are chosen, what choosing us would do for us. I believe the second interpretation is the better one. In other words, God knew what He was going to do even before He created our world and us. God already had a plan for redemption and restoration. The fact that we were chosen to embrace this plan makes it all the sweeter that we were chosen by God Himself.

Third, we were chosen before the beginning of time for a reason, and that reason was to make us holy and blameless in God’s sight. The holiness issue has been dealt with in earlier messages. It means we have been set apart for God’s service. It is the blameless idea that needs to be fleshed out.

You and I know that we are all sinners saved by grace. It was our rebellion against God that caused Him to send His Son to die for us. We did nothing on our own to be declared right in God’s eyes. But, because of the redemptive work done by Jesus Christ, we are now blameless in God’s sight. He doesn’t look upon us and think, “You caused My Son to die.” He looks at us instead as ones who have been redeemed and are now declared to be righteous and holy in His eyes. When we sin, God condemns our sin, but He doesn’t condemn us. Because of what God determined before the creation of the universe, we are now, through Jesus Christ, blameless in God’s sight.

Predestined to adoption (5)

Part of God’s plan before the creation of time was to reach out to us in love and make us His children. Paul reminds us that this adoption into sonship was not something you or I did to make come about. It was and is God’s activity growing out of His love for us. God delighted in doing so—His pleasure. And God wanted to adopt us—His will. Which leads to the next statement of why God is worthy of praise and how He blesses us.

Giving us grace (6)

God has poured out His grace upon His chosen people, and that includes you and me. Paul will remind us more about grace later on in the letter—“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Grace is the giving of things we do not deserve. God’s grace is a gift, and He chose before the creation of the world to bring us this grace through Jesus Christ, the One He loves. This results in the words found in the next verse.

Redemption and Forgiveness (7-8)

We find redemption through Christ’s blood, the blood that was shed at Calvary to usher in the new covenant—salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. We are redeemed. This redemption means that through Jesus we are taken away from the wages of sin and are instead given eternal life in Christ Jesus by His sacrifice and by the indwelling presence of His Spirit.

God’s grace also means our sins are forgiven. It is so important for us to realize this truth, because Satan likes to remind us that we are sinners. He likes to bring to our remembrance all the ways we have disappointed or rebelled against God. He likes to take us back down the familiar paths of our ways of not doing God’s will—which is sin—by encouraging us to talk the way we used to talk, to do the things we used to, to think and feel the ways we used to think and feel before we knew Jesus. As long as Satan can keep us focused on our sins, he can distract us from the realization that we are forgiven by God’s grace, that we are redeemed by Christ’s blood, that we are adopted by God’s choice and that we are chosen by Him to be holy and blameless. The fact that God is telling us these truths in His word should let us know who and what we really are, but Satan can hinder our growth if he can get us to focus on our sins. As we have said so many times before, Satan uses our feelings to defeat us. We must be people who believe what God tells us. We must be men and women of faith, not of feelings. The feelings will come around to reflect the faith if we will only choose to walk in that faith.

I like the way God inspired Paul to write that God’s grace is “lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” It is a phrase rich with meaning. “Lavished” means that it has been poured out upon us, without skimping. It is a generous giving. And it is arrived at from God’s own wisdom and understanding. Not only does God give us a generous portion of grace and forgiveness, but He also gives us generous portions of His own wisdom and understanding. By the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we have a knowledge of God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s purposes. We may not know everything, but God is always willing to let us know what we need to know when we need to know it. And that leads to the final reason we give God praise and how He blesses us.

Gives us knowledge of His will (9-10)

Again, growing out of God’s love and pleasure, God has chosen to give us knowledge of His ways and His will.

This is different from the will He shows us for daily living. Instead, He gives us an awareness of His long-term plan of restoring all creation under Christ Jesus when He returns and establishes His kingdom. That is not to say that we can have a complete understanding of how and when and where Jesus will return. It does tell us that you and I can be assured that Jesus is coming again, and when He comes, He will bring judgment and victory and life and final freedom from temptation and sin and death. This has been God’s plan since before the beginning of time and creation, so we can walk with a confidence and assurance. Our hope is secure, our faith is real, our God is worthy of praise because of Who He is and what He has done.

Conclusion

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

We are living in a time where it’s easy to become worried, to become anxious. But if we will remember and embrace who we really are in Christ Jesus—as told us in today’s passage—then we can move forward in everything, giving God praise and thanksgiving, regardless of our circumstances.

God is with us. He has chosen us, making us blameless, holy, redeemed, forgiven and filled with His grace.

What have we to fear?