Sunday, February 16, 2013
pm
STUDIES IN EPHESIANS - 2
Blessed with Every Spiritual Blessing - 1
Ephesians 1:3-14
The book of Ephesians is a book about
Christ and His church and how it is a part of God’s eternal purpose.
It is also a book about our redemption which is found in Him.
The two are related. Paul
begins this letter with praise for God and what He has done for us.
Today we will begin studying this first section.
Today we will engage in an overview of this section.
With our next lesson we will begin examining some of the
qualities that we will describe tonight.
a.
“Blessed”
God is praised – “Blessed” is a Greek word from which we get our English
word, eulogy. It
is a word that means one who is worthy of praise or commendation.
The word in this form (as an adjective) is found 8 times in the
NT and always has reference to God.
Luke 1:68 where Zacharias praises God when John is born.
He says, “Blessed is the
Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people.”
Romans 9:5 describes Him as, “the eternally blessed God.”
(NOT the same word as “blessed” in the “Beatitudes”, but akin to the
blessings we receive in Him)
There is no better way to begin a letter than with acknowledgment of the
worthiness of our God and Creator, especially when you are addressing
our salvation. Throughout our study of the psalms we see the
significance of this. As
you see the throne of God in heaven described in Revelation 4 & 5 you
see the great praise afforded Him.
NOTE: I have heard lessons questioning our approaching God with “flowery
language”. They say, when
you approach your earthly father you don’t use great speech but simply
call him dad or father. They
reason that you can approach God with simplicity simply calling Him God.
While there are times where that is true, I also believe in our
prayers we need to frequently acknowledge who He is.
Why? Because he
NOT your daddy! He is
NOT to be put on the same level as someone on earth.
He is God! He is your
Creator! He is highly
exalted. Even Jesus, in
teaching us to pray began said, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your
name…” (Matt. 6:9)
Psa. 111:9 says, “Holy and awesome is His name.”
Hebrews 13:15 says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to His name.” Do NOT
seek to humanize God!
b.
God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ
– This description of God demonstrates reverence.
He is due the respect of a father (and beyond) – Heb. 12:9 speaks
of His being worthy of such.
Even Jesus while on earth acknowledged Him often as His Father – a
description of authority in the plan for our redemption.
In John 17:1-5 Jesus prayed to Him as His Father.
NOTE: This does not mean that Jesus was created.
For in that text (vs. 5) He
requests, ““And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
In this book, they work together, along with the Holy Spirit to
accomplish our salvation and spiritual blessings.
So how is Jesus the Son and God the Father?
This is a discussion associated with the “triune” nature of God –
ONE God in 3 Persons. The
concept of God as Father and Jesus as the Son has to do with His nature.
One author observed that Jesus freely subjected Himself and thus
surrendered His equality with the Father for our sakes when He became a
man (see Phil. 2:5-8).
We will discuss Jesus as God next month in our “Back to Basics-2014”
series.
c.
Blessed us with every spiritual blessing
–
i.
God has blessed us – that is He has bestowed favor (grace) upon us.
The root of the word
blessed is the same as
that discussed previously.
However here it is in its verb form and has a different meaning – it is
a word that means to provide benefits or to speak well of.
It is a word used by Jesus when He blessed the loaves and fish
(Matt. 14:19) and also descriptive of us blessing those who curse us.
(Matt. 5:44)
Also used of God in passages such as Luke 1:64 where Zechariah was
“praising God.”
“Blessing”
is also based upon the same root word (λεγω, lego) but here it is a noun
and means that good will or praise that is received.
Notice that these are
spiritual blessings.
The idea of spiritual blessings is things of the spiritual realm.
God has provided benefits to us, even as we live upon this earth
and we have examples of physical blessings, some of which we are told we
can ask for (such as food – Matt. 6:11, business success - Jas. 4:13-16,
safe travels – Rom. 1:10, etc.) our focus and greater blessings are
spiritual, as these are associated with eternal life.
ii.
In heavenly places in Christ.
1.
The expression simply
means the realm of spiritual things.
2.
The expression “heavenly
places” is found only in Ephesians where it is mentioned 5 times.
a.
Our text in vs. 3.
b.
1:20 which speaks Christ
being seated at the right hand of God
c.
2:6 – we sit together
with Christ in heavenly places
d.
3:10 – the church was
made known by His manifold wisdom in heavenly places – God wisdom
demonstrated there.
e.
6:12 – our warfare includes
wrestling against hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.
3.
IN these examples we can
see the reference is to the realm of spiritual things – it involves
Christians, wicked forces (the realm of Satan) and God.
In this text we
find listed at least 7 spiritual blessings:
1.
He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. (1:4)
This is an expression that means a plan was formulated through which the
type of man God would chose was implemented.
The choice has to do with qualifications.
In fact our text says that through this choice, “we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Furthermore, this choice was made “before the foundation of the world”
indicating this was something God planned even before this earth came
into existence.
2.
He predestined us to
adoption as sons.
(1:5) Similar to the idea of being chosen, predestinEped means that He
predetermined those who would be adopted (accepted into His family).
Again this is not an involuntary and arbitrary determination.
The word is misunderstood by many.
We will discuss this in great detail in our next lesson.
3.
Through His grace He
made us acceptable in the Beloved (1:6) John 3:16 –
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
4.
He has redeemed us
through the blood of Jesus and forgiven our sins
(1:7-8)
One of the products of His grace is our forgiveness, again
accomplished through Jesus.
5.
He has made known to us
the mystery of His will
(1:9-10) The word of God is
His message to us. In it He
reveals that which we need to obtain life and godliness.
He has gathered together
in one all things in Christ (1:9) A little
later in this book Paul will address the mystery in greater detail.
One thing involved is the bringing together of Jew and Gentile.
6.
In Him we have obtained
an inheritance
(1:11) Our blessings are not
merely limited to this life.
They also include a home in heaven after this life.
Isn’t that our ultimate goal.
7.
He has sealed us with
the Spirit of promise.
(1:13) The Holy Spirit was
sent by the Father after Jesus ascended to heaven.
The Holy Spirit and His work are a demonstration of God’s
blessings.
8.
In coming lessons we
will examine each of these in more detail.
One preacher categorized these “blessings” into those which come
from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Worthy of consideration.
And these are just a sampling of the blessings we enjoy “in Him.”