You won't be surprised when I invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and we'll read once again from the first verse through to the end of verse 14.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the Saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before HIM in love; He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed 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 upon us, in all wisdom and insight; making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time; to unite all things in HIM, things in heaven and things on earth; in HIM we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of HIM who works all things according to the counsel of His will; so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be, to the praise of His glory, in HIM you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in HIM were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it; to the praise of His glory. Amen .
Well, let's bow and pray together. Let us all pray. Father as we turn back to our Bibles, we affirm what we've been singing that we need You. We acknowledge that without the enabling of the Holy Spirit, words are just words, and so we need You to come and help us, both to speak, to hear, to understand, to believe, to live in the light of Your truth. And it is our expectation that having assembled us in this way that You will fulfill Your purposes in us and through us. That's what gives us hope and that's what enables us to keep doing what we do in the awareness that You are the One who, as Your Word is so brings life out of darkness and death, so accomplish Your purposes, we pray for Jesus sake, amen.
Well, I invite you to turn again to Ephesians 1:2 , what we've been referring to in a borrowed phrase as a great symphony of salvation. This long sentence that begins in Greek at the beginning of verse 3 and goes all the way through to the end of verse 14 without any punctuation at all and the English translators have done their best to punctuate it in a way that at least makes it readable.
Ephesians 1:3-14
Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,
9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
One of the things that we want to make sure we are understanding is that in this story Paul is beginning with God the starting point is God verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in other words he doesn't start with ours and proceed to God he starts with God and then comes towards the readers it's important because as we have said on a couple of occasions before any notion of religion in our day particularly in our culture is always cast in terms of man's endeavor to somehow or another engage with divinity somehow to meet God to find God to look for him and doubtless there are elements of truth in that insofar as people are wandering and wandering but the story of the Bible actually is the reverse of that the story of the Bible is a story of a God who takes the initiative in seeking out men and women and that is why it is important to that we recognize that we are talking here about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we're not talking here about a cosmic principle we're not talking about some kind of Pantheon's pantheistic a new-age notion of spirituality whereby God is somehow interwoven in creation we are part of creation therefore it so facto we are part of God therefore perhaps if we look inside of ourselves we might meet God no the Bible operates very very differently God is presented in the Bible as quite distinct from everything in creation he is outside of and distinct from there was no creation before the beginning in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth so when Paul says we're starting here with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ he is reminding us that God is the sustainer the controller of alI things and for Paul this was a Creator the fixed point and understandably because it is the revelation of God Himself when Paul addresses the Intelligencia or those who at least thought of themselves as such in Athens and he has opportunity to establish his his presentation as he designs he says I know you're religious and then he launched a straight-in and he says the God who made the world and everything in it that's where he starts with this declaration of God and here in great chapter he is describing the fact that it is this God who in an amazing way by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone has chosen and adopted and redeemed and lavished His grace upon those who have come to him and with allI that said he still isn't finished and that of course is what he comes to in verse 11 there is still an inheritance that awaits us we've obtained it in one sense but if you look down to verse 14 you will see that there is also a sense in which we have yet to acquire it how is this well he tells us at the end of verse ten that God is operating according to a plan that he has set forth a plan for the fullness of time that he has set forth in Christ that little phrase fullness of time Paul uses elsewhere in Galatians he says that it was in the fullness of time that God sent forth His Son and now he says he has a plan for the fullness of time so if you're like the fullness of time was begun with the Incarnation and the fullness of time will reach his conclusion with the return of Jesus therefore we live within this timeframe and his plan for this time is to unite all things in HIM things in heaven and things on earth what was quite a thought isn't it the thought of unity the thought of the uniting of families that don't talk to each other the thought of uniting husbands and wives that are at enmity with one another the thought of putting sports teams together in a way where they actually are kind to each other and humble in their dealings with one another the thought of unity that exists amongst the nations of the world is quite a thought isn't it it's almost like a forlorn dream is like a notion that it seems to be absolutely unattainable because think about it this morning the fact that I mention husbands wives families sports teams office departments or nations there's not one of us is prepared to say that we live in such a sphere of tranquility and unanimity that nothing ever goes wrong and no one ever has their knows I would have joined and everybody's just having a wonderful time you go into your office