Scripture reading: Ephesians 1:1-14.

Sermon text: Ephesians 1:15-23.

Imagine this scenario: Someone arrests you on a false charge, and you spent 2 years under arrest awaiting trial because the governor kept waiting for you to give him a bribe.  Then, after a journey that ended in shipwreck and snakebite, you wait 2 years for your trial before a Roman emperor while you sit in house arrest. What do you do?

If you’re the Apostle, St. Paul, you write letters. During his Roman imprisonment, St. Paul wrote the letters of Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians. St. Paul had founded these churches on his missionary journeys, and news of his arrest would have sent shock waves through the congregations. St. Paul sent his letters to encourage believers and to teach new believers the truths of the Christian faith. These letters continue to instruct believers today as they have for nearly 2,000 years.

St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians stands as a masterpiece of Christian thought. This letter tells us of God’s love for us, of His grace to us, and of our victory over sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus, our Lord.

St. Paul wrote this letter to “the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” He opened the letter with his standard greeting: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This greeting reminded the Ephesians of the grace God had shown them in their salvation and of the peace they enjoyed in their relationship with God through Jesus, their Lord.

St. Paul then began one of the greatest letters you’ll find in Christianity. “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.” Through Jesus Christ, God has given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” These blessings begin at our salvation and continue eternally.

God gives us these blessings because He “chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” God, as our sovereign Lord and Creator, may choose whomever He desires for whatever task He assigns. Whenever God chooses someone, that choice brings great responsibility. As believers in Christ, that responsibility includes living holy lives, lives that stand apart from those of unbelievers through our standards and through living blameless lives before them.

God does not choose us for judgment or vengeance; instead, He chooses us “in love.” “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.” God chooses us for great responsibility, but He also gives us great privilege in that love. He does not call us as servants; instead, He adopts us as sons, a concept in Roman law that conveyed all the rights of the natural children to the adopted sons. He does this to accomplish “the purpose of his will.” This grace God has given us, through adopting us as sons, not calling us as servants. He blesses us with this grace because He loves Jesus, the One who died for us and rose again for us.

Through Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, “we have redemption through his blood;” we know that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Jesus’ death on the cross made possible “the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.” Humanity’s rebellion against God resulted in our just condemnation, but God has given us grace rather than judgment. God did this “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.” You’ll hear a lot about “mystery” in this letter. All history pointed humanity to the reality that God intended to do something about our sin, but He finally revealed His mystery to accomplish our salvation with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God will “unite all things” in Jesus, both “things in heaven and things on earth.”

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, “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.” Every believer in Christ has been “predestined” to bring praise to God and to magnify His glory. I know many Christians today want to obsess about God’s predestination, but we know that God will accept everyone who comes to Him, confessing Him as Lord and believing in Jesus’ resurrection (Romans 10:9-10).

St. Paul  then turned his attention to the Ephesians Christians. “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.” Every time a person confesses Jesus as Lord, God “seals” that person as His own, granting that person the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, as “guarantee” of a glorious and eternal “inheritance.”

St. Paul’s praise for the Ephesians’ faith led him to remember them constantly in prayer, praying that God would give them “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation,” revealing to them “the hope to which he has called” all believers, the “glorious inheritance in the saints.” When God raised Christ from the dead, He “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” This authority over “every name that is named” included that of the Roman emperor who would hear St. Paul’s case, Nero himself. God “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Every believer who reads this letter finds eternal truths lifting him to the very throne room of heaven.

First, we find that, by His grace, God redeemed us with the blood of Jesus, His Son, to His eternal glory. By His grace, God forgave our sins by the atoning death of Jesus and promises us eternal life through His resurrection. God has chosen us for both great privilege and great responsibility. By His grace, He has given every believer the eternal blessing of adoption as sons.

God had a plan all along: a plan to unite everything in all Creation under the lordship of Jesus, His beloved Son. God has given us the privilege of participating in this plan. When we live holy and blameless lives before the world, they will see the results of God’s work in our lives.

Like the Ephesians before us, we may face great trials, but the Church continues forward under the one name under heaven that can rightfully claim all rule and authority and power and dominion: the name of Jesus. The Church has outlived the Roman Empire; it has outlived the great empires of Europe. The Church has conquered every philosophy, religion, and political ideology of humanity. The Church does so not because of us, but because of Jesus, the divine Son of God, who by grace has called us and redeemed us for His purpose and glory.