Tawa Baptist

Connected

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 1:1-3

Video Link: https://youtu.be/pZPJgH83KFI

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Connected in God
  • Connected in prayer
  • Connected in experience
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone and happy Waitangi Day.

Sometimes, when your internet connection drops out, you have to wait a few minutes watching the dots make a little circle until the wifi comes back online. We can become impatient because we have to wait a few seconds but the inconvenience of a buffering internet connection is nothing really. In years gone by, before the internet, people separated by the tyranny of distance had to wait months, even years, to receive word from loved ones.

Last week we began a new sermon series in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. By way of introduction, we looked at Acts 17, which is Luke’s account of how the Christian church got started in the city of Thessalonica, which is in Greece.

Today we get into the letters themselves, looking at the opening verses of First Thessalonians, in which Paul reconnects with the Thessalonian believers, by letter, after having not seen them for several months, perhaps a year. From verse 1 of First Thessalonians we read…

[From] Paul, Silas and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In these three short verses we note how Paul makes three quite profound and enduring connections with the Thessalonians. Paul shows how he, Silas and Timothy are connected to the Thessalonians in God, in prayer and in experience.  

Connected in God:

You may remember, from last week, that Paul & Silas had to leave the city of Thessalonica after certain people stirred up trouble and put pressure on Jason and the other believers.

Paul and his companions then went to Berea and from there to Athens. Paul was naturally concerned for the well-being of the Thessalonians and so he sent Timothy back to see how they were getting on.

By the time Timothy returned with his report, Paul was probably in the city of Corinth. As you can imagine, this journey would have taken months on foot. After hearing what Timothy had to say, Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians to reconnect with them and to offer some guidance and encouragement. 

The experts aren’t sure exactly but they think First Thessalonians was probably the second letter Paul wrote to a church, depending on when you date his letter to the Galatians. Paul’s affection for the Thessalonians is clear. Despite being relatively new converts and despite having suffered for Jesus, the Thessalonians’ faith (their connection with God) was strong.

In verse 1, Paul addresses the Thessalonians in an interesting way. He refers to the Thessalonian church as being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Being ‘in Christ’ is a favourite saying of Paul’s, but he wouldn’t normally start a letter this way or talk about being ‘in God the Father’ in the same breath.

The word translated as church is literally assembly, as in a gathering of people. So the assembly or the gathering of believers is in God. What does that mean? Is it like when the teachers at school say the assembly will be in the hall? Well, not exactly. Paul isn’t talking about the physical location of the Thessalonians. He’s talking in spiritual terms.  

Paul is reconnecting with the Thessalonians by affirming they are not alone. They are as close to God and to Jesus as you can get. They are in God. God is the source of their life, the ground of their being.

The Thessalonian assembly (or church) is in God, like a tree is planted in soil. If you take the tree out of the soil it will die. Keep it in the soil and it will thrive, drawing its life from the nutrients in the ground.

Or to use another analogy, the Thessalonian church is in God, like a school of fish is in water. Take the fish out of water and they soon die. Keep the fish in water and they live. God and Christ provide the right spiritual environment for human beings, much like water provides the right natural environment for fish. 

William Barclay uses the metaphor of air. He says that being in God (or in Christ) is like being in air. Not only is the air all around us (as close as our skin) but when we breathe, the air is inside us as well.

That’s how close and life giving God is to the Thessalonians, as close as air. That’s why their faith is thriving, despite the persecution they are experiencing for being Christians. Their physical or material life might be poor, but their spiritual life is rich.

By affirming the Thessalonians’ closeness to God and to Jesus, Paul is basically saying he is close to them as well. In verse 3 he talks about our God and our Jesus. Even though they are about 576 km’s apart (geographically speaking) they are close in the Lord, for Paul & Silas & Timothy are in God as well.

There are three crosses on the wall behind me. The crosses remind us of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. I can’t see the crosses at the moment because I’m facing the other way. But I know they are there because I’ve seen them before. Now, I might forget they are there because I’m focused on something else but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still there.

You know sometimes we lose sight of God’s nearness and grace. We get busy with something or other and God passes out of our awareness. If God is out of sight and out of mind for too long, it may feel to us like God is absent or distant.

That subjective feeling can have a very real effect on us. It can mislead us into thinking that we are not loved by God or that God is angry with us or that he doesn’t care. But our feelings and perception are not always reliable. Like the crosses on the wall behind me, God doesn’t cease to be close to us just because our back is turned and we are thinking about something else.

We human beings need to turn and face God, regularly. We need to do tangible things to remind ourselves of God’s nearness and grace.

Those things might include starting the day by reading a chapter from the Bible. Or stopping three times a day to be still and pray. Or spending time with other believers, or singing songs of worship or listening to sermon podcasts. Whatever it is that puts you in touch with God again.

Paul is eager to reconnect or, more accurately, to insist that he and the Thessalonians were never disconnected, as verse 2 implies.

Connected in prayer:

At home we have a wall hanging. One of Robyn’s friends from school gave it to her. It reads: Prayer, the world’s greatest wireless connection.

Before the internet there was prayer.

In verse 2 of chapter 1 Paul says: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.      

Prayer is eternal. Prayer is beyond the confines of time and space. In prayer, we draw close to others and to God. Prayer is about connection.

By keeping the Thessalonians in their prayers, Paul, Silas and Timothy were never apart from them. 

Prayer isn’t just the words we say to God. The larger part of prayer is listening to God. I have come to believe that prayer is also about the burdens we carry with and for others. When we pray for others we, in some way I think, connect with them and make their burden lighter.

I can’t give you any scientific or empirical evidence for this. But, anecdotally, people who have been going through some difficulty and have had others in the church praying for them, have said things like: ‘I feel lighter’ or ‘I feel like I’m being carried by people’s prayers’.

The flip side is that sometimes we can feel a bit weary after praying for others, like we’ve been doing some heavy lifting. At the same time, praying for others can also release us from the burden of our own problems and the tiredness which comes from always thinking about ourselves.

So while praying for others does take some effort, there is a mutual benefit on the whole.  

One of my cousins was really into scuba diving, when he was younger. He loved it. One day he was down fairly deep underwater and his mate got into trouble. My cousin kept his head and shared his breathing apparatus; you take a breath I’ll take a breath sort of thing. They returned to the surface slowly, to avoid getting the benz. Thankfully they made it up before my cousin’s tank ran out too.

Perhaps keeping others in our prayers is a bit like that. A friend finds themselves in deep water and in trouble. Maybe they are in so much distress or pain they can’t find the words or the faith to pray themselves. So you pray for them.

In praying for your friend like this, you are sharing your spiritual oxygen tank with them, at least until they reach the surface and can breathe (or pray) again themselves.    

That’s what intercessory prayer is; praying on behalf of others. We, who believe in Jesus, are priests. Interceding for others in prayer, with God, is what priests do. It is what Jesus (the great high priest) does.

Whether we are praying for ourselves or others, the risen and ascended Jesus knows our deepest needs and desires. He hears the inarticulate cry of our heart, asking God the Father for what he need. So even if we don’t know how to pray or can’t find the words, Jesus does know and has just the right words.    

Is there someone you know who needs you to share your oxygen tank of prayer with them?

Connected in experience:

So, even though they are apart physically, Paul and the Thessalonians are connected spiritually, in God and in prayer.

In verse 3, Paul goes on to point out another connection he and his companions share with the Thessalonians. They are connected in their experience. Paul writes…

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we remember something, we are reconnecting with our experience of what we are remembering. Memory is a powerful form of connection. It brings the past into the present. It brings people, we haven’t seen in a while, close.

When I was at intermediate school one of my friend’s, Mark, had an older brother who sometimes used to pick us up in his Datsun 160B. Mark’s brother, Richard, used to play Dire Straits music in his cassette player; Tunnel of Love, Romeo and Juliet and so on. Very cool when you are 11.

Sometimes when I hear a Dire Straits song from the 80’s, I remember the Datsun 160B and my friendship with Mark, even though I haven’t seen Mark in over 30 years. It’s funny how a familiar tune or sight or smell can reconnect you with your past. Memory is a powerful transporter.

Dire Straits have a song called ‘Brothers in Arms’. In the second verse the singer remembers the connection forged with his mates on the battlefield…

Through these fields of destruction, baptisms of fire. I’ve witnessed your suffering as the battle raged high. And though they did hurt me so bad, in the fear and alarm, you did not desert me my brothers in arms.

The connections made through a shared experience of suffering run deep and live long in the memory.

As we heard last week (in Acts 17) the Thessalonian believers stood their ground under fire and did not desert their faith in Jesus, remaining loyal to Paul, Silas and Timothy. Their suffering for Jesus together is what connects them.

And when we suffer for Christ, we too are connected to other believers (around the world and throughout history) who have suffered for their faith. 

Three points of connection Paul makes when remembering the Thessalonians:

Their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope

Faith, love and hope come to the surface in Paul’s letters a number of times, most famously in First Corinthians 13 where Paul writes, and these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Faith, hope and love are to Christian spirituality what oxygen, heat and fuel are to fire. They are indispensable, we can’t do without any one of them.

Faith, hope and love are about connection you see. They connect us to Jesus and to each other.     

Looking more closely, what does Paul mean by the Thessalonians’ work produced by faith. Idle faith, faith that sits around and does nothing is not true faith. Genuine faith finds expression in acts of Christian service and good deeds.

Those who did the online services in early January may remember John Tucker’s sermon about Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding. John made the connection between faith and work when he pointed out how the servants did what Jesus asked of them, filling the jars with water.

Filling each of those 120 litre jars of water was repetitive, time consuming, mundane, tiring work. And it may have seemed pointless too, when the problem wasn’t a lack of water but a lack of wine. Yet the servants did what Jesus asked of them, in faith. And Jesus did something very special with their work produced by faith.

Those of us who serve Jesus are connected through the work we do in faith that Jesus will use it for God’s saving purpose.           

Paul remembers also the Thessalonians’ labour prompted by love. The Greek word translated as labour here refers to hard labour, real back breaking toil. The kind of labour that puts blisters on your hands and sends you to bed early.

As Leon Morris says, the phrase labour prompted by love directs our minds to the unceasing hardship borne by the Thessalonians for love’s sake.

Those of you who are parents of small children understand about labour prompted by love. Caring for babies is exhausting. You are up all hours of the night feeding and changing nappies and working all day putting bread on the table or doing house work. It’s hard yacker. But you do it for the love of your family and through your labours a deep connection is created between parent and child.     

We are reminded of Jacob who laboured seven years for his father-in-law, Laban, so that he could marry Rachel. But those seven years seemed to him like just a few days because of the love he had for her. Romantic love gives you wings. 

Of course, the love Paul has in mind in Thessalonians is not romantic love, it is agape love. Not the love of seeking to possess something but a self-giving love. God’s love is always giving.

The Thessalonian believers did it tough for the love of Jesus. They were persecuted and harassed for becoming Christians but they handled it for love’s sake. Paul, Silas and Timothy also did it tough, working during the day with their hands to support themselves, then feeding the new born believers with God’s word in the evenings. It was hard graft.  

Thirdly, Paul remembers the Thessalonians’ endurance inspired by hope.

Hope is forward facing faith. Hope believes something good waits in our future. The Christian hope is that Jesus will return in glory one day to make all things new. Our hope is a future eternity without suffering or pain, where God wipes away every tear from our eyes, no more war or hunger or pandemics.

But getting there is a marathon, not a sprint. Hope of a better future gave the Thessalonian believers the strength to endure their present sufferings.

How is your hope at the moment? We are two years into a global pandemic and about to face a tidal wave of omicron cases (so we are told). We need the endurance inspired by hope. God has got us through this far. He will see us through to the other side.

Conclusion:      

Looking at the whole of verse 3 again we note that your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope are all in our Lord Jesus Christ.   

These things which connect us and support our life are not done in our own strength.  Nor are they hidden in some treasure vault beyond our reach. No, they are in Christ, whose Spirit is as close to us as the air we breathe.

So this spiritual connection does not depend on us. Nor does it depend on our changing moods or feelings. Our connection to God the Father and to one another depends on Jesus. Which means it is a reliable connection, not subject to buffering.

Our job is to remain in Christ. As Jesus says in John 15…

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for the connection we share with you and each other, through Jesus. Help us to remain in Christ and to draw strength from him, that we may bear the fruit of faith, hope and love. In Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why do you think Paul is eager to reconnect with the Thessalonians? How do you think the Thessalonians may have felt receiving Paul’s letter and having their connection/relationship with Paul, Silas & Timothy affirmed/renewed? 
  • What does it mean to be ‘in God’ or ‘in Christ’?
  • How do you turn to face God? What tangible things do you do to reconnect with God’s nearness and grace?
  • Have you ever felt light (or carried) in some way by the prayers of others? How do you feel after you have spent time praying for others? Is there someone you know, at the moment, who isn’t able to pray for themselves and needs you to share your oxygen tank of prayer with them? 
  • Discuss/reflect on Paul’s three phrases in verse 3. That is: your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope. What do each of these phrases mean? Can you think of ways in which these three things have been (or are being) worked out in your life? 
  • Is there someone you need to reconnect with? Or, to put it another way, is there someone who needs you to reconnect with them? How might you go about reconnecting? 
Tawa Baptist

Artesian Wells

Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-14

Title: Artesian Wells

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Praise for God’s blessings
  • Blessings in the heavenly realms
  • Blessings in Christ
  • Blessings by God’s will
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

When Robyn and I were sent from Welcome Bay Baptist (in Tauranga) to train for ministry in Auckland, one of the members of our sending church (a guy called Dave) said to me, ‘Look for artesian wells’

–         It was said with love and out of a concern for our well-being

–         Dave was using the term ‘artesian wells’ as a metaphor of something that is deep and ancient and life sustaining

–         An artesian well is different from a regular well in that the water rises to the surface by internal pressure, so you don’t need a bucket or a pump to draw the water out

The water in an artesian well is trapped between layers of rock and consequently is under pressure so that when a hole is drilled in the upper layer of rock the water trapped underneath rises to the surface

–         The pressure may be created by a glacier or snow melt from a mountain which feeds the underground aquifer – and the well acts like a pressure release valve

Artesian wells were named after the former province of ‘Artois’ in France, where many artesian wells were drilled by Carthusian monks around 1126AD

–         The monks found the well water was a lot safer to drink than river water, because it had been filtered over centuries

Water from a flowing artesian well, therefore, is deep and ancient and pure

This morning we begin a new sermon series in the book of Ephesians

–         Ephesians reminds me of an artesian well

–         It is such a pure and positive letter – Paul is not writing to the Ephesians to correct some problem in the church and so it has quite a different tone to many of his other letters which are dealing with problems

–         More than this though, Paul has tapped into the goodness of God and it bubbles up naturally to the surface of his writing

Our focus this morning is Ephesians 1, verses 1-14

–         Verses 3-14 are an outpouring of praise to God for his goodness to us in Christ – technically known as a doxology

–         Paul’s praise is rising, like water from an artesian well, from a deep aquifer of spirit. From verse 1, in the NIV we read…

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 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, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

Praise for God’s blessings:

There’s a lot being said in these verses – they are thick & rich with meaning like condensed milk

–         What we need to keep in mind, as we wade through the words, is that this is worship – it is primarily adoration of God

–         Verse 3 says it plainly:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…

–         Paul goes on to punctuate his doxology three more times with the phrase: …to the praise of his glory…

–         In the original Greek this effusion of praise, in verses 3-14, is one long sentence – It’s like Paul is surfing a wave of God’s goodness and the wave is carrying him the length of the beach

What makes this even more remarkable is that Paul is under house arrest – he is chained to a Roman soldier while writing this letter

–         Physically he isn’t free but internally (his mind and his spirit) are soaring on wings like eagles

–         Most people in Paul’s situation would not be happy but Paul is worshipping God like he’s on cloud nine.

–         How is Paul able to do this?

Well, Paul can do this because the aquifer of his spirit is fed by the thought of how God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

 

Blessings in the heavenly realms:

That phrase, ‘heavenly realms’, refers to the spiritual realm

–         The spiritual realm is sort of like another dimension all around us that we don’t normally see

–         We live in a materialistic society – so many of us have a bias toward physical, material things that we can touch and see

–         We tend to be less aware of spiritual realities, even though the spiritual world is just as real as the physical

Dogs can’t see orange or green, like we do, but they can see blue and yellow, so the same picture looks quite washed out in their eyes

–         If you throw a bright orange ball across the lawn they will struggle to see it because the orange & green look the same greyish colour to them

–         When it comes to the spiritual realm we are a bit like dogs (no offence)

–         We don’t see all the colours – spiritual things are camouflaged to us

–         This means there is more to reality than meets the eye

–         The heavenly realm or spiritual realm is still real even if it is beyond what we can perceive with our five senses

In 2nd Kings, chapter 6, the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by an army of Arameans, with their chariots and horses, all there to capture him

–         The servant is shaking in his boots and says to Elisha, “Oh my lord, what shall we do?”

–         “Don’t be afraid”, Elisha answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

–         And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”

–         Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

–         Elisha could see the spiritual realm – the Lord’s army right there to protect them

 

You know, it’s that time of year again when I look at the church’s attendance statistics and write my contributions for the annual report

–         The last few years’ attendance has been a bit discouraging

–         We need to remember there is more to the picture than meets the eye

–         There is a spiritual audience all around us which we don’t see

–         In many ways the church is like an ice-berg with a lot happening under the surface – God is doing more than our statistics can measure

 

When we read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we might imagine some kind of large and thriving church that has it altogether and enjoys a wonderful relationship with the community around it – but that wasn’t the historical reality

–         The church in Ephesus was quite small by our standards – only about 12 men and I suppose their families, if the men were married

–         And most of the wider community of Ephesus didn’t like the Christians all that much because they were bad for business

–         Ephesus was famous for making silver idols and Christians are against idol worship

–         But as small and as unpopular as they were, God was at work through the Ephesian believers to achieve his purpose

–         In Christ they were making waves in the spiritual realm

The other thing we need to keep in mind is that Paul’s letter was read aloud to the believers as they gathered in people’s homes for a church service

–         In a way Paul’s letter to the Ephesians functioned like a liturgy

–         Paul was leading the people in worship through his writing

–         They may have felt small and extremely vulnerable but I imagine Paul’s artesian well of adoration and praise refreshed them

–         It had the power to lift their eyes off the here & now and remind them of the spiritual reality

–         They might feel pretty insignificant and at odds with the world around them but in spiritual terms they had it made

 

Blessings in Christ:

One of the things Paul is at pains to emphasise it that God’s many blessings for the Ephesian believers (and for us) are ‘in Christ’

–         That expression ‘in Christ’ crops up 11 times in 14 verses, in the original Greek, although you won’t find it that many times in English translations

–         Paul describes the Ephesians as faithful in Christ – verse 1

–         They (and we) have every spiritual blessing in Christ – verse 3

–         God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless – verse 4

–         We are given grace in Christ – verse 6

–         In Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins – verse 7

–         God revealed his will and purpose to us in Christ – verse 9

–         Again, we are chosen in Christ – verse 11

–         We put our hope in Christ – verse 12

–         We are included in Christ when we believe the gospel – verse 13

–         And we are marked in Christ with the seal of the Holy Spirit – verse 13

Clearly the key to God’s many blessings is being ‘in Christ’

–         What then does it mean to be in Christ?

–         Well, it can mean different things depending on the context

–         But generally speaking, being in Christ refers to being in a particular spiritual environment

The environment in which we live (the geography, the climate, the values, the history and so on) shapes and defines who we are as a person

–         If someone lives underwater then they are a fish and not a person

–         Or if someone works in the countryside they have quite a different outlook to someone who works in the city

–         Or if someone grew up in middle class society this shapes them differently to someone who grew up in poverty

–         If you have been immersed in Maori culture then you will think in a different way from someone immersed in Pakeha culture

–         I grew up in 1970’s New Zealand and in many ways that has shaped me, just as my family have shaped me and the church too

–         If I had grown up in Russia or Iran or Germany or Venezuela I would be shaped by a different cultural and political reality

When our family became Christians in the 1980’s, spiritually speaking, we entered a different environment – we went from a pagan materialistic environment to being in Christ, and this required us to learn a whole new way of thinking and living

 

Being in Christ shapes and defines who we are – it informs our outlook

–         We live in Christ like a fish lives in water – Jesus is our natural environment, we belong in Jesus

We are in Christ like someone granted citizenship – Jesus becomes our new country, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails.

–         When we enter a new country we don’t impose our own culture on that country, we learn the local language and obey the laws of the land

–         When we become a Christian we cross a spiritual border, we enter Christ

–         That means we leave our old way of life behind – we don’t try to colonise Christ by imposing an ungodly culture on him

–         We learn his language of grace & truth and we follow his law of love & forgiveness

We are in Christ like a lock in a rugby scrum, or a first five in the back row – we are not just individuals, we are in Jesus’ team, we wear his colours

We are in Christ like a child adopted into God’s family – which means the history of God’s people becomes our history, our story, our whakapapa

–         Being adopted into God’s family also means Jesus is our older, kinder brother who looks out for us

We are in Christ like we are in a premium Kiwi Saver scheme – Jesus is our eternal security.

–         Yes, we make some contributions to the scheme but really God, our employer, contributes far more than we do

We are in Christ like being in a good job – God is our boss and discipleship is our career

We are in Christ like a business in profit – Jesus has saved us from bankruptcy and liquidation

–         He has turned the business of our lives around by paying our debts and making us prosper, so we are free to be generous

We are in Christ like survivors in a life boat – God has provided the means for our rescue

We are in Christ like a branch grafted into a vine – Jesus makes our lives fruitful for God’s glory

We are in Christ like being included in someone’s will or estate – we stand to inherit the kingdom of God

We are in Christ like a fine artwork in a collector’s possession – God values us and appreciates us and he won’t sell us at any price

We are in Christ like a reader who has finished a book – we know how the story ends

–         I could go on but you get the point: God blesses us in many, many ways but all of those ways are in Christ

 

Ok – so we’ve heard how the opening verses of Ephesians are an artesian well of praise and adoration for God

–         This worship is the natural overflow of God having blessed us in the spiritual realm and in Christ

–         The other idea that comes through strongly in our Bible reading this morning is that of God’s will, his purpose, his plan

–         We are blessed by the will of God

 

Blessings by the will of God:

In verse 1 Paul says he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God

In verse 5 he says, God predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

In verse 9, God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure 

And in verse 11 we read, In Christ 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…

Paul wants to make it very clear that all these wonderful spiritual blessings are happening by the will of God

–         They are not happening by fate or chance or karma or by anything we do

–         They are happening according to God’s purpose and plan

–         What’s more they are not happening because God is under any sort of obligation – God is acting freely, his hand is not forced

–         These blessings are happening (and indeed have happened) because it gives God pleasure – he wants to bless us generously, lavishly

 

Now some people hear the word ‘predestination’, which appears twice in our reading today, and they get themselves tied up in knots

–         They start thinking things like, ‘So we get no choice. God chooses some people to be saved and others miss out. That doesn’t seem very fair’

–         Or they think, ‘I go to church. I must be predestined for heaven. It’s all arranged and so I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to worry about people who don’t yet know about Jesus because their fate is already decided. And I don’t need to worry too much about my own behaviour either because I’m already in’

–         That sort of thinking completely misunderstands what Paul is saying here

–         The whole tone of this passage is adoration, not calculation [1]

–         God is good – he is generous and thoughtful and kind and fair

–         God is looking for ways to include people in His plan of salvation

 

Our thinking is shaped by our society which, generally speaking, is very individualistic – Paul is talking in collective terms, not individual terms

–         So it’s not that God decides beforehand this person is in and this one is out – it’s not a fait a accompli

–         Christ is the one who was predestined by God before the creation of the world – Christ is the one God has elected to save and bless

–         Therefore if we are in Christ we too are saved and blessed

 

If you can imagine being at sea in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the boat you are on is sinking – it was damaged in a storm and despite your best efforts to keep it afloat you know it’s just a matter of time before it goes under

–         Jesus is the rescue boat prepared by God, before the storm, to save us

–         When God’s rescue boat comes our way we have a choice – we can either stay on our own leaky boat or get on board with Jesus and go looking for others who are about to go under

–         To be in Christ is to be in the rescue boat with others with a mission

 

Eugene Peterson provides a helpful comment on this issue of predestination

–         He notes how the verb ‘destine’ (as in predestine) derives from the noun ‘boundary’ – so when it talks about God having predestined us in Christ, it means God has marked out the boundaries in which we live

–         In other words, Christ defines the boundaries for life – sort of like a rescue boat defines the boundaries for our survival

–         More than just surviving though, Christ is the environment in which we get the most out of life

–         If we are in Christ then we are in a good environment for spiritual life

–         But if we are not in Christ, who holds us and supports our life, then we’re overboard treading water to delay the inevitable

 

Having said we are blessed and saved in Christ, we need to remember it’s not all about us

–         Verse 10 tells us God’s purpose is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ

–         God cares for all of his creation, not just human beings

–         ‘All things’ includes the physical that we can see and the spiritual that we can’t see

–         It includes the land and the sea, the animals, birds, fish, insects and plant life, as well as the angels and other spiritual beings

–         The scope of God’s plan is both comprehensive and beyond our comprehension

 

Conclusion:

When was the last time you spontaneously burst into praise for God’s goodness and blessings? Maybe it’s been a while.

–         Perhaps the only time you offer God adoration and praise is at church on a Sunday morning

–         Is your spiritual life feeling a bit dry – a bit empty

–         Look for artesian wells

–         Find ways to tap into the aquifer of God’s blessings in Christ

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Why do you think Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians with an outpouring of praise?

3.)    What awareness do you have of the spiritual realm?

–         Where does this awareness come from?

4.)    What affect do you think Paul’s description of God’s activity in the spiritual realm would have had on the Ephesian believers who were relatively small in number and at odds with many of the people in their community?

5.)    What does it mean to be ‘in Christ’?

6.)    Why does God choose to bless us?

7.)    Where might you find an artesian well (spiritually speaking)?

–         How might you tap into the aquifer of God’s goodness to us in Christ?

 

[1] This is my paraphrase of something Markus Barth said