Ephesians 1:3-14 [NLTse]
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His Own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God has now revealed to us His mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill His Own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in Heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.
12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His Own by giving you the Holy Spirit, Whom He promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His Own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.
Sermon – “Every Spiritual Blessing”
A lady in our church, several years ago, was a teacher at a local community college. She often taught in the areas of business and writing. But this semester the school’s Statistics teacher quit suddenly and the administration was in a jam. They told this woman she would need to teach the Statistics class for that semester until they could hire someone else, and they gave her the teaching materials and set her to go. But the woman was terrified.
Math had never made sense to her. She could balance her checkbook, and those kinds of necessary math skills, but she had never done well when it came to using formulas and figuring out what to do when asked questions like, a duck lays three eggs a week for five weeks, but a lizard comes and steals every fourth egg that’s laid. So how many eggs are left? It drove her nuts! And her assignment terrified her. She was afraid for looking like a fool. She was afraid for not being able to teach the students well. And she was afraid she might lose her job when her bosses found out about it all.
She prayed. We all prayed. (We were in Bible Study together.) And as she began preparing for her first class, the gibberish of the material strangely started making sense to her. She understood the concepts. She got what formulas worked where. She said it was like suddenly becoming fluent in a language she’d never read, written, or spoken before.
It was a thrilling semester for her and for all of us in the Bible Study with her, as she would give us weekly updates. I will never forget her telling us, the week after final exams and after grades were in, how she’d been looking at her notes as she’d been putting them away, and her shock to realize she didn’t understand them anymore. It had become a mass of numbers and symbols to her again! The Holy Spirit had given her the grace she and her students needed. And then it was gone…
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Today we remember and celebrate the Holy Spirit being poured out on the Church of Jesus Christ, for we are not only a forgiven people (brought into fellowship and communion with Almighty God through the cross and sacrifice of Jesus Christ), we are also an empowered people (that fellowship and communion making us the dwelling places of the Almighty’s very Own nature, the power of God working in and through Christians in the world.)
There is so much misunderstanding about the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life: In your life; in my life… Some Christians believe that Jesus was altogether different from us. Even though the New Testament goes out of its way to make sure we understand that Jesus was like us in every way, except that He never sinned, many Christians believe that Jesus was altogether different. That He was God-in-a-bod, and that that’s how the power of the Almighty was at work in Him.
Many Christians believe that the apostles and early disciples were altogether different from us. Even though the New Testament makes very clear that each and every one was like us in having good things about them and bad things about them, in having personal strengths and personality flaws, in experiencing heartache and having hang-ups, and the like, many Christians believe that those apostles and first disciples were somehow different, and that’s how the power of Almighty God was at work in them.
But none of that’s true.
Philippians 2:6-8 makes clear that God the Son took off His divinity when He was born. Jesus of Nazareth was not God-in-a-bod. He was just a baby boy, and then a kid, and then a teen, and a young man, Who was then killed for the sins of the world.
And the apostles and early disciples were people who had disputes and fears and who made mistakes and gave into temptation and could be jealous of each other, and the like…
The Lord Jesus did the works of Almighty God because He was baptized by the Holy Spirit and because He believed that the Father had filled Him with Himself. He expected to be used, and He believed He could be used. And so God used Him.
And the apostles and those early disciples did the works of Almighty God because they wanted to be useful to God, and because they made themselves available to be useful to Him. They were forgiven, because they had trusted in Jesus’ sacrifice to cleanse them from sin and bring them into fellowship and communion with the Father, and they were empowered for ministry, because they had asked and waited for the Holy Spirit’s baptism, and then trusted that God had, indeed, filled them with Himself. They expected to be used, and they believed that they could be used. And so God used them!
The same is true for us. We have been forgiven if we have trusted in Jesus’ sacrifice to cleanse us from our sins. And we have been empowered for ministry if we have asked and waited for the Holy Spirit’s baptism, and then trusted that God has, indeed, filled us with Himself. The question is: Do we expect to be used by God? And do we believe that we could be used by God, if He chose to use us?
You see, the Church of Jesus Christ is like the Lord’s toolbox. Each of us is needed to get His job done. (And His job is bringing everything and everyone in Heaven and on earth together under the authority and lordship of Jesus.) Each of us has a role to play in that work. Maybe one of us is a screwdriver and another one of us is a wrench. Perhaps one of us is a level and another of us is a catspaw. (You use this to pull tough-to-get nails out.) But we’re all needed because bringing everything and everyone in Heaven and on earth together under the authority and lordship of Jesus is a big job!
Of course, the wrench can do some of the work a screwdriver can do, and a level might be able to get a nail or two out, like a catspaw. But that’s not what those tools were made for, and that’s why every tool is needed, just like every Christian is needed. We’re not interchangeable.
Even so, it’s not us doing the work. A screwdriver, no matter how well-crafted is useless on its own. But when you put it in the hands of someone who knows how to use it you can hang cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom, you can put door knobs on your doors, you can take apart your washing machine and put it back together. A level is good for hanging pictures, for making sure that windows and doors will be able to open and close, for keeping water from pooling on your front walk… But only if it’s in the hands of someone who knows how to use it!
At the very beginning of our reading today, the apostle Paul praises the Lord for “blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” (V. 3) You and I have been granted every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ! There is nothing I cannot do that God wants me to do. There is nothing you cannot do that God wants you to do. He’s given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ!
Some of the spiritual blessings that the Bible talks about are wisdom, healing, speaking in languages we’ve never learned, knowing things there’s no way we could know, trusting God for the impossible, speaking on God’s behalf, and others… We can say “yes” to God whenever He calls and in every circumstance because He has miraculous abilities to share with us so that we can accomplish whatever He’s set us to.
These spiritual blessings aren’t powers that we get to control and manipulate and utilize for our own purposes and to make ourselves look good. (Though they can be abused). No. But when we want to be useful to the Lord, and when we make ourselves available to Him, His Holy Spirit at work in us empowers us to be able to know and do or speak whatever is necessary to accomplish all that He has set us to.
If the thought comes into your head to pray for a co-worker’s health, or for your friend to be delivered out of bad relationship or situation, or for their spouse or parents or children to come to Christ, or… whatever the thought might be, you don’t have to listen to the voice that might say, “I can’t pray for them for that, because I can’t heal anyone or deliver anyone or make anyone come to Christ or… whatever.” No, you can reach out your hands and pray in faith because you know that it’s not you doing these great works, it is God the Holy Spirit wanting to do these great works through you!
When you feel called to tackle a situation, but you don’t know what to do or where to begin, you don’t have listen to the voice in your head that might say, “It’s too much for you. Leave it for someone else!” No. You can step into the situation trusting that the Father wants you to, knowing that He’ll give you wisdom if you need it; He’ll give you knowledge if you need it; He’ll give you the words to say, if words need to be said; every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms will be available to you so that you can do what is impossible for you to do, so that God will get peoples’ attention through you.
We’re not the ones doing the work. God is doing the work through us. Our part is to want to be useful. Our part is to make ourselves available to Him.
This week, when you arrive at school or work or the store or at your friend’s house, ask the Lord to use you. Trust that He can use you. Expect Him to use you. And ask the Lord to use you. Then follow the promptings that come, trusting they have come from His Spirit into your mind. Act upon the promptings knowing that you are just the tool, chosen by the Lord at that moment to accomplish His wonders and advance His Kingdom in the world and in someone’s life.
Trust that He can use you. Expect Him to use you. Live united with Jesus Christ. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms is ours because we are united with Jesus Christ.