Chosen and Loved

          Sometimes you are so excited about something you have seen or something that has happened to you that you feel like you can’t contain yourself.  When you find a friend to tell, you just talk as fast as you can, spilling your exciting news.  That is kind of how the apostle Paul writes in the first part of his letter to the Ephesians.  And today, we get to be the friends who listen to his exciting news.

          Let’s pray.  Lord, we are reminded of the great privilege it is to open your Word.  Now as we read these words, we ask the Holy Spirit to come and open our hearts and our minds to the message you have for us.  Amen

          The letter opens with a nice, normal greeting that goes like this:

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
      To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

 ²Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

          Then Paul launches into this wonderful, excited, enthusiastic passage about God.  Paul is so excited that you get the feeling he can hardly take time to take a breath.  In fact, the entire passage that I’m about to read, verses 3-14, is one long sentence in the Greek manuscript. 

          Biblical scholars have struggled to break it up into sentences for us, but it’s not easy.  In fact, if you read different translations, you will see that they put periods in different places.  There are no periods in the original. 

          So I am going to try to read it through to you and try to let you hear the excitement building as Paul lays out this awesome message that describes our salvation.

 ³Praise 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. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

 ¹¹In 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, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³And 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, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

          That’s a lot to say in one sentence, isn’t it?  It kind of reminded me of the story I heard about an old Vermont farmer and the pastor. One Sunday morning in the middle of winter, the pastor got up and looked out the window.  There was already about two feet of snow on the ground and it was still snowing hard. Now, the pastor lived right next door to the church, so he got ready and walked over and opened up the door, and went in and sat down.  He didn’t really expect anyone to show up.

          Well, lo and behold, one lone farmer—John—a faithful church member who lived a mile down the road, came tromping in. He had saddled up his horse and come to church. But he was the only one who came.        So the pastor looked at his old friend and he said, "John, what do you think we should do?"

          The farmer said, "Well, you know pastor, if I take a load of hay out to the field and only one cow comes to be fed, I feed her."

          The pastor thought that was good advice. So, he went to the pulpit and Farmer John sat in the first pew and the pastor began to preach. He spoke for about thirty minutes. Thirty minutes turned into an hour and an hour turned into two hours. After about two hours, he pronounced the benediction.

          Then, the pastor went back down front and shook the farmer’s hand and said, "Well John, what did you think?" The farmer turned to him and kind of thought for a minute and he said, "Well, you know pastor, if I take a load of hay out to the field and only one cow shows up, I don't dump the whole load on her."

          Preaching on a text like this one is a little daunting.  First, because when you read and study the text, it feels as if Paul has sort of dumped a whole load of hay on you.  There is so much there.  Second, it is daunting because I don’t want to turn around a dump a whole load of hay on you!  But I want you to see at least a glimpse of the incredible glory that Paul is trying to convey.

          Sometimes it’s hard for us to see it.  When our daughter, Emily, was seven years old, we took a trip to the Grand Canyon.  It was a long journey.  We had taken our older daughter to college in California, and we were on our way to a family wedding in Colorado.  Driving to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, there was the kind of road construction where you just sit and wait for a long, long time without going anywhere.

          But we finally arrived.  We pulled into the parking lot, and there is a great big lodge right in front of you, and you still don’t see any of the canyon.  The ground is completely level, so there is not even any hint of what is to come.

          We walked into the lodge, and over to these expansive windows, and looked out to see the Grand Canyon before us in all its magnificence.  You look down, and it is as if the earth just drops away in front of you.  It is spectacular.  I was amazed.

          Emily stood beside me looking at this amazing sight and she said to me, “You mean we drove all that way just to see this?” 

          It is hard to impress a seven-year-old!

          And maybe you are not quite as impressed as I am with this passage I just read, but I am going to try, without dumping the whole load of hay on you, to help you see what Paul is trying to communicate.

          Paul begins that long sentence,

³Praise 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.

          It’s true that God blesses us by meeting our physical needs, but that’s not what this is about.  It is about spiritual blessings.  Most of us spend way too much of our time and energy thinking about our physical needs.  Remember what Jesus said in the passage we looked at last week? 

³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’….

³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.   (Matthew 6:31,33)

          We are quite jaded by the things of this world, all of us.  As I was thinking about Emily’s seven-year-old reaction to the Grand Canyon, I remembered that we had also been to Disneyland on that trip.  Maybe she was expecting something a bit more flashy.

          Maybe that’s part of our problem as well.  We are so preoccupied with the things of this world that we have a hard time seeing our spiritual blessings in Christ. 

          So Paul reminds us:

⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

          Do you believe that?  Paul is saying that God chose us—he knew us—before the creation of the world and it was his plan that we would be holy and blameless in his sight.  He goes on to say,

          In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

          These are some of the spiritual blessings he is talking about.  First, God wanted us to be his own children.  He chose us and he loved us.  So through Jesus, he made provision for us.  Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we have the forgiveness of our sins.  It is the gift of God’s amazing grace that we are totally and completely forgiven, and so that we truly are holy and blameless in his sight.

          Paul goes on, and all of this is still part of that one long sentence:

 ⁹And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

 ¹¹In 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, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³And 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, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

          The wonder of scripture is that the message is alive and still speaks to us today.  So when he says “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth,” he is talking about you and me.  If you have heard the message that Jesus died for your sins, and you have responded by asking him to forgive you and to come into your life, then you are the ones he is talking about. 

          If you have never really understood the message of salvation or you have never made the decision to accept Jesus and his forgiveness, today would be a good time to accept Jesus.  He is always waiting for you, and the spiritual blessings that Paul is talking about are for you as well.  You have already been chosen by God, and he loves you.

          In a few minutes we will receive communion.  We are all invited to this table to remember what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven.  We take the bread, which is a symbol of Jesus’ body, and the cup, which is a symbol of Jesus’ blood.  As we receive these elements, we are reminded of the wonderful spiritual blessings that God has poured out on us—that we are chosen and loved.  It is a time to remember whose we are and who we are—God’s children.

          If you don’t know Jesus but you would like to know him and receive this wonderful gift of salvation, I invite you come and take the bread and the cup, and then stay and let me pray with you at the close of the service.  God is patiently waiting for you because he has chosen you and he loves you.

Prayer:

          God, we have a hard time understanding how you could have chosen us and loved us even before the world was created, but somehow we believe it in our hearts, because you have said it is true.  Thank you for the amazing gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  Help us to glimpse something of the glory and wonder of who you are, and who we are in Christ Jesus.  Amen