Enriched with All Spiritual Blessings

Sermon preached at North Hill Adventist Fellowship, January 8, 2011.
Text: Ephesians One and Two

There is a note at the end about the relationship of this manuscript and the sermon as it was actually preached.


Ravi Zacharias travels the world as a Christian writer and speaker. He has spoken at presidential prayer breakfasts in Washington, D.C. And addressed the United Nations in New York. He's successful. But it didn't always look like his life was going to turn out that way.

For some reason his dad never liked him. As he got into his teen years, he gave his dad good reasons not to like him. His dad and granddad and greatgranddad before him had been highly respected scholars in India. Ravi did not take to studying. He got very, very poor grades in school. One when he was fifteen, his father called him in after reading his report card. “You're a complete failure,” his dad said. “You're an embarrassment to the family. You'll never make anything of your life.”

The words cut deep. In that culture shaming one's family was about as low as a person could go. What made it worse was that Ravi knew his dad was telling the truth. He knew he was failing in school. He knew that it was unlikely to change. He was never going to get good grades. He was never going to earn a degree that would open the doors for him professionally. So he was never going to be able to earn the kind of money his family expected.

He was worthless, hopeless and helpless.

And his dad continually reminded him of the fact. “Why are you such a failure?” his dad would demand.


When Ravi was younger, several times a week a Hindu holy man appeared at the end of the little lane in front of their house. The street was filled with people and animals and bullock carts, the teeming life of urban India. The holy man would lie down in the middle of all this activity and roll down the lane. People would make way for him. He would roll through the cow manure and dog poop and dirt. The man never washed. His face was scarred.

Why did he do this? It was his attempt to connect with his god. The more suffering and dirt he experienced, the closer he felt to his deity.

Ravi's dad beat him on occasion because of his worthless study habits and mischievous pranks, but Ravi would never have tortured himself in an attempt to please his dad. As stern and sometimes even cruel as his father was Ravi would never have imagined that inflicting pain on himself would have brought pleasure to his father. [Ravi Zacharias tells his story in Walking from East to West with the help of co-author R. S. B. Sawyer.]

None of us would roll down a poop-littered street in a loin cloth in an attempt to connect with God. We hear stories about people torturing themselves to earn God's favor and we recoil in horror. How could they even imagine such a thing. But many of us have heard messages of rejection like Ravi did. For some of us, the words of rejection, condemnation and scorn are carved deep in our souls.
Those words may have come from parents or from teachers. From brothers or sisters. From lovers or children. Preachers.

These words from people are turned by our minds into our own opinions. We find ourselves thinking of ourselves in the same kind of language we have heard from others. Ultimately, these human words become God's word in our minds. We hear God condemning us, rebuking us, scolding us, ridiculing us in the same language we have heard from people.

It's against this kind of background that the words of our scripture passage today are especially relevant.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first two chapters of the book of Ephesians offer wonderful affirmations of God's love.
Paul, an apostle. An apostle is someone who has been sent. Paul had a commission from God to carry good news. This wasn't just Paul's idea.
And right at the beginning of this book, Paul gives away the heart of the good news: He says he's writing to the SAINTS in Ephesus. What does the word “saint” mean? Holy one. A holy person is someone who has been claimed by God. That is the primary meaning of the word. The word is also used to refer to the kind of character you would expect of someone connected with God. A holy person tells the truth, is compassionate, wise, good, generous, noble. But all those nice attributes are secondary to the first meaning of the word: claimed by God. Paul assures the people he's writing to that God claims them.
As if calling the people saints—claimed by God—wasn't good enough. Paul calls them the faithful ones. These are not spiritual losers. Paul is not writing to a church full of failed Christians. He calls them saints and faithful ones. And wishes them grace and peace.
Paul does not begin by scolding them or telling them how screwed up they are. Paul does not berate them for being less than perfect or for conforming to the world or for being lax in their spiritual life. Grace and peace to you. You guys are the saints. You are faithful. Good on you!
According to Christian theology, these words are not just for the people who lived in a city called Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia 2000 years ago. These words are for us, too. We are the saints. We are the faithful ones. You are the faithful ones. That's the message God is sending through Paul.
Grace and peace to you.
3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul writes, because he “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Imagine being given a gift card to REI or Walmart or Costco or Nordstroms or Home Depot—fill in the name of your favorite store. Imagine that the gift card has no expiration date and is for an unlimited amount of money. Paul is saying that God has made available to us every spiritual blessing carried by the heavenly warehouse.
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
You are rich. I am rich.
For most of this, this statement could almost produce a yawn. We say, yes, of course. But for some of us this is a daring assertion. It may even be troubling. How could it possibly be true that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, because our life is full of pain and darkness.
I was talking earlier this week someone about spiritual warfare. He wanted to know how to think about the experiences of darkness, temptation and weariness that invade his life. Were these attacks by evil angels?
What did I think about spiritual warfare?
Great question. The book of Ephesians is the premier book in the Bible about spiritual warfare. And the first two chapters present the most important information we need to think wisely about spiritual warfare. Before we get to talking about “principalities and powers,” before we start talking about “armor,” we need to make sure we have deeply inhaled the truth expressed in these first two chapters.

We are saints—claimed by God. We are the faithful ones—that is we claim God. God sends grace and peace our direction. We have been enriched by all the resources of heaven. That's where we start.

Verse 4: 4 God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
You were God's idea. God was not your idea. God chose you. You did not initiate the relationship. God has been dreaming about you for a long time. As I have said a number of times before, God was not “stuck with you.” You were not a problem that was thrust uninvited into God's life. You are a problem that God eagerly embraced. (If you are reading this instead of listening to it, please hear the smile in my voice when I say the previous sentence. Sure, you cause problems for God sometimes. What of it? Everything and everyone we love sometimes interrupt the smooth flow of our lives.)
God chose us. God chose you. You are valued and desired and prized and treasured by God. (Did I get enough adjectives in there?)
In case you didn't get it, Paul says the same thing again using different words.
“In love God predestined us to be adopted as his sons.”
God predestined us. What does that mean? God made plans. God had every intention of making it happen. God was moving on it. He wasn't waiting to see if we were worth it, if we were interested, if it was going to be fun. God knew way back that he really wanted you in his life. He knew way back that he wanted you as part of his family.

He predestined you to be his son, his daughter.

What did he have in mind when he chose you, when he predestined you? He saw a future in which you would be with him holy and blameless. Not groveling and begging for mercy, not tolerated in spite of who you are, not endured. God sees you as admirable and successful. That's where he's taking you.

Verse seven: 7 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.

Our screw ups do not astonish God. They don't leave him scrambling to cover the problem. He anticipated the problem and already had a remedy in works ready to go. And notice the last part of this sentence. “in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us.” There was nothing meager or minimal about God's response to our predicament. He lavished grace on us. His forgiveness is rich and abundant. It is more than enough.


Chapter Two takes to more familiar territory. Paul refers to being “dead in trespasses and sins.” Ah, now we feel better. Paul is finally getting back to where we are comfortable. Paul is saying the same thing as those parents, teachers, preachers, lovers, husbands and wives who have told us what jerks we are. Sinners. Miserable scumbags. Ah, that's better. Now Paul is telling the truth. Is that your reaction?

When you think of people what adjectives come to mind? Selfish? Wicked? Treacherous? Careful. When we describe people this way, we're taking the part of Satan who is known as the accuser.

Certainly there is a place to recognize human evil. But we don't need the New Testament to know something about evil. The good news of the New Testament is that evil is not the last word. It is not even the most significant word to be said about humanity. Humans are God's children, chosen by God to be holy and blameless. They have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. God has wonderful dreams for our future.

As we come close to God we will not be more and more impressed with human evil. We will find ourselves more and more sympathetic toward human frailty and failure. We will be come better at imagining sweet and good futures for even the most obnoxious people.

I am amazed at how Christianity has been hijacked by the devil. We are far more comfortable accusing and condemning people than we are affirming and blessing people. If Paul could call the Christians in Ephesus saints and faithful ones, why can't we call each other saints and faithful ones? In fact, we can. And we should.

Paul can never get too far away from the profound remorse he feels for having spent time persecuting Christians. He had blood on his hands. He was responsible for making wives into widows, children into orphans. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, he was truly dead in trespasses and sins. But even for Paul, who had been a professional Christian-killer, God's grace was the number one reality. The most important message was that God had chosen him and all the believers in Ephesus to be his children.

They were the people God wanted in his family. We are the people God wants in his family. God was not waiting for Paul or others to prove their worth, to earn their way into the family.

For by grace (that is divine initiative) you have been saved.

Verse 19: Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
We are fully included. We share the full privileges and responsibilities of citizenship and family connection. We expected to cooperate with God in his work in the world.

Verse 22. In him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Where does God prefer to hang out? Among us!

Knowing our lives personally and corporately are a temple, residence for God is a call to be intentional and deliberate about our lives. We are constructing the environment of God. So let's build with that in mind.
What to do?

First, fill your mind with the truth: God would rather die than live without out you. God wants you. He has blessed you with all spiritual blessings. He intended from way back before you were born to include you in his family. His forgiveness is larger than any screw up you are capable of pulling off.

Second. Choose not to feed the darkness. So avoid drugs and alcohol. Avoid talk radio and right wing TV and anything else that specializes in the cultivation of fear, anxiety and outrage. (How many efforts for the amelioration of human suffering have been initiated by the work of Rush and Glenn?).

Third, feed the light. Practice generosity. Practice charitable judgment. Listen to uplifting music. Read uplifting books. Watch uplifting movies. Talk to uplifting friends.

Then come back to the bedrock truth.

God likes you. God wants you. God has blessed you. Pass it on.

Amen.


This is the manuscript as I prepared it prior to preaching. When I preached, a metaphor came to mind that I thought was very helpful. Maybe I'll get around to writing it and posting it here. Maybe not. One of the ideas was this: We rescued a dog years ago. She had been abused. At first at our house she was "perfect," a perfection that was rooted in fear. She has lost her fear, and as a result has adopted an annoying habit of getting on the bed when we are not watching. We have never been able to train her to stay off the bed. She has trained us to close our bedroom door. Similarly, God has altered his existence to make sure that we are part of his eternal future. The Bible pictures God changing just as dramatically as the change it calls for and predicts in us.