What Has God Done for You Lately?

Ephesians 1:3-14

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

July 16, 2006

This week I want to depart from the gospel lessons listed in the lectionary, and begin several weeks of focus on the epistle lessons, which take us through Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. William Barclay referred to Ephesians as "The Queen of the Epistles." It is a remarkable book of the Bible. One of the shorter books in the Bible--it consists of only six chapters--it is one of the thickest and richest in terms of the theology it contains. Ephesians represents the pinnacle of Paul’s theological discourse. Pound for pound, Ephesians may in fact be the most influential document ever written.

The doctrine of predestination, which Presbyterians have been unfairly accused of over-emphasizing, is prominent, even in the verses from this morning’s lesson. The doctrine of justification by faith is stated more succinctly in Ephesians than anywhere else in all of scripture: "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." The doctrine of unity in the body of Christ is woven throughout the letter. And it is in Ephesians that we find those verses that describe the spiritual warfare in which we find ourselves, and how to put on the armor of God to prepare ourselves for the battle.

The epistle can roughly be divided into two parts. The first half of the letter deals with the theology, with the descriptions of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The second half is filled with the practical and ethical implications of what the theology means in the everyday life of the Christian and the Church.

Hear now the word of God as it comes to us from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, beginning to read in the third verse...

What has God done for you lately? When was the last time that you stopped to consider what God has done for you? I would hope that all of us would be able to say that we ponder the mighty works of God in our lives every day. But I know that the pace of life is such that often that is not the case, that our lives have become so busy and occupied with other things that God doesn’t get the regular consideration that he ought to receive.

What has God done for you lately? I ask that question, because the truth is our Christian life ought to be informed by the way in which we answer that question. Because you see, the life of the Christian, and the way in which we are the church, is in large part a response to who we understand God to be and what we recognize that God has done for us.

I mentioned earlier that the theology in Ephesians is rich and plentiful. Most of us place theology in the realm of the mind--that is, theology is what we think about God. And that is true. But it is also true that theology is much more profound when it touches the heart. In the verses we just read, Paul offers a summary of the theology he will expound in the remainder of the letter. But the verses provide for us more than intellectual fodder. In the words of one writer, in these verses, "theology breaks forth into doxology, and adoration of God in turn enriches reflection about God." It’s a cycle in which the stages feed upon each other: To understand what God has done for you will deepen your praise and devotion toward God, which in turn will help you understand even more what God has done for you.

What has God done for you lately? Paul starts out his letter on a note of praise, bringing to our awareness that God has indeed been at work in our lives: "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." Paul then goes on to describe for us what those spiritual blessings are (actually, he rather gushes forth with those spiritual blessings, because in the original Greek text our entire lesson is one long sentence). Let me try to break Paul’s description down into four main blessings.

The first is the blessing of election. "[God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world... In love [God] predestined us to be adopted as his [children] through Jesus Christ..." What has God done for you lately? What has God done for any of us? God has chosen us!

Do you appreciate what it means to be chosen? I do. Believe it or not, when I was growing up, I wasn’t among the first chosen to be on a team; oftentimes I was the last one picked. Being among the last to be chosen will have an effect on a person. After a while, it will begin to convey the message that maybe a person isn’t worth picking at all.

But listen to what Paul says: God has chosen you. God has chosen me. God has picked us, not to be on his team, but something even more fantastic: God has chosen us to be part of his family! God has adopted us as his children!

I know that in a crowd this size, there are bound to be several who are part of their family because they were adopted into the family. I think sometimes adoption is viewed as an option of last resort, when biology just doesn’t work for a husband and wife. But in truth, biology oftentimes is little more than the consequence of behavior. It just happens. Adoption, on the other hand, is the result of a deliberate decision that the parents make. Adoption is an intentional act in which the adults have said, "I choose to be your parent; I choose you to be my child."

We’re not the biological children of God. We are something even greater. We are God’s adopted children.

What has God done for us lately? God has chosen us!

God has also redeemed us. Redemption is the second spiritual blessing to which Paul refers. "In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace..." Redemption is the language of purchase, of buying our freedom. Before, we were slaves to sin. But through the blood of Christ God paid the price for us to be free from sin, free to follow him.

The 24^th Psalm, which we read earlier this morning, asked a penetrating question: "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?" And the answer the psalmist gives leaves us little doubt that ultimately nobody has what it takes to come into God’s presence: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart..." Most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, will admit that our hands are not as clean as we would like them to be, nor are our hearts close to pure. There’s always going to be some dirt in our lives. There’s always going to be something that taints even the best of our intentions. In the end, nobody can ascend the hill of the Lord, or stand in his holy place. At least not on our own merits.

But in Christ we can! That’s the grace of God at work in our lives: what we are unable to do on our own, God has done for us. Our redemption, our forgiveness, is not something that we have earned. It is a gift of God, freely given according to God’s good will and the riches of his grace.

What has God done for us lately? He’s redeemed us, forgiven us. His disposition toward us is grace. It always has been, even before the foundation of the world.

The third blessing that Paul describes is the assurance of God’s providential care and sovereign rule over the world. "[God] made known to us the mystery of his will...to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ... [God is the One who] works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..." I don’t know about you, but I receive great comfort from the doctrine of the providence of God. It comforts me, because it reminds me that the world is not under the control of people like you and me. It’s not under the control of people like George Bush, or the Queen of England, or the dictator in North Korea, or the president of Iran. The world is under the control of God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. The doctrine of providence reminds us that everything that happens falls within God’s purpose for this world, according to God’s infinite and perfect wisdom.

Rick Brand, a Presbyterian pastor in Henderson, North Carolina, says that "We sing the mighty power of God because we rejoice in God’s kindness to us. We are pointed to the eternal providence of God to find assurance that our lives are in God’s hands and not the hands of capricious fate or iron necessity... [We] do not just happen to exist, [rather,] our lives have roots in eternity, and our salvation begins in the mind and heart of the Eternal God, and it has been accomplished by Christ..."

You are not an accident. Your life is not a series of random occurrences. You are a product of the providential care of God. God has blessed us with the assurance of his providence, borne out of his infinite power and grace and love and wisdom.

The fourth blessing is implied, more than explicitly outlined. But in the text you will notice that there is a shift in verse 13. Paul ceases to speak in the first person plural, the language of "we," and "us," and begins to speak in the language of the second person plural, the language of "you," or "y’all". Paul begins by speaking as a spokesman of the Jewish Christians, and he then incorporates the Gentile Christians into the body of believers to whom God’s grace is extended. It is the blessing of inclusion, in which the "we" and the "you" becomes the language of "all of us". I won’t say too much about it this morning, because this is the subject of next week’s lesson. But the oneness that God gives to the Church is indeed a tremendous blessing.

In all of these blessings, there is a common thread that runs through each of them. Repeatedly Paul uses the preposition, "in Christ." The truth is, the verses would be void of meaning if Paul left out those two words: In Christ. For none of the blessings that Paul describes can come to us apart from the work of Jesus Christ. It is "in Christ" that we have been chosen and adopted as God’s children. It is "in Christ" that we have redemption, forgiveness of sins. It is "in Christ" that we can see the purpose of God being worked out, for God reveals himself to us "in Christ." And it is "in Christ" that we are brought together in one Body of believers.

What has God done for you lately?

Hans Hoekendijk taught at Union Seminary in New York City. Before and during World War II, he lived in Amsterdam, where he and his friends hid Jewish children from the Nazis. Their efforts were eventually discovered. As a result, Hoekendijk and his friends were locked in a railroad car and shipped off to a death camp in Germany. One morning the train suddenly stopped. The doors were opened. The prisoners were told to climb out and lined up alongside the railroad tracks. They assumed they were in Germany, and they thought they were gong to be shot. But they were in Switzerland. Someone had thrown a switch on the track, and now they were free. For the rest of his life, Hoekendijk kept asking, "What do you do with such a gift?"

What has God done for you lately? Think about it for a while. Read through this beautiful song of praise in Ephesians. After it sinks in for a while, then ask yourself a second question: What do you do with such a gift?

Amen.