4-7-19 Sermon Notes
“Position” – Ephesians 1:1-23 and Ephesians 2:1-10
Introduction
This is the last week of the “Unbreakable” series. This series was designed to remind us of God’s promises – Presence, Protection, Preservation, Persecution, Provision, and Position.
Message
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we experience a rebirth in which our old spiritually dead nature was replaced by a new nature of spiritual life. We become sons and daughters of the Most High God and in a position to receive our inheritance from our Father God just as Jesus received from Him. We become an heir to everything God says we are, everything God says we have, and everything God says we can do because we are now in Christ Jesus.
If every Christian truly understood their identity and position in Christ, Christianity would be a force to be reckoned with in the world.
It would change the way we preach, the way we worship and the way we relate to one another as the collective body of Christ.
Ephesians is a call for spiritual maturity.
But even more than that. In the book of Ephesians, Paul takes us by the hand and says, “It’s time to mature, and this is how you can do it. I’ll take you step-by-step so that maturity and mature Christian behavior is clear to you.”
And that’s what I love about Paul.
He doesn’t just tell us, he shows us.
Ephesians is one of the most important books of the New Testament because if we never realize who we are in Christ and what our position is with Christ in the heavenlies, we are powerless against Satan and his evil strategy.
6 Things Every Christian Needs to Know
- You are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ
Nowhere in the book of Ephesians does it say these blessings are contingent upon our behavior. It just says that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. Period.
But please notice something …
It does not say that we are blessed with every million-dollar home, every luxury vehicle or every fancy wardrobe piece.
It says “spiritual blessings,” not earthly blessings.
It is very easy for us to make quick assessments of our earthly situations and circumstances. If they are to our liking, they are blessings. If they are not, they are punishments, curses or somehow the work of the enemy.
We need to be very careful about this because sometimes God ordains undesirable circumstances to bring about His will. He sees the end from the beginning. We don’t.
These blessings aren’t just waiting for us in heaven until we get there; they are available now. And this verse says every spiritual blessing!
How do we access those spiritual blessings? By understanding our position in Christ!
- He chose us.
God chose us. We were not an accident. Maybe our parents didn’t plan us, but God did and we see that in these verses.
When did God choose us? Before the world was created. Before Adam and Eve were created, before anything we can see, smell, taste, touch or hear was created, God had already chosen us.
Why? Why would God choose us? He chose us so He could love us, so we would be holy and perfect before Him. And He chose to prove that love for us by sending Christ to die for us so that we could be perfect and holy before Him.
He chose us for a purpose, and then He did all that was needed to be done to accomplish that purpose.
- He predestined us to adoption as sons.
Here is where some Christians get into theological weeds. What exactly is predestination?
It’s not as complicated as some choose to make it. The word “destined” means that something has a purpose. And the prefix “pre” means ahead of time.
God purposed ahead of time that He would adopt us as sons. That doesn’t mean that some have that purpose and others don’t. Scripture clearly debunks that argument with this verse, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness. But He is patient with us, because He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3.9).
Why would God create anyone whom He had already predestined to eternal destruction? The answer is simple: He wouldn’t. That image of God doesn’t align at all with the image of God we see in the rest of Scripture.
And this is possible only by the blood of Jesus and the grace of God. We aren’t adopted because we’re good enough, we’re adopted because Jesus’ blood is enough!
It is Jesus’ blood and God’s grace alone that made us acceptable to God.
- He redeemed us.
This act of redemption is the greatest act in human history.
There are three Greek words for “redeemed”:
- a) agorazoo– to go to the slave market and purchase something to own.
- b) exagorazoo– to buy back to freedom, in ancient Greek literature used for the purchase of slaves.
- c) apolytrosis– to pay the full ransom, to liberate and make free, never to be sold into slavery again.
In Ephesians 1:7, Paul uses the Greek word apolytrosis. Christ has ransomed us from the slave market, He has liberated us, and with that purchase, we can never be sold back into slavery again! We are 100 percent free!
And the currency He used was His blood, the blood He used to forgive us our sins, the blood that offers us grace.
In fact, it says “the riches of His grace”. How many riches does God have? Endless grace. There is no end to the riches of His grace, and then it goes on to say that He has chosen to give us blank-check access to His bank account of grace!
- He has an inheritance for us.
God’s adoption of us enables us to come into the inheritance He has purposed for us and that inheritance is in Christ; the inheritance that He purchased for us on the cross: eternity with Him in heaven.
- He has sealed us.
“Sealed” here in the Greek, means marked with a seal or a stamp.
When we received Christ, God stamped us with the Holy Spirit, who is our “guarantee.”
“Guarantee” in the Greek means “down payment.”
What Paul is saying here is that upon our salvation, God took the stamp of the Holy Spirit and marked us to ensure His down payment, or promise, of our inheritance that is to come when He finally redeems (apolytrosis) the purchased possession—that is us.
When we received Christ, the Holy Spirit came to live inside of each one of us as a constant reminder that this life isn’t all there is. God has promised to fully redeem us, to take us to heaven to live with Him. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit is here granting us power to live victoriously in this life—power is the very same measure used to raise Jesus from the dead.
We can live victoriously because we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
Concluding Remarks and Application
The benefits of knowing our position and inheritance in Christ
Once we know and realize who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ, and what we can do because we are in Christ and receive it by faith we accrue tremendous benefits to ourselves and for others – “infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope” (Ephesians 3:20). It will bring an end to not having enough in our lives. There will be no more sense of unworthiness about ourselves, no more limitations in our abilities because we “can do all thing in Christ who strengthens us” (Phillippians 4:13). There will be no more condemnation, no more anxiety about situations and circumstances around and about us. No more satanic oppression and it will bring to an end any spiritual inferiority complex we have in our walk with Christ. Fear and worry will cease to control our lives. Aren’t we blessed!
We have at our disposal all spiritual blessings in Christ because He has chosen us to be the physical manifestation of Christ here on earth, putting at our disposal all blessings and the very power that raised Jesus from the dead, because of the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
He has redeemed us. We are free, we cannot be sold back into slavery, because we have been stamped, marked, by the Holy Spirit, who is the down payment, a promise that God will complete the transaction at the time that He has ordained, that He has delegated when all of the fragments of the ages have been fulfilled and He has gathered them up in Christ. At that point, the transaction will be completed and we will come into our inheritance.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we experience a rebirth in which our old spiritually dead nature was replaced by a new nature of spiritual life meaning we are divorced from the old sin nature. It is dead to us, but we can choose to be influenced or even governed by its rules. Or we can choose to be influenced by our new nature, the one looking to God, studying the Bible, and influenced by the Holy Spirit. We become sons and daughters of the Most High God and are in a position to receive our inheritance from Father God just as Jesus received from Him. We become an heir to everything God says we are, everything God says we have, and everything God says we can do because we are now in Christ Jesus.
Additional Verses of Our Position in Christ
Who AM I in Christ?
I AM…
- A child of God.
- Redeemed from the Hand of the Enemy
- Forgiven
- Saved by Grace through Faith
- Justified
- Sanctified
- A New Creature
- Partaker of His Divine Nature
- Redeemed from the Curse of the Law
- Delivered from the Powers of Darkness
- Led by the Spirit of God
- A Son of God
- Kept in Safety Wherever I Go
- Getting all my Needs Met by Jesus
- Casting all my Cares on Jesus
- Strong in the Lord and the Power of His Might
- An heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus
- An Heir of Eternal Life
- Daily overcoming the Devil
- Being Transformed by Renewing my Mind
- Free from condemnation
- A citizen of Heaven
- God’s workmanship
- God’s Temple
- Filled with the Holy Spirit 1 John 1:9
THESE ARE TRUE FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE. THIS IS THE MAGNIFICENT BENEFIT OF HIS GRACE. THESE SCRIPTURES ARE A SAMPLING OF HOW GOD SEES OUR POSITION IN CHRIST.