If we turn now to our reading from Ephesians 1 today, Paul here is getting excited - no, it’s not about stamps or any other interest you could think of, instead he’s getting excited, extremely excited. In fact, Paul is so excited that he’s not even pausing for breath. Now, if you were to pick up a Greek New Testament, you would discover that these verses, verses 3-14 in the original Greek make up one long sentence – yes, only one – and this isn’t reflected in our English translations. As such, it is all too easy to miss the initial impact that these opening verses should have on us.

So important are these verses that commentators have searched for metaphors vivid enough to describe Paul’s excitement. Here are some of them: ‘a magnificent gateway’; ‘a golden chain of many links’; a kaleidoscope of dazzling lights and shifting colours’; ‘the flight of an eagle as it takes off, rising and wheeling round’; ‘a snowball tumbling down a hill, picking up volume as it descends’; ‘the overture of an opera which contains the successive melodies that are to follow.’ However one describes it, all these metaphors help to describe the impression of colour, movement, excitement and magnificence that Paul is experiencing.

Let’s pause for a minute and think how would you describe the impact that these words have just had on you? Hold that thought and we’ll come back to it later, because now I want us to consider what it is that is getting Paul all excited.

Well, when we turn to the text, we discover that the answer lies not with ‘what’ but ‘who’, because it is God whom Paul is getting all excited about. Now, unlike the gods and goddesses of the pagan world – and Ephesus at this time happened to be the headquarters of the cult that worshipped the goddess Diana and whom Paul had had ‘run ins with’ in the past; unlike the notion of a vague divine force like ‘the force’ depicted in the Star Wars films; unlike any other being or object to which god like status was attributed, here we find Paul excited about the one true, real and living God - it is he and no other, who has made the world, and who has now made himself known in and through Jesus.

But why has God bothered to do this? - Because of his incredible love for us – a very real and tangible love – a love that has been lavished on us, not because of our own merits or because we might in turn bless him – rather God has chosen to bless us first – this is His initiative and with no strings attached. And so throughout these verses, we see Paul reminding us how God has blessed us and what He has done for us.
Let’s have a look at them:

Verse 3: 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.
God hasn’t just given us 1 or 2 blessings and kept the rest for himself – instead He’s given us every spiritual blessing that He can think of – and God’s imagination is vast – just look at the world and the infinite variety that exists within it. As such, God has blessed us with more spiritual blessings than we could ever ask for or imagine. Think of all the gifts he has given the church to use and grow into all maturity through. Do we use them? Do we seek to grow in them? Do we bless God and thank Him for them? Do we ask Him for more when we think we’ve exhausted him of every possible blessing? I tell you, God’s always got more for us!

Verse 4: For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Because our God is a holy God and hates sin and all that separates us from Him, the only way that we can approach Him, the only way that we can enter the throne room of God is through being transformed – transformed by the power of God that is at work within us, shaping us, moulding us to be a holy and blameless people! Wow! What a calling! Now we all know that we are not yet holy and blameless (I know God’s still working on me, and he’s got a lot of work to do!), but as the saying goes we are all works in progress. And if this is what God has chosen us for, then we know that He will do it, because God always delivers what He promises – He never fails!

Verse 5: In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
The language of Adoption that Paul uses here is something that has personally come to mean a lot to me in recent years as some of you will know – and in this context, it is such an appropriate way to try and describe God’s incredible desire that we might be his children. Now in Roman law, much like our own understanding and practice today, adoption confers on the individual concerned the same rights and privileges as natural children have. There is no tiered system according to ones origin. Now, it’s one thing for us to want to adopt someone – we get to choose who we will adopt; yet in God’s case he wants to adopt everyone, and without exception. But God can only adopt those who want to be adopted – in other words, He can only adopt those that will let Him into their lives and who will love Him. What a great blessing it is that God wants you and me to be his heirs.

As I was reflecting on this last night, the New Year’s Honours List came to mind – a small selection of people who get honoured for their achievements or contribution to British society – yet for the vast majority, it remains an unattainable honour, well out of reach. Yet, God wants to confer on each one of us the greatest honour the whole of creation knows – the question is, will you accept it or reject it? Yes, it’s true that we don’t deserve it, yet it is God’s desire for us. There is no higher or greater honour.

Verse 6: To the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
And it is only because of His grace that we can receive what He holds out in His outstretched hands to us. If God chose instead to wait for us to try and earn His grace, then He’d be waiting for all of eternity because none of us would ever get there. So instead, God gives us His grace free – without cost to us, even though He knows the worst about each one of us – even though He knows those things we’d rather no one else ever knew about us – God still gives us his grace. Will we take it and revel in it?

Verses 7-8: 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.
At the heart of who we are as Christians is this amazing truth – we are both a redeemed and forgiven people. Furthermore, when God forgives – he forgets and blots out our sins. It’s like God burying them in the deepest lake and putting up a sign that says ‘No fishing.’ Yet, so often, we choose to go fishing where God has said ‘no fishing’ and we habitually dredge our sins up all over again, because we question whether God really forgave us? The truth is – he has, and we need to learn to feel it and live it. One of the barriers at times can be that because of God’s forgiveness, we expect ourselves to be perfect, thus we set ourselves such high and unattainable standards. The reality is that all we are doing is setting ourselves up to fail, and God doesn’t want us to do this to ourselves. As a car bumper sticker states: ‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.’ Do we believe this? Do we revel in God’s forgiveness?

Verses 9-10: And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
In these verses, we learn that God has made known his will and purpose for each of us. How has he done this? - Through Jesus! What have we just celebrated? Christmas – the incarnation – the coming of God among us in Jesus - Emmanuel - which means God with us. [picture of Christmas Cake] You see, God’s greatest plan for us is to be his children – the question is do we know if we’re his children? If you’re not sure, don’t leave here today without speaking to someone. This week, Alpha starts again, which is one helpful way to discover God’s will and purpose for us.

Verses 11-12: In 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, in order that we, who were the first to help in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
Here, Paul returns to his thinking about being chosen and reminds us that we were chosen in Christ even before we were aware of it. Do you realise that God’s plan was at work in you even when you were unaware of it? And we know as Paul says that God’s plan will not be frustrated because He works everything out in line with his purpose and will. He chose us, and why? Verse 12 - in order that we might bring glory to him. Have you ever realised that your life brings glory to God? That’s an incredible responsibility and a privilege!

Verses 13-14: And 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, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory.

Here, like at Pentecost, we learn of the giving of God’s Spirit – the Holy Spirit to all believers as a promise of what is to come – in other words there’s something much better still to come than what we know now. Yes it’s true that we can and should know the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, because life without the Holy Spirit, is life without God; yet, it is only when we reach heaven, that we will experience God’s presence in the fullest sense of the word. For now, the Spirit is the down payment, the deposit – the guarantee of what is to come.

So, there we have it – a brief overview of these verses – yes, there’s so much more that could be said, but let me ask you all, has any of this got you excited? Do you now feel that you could begin to express in words the excitement that these words well up in you? Shared with permission, on these verses, my wife Julie says:

‘It’s filled with so much wow! That’s who I am in God. That’s who he wants me to be – He chose me and lavished all these things on ME – Wow!’

For this reason, Ephesians 1 stands out as her favourite NT passage because that’s who she is in God.

The same is true of us. At the heart of who we are as individuals and what this Church is, is who we are in God. If we are to truly live out our Church’s strapline, ‘Living to love God and you’, then all of us need to take on board just how much we are treasured by God; all of us need to take on board just how much He wants to adopt us; all of us need to take on board just how much he wants to lavish His love on us; all of us need to take on board just how much he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The problem is that so often, we don’t believe it or feel it. Yet, if we are truly going to be a community that ‘enables people to make mature Disciples of Christ in whom the love of God is lived out in every part of their lives’ then we need to know who we are in God, so that we can worship Him in Spirit and in truth. As Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham once wrote: ‘True worship of the true God cannot help telling and retelling with joy and amazement, the story of what God has done in Jesus.’ Do we seek to tell and retell what God has done for us?

Earlier, I asked you to think about how you would describe the impact of these verses. Now, in the light of all we’ve heard the morning, I would like you to consider whether you would describe it any differently. And, if you would like to share them in any of our morning services in the weeks ahead, please do see Richard or myself. After all, if these verses have no impact on you and me, how can we live out who we are in God.

If you have found this sermon has stirred you to think further then please do get in contact with the preacher tim Robb, via our contact pages.