On the first day of the week, at early dawn,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the
tomb bringing spices which they had prepared,
and they found the stone rolled away. But when
they entered, they did not find the body of the
Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this,
behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling
attire. And the men said to them, why do you
seek the living one among the dead? He is not
here, he has risen. And with that, all of human
history changed forever. Think about that. As
a historical nerd who loves to study ancient
biographies and read old, really old manuscripts,
I always feel compelled on Easter Sunday retelling
of how the tomb was discovered empty. And it
is a simple account, isn't it? So many ancient
biographers, when you read them, they embellish
their stories in order to make their heroes seem
greater than they actually were. So much flowery
language to draw you, the reader, in to believe
all the hype about their particular subject.
But that is not true of the gospel accounts.
It's very unusual in the ancient world. When
telling the story of the empty tomb, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John don't go out of their way
to sell you anything. It's just a very straightforward,
factual account. What they say is, and I'll paraphrase
in my terms, here's what happened. We woke up
on that first day of the week on Sunday morning,
devastated by the events of the previous days.
And we were afraid for our very lives. Our master,
our rabbi, our Lord was gone, dead and buried.
And we were lost in hopelessness and fear. But
the Marys, God bless them, they faithfully woke
up early that morning and went to the tomb to
minister to Jesus' body, which had been laid
in Joseph's tomb. But when they got there, they
found the stone had been moved and the body was
gone. And then suddenly out of nowhere, they're
met by these angelic beings from a spiritual
realm. who told them very simply and very clearly
he has risen. That's it, friends. That's the
whole account. The most important event, the
focal point of all human existence, basically
given to us in a couple of paragraphs in just
one chapter of all four gospel accounts. But
remember, all four were either eyewitnesses to
the resurrection or they interviewed eyewitnesses
who saw Jesus back from the dead, risen from
the grave with a glorified body. And as John
closes out his account, he writes this. Among
other things, he says, this account that I'm
writing, especially that of the resurrection,
is written down for this one purpose, that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that in believing you may have, look
at that word, you may have life in his name.
And that is my prayer for anyone here this morning
who hasn't yet put... his or her trust in Christ.
And perhaps you're here today, it's a holiday,
but you're seeking truth. And if so, I commend
you for that. I want you to know that there are
no accidents in God's world. It's no accident
that you are here in this place this morning.
And if you've been a skeptic in the past, and
you're not sure if the Bible is trustworthy or
not, I want you to know, I get it. I was once
in that same place. But the evidence for these...
Gospel accounts in general and the evidence for
this event, the resurrection, is so overwhelming
that if you'll do an honest investigation, if
you truly are open to it, it's going to lead
you to the same place that led me some 40 years
ago. And that is to saving faith and to peace
and joy and contentment beyond anything that
this world can ever offer to you. And so that's
my prayer for you this morning if you don't know
Jesus. But back to the story, how hard the Jewish
and Roman authorities tried to squash the Jesus
movement back in the day. All the news about
the crucifixion and the resurrection. At various
times, in various ways, they persecuted early
Christians. They chased them all over the region.
But all that did was cause Christianity to grow
and spread faster and faster. From Jerusalem,
where it was encapsulated, west across the entire
Greco -Roman world. And the odds of that happening
are so astronomical because I want you to think
about this. Here was the founder of a religious
movement who in the culture of that day died
in disgrace. He died crucified as a criminal.
Who follows a criminal? Here's a man who was
betrayed by one of his insiders. A man who was
denied three times by one of his closest friends.
He was abandoned at his death by almost every
follower that he had. He left no property behind.
He left no wealth. He left no army. And he did
not have a biological heir. What are the odds?
Yet over time, the message of his life and his
teaching. and his death, and most critically,
his resurrection, overwhelmed and outlived the
most powerful empire the world has ever seen.
Think about that. And unless those first eyewitnesses
actually saw a dead man come back to life and
ascended to heaven, there's absolutely no rational
reason they would persist in telling that lie.
But they saw it. They were eyewitnesses to it.
Looking back on this, the great church father
Augustine wrote the following in his important
work, The City of God. And as you read this,
it's gonna be up on the screen. Keep in that
mind that before his conversion, Augustine was
immersed in the world of philosophy and rhetoric.
He was a man of the academy of his day. But he
logically worked this out and this was part of
his argument. He says this, now we have three
incredible things and yet all three have come
to pass. First, It is incredible that Christ
rose from the dead in the flesh and ascended
with his flesh into heaven. Second, it's an incredible
thing that the world has come to believe something
so incredible. Third, it's incredible that a
few unknown men with no standing and no education
were able to persuade the world of something
so incredible. Of these three incredible things,
the people we are debating refuse to believe
the first, They're compelled to grant the second,
but they cannot explain how the second happened
unless they believe the third. I know you're
working that math out in your brain. It's okay.
He was a philosopher at heart. It is beautiful.
So we have a remarkable story in the gospel accounts,
and we have a remarkable faith, but most of all,
we have an extraordinary object of our faith.
Jesus of Nazareth, fully God, fully man, Christ,
Messiah, and Savior, and Lord. And everything
about life as we know it, everything about what
we know about death, everything about what's
to come after death, it all hinges on this one
person, Jesus, and your relationship to him.
Think about that. Everything, everything we know
about this life hinges on one person and your
relationship to him. And that brings us to the
main thesis and theme. for our celebration of
Easter this year, Union with Christ. Or as you
see in the title there, simply with him. Now,
so far in our service last Sunday and on Good
Friday, we've talked about some really important
biblically rooted concepts. I'll give you a list.
Being found in Christ. Being clothed in his righteousness.
Our lives being hidden in him. And then on Friday
night, we looked at suffering with him, dying
with him, being buried with him. And now this
morning, we get to lay that final building block
on, the most important one of all, being raised
to life with him. And this too is found in Romans
6, which we looked at on Friday. I'll put it
up on the screen because it's so important. Paul
says, do you not know that all of us who've been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into his death? Therefore, we've been buried
with him through baptism into death. So that,
wherever you see a so that, this is a purpose
statement. Here's the purpose of us dying with
him. So that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life. Newness of life. For
if we become united with him in the likeness
of his death, certainly we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection. Now, look at what
I've highlighted there. United with him. If you're
sitting here this morning and you have put your
trust in Christ alone for the forgiveness of
your sins, if you've submitted your heart and
your life to him, that is a factual statement.
You are united with him right now. Now, as I
say that, I know this is hard. It's a bit of
a metaphysical concept, isn't it? What does it
mean to be united with him? Is that something
we're supposed to see with our eyes or feel in
our bodies? The answer is no. It's not that tangible.
But it's absolutely real. It is a living connection
that we have with our Savior. Sometimes we call
it a mystical union because it's a truth that
is supernaturally, specially revealed in the
Word of God and then supernaturally applied by
the Holy Spirit who lives within us. So it's
not as tangible as you might think. But as a
doctrine, this idea of union with Christ is found
in the prepositions of the New Testament. It's
everywhere. The problem is we often read past
the little words in Scripture, right? They're
so subtle, we read right past them. But then
once you start to look at the prepositions in
Scripture, you begin to see them all over the
place. In Paul's writings alone, more than 70
times he uses one of these phrases, in Christ,
with Christ, or through Christ. And then if you
expand that to the entire New Testament, more
than 200 times. We see that we are united with
Christ in those little prepositions that we often
miss. And then there's the metaphors. The beautiful
metaphors that the biblical writers use to try
to illustrate for us, and we need this, right?
When we're dealing with a metaphysical concept,
we need illustrations. And they give us these
word pictures that are so beautiful that describe
the richness and the intimacy that we have with
Jesus. And I know you've probably heard these
before, but have you ever stopped long enough
to think, what is the depth of the connection
in these particular words? So for example, he
is the vine. And we are the branches on that
vine. That is an essential connection we have.
He is the head of the body, the church, and we
are members or parts of that same body. Think
about the depth of that, the intimacy. He's the
cornerstone of the building and we are living
stones being built upon him. He is the good shepherd
and we are his flock of sheep. And he is the
bridegroom and we are his bride. And that last
one is especially powerful because consider how
marriage brings a man and a woman into a one
flesh union. How from that moment on, their lives
are shared completely together. And that is true
of our union with Christ. Only in our coming
together in this one shared life, who gets the
better deal? We get an incredible deal. After
all, what do we bring to that relationship as
the bride? Our fallenness. our sin, our weakness,
our guilt, and all of that mess is imputed to
our bridegroom. He takes it upon himself. And
what do we get in this union? His perfect life,
his holiness, his righteousness. As his bride,
we get all of that. It becomes ours and our entire
body of sin gets nailed to the cross and our
old self, that old nature that was once under
the headship of Adam is now made new under the
headship of our bridegroom. That is what we call
the great exchange in this relationship. In fact,
when he was raised from the dead on that Sunday
morning, every person who will ever trust in
him was also raised. From spiritual death to
spiritual life. Let me show you Romans 6, 5 again
so you see it. If we become united with him in
the likeness of his death, and we all claim that,
right? That's how our sins are washed away. Certainly
we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
That means for the believer, because Jesus defeated
death, our death is defeated. We have that victory.
The sting of death is taken away. It has no power
over us anymore. And then the real kicker in
all of this is because Jesus was not only raised
from the dead, he was seated in the heavens at
the right hand of the Father. And so positionally,
we as believers are also raised and seated in
the heavens. Paul actually talks about this in
Ephesians 2, and it blows my mind. He says, God
being rich in mercy because of his great love
with which he loved us, even when we were, what,
dead in our transgressions, dead people cannot
bring themselves back to life, He made us alive.
He did. Together with Christ. There's another
one of those statements. Together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved. And he raised us
up with him and seated us. Seated us with him
in the heavenly places. In who? In Christ Jesus.
It's all in Christ Jesus, isn't it? So we can
add two more things. Made alive with him and
seated with him. So even though we're in this
already not yet place right now, we are still
having to live our lives out here on the earth.
But right now, positionally, we are citizens
of heaven in that realm sharing in the victory
that Christ has won for us. Mind blown, right?
This is wild stuff. And the New Testament evidence
for this is overwhelming. His life is your life.
His death is your death. His resurrection is
your resurrection. And because that's all true,
his righteousness is yours. His favor with the
Father is yours. His holiness is yours. You are
now knit together with your Savior. Amazing stuff.
And as you hear that, perhaps then Paul's statement
in Galatians 2 makes more sense when he says,
look, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Because we're one life shared together. Isn't
that amazing? Coming back to the brilliant Augustine.
In one of his sermons, he put it this way. He
literally preached this in the fifth century.
He said, it's as if Jesus said to us, I'm inviting
you into my life. It's a place where nobody dies,
where life is truly happy. I'm inviting you into
the realm of the angels, to the friendship of
the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the everlasting
supper, to be my brothers and sisters. I'm inviting
you into every part of my life. Sounds good,
doesn't it? Who refuses that? Who in his right
mind would refuse such an offer from the God
of the universe? So in the time we have left,
what I want to do now is point you to even more
amazing things that come with being united to
Christ. Can you handle more than that? Because
that's enough. That was a meal. You just got
a meal of all kinds of amazing things. There's
more. Okay, grab your Bibles. Grab your Bibles.
We're going back to Ephesians 1. You're saying,
you know, I have a shorter amount of time than
usual this morning. So we're about to go through.
I'm gonna have to go through fairly quickly without
a lot of detail. But man, if you wanna buy me
coffee, we'll talk more about it. I'm happy to
meet with you. All I wanna do before we wrap
up is pile on the blessings of what it means
to be united to Christ. And we're gonna look
briefly at the blessings in Ephesians 1. As you're
finding your place there, can I do a quick commercial,
shameless plug? If you're visiting with us here
this morning, come back next Sunday. Come back.
Easter's great, but you know what? We do this
every week, and it's awesome. And right now,
we are in this great expository study in the
letter to Titus, and we're going through it deeply
and slowly and thoroughly. And then, Lord willing,
in a month or two, we're gonna be taking a journey
into the Old Testament and looking at the book
of Esther, which is an amazing story of faith
in action, but also... a great historical work.
We get to look at how the ancient Jews were scattered
among the Persian people under the kings of the
Achaemenid dynasty, and it is amazing. So hashtag
historical nerd time. You're gonna enjoy that.
So that's my commercial. Come back. We would
love to have you. Okay, we've already heard a
portion of Ephesians 1 this morning. Grant read
a section, verses 3 to 14, is our call to worship.
Guys, this is one of the most extraordinary passages
in the entire Bible. In my numeric standard,
it is six sentences and 12 verses. But in the
original Greek, it is what? One sentence. Just
the longest run -on sentence in the entire Greek
text. 202 words with absolutely no punctuation.
It's just a cascade of truth that just poured
out of Paul. It really is amazing. It's actually
been suggested by scholars that when Paul sat
down to write to the Ephesian church, He was
so filled with joy and intensity with what God
had put on his heart that this is the shortest
greeting he has in the New Testament. He's like,
I just want to get to this. And he's so excited
by how the Spirit's carrying him along that as
he's writing, he doesn't want to stop to take
a breath, let alone end a sentence. So think
about that as we look through this. It's really
amazing. So look at verse one. Paul, an apostle
of Christ Jesus by the will of God. to the saints
who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ
Jesus. There it is again, in Christ Jesus. Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. Short greeting, here he goes.
And verse three is our key. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he starts
with God, which is always a good place to start
because God is the initiator of every good thing
and every good gift. Continuing on, he has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing. Underline it.
Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
In who? In Christ. Here come the prepositions.
They're everywhere. In Christ. And that makes
logical sense, by the way. 1 Timothy 2 .5 is
a really important passage. It says there is
one mediator between God and man. And who is
it? It's not any other man. It's not any priest.
It's not any intermediary. There's one mediator,
and it's Christ. So any blessing we receive from
God will obviously come through him because he's
our mediator, because of our union with him.
Now, notice the location of these blessings.
This has served to be a bit of a confusing thing
for people in the past. These blessings are in
the heavenly places. Now, we tend to make one
of two mistakes when we read that. First of all,
we might think, oh, these blessings, they're
floating around up there in the sky, up in the
heavenly realms, and they're these vague things.
That's one mistake because we think, what do
we think? Heavenly realms, we think beyond us,
right? Or we begin to think, well, those things
are for after we die. They're waiting for us
up there. But guys, Paul's talking about a list
of present realities here. Present realities.
And they're not vague concepts floating out there
in the ether. By heavenly places, Paul is simply
talking about the place where all the spiritual
activity in the cosmos takes place. The spiritual
realm that's unseen, that we know it's real,
but we can't see it. This is the unseen realm
where God is at work, where angels and demons,
spirit beings, are also at work, where there
is sometimes conflict. And these blessings are
applied in our lives, not physically, but spiritually
in the inner man. So all of the spiritual activity,
the most important activity, is actually taking
place not out there, but in here. And that's
what's going on here. In the heavenly places
is the heart of man and woman. And that's where
these blessings are applied. Does that make sense?
So don't be confused by that. Okay, what are
all these promises then? First thing we should
say is this is not an exhaustive list. If you're
found in Christ, You are spiritually rich beyond
anything you could imagine. We could sit down
and try to list all of the blessings that God
has decreed for us and we'll never come to the
end of it. In fact, I'm convinced that for all
eternity we'll be learning even more things about
God's grace and how he has blessed us. And I
don't know about you, I'm excited to learn all
of it. So know that first of all. Second thing
that has to be said is While our God is a great
provider and he promises to meet our basic needs,
when you look at this list of blessings, you
will not see any promises related to our physical
health or our physical wealth. Not in this lifetime.
We are rich beyond compare, but this is not physical
material blessings. There is no promise in here
for a big house or a Cadillac in your driveway
or a full savings account or tropical vacations
on demand. Do not let the religious grifters
out there sell you on this prosperity nonsense.
The promises that were given here in Ephesians
1 are not material, they are spiritual. Are you
with me on that? If you have a question about
that, ask me later. All right, let me also give
you just a quick bullet point summary of the
structure of these 12 verses. Guys, only the
Holy Spirit could inspire this. The structure
of these 12 verses is so amazing. First of all,
all the Trinitarian persons are involved. If
you look at it, you might need to take a picture
of this. Verses four through six focus on the
activity of God the Father. Verses seven through
12 are all centered in Christ, and it wraps up
in verses 13 and 14 by bringing in the Holy Spirit.
Amazing, right? All those people out there, oh,
there's the Trinity's on the Bible. It's everywhere.
You just gotta look. All three persons are here.
Second thing to see, at the end of each stanza,
after God, After God is mentioned in these three
persons, there is this similar refrain. Verse
6, to the praise of the glory of God's grace.
Verse 12, to the praise of God's glory. Verse
14, to the praise of his glory again. And guys,
I'm going to stop here for a second. This is
a theme that every believer in here this morning
cannot miss. The praise of his glory. In fact,
this is the highest explanation of why God has
poured out these blessings in your life. It's
for his own glory. Now, on one level, it's driven
by his love for you, by his mercy and compassion.
But the higher plane is, it's because he is passionate
about his own glory. Now, when people hear that,
and maybe you're like, that doesn't sound right.
People hear that, they object. They say, well,
doesn't that make God a narcissist? I've heard
this so many times. When someone says that, and
I don't blame you for it if that's the first
time you've heard it, it just means you don't
really understand who God is. Okay, so it would
be narcissistic if a fallible, sinful human being
said that. It's all about my glory, but God is
altogether different from us. If you want an
interesting recommendation, the great Jonathan
Edwards wrote a whole treatise on this subject.
It's called The End For Which God Created The
World. And I highly recommend it. And here is
his basic argument. Because God is infinitely
perfect, he must, he must seek out his own glory.
Because of his infinite perfectness. In fact,
he would be unrighteous if he didn't have a passion
for the glory of what is infinitely perfect,
which is only himself. Think about that. So the
glory of the uncreated creator is the greatest
and highest end of all things. So naturally,
that is what God is ultimately most concerned
about. I know you'll process that as time goes.
You might need to re -listen to this. Or look
at that little treatise by Edwards. It's really
amazing. But in relation to you and I as believers,
God's perspective is clear. What he desires,
what brings him glory is our worship, is our
sense of awe in his presence, our thankfulness
and our obedience to his word. That's what gives
him glory. What he wants to hear is, my God,
how great thou art. And not just from our lips,
but from our hearts, from our inner man. That's
what he wants. That's what brings him glory.
Can I also share with you what he doesn't want?
What he doesn't want, and the Bible makes this
very clear, God, listen, God will not share his
glory with another. He will not. That it's the
greatest insult to his person to try to take
even a sliver of his glory. So when we as fallible
creatures run around claiming that we can contribute
to our salvation by our good works or that we
can earn merit before an infinitely holy God,
think about that. We are attempting to claim
at least partial credit for our salvation. And
that is a great insult to our God. It's an attempt
to steal a portion of his glory. It's the ultimate
insult to his merciful nature. And that's why
we talk about we come to him empty -handed, relying
solely on his grace through Jesus Christ. And
listen, God is pleased to pour out the blessing
of salvation on anyone who will come with those
empty hands and say, I don't deserve it. And
I don't bring anything to the table. That's when
he is. He is pleased. That's when he is glorified,
when we trust in him 100%. Then when we're saved,
for all eternity, we have absolutely no grounds
to claim any of that glory. It all goes to him.
And that's what he's about. Amen? All right,
continuing in our summary of the divine structure
here. A third thing we see is a repeated emphasis
on God's sovereign will, sovereign purpose, and
sovereign plan. Verse five, according to the
kind intention of his will. Verse nine, the mystery
of his will. Also verse nine, his kind intention
which he purposed. Verse 11, according to his
purpose and also the counsel of his will. Listen,
guys, this raises a rhetorical question. Do we
earn any portion of these things or do they come
because of God's sovereign will, purpose, and
plan? It's obvious, isn't it? So why do we always
want as human beings in our flesh to inject us
into it when it's all God, all his plan, all
his purpose, all his will? And sovereignty is
written all throughout this passage in at least
11 different places in these verses. You'll see
it, including references to him choosing us and
referencing twice that he's predestined us. And
then piggybacking on that, you see the concept
of grace being mentioned. along with some beautiful
descriptions of it. First in verse six, to the
praise of his glorious grace. Verse seven, according
to the riches of his grace. And then verse eight,
we're told that God not only extended grace,
but lavished his grace on us. The language is
so powerful here. Guys, are you seeing in the
structure how amazing these verses are? Man,
go home this week, you want an assignment, just
study this passage and you will be blown away.
Okay, the picture that I get, the picture I get
as I was working on this last night, it's like
Paul's walking down a corridor of treasures and
he's walking down this long hallway and he's
just describing all the things that he sees as
he goes. These beautiful treasures that God has
given to us and what he realizes as he's writing
and he can't take a breath, he's like, well,
if I talk about that one, I gotta talk about
that one. If I talk about that one, I gotta talk
about that one. And he just goes on and on. It
is just so beautiful. And all these truths are
interconnected. Okay, enough, Jeff. Just get
to the blessings, right? Okay, so verse three
again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just
as he, what? Chose us. in him. Another one of
those important phrases. Chose us in him before
the foundation of the world. Can that be true?
That we would be holy and blameless before him?
Okay, blessing number one. Because we've been
raised to life with Jesus, we've been chosen
to be holy and blameless in his sight. I mean,
that alone is a mic drop, is it not? Because
The reason this one is put first is if without
this, all the others would never happen. All
the others would not matter. But for every believer,
we're told over and over in Scripture that God
foreknew us in the sense of foreloving us. When
you see the word foreknow or foreknew in Scripture,
don't misunderstand. It's as if God just had...
knowledge about us no he for loved us he marked
us out for salvation even before he began to
create the world and so this not only emphasizes
god's 100 sovereignty over salvation but it rules
out our participation in it because not one of
us was present at the foundation of creation
so it's ruled out now within time and space we
I always have to give this disclaimer because
I don't want you to think we believe in robot
theology. Within time and space, we do truly
make a decision to put our trust in Christ. Of
course, I know I did many years ago. I wanted
it. I made that decision. But what the Bible
tells us, almost like Wizard of Oz pulling the
curtain back to see what's really going on, right?
What the Bible tells us is without God choosing
us first, not one of us would ever have arrived
at that very real decision. And those two things
can fit together. God's choice in eternity past,
our decision in time and space. Behind the scenes,
what had happened was God chose us, elected us,
and then in time and space called us, drew us
to himself, and then he regenerated our hearts,
changed our affections such that we would turn
to him and make that decision to be saved. But
if God doesn't do that work, none of us gets
here. Not one of us would be in this room worshiping
today if God hadn't done that work. And to think
that my election, my election proceeds from a
grace that was born at the dawn of creation is
such a glorious thought. It really is. Don't
let it make you arrogant. Let it make you humble
that at the dawn of creation, God had you in
mind, that your name was written on his heart.
Amen? It got quiet there. And then don't miss,
by the way, what Paul says in verse four, that
we're chosen in Christ in union with him with
a particular end result, that when it's all said
and done and we pass from this life, right, into
a better stage of life, that God will have completed
the work he promised to do in you. Catch that
now. He's promised to complete his work in you.
And someday he will perfect it and you will be
holy and blameless before God. That's amazing.
All right, we'll go faster to the other ones.
Number two, because we've been raised to life
with Jesus, we're predestined to be adopted as
children of God. Look at the end of verse four
and end of verse five. In love, he predestined
us to adoption as sons. Here it is, through Jesus
Christ to himself. according to the kind intention
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his
grace, which he freely bestowed on us in his
beloved. So building upon God's choosing of us
before the world was made, now we see that God
predestined or foreordained that we would, and
there's no uncertainty in this, that we would
come into his family, that we'd be adopted as
sons and daughters. And be adopted how? Through
our mediator, Jesus Christ, our only mediator.
He grants us full status as his children. We
get full access to God the Father. We now go
straight to the throne of grace with confidence,
the Bible says, through Jesus Christ. We don't
need priests. We don't need any human beings.
We have the confidence to go to the throne of
grace because of this. This is staggering, you
guys. We can say, we can call God Abba. And what's
so staggering about this is prior to us being
saved, we were sons of disobedience living under
the wrath of God. Talk about a reversal of fortune.
And now we're sons and daughters with access
to the creator of the universe. Are you seeing
it? Are you seeing the blessings? Wow. Before
we move on, take note that this predestination
is according to the kind intention of God's will,
according to his pleasure. Listen, I know election
is hard for us as human beings, but God loves
it. He's pleased by it. It's part of his kind
intention. He doesn't do it reluctantly. He is
delighted to elect us unto salvation. And imagine
this, choosing in his absolute freedom to save
sinners, rebellious people, and make them his
beloved children for his own pleasure, for his
own glory. This should be an absolute wonder
to us that any of us is saved. And that's why
week after week we get up here and what do we
do? We sing his praises because we understand
who we were and who we are now. Praise the Lord
for that. Blessing number three, because we've
been raised to life with Jesus, we are redeemed
by his blood and our sins forgiven. Verse seven,
in him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses according to
what? The riches of his grace which he lavished
on us. This one speaks for itself, doesn't it?
This is a direct result of the cross. Jesus is
voluntary laying down his life and becoming our
substitute on the cross. What does the word redemption
mean? It means paying something to free somebody.
Paying the ransom price in order to set us free.
It is the zeroing, accountants in the room, the
zeroing out of our accounts of sin. It's just
wiped. It's wiped. And imagine the collective
weight of mankind's sin put on his head as he
endured the wrath of God for six hours on a cross.
Are you grateful this morning that you have a
substitute? What a blessing. Number four, because
we've been raised to life with Jesus, we're given
knowledge of his mysterious will. End of verse
eight. In all wisdom and insight, he made known
to us the mystery of his will. Again, according
to his kind intention. Guys, he's being kind
to us. In all of these things, which he purposed
in him, there it is again, with a view to an
administration suitable to the fullness of the
times, that is the summing up of all things in
Christ, again, things in the heavens and things
on the earth. So how has God revealed his will
to us? Through his divine word, which first of
all is the person of Christ. He is the divine
word, is he not? He's the logos. in whom, Paul
says, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge, all in Christ. First of all, that's
how God has shown us his will. It starts with
Jesus. And then secondly, it's the written word
of God, which I see sitting in your lap. Oh,
that silly little book? Yeah. All the divine
mysteries of God's will, the creator's will for
you. And the part of God's will that Paul has
in mind specifically here is how all things are
gonna end up. Don't we all wanna know how things
are gonna end? How all things are gonna be summed
up in Christ. How by studying God's word and
by the wisdom and insight that the spirit gives
us, we can come to conclusions about the ultimate
purposes of redemptive history and how it's all
gonna come to an end because God has revealed
it to us in his divine word. Wow. Number five,
because we've been raised to life with Jesus,
we are heirs to a great inheritance in the life
to come. Who didn't love a good inheritance,
right? In him, verse 11, also we have obtained
an inheritance, having been predestined, there's
that word again, according to his purpose, who
works all things after the counsel of his will.
Oh wait, did you hear that? He doesn't work some
things and then lets human beings decide everything
else. No, he works all things after the counsel
of his will to the end that we who are the first
to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his
glory. Every one of these is a sermon series.
It's just amazing. But this is so beautiful.
As adopted children, we have been written into
the will. We have been written in. Adoption leads
to inheritance. And we're told in Romans 8, as
undeserving as we are, that somehow we've been
made co -heirs with Christ to everything that
God has. Are you serious? That we can look to
Jesus almost like our big brother. We're co -heirs
with him. And then Paul says this amazing thing,
1 Corinthians 2 .9, Paul says, look, things that
no eye has seen. No ear has heard, no mind imagined
are the things that God has prepared for those
who love him. Your inheritance is beyond anything
that you can imagine. Anybody feeling blessed
yet? Because there's one more. Number six, because
we've been raised to life with Jesus, we are
sealed in him by the Holy Spirit. Verse 13, in
him you also, after listening to the message
of truth, that's the gospel, the gospel of your
salvation. having also believed you were sealed
in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was
given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view
to the redemption of God's own possession, that's
us, to the praise of his glory. The language
is amazing here. And what a way to end this list
of promises. All of these promises are sealed
and guaranteed by God himself, the Holy Spirit.
They cannot be broken. They cannot be taken away.
They cannot fade. They're guaranteed. He has
put his mark of ownership on us and he's given
us an absolute pledge concerning our eternal
security. The fact that the spirit of God indwells
us now is said to be a down payment towards our
full redemption on that day when we would be
ushered into the presence of Christ. We have
a down payment in the spirit. Wow, what a list,
right? I'm going to ask the question again. What
rational person says no to this? If you're here
this morning and you don't trust in Christ, why
would you refuse this? Every blessing in the
spiritual realms. But let me finish with this.
I'll finish with this reminder and just wrap
up. Again, all of this blessing is found only
in Christ. Only in Christ. If he's not your savior,
if he's not your Lord, if you haven't died to
yourself and taken up a cross to follow him,
these blessings are not yours. You don't have
them. And you can't go buy them. And you can't
try to wake up tomorrow and say, I'm gonna work
harder to try to earn God's favor. You'll never
earn enough. You can't find a loophole. Can't
go to your lawyer and say, find me a loophole
in this so I can get in. What it takes is simply
saying, I have nothing to offer you, Jesus. I
have nothing to offer you except my repentance
and my desire to know you and to give up my life
so that I can find true life in you. That's it.
That's it. If that describes you and you want
that and you've sensed the Spirit of God drawing
you this morning, don't delay. Today is the day
of salvation. Put your trust in him today. And
if you have any questions about anything you've
heard today, will you find me after the service
or look me up this week? It'd be my pleasure
to talk to you about it. For those of us who
are here this morning who are found in Christ,
the message this Easter morning is pretty simple.
Because he was raised to life, you are raised
to life. That is a present reality. You are raised
to life and being blessed by God with every good
gift that we need and every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly realms. And because we have those
things, we bless God. Because that's how it starts,
right? Blessed be God. We bless God in return.
Now, when we do that, we're not giving him anything
that he lacks. He lacks for nothing. Our blessing
is to give him praise, to give him thanks, and
to joyfully. together as a body, offer our lives
to him as living sacrifices. For what? For his
glory. That's how it works. Friend, why do you
seek the living one among the dead? He's not
in that tomb. He's risen. Let's bow our heads.
Lord, this passage renders us almost speechless.
when we think about what it means to be united
to you. We're so undeserving, Lord. We're so
rebellious. We're so selfish. And then you changed
our hearts and none of us here this morning can
explain why you did that except your good pleasure
and your choice and your will. And so we are
not arrogant about it, not even close. We are
humbled by it. That at the dawn of creation,
our names were written on your hand and you marked
us out and forloved us and said, there's coming
a time when I will draw them and call them and
regenerate their hearts and then justify them
in my sight and then complete a work in them
so that someday they can come to me for all eternity,
holy and blameless, and spend all of eternity
worshiping and praising the name of the Lamb
who has taken away our sin. What a story we have.
Lord, I pray that you will continue to seal these
truths in all of our hearts, that we would not
keep it to ourselves, that we would go out into
this world that is so lost and so in need of
this message and begin to share with people how
great you are and how many blessings you have
for those who will simply come with empty hands.
Father, thank you for saving us this morning.
Lord, for every person here this week will help
us, cause us to meditate on these truths and
to praise you all the more and help us to do
that right now as we continue to sing. Lord,
we love you and we praise you that we were found
in Jesus this morning. Amen.