This sermon, “Called to the Gospel: Who’s Blessing Who?” (Ephesians 1:1-14) , was originally preached on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at English Worship Service of the North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church-Melville Mission in Richmond Hill, ON.

Audio:

(I apologize for the large file size; my recorder does not record the audio well.)

 

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Video:

Called to the Gospel: Who’s Blessing Who? (Eph 1:1-14) 1/2 from Alex Leung on Vimeo.

Called to the Gospel: Who’s Blessing Who? (Eph 1:1-14) 2/2 from Alex Leung on Vimeo.

Background

As opposed to most of Paul’s other letters, Ephesians is not written to address any particular problem in Ephesus. The apostle is sitting in prison in Rome, jailed for preaching the gospel, and writing a letter to the Christians in Ephesus—but he is not responding to a big sin that the church has committed, or some big issue that the Christians there are facing. Rather, it seems that Paul is writing simply to encourage the churches in area of Ephesus to be united in love. We know from Revelation 2 that the Ephesian Christians—somehow, overtime—have forsaken their first love—Jesus Christ. And thus, this is such an important thing to learn even for our church today.

This is a theme that we will come across continually over the next few months as we study Ephesians: unity and love: how true unity in the church only happens when people love one another. And as one commentator has noted, “unity without love is possible, but love without unity is not.” [[Harold Hoehner, Ephesians, 105.]]   When there is love in action within the community, unity is naturally fostered.

Thesis

So this is one of the main thrusts of Paul’s letter, and it is the underlying theme of today’s text. Because what we will see this morning is that out of His love for us, God first blesses us that we should bless him. The Father gives us grace and blessings, so that we his children might—in response, in praise, and out of thanksgiving—bless him!

We can see this kind of love and unity at work even within the Trinity himself, when we understand how each person in the Godhead blesses us that we would bless him. So my goal this morning is to encourage you by showing how much God loves you, and to fuel a passion in your heart to praise him evermore. I want you to see 3 observations that I trust are taken straight from the text:

1. If you are a Christian, it’s because the Father has Chosen you (verses 3-6)
2. If you are a Christian, it’s because the Son has Redeemed you. (verses 7-12)
3. If you are a Christian, it’s because the Spirit has sealed you (verses 13-14)