Inheritance In Christ

In this episode we continue on in Ephesians 1 to explore more of the "In Christ" statements that Paul makes. Over the past few weeks, we have seen a progression of the expected blessings and life of the Christian that abides in Christ. We are now looking at the inheritance that the Christian has in Christ. Hope this message blesses you.

Transcript

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I'm running out of kind of decent jokes, so I have to delve into dad jokes to settle for these now and then. What's the difference between a man's wallet before and after kids? There are pictures where the money used to be. One day a man went into a counselor and was talking to him. He's had some issues, and the counselor asked him, Well, how's your marriage? And he said, Oh, it's okay. You know, I haven't talked to my but I haven't talked to my wife in three years. Whoa, that's that's a red flag. Why is that? He says, I've just always been taught you're not supposed to interrupt. And then uh this one's called Lot. A father was reading a Bible story to his young son. He said, the man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flea out of the city. But his wife looked back and was turned to salt. The son asked, What happened to the flea? Wife and flea. Okay. I'll let you read it later if it helps. We have been going through this idea of this abiding life in Christ. And John 17, 3, Jesus is praying and he says, Father, uh, um, I pray that they have eternal life, and eternal life is to know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. Sometimes we think we've been taught, or it's assumed, that eternal life is a destination, and it is actually a life lived out in knowing God personally, and particularly Jesus Christ. And so we've been talking about this abiding life. Jesus in John 15 describes like a branch and a vine, and that we are the branches and he is the vine, and nothing comes through the branch, it doesn't come through the vine. And the branch depends upon the vine or the trunk of a tree for everything, for life, and all that it needs, and that God is calling us into that similar relationship with him, that we can abide in him. And we started then looking at the first chapter of Ephesians, and there are all these statements in there of in him, in Christ, we have these things. And the picture is now this life of abiding with and in God is attached to him, and it's speaking to these people like what does this abiding life look like? What comes through this abiding life, that we are connected and we are in him. Not just, and again, going back to this verse where Jesus is saying that they may know you, the one true God, not just cerebrally, not just an attainment of knowledge, but like a friend, like a spouse, like a deep knowing and understanding of one another. And that God is desiring that with each and every one of us is kind of a mind-blowing concept and one that religion largely overlooks. I'm saying religion in a sense of like a structured, man-made way of communing with God or trying to attain things for the Lord, we don't realize that God's desire, He desires more for us to be connected to Him and know Him than we do ourselves. And so this desire of God is always like being extended towards us this life. And so looking through Ephesians chapter 1, we started in verse 3, and it says, you know, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in him. So who is he talking to? These people who are abiding in Christ, who have received the gospel. And that is how we become grafted in. We become inserted into this vine, is through believing that the penalty of death and sin and separation from God is fully paid for by Jesus Christ, and we receive that by faith. Doesn't make sense? It just is something that we receive. And so this idea of blessing we talked about, and ultimately the purpose of blessing is so that you can be a blessing. You are blessed to be a blessing. We are blessed to be a fountain and not uh not a drain. We are blessed to be like the Sea of Galilee that water flows in and water flows out. It's teeming with life and fish and health. And the other picture is this Dead Sea, which water flows in and no water flows out. It becomes highly saline, nothing grows in it, nothing is really benefited by it, unless you sell skin products from the mud. So these are pictures of life in Jesus Christ is to be a blessing, to bear fruit for others and for ultimately God's glory. Then we went to verse 4 and it says, just as he, God, chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. And we talked about this idea that gets kind of promoted subtly or not, I guess, in Christendom, of like God has pre-selected everybody who's ever gonna, that well, that he has decided who is and is not given to believe in him. And what we went into is proving that there is free will, that God's will is not always done. Even in like 1 Timothy 2.4, God desires that all men should be saved. And 2 Peter 3.9 says God wills that none should perish, but all have everlasting life. Another verse is saying that God has extended himself and made himself known to all peoples, but this does not mean that they're all being saved, this does not mean they're all receiving him. So we started to look at this idea of okay, there's free will, but then God actually knows everything before it ever happened, before time existed. So what we came around to, and again, I was saying that this is what I believe. This is how I stand upon these scriptures, and so if you have other ideas, that's that's fine. I would just felt to share what mine were. But that this idea that God actually, all who received Jesus Christ are in Christ, he now chooses them to be blameless. He chooses them to be adopted, he chooses them to be blessed, he chooses them to follow and become like his son in every way. And so a phrase that kind of sticks out in my mind to this is we we were kind of, we had two groups of kids, and a couple kids, they were in Christ, you know, they were touching the cross is kind of an example of that, and then the other group did not receive Jesus Christ. And so what the group that that receives Jesus Christ are saying ultimately is God, your will be done. And the the people who reject Jesus Christ, God says, okay, your will be done. And so we can't have like in the same in the same space, both God's will and and man's will, the fallen nature's will, existing at the same time. They can only be, we can only step into one direction. It's either one way or the other. And we see this in Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, not my will, but your will be done. And then going further into this, we talked about predestination, which is uh that he has, so those that he know, he knows, will receive him. He's pre-packed a life for them. When we say your will be done, that he has prepared good things for us. And so it talks about in Ephesians 2.10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has prepared beforehand. So he has packed, he has created or the option for us to live out of abundance, peace, and joy and love and goodness. But we have to we have to maintain our stance of like your will be done. And it talks about this is according to God's will, this is what he has for us, and that we still have the option to reject that. But what God's saying is, I have intentionally prepared a life that is full and complete. It talks about that we have everything according to life and godliness in here with Christ's help and the life that he has given towards us, that he wants for us. Now, again, the people who say that God says, Okay, your will be done, his desires, the things that he has planned for their lives, cannot come about. He cannot select them to have predestined lives in communion and union with him, but they first and foremost reject him. Okay. And then in the next verses, uh, we talked about verse 7 through 10. In him we have redemption. And this word redemption says returning to original purpose, position, and value. And we get this picture of the Garden of Eden and how God intended for man to walk and have dominion over the earth in alignment with God's will, with alignment with his heart and his purposes, and that it would produce life and abundance and goodness and peace. Alright, and then it says, according to the riches of his grace, in the same proportion as the riches of his grace, which he caused to abound towards us, and talked about how God doesn't just give us enough grace, he gives us an overabundance. And we had Leo come up here, and the idea of he's gonna fill his cup, and then I just ran it over and ran it over and ran it over. This is the way which God gives to us lavishly and abundantly. And in verse 9 of Ephesians 1, it says, which reveals the former mystery of God's will towards us. So this abundance of grace, what he's given to us, what he lavishes upon us, is actually revealing this previously mystery of God's will and heart towards us. It's now being put on display through Jesus Christ and what he has brought us into and given to us. Okay, now we're into verse 11. Alright, we'll read that. So again, in him, in Christ, these people who are grafted in, who have received the gospel, also we have obtained an inheritance, having again predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to his counsel, of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Just that last phrase to the praise of his glory. When we start to, when we start to understand these things, we naturally worship God in our hearts and in our minds. To understand that the weight of his love towards us, the the vastness of his goodness towards man begins to awaken our hearts to be like, you're that good. You love me that much. How could this be? You know, and we our our knee-jerk response as we as those things really become revealed to us is to worship God, which is just thanking him, glorifying him however we can in the way that we speak, the way that we live. These things should be the fruit, again, the outflow of this understanding and connection with God. Alright, so I want to backtrack a little bit to talk about inheritance. So the the idea of inheritance, I think we all have a pretty good grasp of this. But kind of as I was thinking about it more, I was kind of breaking it down. An inheritance is usually a transfer of wealth and prosperity. Something that benefits or brings blessing into someone else's life. And there's usually three kind of actors in an inheritance. There's the benefactor who is the one that originally owns the inheritance, there's the beneficiary who receives the inheritance, and there's a mediator or one who executes the will of the benefactor. So the benefactor has worked for, stewarded that which is being given. In order for there to be an inheritance, it means that somebody had to steward something at some level, right? Had to save, had to have maybe an abundance, what we talked about before. They have accumulated or have gotten something that they want to pass on to the next person. So the benefactor that person has actually earned, maybe some of it's been given to them, but they have something that they have earned or has come through their life that they now want to pass on to somebody else. Alright, we understand this. So inheritance is then given by choice to someone who has not necessarily earned it. And usually this is to family, right? But someone can, in their will, they can give their inheritance to anyone, at least in this country. So a benefactor chooses to give an inheritance to someone who has not earned it, though they now have legal right to it. Okay, this is kind of again, Joel's like sometimes you make things really vague and hard to understand, and you bring it together. I like to do kind of shotgun and then do and make a picture out of it. Okay, so here are kind of like the key components of an inheritance. One, someone must have stewarded, worked, saved, or compiled something of value. Two, they choose to give it to someone who has not earned it. Now, if they've earned it, then it's wages, right? We're not talking about wages, we're talking about earning it. And maybe you feel like, well, certain people have a right to something, right? But let's understand like they have not earned it. That's the key part of this. Three, and in Roman law, that person has to die before inheritance can be transferred. So someone has to pass away. And then four, the beneficiary, the one receiving it, must actually receive the inheritance. So you can actually legally reject an inheritance. So that person actually must receive what's given to them that they have not earned. Alright, so here's where I'm gonna paint the picture, okay? So we think of God, and the idea is an inheritance has to be given after somebody dies, but God never dies, right? Or did he? Okay? So God, seeing all believers before time, chose us. Again, we get to this idea that God sees all and knows all. So before time existed, he knows who is going to believe in him, receive him, abide in him, and he packs this bag of all the good stuff that he wants to give them. And he predestined or predetermined a divine inheritance for each one of us. This inheritance was earned, compiled, stewarded through the perfect and sinless life of Jesus Christ. Isn't it really interesting that Jesus Christ is, you know, it talks about how he lived and he died, and it says he's going to be given a name above all names, and he's going to be seated at the right hand of God. But when Jesus is praying in the garden before he's killed on the cross, he says, God, our Father, restore to me the glory that I had with you before the earth. So really, he's actually just coming back to where he was before. Why? But he didn't actually gain any higher status, a greater name. Like all that he went through did not give him a higher status in heaven. You have to understand that. He forever existed in communion and union with the Father, the Holy Spirit. He's no more Jesus or glorious after going through everything in the earth and dying on the cross. So then why did he do it? Because he had to earn it for you. He had it by right. He had it by just the state that he existed as he always has. But in order to give you an inheritance, he had to earn and steward something that he could give to you. So this inheritance was earned, compiled, stewarded through the perfect and sinless life of Christ. Then, in order to transfer the inheritance to us, Jesus died. Then Christ rose from the dead so that he may not only be the benefactor, but also the mediator of the inheritance. So not only do we get the inheritance from Jesus Christ, he's the one that gives it to us and makes sure we get it. And he died and rose again so that he could be both parties of that transaction to make sure it gets to us. So in 1 Timothy 2.5, it says, there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. In Hebrews 9.15 talks about there's a there's a he is the mediator of the new covenant. So this is exciting, right? Because all that Jesus Christ earned by his perfect life and his perfection and his submission to the Father, he is now giving to us as an inheritance that we've never earned. And man has the option to either reject the inheritance or to receive it by faith through grace. And isn't it that a really interesting thing that he could never legally, he would not be able to give that, give us that inheritance unless he died. And he chose to do that before time existed. That it was worth it to him not only to die so that we are saved, yes, but part of that is salvation. Part of the inheritance itself is salvation. It's both. It's intertwined. So that we might have a righteous standing before God, that we might have sonship and adoption. All these things are compiled in this inheritance and this desire that God had before time existed. So why is this important? Why does this matter? Because as we begin to see these things that God has given to us, we will be able to live in the truth and reality of God. If you don't understand that you have an inheritance, you might continue to eat ramen and just barely get through in life, not knowing you have a bank account that's like endless. And this is the bank account that we can now live off of in Jesus Christ. And I'm not talking just about money and wealth and fame and these things. These things are like quickly passing away. We have to start understanding that God has given to us great and precious promises that we get to flush out, experience, delve into, and unpack for the rest of, I think, eternity. Because we'll never get to the end of what He has done for us. Because we don't have a clue how far, wide, and deep that actually goes. And that's exciting. And that becomes the Christian experience. To expect and have an anticipation of God revealing himself over and over in ways that change the way we think, the way we act, the way we respond to Him and to life. And that's just the byproduct. That's not the focus. And again, I'm talking about like this difference between religion and relationship. I can tell you all day long how to treat your wife and have a bullet point list. Or on this side, I can just say, love your wife, like Christ loved the church. And you naturally start to do these things. That's the difference between religion and relationship. It's the difference between abiding in Christ and living towards Him and what He has, as opposed to just, I don't know, giving yourself a grade every day, how you live. This is a lot better, right? If we have a spouse that just like sits there every day waiting for us to mess up, that's the picture of religion. How life feeling? Is that going to be, right? It's not. But if you have a relationship with one another and you know that there's imperfections in you and me, and we're growing together, but there's the centerpiece of that is love, we can get through anything. And oftentimes how we treat ourselves and our spouses how we believe God treats us. It's an image, it's a picture, whether you realize it or not. Alright, I digress. Alright, verse 13, here's another in him statement. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee or the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. So he's given us the Holy Spirit as a seal, as like the for payment, the down payment on what he has done for us, the inheritance that he is giving us. It's that first 10%, 20%, whatever you want, down payment of what he has in store for us. But isn't this so isn't this so neat in that this starts out in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel. And see how we're returning to the gospel of our salvation and continuing to believe in it, is also the beginning of abiding in Christ. You see how we we started in articulating that you abide in Jesus Christ through believing the gospel, that Jesus Christ, a man who is also God, who lived 2,000 years ago, yes, 2,000 years ago in another country, died on your behalf and has wiped away your sin and judgment and separation between you and God, if you believe it and receive it. And that just as Jesus rose again from the dead, we will all rise again from the dead to those who believe in him. And that is where we started. That is the starting point of abiding in Christ, but now we see it's actually the fulfillment of it as well. We now end where we began, at the foot of the cross and the empty tomb, in awe and wonder of this Jesus Christ, who is so perfect, wonderful, pure, humble, precious, full of patience and peace, the perfect image of love, desiring to have unfettered and deep relationship with us all, so that we may live in the fullness of what God has pre-packed, predetermined, desired for each one of our lives. On top of this, he has sealed us and given to us his spirit, who is the down payment or guarantee of our inheritance. Because of Christ, every believer is a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, who gives divine gifts, reveals Christ, he is our helper, and ultimately the power of God. And this is where we circle back to this Jesus Christ, this humble man who turned all of hell upside down, and who has ransomed all those who believe in him. And that this life is not one of, yes, it has struggles and strains, it has pains and difficulties, but if we keep our eyes on this Jesus Christ, who went so far, has gone to the limits of both human and physical, spiritual, mental anguish on your behalf. If you can keep your eyes on Him, you can get through anything and you can understand the joy that it said that Jesus had seeing ahead of time that through this suffering he would get us. If we start to fix our eyes, our mind, or our gaze upon that, things of this world, the things that bring us anguish and heartache and trip us up, will begin to fade. And that is what I believe the abiding life is characterized by. A singleness of heart and mind that begins to quiet and dole the voice, the amplitude of this world trying to impress upon us that we should be under it, depressed, lonely. All these things that the world is constantly trying to get us to believe about ourselves and our country, our world, that those things will fade away and we'll start to see how wonderful this Jesus Christ is, how much He's done for us. And we'll naturally begin to understand that all these situations in our life have to bow at his feet, even if they are not right now. And that we are victorious in Jesus Christ. That if we all, if we believe in Jesus Christ and suddenly we all die today, we actually don't die. We get to live with him forever. And as we live in this world that's broken and has hardships and struggles, they are real, and I'm not saying we just overlook them like they don't exist. I'm saying fix your eyes upon this Jesus Christ. And in him, you will have an abundant life. In him is the opportunity, the invitation to live with God through all things. And with that, I will conclude Ephesians chapter 1, these in him statements. It's bringing us clean back to where we began. This Jesus Christ, this humble lamb, this king, lion, all these descriptions that try to try to describe a facet and a piece of who he is. You can know him as a friend. You can know him as your confidant, as your instructor, as the one who is with us. And that is through the Holy Spirit and through that relationship with him. Okay? So Lord, we just thank you for this time. Lord, we thank you for not only you giving yourself for us, but the generations of believers, martyrs, even military folk, Lord, that have that have been an image of the original sacrifice before the foundations of the world, this Jesus Christ, we recognize you and we say thank you. And Lord, begin to plant in each one of our hearts the desire, but also the means to have a more deep, visceral, and real relationship with you, that the Bible would become alive to us and that we would know you at a deeper level still. And Lord, I pray that you would comfort those who are in pain and who are struggling, whether it's through the loss of loved ones or just through a hard spring, Lord, through health issues and problems, Lord. I pray that there would be an under an undersurge, Lord, of your peace and of your joy that starts to displace the sting and the hardships of current situations for people. And that this would become really real in each one of our lives, but also in this community, in our church, Lord, that we would become fountains and that we would pour out from what you've poured into us. So we thank you, Lord. In your name, amen.