God's Glory in our Worship (Ephesians 1, Jeff Kliewer)

The Glory of Ephesians 1 and the Saints in Christ

And redemption, the praise that is deserving to Him. These themes come out as you read it as a whole. So let's just read it together. If you have a Bible, open to Ephesians 1. If you have a device, click to Ephesians 1.

We're using the ESV. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. To the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ.

As a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth, in Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your inheritance, until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.

The Will of God and the Repeated Theme of Being in Christ

Now, if you're reading that, and maybe you're unfamiliar with it, it probably sounded like a lot of words for one sentence. And maybe it just sounds like a mush of words. Too much to digest, like drinking from a fire hose.

But I want you to notice this. This letter is addressed to the saints who are in Ephesus, verse one. It doesn't say to the theology school of Ephesus. It says to the saints, meaning the ordinary believers.

Paul's intention, in writing so much depth, is to communicate that depth to each and every one of us. This is not a seminary text. This is food for each one of us. His intent is that each one of us would be able to digest this.

And you say, wait a minute, now that's a lot of words, and that's some deep thoughts. I don't know if I can get it all at once. Well, that's why he put it in writing. It's not just that you have to hear it one time.

No, you have it in writing. You can go back over it again and again until the digestion happens. Point being, this is not too deep for us. This is intended for each one of us. Now, where's the glory in this?

We're gonna go verse by verse, just grabbing a few concepts out, beginning at the first. One one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. The first place that we see glory demonstrated in Ephesians 1 is the will of God.

Paul says that he's an apostle, and he became an apostle by the will of God. Now, this expression, the will of God, or something similar, the purpose of God, the wisdom of God, the plan of God, the counsel of God, this phrase, or these expressions, will appear eight times in these 14 verses.

I want you to go through and underline those. In my Bible, I have wherever it says plan, or purpose, or will, or counsel, I underlined it. And I found eight places in these 14 verses, which means it's a theme that's coming through.

The will of God. The will of God is his counsel, his plan, his purpose, his decree for the way things will be. And it glorifies God that he has a will, because it shows that he is sovereign. He is free.

He is a God who plans and is in control. He has not lost control of this universe. He has it under his control. He is sovereign over it. He is God. And we are to look to him who has a plan, who has a purpose, who has a decree, as a glorious God who's greater than us.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I'm completely out of control. How am I gonna get the lawn mowed when there's no time to mow the lawn? And there's so many things that are on my plate to do, sometimes I say, I can't do it.

Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe a little frazzled from time to time. But this teaching points us to a God who is sovereign. He has a will, a plan, he's in control. Second thing, still in the same verse.

To the saints who are in Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now you have eight occurrences of God's plan, his counsel, his will. You will have 10 occurrences of this phrase in Christ. Circle those.

This is an encouragement to bring your Bibles, by the way. I know we like to use technology. Maybe you have an app or something where you can highlight and store notes on your app. That's fine too. But if you have the Bible, the hardcover Bible, it's really good to underline and circle and make notes that remind you.

In Christ, verse one, verse three. Verse four, in him, referring to Christ. Verse six, in the beloved. The beloved is Christ. Verse nine, in Christ. Verse 10, in him. 11, in him. Verse 12, in Christ. Verse 13, in him.

And in him, he believed in him. This idea of being in Christ is crucial to understanding this passage. The most impactful week of my life was in June of 1999. And I went to become a counselor at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp.

And that week, the speaker preached the word of God and I recognized that I was not glorifying God. Because see, my God at that time, and I would never have recognized this, but my God was basketball.

That's where I devoted all my time and my passion and my energy, the force, the ferociousness of my life was directed towards basketball. But in that week, the Lord spoke to me and brought conviction of that sin and that idolatry, the essence of idolatry, is delighting in anything more than God.

And I saw that in myself and I surrendered to Christ by his grace. Because in myself, I never would have surrendered. I love my idols. Sin is pleasurable. It's why we love our sin. We wouldn't turn from it.

But see, in his grace, he drew me and I surrendered. And that week was given to him as I was a counselor there at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp. I thought it was over when I got on the plane in Charlotte.

I thought it was time for me to get back and do the work of an evangelist. So I was ready to do that. When I sat down on, I think it was row 30, I opened my Bible, and I was ready for whoever sat down next to me.

I was waiting for him to sit down to the right, but I noticed to my left that there was a man sitting there with an open Bible. His name was Quentin Williams. Big dude, had gold teeth. I was interested, what on earth is this?

And before I could begin to share the gospel with him, he was teaching me. This was a divine appointment. From Charlotte to Atlanta, where we had the layover, he opened the word of God to me. And Quentin Williams said, learn what it means to be in Christ, in Christ.

And I began to highlight. And I saw in his Bible, he'd highlighted every word that said in Christ, learn what that means. Right there in the Atlanta airport while we said goodbye, he prayed over me right in front of everybody.

And then we departed and I've never seen him again. I don't know who he was. I tried to look him up, but could never find him. Maybe he was an angel. You never know. But that thought has captured me ever since.

Learn what it means to be in Christ. You see, as we read through Ephesians, notice the work of God in the salvation of men is always the union of God's people with God. Verses three to five. There is this idea of an electing God.

The father has a plan. And in Christ, we are told, verse four, he chose us in him. Before we were created, before there was a world, the father chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That we would be, should be holy and blameless before him.

Verse five, in love, he predestined us for adoptions as son through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. So the father has predestined us in Christ before we were even a spark in our father's eyes, before there was a spark of life on the earth, before the foundation of the world.

And then, as this world was developed and this ball was spinning around the sun, there came a man born of a virgin. The word of God made flesh dwelling among us. We beheld his glory, glory as the only one from the father.

And he laid down his life on a cross, and as they raised him up, he bled. Look at verse seven, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. Before the foundation of the world, we were chosen in him.

And then in real time, around 33 AD, the blood of the son of God was spilled. And the father looked and saw us in him so that his death would be our death. And his righteousness would become our righteousness.

We were united in Christ on the cross, and on his mind was your face. And you were connected with him in his dying so that you will not die a penalty that you deserve. His dying, you were united with him in that, you who believe.

And then that ball kept on spinning, and years went by, rotations around the sun, and here we are, 2000s, I was born in 77, and sometime in the early 80s, I heard the word of God. I heard about this Jesus, and in him, I came alive.

The application of redemption to me. Look at that in verse 13 and 14. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

You see, that day, when I came to believe, when I heard from my parents the gospel, and I believed the gospel, and I was united with Christ as the Spirit came to live inside of me, I was regenerated. And verse 14 tells me that was only part one of two works.

Verse 13 says you were included when the Holy Spirit applied this to you, and in verse 14, he will complete that. The consummation of it is, verse 14, he is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

So from before time began, until the consummation of all these things, when we are with Christ in heaven. It is all because we are in him. We are united with him. And all the glory goes to him. See, I had nothing to do with predestining myself.

I wasn't around in 33 AD when the blood of Jesus was spilled on a cross, and I didn't control that I would hear the word and believe. Rather, this is all the work of a sovereign God. This is all because I am in Christ, and you are in Christ.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Praised in Salvation

And so this, as I behold this glory, it changes the way I come here on Sunday morning. This can never get old for me, and it never will. Because when I see this, I see glory, the pinnacle of God's glory is his grace.

Look at verse six. This work of God, the uniting of a people with Christ, for our redemption, the salvation of a people, a particular people that he calls out of the world, is all by his grace, verse six.

To the praise of his glorious grace. Where do we look to see glory in the church? We look to grace. And the very top of that mountain, of that pinnacle, the grace of God, is the cross. Atop that mountain, the grace of God is displayed.

His perfect love in giving the blood of Jesus, verse seven, for the forgiveness of a people. His perfect justice, that he is just and justly punishes sin. This is the glory of God. This is the glory of the triune God.

Lastly, in this section, I just want you to notice, we've noticed the three moments of salvation, the moment of predestination, the moment of the accomplishment of redemption, and then thirdly, the moment of the application of redemption, which comes in two phases.

Notice that these are to the praise of the triune God. This word praise occurs three times. Do you see it? In verse six, it's to the praise of his glorious grace. What is the nearest antecedent for his?

Whose glorious grace? Who predestines us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ? Jesus is the instrument there. We're in Christ, but here we have the Father. Chapter one, verse three, Paul begins with the Father.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And his work, his plan, his counsel, his will, his purpose, his work is to his praise. Notice the second place the word praise occurs. Verse 12, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

The nearest antecedent there is Christ. Christ, so the Father is glorified in this work, and now the Son in his dying on the cross to redeem a people for himself, to accomplish redemption, receives praise.

Verse 12, and finally, verses 13 and praise occurs in 14 to conclude this section, referring to the Holy Spirit. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

So praise is mentioned three times. When we come to church on a Sunday morning, is praise on your lips? I heard it today, especially in that second round after Michael exhorted us not to just take this for granted but to have a heart of thankful praise.

I heard voices echoing. Does that worship come from a heart of praise? Behold his glory here, the glory of the triune God, and worship will come from the heart. So we move on to these eight, nine verses, 15 to 23.

Praying for Open Eyes to See Christ's Glory

Again, we have an eye for glory. We need glory in the church, and especially glory in our worship. It comes by beholding glory. We need to catch this vision. So see it, 15. You need your eyes open for this reason.

Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory.

I used to have a friend that would yell glory all the time in the worship service. I kind of like that, that style. It can be a little distracting too. But glory, glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.

According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Here's glory, see it, behold it far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Do you see the glory of Jesus? Nations have tanks and bridges and skyscrapers and sports teams have balls and players and uniforms and families have kids and love and laughter. But the glory of the church is our Christ.

We have so much more. We have the eternal one who is far above everything. What we have here on Sunday mornings is truly special. And that's understatement. When we come here, we have Christ. I want you to see this, we'll conclude with this thought and then I wanna make some applications real quick.

Notice the last two verses. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. In verse 22, replace the pronoun he with the object which it signifies.

In this context, he refers to God, the father. God put all things under his feet and gave him, who is him? Jesus, Christ, as head over all things to the church. Okay, so stop right there. Drop some of these prepositional phrases and take the substance of the sentence.

God gave Christ to the church. Feel the force of that. Christ to the church. We have Christ. Now he's given to us as our head over the body. So we don't use him like a footstool. Rather, we are the footstool for his feet.

We are the body for his head. He is Lord, he is in charge. We repent, we turn to him, we trust in him, we love him. But the force of this statement is that he's given to us. What else is there in the world?

Look for it, look around. What has value, what lasts, what is worth living for? What else is there? What could compare to the gift that we are given? What we have when we come here on a Sunday morning is the Christ.

God gave Christ to the church and the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So to make some application more directly, I wanna make quickly four general applications for all Christians and then say a few things about our church specifically and where we're going.

How Christ Shapes Our Speech, Hearing, Baptism, and Communion

Generally, this says at least four things to us. Number one, it should change how we speak. If you kept reading the applications, the imperatives of the book of Ephesians, which is chapters four, five, and six, that flow out of these indicatives, one, two, and three, you find over and over again, these exhortations to speak a certain way.

We're to grow into a mature man, how? How do we grow? Speaking the truth in love, chapter four, verse 15. We're told let no unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, only what is useful for building others up.

We're told that's Ephesians 4, 29. Ephesians 5, 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5, 19 to 20. The point is to apply this teaching, it changes how we speak. One of the saddest things in the world is a church that has a moment in the service where you turn to your neighbor and you say good morning.

And you probably never talk to that guy again. And then you leave. People get out of the parking lot, out of their cars in the parking lot right before the service starts. And they come in and they greet somebody in the service and they leave and they might have said 10 words on a Sunday morning.

I have a rule in my house. It's called the 10 ,000 hour rule. Got it from Malcolm Gladwell in the book, Outliers. I tell my kids, if you wanna be great at basketball or soccer, that's great. It's not just gonna happen.

You need to devote 10 ,000 hours and you'll be great. Just like the Beatles and all these people who are great at anything they try to do. Put in 10 ,000 hours and you'll be great. But for the church, here's the rule.

10 ,000 words. If each of us will speak 10 ,000 words on a Sunday to other believers, this church will be strong as iron. Come here on a Sunday morning and talk in the parking lot and pray in the hall and speak one to another the words of life.

Edify and build each other up. You are the priesthood of believers. You are the saints. And you speak words of life or words of death to one another. One of my favorite things, sometimes I get to drive some kids home after church and I have to leave maybe an hour after church is over.

One of my favorite things about this church is I have never left here to drive them home without seeing dozens of people still talking. It's the church. Do that. Take time for that. Speak 10 ,000 words to a brother every Sunday.

The average person speaks 16 ,000 words in a day. I'm saying devote your Sunday to speaking life to one another. Call people in the afternoon. Come back to pray together Sunday nights. Speak. It's our speech as we speak the word of life that brings us to the mature man, the body of Christ that we're called to be.

Secondly, I'm gonna go real fast now because we're out of time. Hear, hear the word of God. Come with ears that are open to hear the word of God. Number three, baptize. That's what we do on Sunday mornings when we have people to baptize.

I tell you what. When someone gets dunked under the water, I see somebody we baptized recently and they pop out of that water with new life in Christ, that should be our Super Bowl. We've got this football analogy going on today.

When we see a believer baptized and coming out of the water, a shout of joy should come up from the congregation. Think about that. As we prepare for the next one in the spring, who will we have to baptize?

Fourth, communion. Don't let it become rote and commonplace. When we pass the bread and the wine first Sunday of every month, come with anticipation. Anticipation. Like you would look forward to watching your favorite sports team play a game.

Anticipation. But this is no game. This is the seriousness of communion. Examine your heart and confess your sins. Paul tells the Corinthians that some of them had gotten sick and even died, had fallen asleep because they did not take communion in a worthy manner.

Some were getting drunk on the wine, others were gorging themselves on the food at their love feast. Some got sick and some died because they took communion lightly. You will never be worthy to take communion.

That's the point. The body and the blood given to you for the forgiveness of sin. But take it in a worthy manner. Examining your heart. So those four things are my exhortations. And finally, a couple applications to our vision as a church.

Where are we going specifically? We have a vision statement. With four components to it. Grow, send, defend, serve. We're growing. It's awesome to see the church growing numerically, growing in depth in the word, growing in love for one another.

But we want to take another step in the new year. To serve our teenagers. To bring other teenagers in. Listen, 80 of people who get saved are born again before the age of 80. I think that's a true statistic.

I've looked around at people I know. I think it's at least that. We would like to hire a youth pastor. We don't have the wealth to do that. We don't have the money to do that quite yet. We're getting closer to that, but we're not to the point where we have made, we have that amount of money to hire somebody full-time.

When I read Ephesians one and I hear about the riches of the inheritance of the saints and the power that works in us, in Christ, if it's his will, according to his counsel, plan, and purpose, he has the wealth and the riches to do that.

I would ask you to begin to pray that God would provide for us. We also have something exciting happening in the spring that I think will help us grow. We've changed officially our name to Cornerstone Church.

We voted on that. And did that as a church. But how could we use that as an opportunity to advance the gospel in Mount Laurel? We're talking about putting a sign out front. We're talking about making flyers.

We're gonna have an ad on the radio. We're gonna change our internet presence a little bit, doing more with Facebook and things like that. We'll use it as an opportunity to get the name Cornerstone out there, but really, it's not about the name.

See, the name is the name of Christ. Cornerstone, our rock. Let's use this as an opportunity to take his name, the name above every name, Jesus Christ, to this area. Begin to think about it, and I'm asking you, if you have ideas, please come talk to me.

I'm starting to strategize. How will we use this as an opportunity for the gospel? But many of you have gifts in that area. You're a marketing person. You have ideas. Come talk to me. Help me think through this launch in the spring using that new name.

That's how we'll grow. I think those are tools, but ultimately, it comes from beholding glory. Our hearts are on fire. Send. We just sent Ryan to the working field. Who's the next one to go? Who's the next one to go?

Begin to pray now that the Lord will raise up that next missionary. We have some who are interested in donating land to build an orphanage in Costa Rica. Could that be one of our callings? Or maybe we partner with a mission agency that's doing things like that.

Keep your eyes on the mission field, not turned inward here, but out to the ends of the earth for the sake of the gospel. Pray, begin to pray. How will we send the next one? Defend. The Apologetics Conference grew a lot from the first year to the second year.

Who would God send us to teach us? Pray for the Apologetics Conference. And finally, serve. IHN, will you be a part of it? Seeds of hope, going to work with men who are coming out of prison, or women who are coming out of a lifestyle to which they were entrapped.

Would you get involved? I've spoken with John who helps us and leads that part of the ministry. In the new year, we're going to do what we're calling Fifth Sunday. Whenever there's a Fifth Sunday in the month, we will take that to go and feed homeless people before church starts.

I think there's four of them in the year, is that right? Four Fifth Sundays next year. At nine or earlier than that in the morning, we'll go do pancake breakfast and things for homeless people in Camden.

And then we'll come here and worship at 1030. That's how we're going to expand our serve vision. But see all this in closing, all of this comes from beholding glory. When you see the glory, God gave Christ to the church.

When you see his glory, these things flow from our hearts because our eyes are open. Let's close in a word of prayer. Michael, if you'll come up, worship team. Jesus, open our eyes to behold glory. Open the eyes of our hearts to see your true worth and your true value.

That we would not get distracted by the things of this earth and conform to the patterns of this world, but rather by the renewing of our minds, we would present ourselves as living sacrifices. God, help us to behold your glory.

Thank you for your word. Help us in the next two weeks of this quick overview of Ephesians to behold glory and be changed by it. Thank you for what you're speaking to our church. Thank you for, for you, you have come and called us to belong to this church.

We are overwhelmed by that. This is the greatest thing that we have. This church is our Super Bowl, Lord. Every Sunday morning, every curia hemera, every Lord's day to come here and worship you. Change what we value, Lord.

Thank you for your glory. We behold your glory this morning. In Jesus name, amen.