Saints - Ephesians 1:3

We're studying during this present term of the Radio School of the Bible, Paul's wonderful letter to the church at Ephesus, the Epistle to the Ephesians. We've discovered that this wonderful letter divides itself into two parts. Chapters one, two, and three cover doctrine, what God has done for us. In chapter one, our possessions in Christ, in chapter two, our position in Christ. And then sandwiched in between we have Paul's prayer for our enlightenment, that we might know what we have in Christ. And then in chapter three, Paul's prayer for divine enablement, that the Holy Spirit of God might give us the power to live up to that which God has done for us. Chapters one, two, and three, doctrine, the believer's blessings in Christ, what God has done for us. And then chapters four, five, and six, we have duty, what we must do to God. God has done so much for us that certainly He is not asking too much for us to give to Him a life of duty and dedication and obedience. So chapters four, five, and six give us duty, the believer's behavior in Christ. What we should do in response to God's grace. The keyword, of course, in the last half of the book is 'walk.' Paul tells us to walk worthy of the calling, wherewith we have been called, to walk carefully in the world, to walk as children of light, to walk not as the heathen, the unsaved walk, but to walk carefully and in purity in this present world.

Now, in our last lesson, we examined Ephesians 1:1-2. We discovered that Paul is the writer of this letter. He's the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ in Rome. Paul had been arrested falsely. He had asked to be taken to Rome to appear before the emperor to state his case. While he was in Rome, Paul had a great concern for the churches in Asia. He had spent three years ministering the word of God in the city of Ephesus, that great Asian city. And he was concerned about believers in Ephesus and the believers in the other churches round about. Acts 19 tells us that because of the ministry of the Apostle Paul there in Ephesus and because of the ministry of the church in Ephesus, all Asia heard the word of God. So there were a multitude of Christians who needed encouragement and strengthening. And so the Holy Spirit of God led the Apostle Paul, an ambassador of Jesus Christ, an apostle, a missionary, to write this wonderful letter and to send it to the churches that it might be read. Undoubtedly, this letter first went to the church at Ephesus, and then from Ephesus copies were made and these copies were taken out to the other churches to be read and to be studied.

Now, Paul writes this letter to saints. This is one of those words that somehow has been greatly abused. People have the idea that saints are dead people. And yet the saints to whom Paul was writing were living saints. They were alive at Ephesus, but spiritually speaking, they were in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul is not writing to dead people, he's writing to living saints. Now, what is a saint? Well, the word 'saint' simply means one who has been set apart. One who has been set apart through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, we have the idea that a saint is someone who is so perfect and so holy that God has to take him to heaven, and yet this is not the case. As we're going to see in chapters four, five, and six, these saints had their sins. Paul had to talk to them about lying and about anger and about impurity. A saint is one who has put his faith in Jesus Christ and therefore has been set apart. He belongs not to the world, he belongs not to himself, he belongs to Jesus Christ.

Now he tells us that these saints are believers in Christ Jesus. The word 'faithful' in chapter one simply means full of faith or a believer in Jesus Christ. A believer in Jesus Christ is one who has experienced the grace of God there in Ephesians 1:2. He has received peace from God and from the Lord Jesus Christ because he has put his faith in Jesus Christ. Let me say this once again to you, you can become one of God's saints, one of God's set-apart ones, if you'll put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now Ephesians 1:3 is the key verse of the first half of the book. You'll recall that the keyword of chapters one, two, and three is the word 'blessings.' In these three chapters, Paul is discussing the blessings that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonderful wealth that we possess because we belong to Him. In Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us." That's once and for all, past tense. "Who hath once and for all blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

Now let's notice this key verse. It's important that we understand it. To begin with, Paul points out the source of our blessings. The God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this bothers some people to think that Jesus Christ, who is God, should call our God, His God, but He does. Please keep in mind that Jesus Christ is both God and man. He's not half God and half man, part God and part man. He is wholly God and He is wholly man. It's a mystery that no one can explain. The Holy Spirit of God came upon the Virgin Mary and the angel said that holy thing which shall be conceived of thee shall be called the Son of God. So Jesus Christ is God and He is man. He has today a glorified, resurrected body in heaven. Now, as man, Jesus Christ needed a God. As God, He looked upon God as His Father. So here we have the dual nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll recall when Jesus Christ came out of the grave, when He appeared to His disciples there in the Gospel of John, He told them He was going to ascend to His Father and their Father and to His God and to their God. Now, He didn't say to our God and to our Father, He separated Himself from them because He's so much higher. He has the preeminence. But God is the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our elder brother.

This is the source of our blessings. All of our blessings come from God. The Christian doesn't look to this world for any blessings. You'll recall back in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Jews as they're about to go into the promised land. He says the land that the Lord your God gives you is not like the land of Egypt that you came out of. The land of Egypt was watered by the dirty Nile River that once or twice a year would overflow its banks, but not so in Canaan land. Because the land of Canaan, the promised land, the holy land, is a land that God waters with the rain from heaven. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above, the book of James tells us (James 1:17). The source of our blessings is the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means that if you know Jesus Christ, then the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given to you all these blessings. He is the source of our blessings.

Notice secondly, the scope of our blessings. What has He given us? All spiritual blessings. Now, I've pointed out many times in these lessons over the Radio School of the Bible that we must make a distinction between the Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God. The Bible makes this distinction. If we're going to divide the word of truth rightly, if we're going to understand the word of God accurately, we must make a difference between the Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God. To apply to the church promises that God has given to the Jew is to twist the word of God. Now, the Holy Spirit of God can take any promise anywhere in the Bible and make it real to my life. But if I'm going to understand biblical prophecy and biblical doctrine, I must be careful to ask the question, "To whom is this written?" Now, when you read the Old Testament, especially Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you'll discover that God has promised to the Jews tremendous material, earthly blessings. I've just been re-studying the book of Deuteronomy for our Bible school lessons here, and I've been amazed at how many times in the book of Deuteronomy, God promises to the Jews abundant crops. He says, "Your cattle are going to multiply, your children are going to multiply. You're going to get oil out of the rocks, you're going to get honey out of the rocks. God is going to take away pestilences and sicknesses and plagues." God promised to the Jews, His earthly people, that when they went into the promised land, He would give them tremendous material blessings.

Now, God has not promised this to His church. God has said, "My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). But nowhere in the New Testament does God necessarily promise to you and to me as Christians that we're going to have all of the wealth in material terms. Now, I'm grateful to God whenever He promotes one of His children, whenever a Christian becomes wealthy or well-to-do and when he uses what he has for God's glory, this is wonderful. I praise God for it. In the New Testament, you do find people of wealth who use their wealth for God's glory. But nowhere do in the word of God does God promise to His church an abundance of material blessings. The fact of the matter is, Paul was a poor man. Jesus was a poor man. The apostles were poor. Jesus said, "Blessed are ye poor, for ye shall be rich." Now, what has He promised us? He has already given to you and me every spiritual blessing that we need. Now, you can translate Ephesians 1:3 like this: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath already, once and for all, blessed us with every blessing of the spirit." You see, this is the age of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Spirit of God came down and formed the church. He baptized believers into the body of Christ there in Acts 2 and again in Acts 10. The Gentiles were baptized into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit of God has been given to us in this age. This is the age of the Holy Spirit. He is at work. Now, the Holy Spirit of God gives to us through Jesus Christ every spiritual blessing that we need. Now, we don't have to ask God for things that He's already given us. We just simply have to take them. I fear many times in our praying, we're asking God for things He's already given us. We're rich. God has given to us every blessing of the spirit. If only we'll claim these blessings through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the source of our blessings, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the scope of our blessings, we have all spiritual blessings. Notice please the sphere of our blessings. Where are these spiritual blessings? In heavenly places or literally, 'in the heavenlies.' Now, Paul likes this little phrase, 'in the heavenlies.' If you look at Ephesians 1:20, he talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says this, "When He raised Him from the dead," that's God the Father raised His Son from the dead, "and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies." In other words, the heavenlies are the sphere of the blessings that we have in Christ. Jesus Christ today is seated in the heavenlies. All of our blessings are in the heavenlies. Ephesians 2:6, "God has raised us up together," that is, together with Christ, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here's a strange thing. Paul was a prisoner in Rome, and yet he was seated with Christ in the heavenly places. I don't know where you are right now. You may be seated in your living room. You may be lying in a hospital bed. But if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are in Him in the heavenlies. You have been raised and you are seated on the throne, spiritually speaking, with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 6:12, we have another statement about the heavenlies. It says this, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood," that is, our battle is not with people here on earth, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," or literally, 'in the heavenlies.' You see, today, Satan has access to the heavenlies. In Revelation 12:7 and Revelation 12:11, we're told about a battle that will one day take place in the heavenlies when Satan will be cast out to the earth. But today, Satan has access to the heavenlies.

Now, this has to be made very clear. Don't expect any blessings in the earthlies. This world is not going to give to the Christian any blessing. This world hates the Christian. This world is hostile to the Christian. This world is not our home. We don't love this world. We don't live for this world. We live in this world and seek to rescue people, but the world is not our sphere of blessing. Now, when a Christian gets worldly and starts to look to the world for blessing, he gets disappointed because there is no blessing in this world. Everything this world lives for, works for, and dies for is someday going to fade away. But our blessings have been given to us in the heavenlies. We need to look to Jesus Christ every minute of the day and to ask Jesus Christ to grant unto us what we need. All the patience that we need, all the wisdom that we need, the strength that we need, the guidance that we need. Everything we need has already been given to us. It is there in Jesus Christ in the heavenlies, and we are with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.

This is why Paul writes to the Colossian church. If you have your Bible in front of you, just turn the page to Colossians 3, where Paul says this in Colossians 3:1, "If ye then be risen with Christ," and if you're saved, you are. When He died, you died. When He was buried, you were buried. When He arose from the dead, you arose. When He ascended to heaven, you ascended with Him because you are united to Jesus Christ. You are in Him. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection," or literally, "set your attention, your mind on things above, and not on things on the earth." That's a good admonition for Christians. I may be speaking to someone right now who is worldly-minded, earthly-minded, and you're wondering why your Christian life is stale and dry and stagnant. Why there's no joy, no fruit, no blessing. I'll tell you why. It's because you're not living in your proper sphere. Now, you take a fish and put him up in a tree and he'll die, because fish don't have wings, they can't fly from tree to tree. You take a sparrow and put him down in the lake and he'll die, because sparrows are not made to fly in water and they can't swim. A fish was made to live happily and successfully in the sphere of water. A bird was created to live happily and successfully in the sphere of the air. Now, you take them out of their proper sphere and they die. We as Christians live in the sphere of the heavenlies. We have been chosen out of this world. We don't belong to this world. We don't live for this world. We are seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. Now, some Christians, as D.L. Moody used to say, are so heavenly-minded, they're no earthly good. Paul points out in Ephesians that if we have the right kind of attitude toward the heavenlies, if we are living in the heavenlies, that's chapters one, two, and three, it's going to show up in the earthlies, chapters four, five, and six. If our mind is in the heavens, our feet will be guided here on earth. I wonder today, are you living in the heavenlies? Do you know the blessings that you have through the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now, in our next lesson, we're going to be examining Ephesians 1:4-18, where the Apostle Paul outlines just a few of these blessings, not all of them. Why, it's impossible for God to outline all of the blessings we have in Jesus Christ. We have been made so rich in Him that He could not begin to tell us all that we have. But I want you to notice in your Bible in Ephesians 1:4, "He has chosen us." In Ephesians 1:5, "He has adopted us." These are the blessings we've received from God the Father. God the Father has chosen us and adopted us. Then in Ephesians 1:7-9, we have the blessings from God the Son. He has given us redemption (Ephesians 1:7). He has forgiven us (Ephesians 1:7). He's made known God's will to us there in Ephesians 1:8-9. These are the blessings of God the Son. In Ephesians 1:11, He has given us an inheritance. So God the Father has chosen us and adopted us. God the Son has redeemed us, forgiven us, revealed God's will to us, and made us an inheritance. And then Ephesians 1:13-14, God the Holy Spirit has sealed us and given us the earnest of the blessings to come. So each member of the Godhead is mentioned here, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In our next lesson, the Lord willing, we will be examining these wonderful blessings that God has already given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I speak to someone right now who has never received Jesus Christ, let me say to you, "You're a poor man, you're a poor woman." You can be made rich in Jesus Christ if you'll but put your faith and your trust in Him. Our Father, we thank Thee that today we have all spiritual blessings in Christ. He has made us rich. Of His fullness have all we received in grace for grace. Help us to live up to this wonderful spiritual wealth, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.