“Redemption, Reason, Reign”

We come today and we will continue our walk through the Book of Ephesians and these are not things I put a lot of stock in, but I do get amazed at the leadership of the Holy Spirit, walking through the Book of Ephesians and I can't hardly think of a better passage of scripture to suit for The Lord's Supper.  Ephesians 1 beginning with verse 7. 

Now, because we're coming to The Lord's Supper and the day in which we live, it is important especially now to explain just a little bit about this supper.  It is one of the two ordinances of the Church that Christ gave us; baptism - we witnessed this morning; this is The Lord's Supper.   He initiated that on the night previous to his death.  He sat down with the disciples and He told them to take this bread and to eat it.  Paul told us later that he was instructed of the LORD that they were to eat that bread representing his body and in remembrance of Him.  He also took the cup and gave it to them saying "This is my blood in the New Covenant" and Paul instructed the church at Corinth that they were to take that and as often as they take that cup to do it in remembrance of Him and they do show forth the LORD's death till He come.

But there was to be an examination process before coming to the table; not one so you could find out if you were good enough to come.  He uses the word worthy to see yourself worthy in the King James.  It's an adverb that describes how you take the supper, not so much your worthiness of life.  But it does pertain to the quality of your walk with Christ.  The supper is specifically for those who know that they have had a time in their life where God has opened their eyes and shown them the light of the gospel in the face of Christ, where they have seen through that light that they are a sinner and that they have received God's full and free grace through Christ, repented of their sins and trusted Him to be their LORD and Savior.  Because this, you see, is a picture, not just of Christ's death, it is a picture of Christ's death for the individual and that as you are taking in the bread, and you are taking in the juice, it is representing that the life of Christ you are taking in you.  It's there and you are feeding this soul of yours on Him.  So, if you've never trusted Christ or this Christianity thing is a bit foreign for you, this is a beautiful service to observe; how individuals who have this relationship with Christ, they don't see Christ's body and blood in this, they see it as representative, but they are also displaying through a very physical means that Christ is the source of their life and without Him feeding their soul, they die. 

So, that's important to understand; that this is for God's children and it is also a display to all those who observe of the wonder of Christ's death, burial and resurrection because we do show forth, we proclaim His death till He comes through this supper.

Let's look at Ephesians Chapter 1, please.  If you've been with us you'll remember that verses 3-14 are one long, run-on sentence.  The punctuation we have put in it is to help us understand the thought process a bit better.  So in the middle of the sentence we read….

Eph 1:7  In him [that is in Jesus]we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Eph 1:8  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

Eph 1:9  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

Eph 1:10  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Now, there is one overarching message of this passage of scripture that is crucial to our day and time, and it is simply this:  History is on track.  It is on the track of God's plan.  It is going to complete fulfillment in Christ and there is a way to know God's purpose through Christ so that your life does not feel aimless.  We're not going to spend a lot of time on that, but that is the context of what we're talking about.  I told you last week, you have to circle the whole passage and put it in a globe called Christ.  This is all in Christ, so I want you to think that way as we walk our way through the passage of scripture.

But think with me first.  It may be in your past; it may be a year ago, it may be 15 years ago, it may be 45 years ago, but it still haunts you.  Some days you tend to forget it and it doesn’t bother you.  But some days it's like it was yesterday; you see it, you try to get away from it.  You want to run from it but it's like a chain around your left ankle and you're dragging a big steel ball with you.  It's guilt. You remember what you've done.  You’ve confessed it to God a thousand times and you can't get rid of it.  Every time you run with a little bit of freedom all at once the chain grabs and pulls you back.  Whether it was something that happened on the prom night, at the workplace, in your own home, you can't get rid of the guilt, it won't go away.  Or, for others it's a bit different.  It's not guilt, it's more like a grip.  It's like something has a magnetic  power on you.  You try to run away from it.  You've tried hundreds of times to run away from it, but when the circumstances in life are right it keeps drawing you back.  Sometimes stress is the trigger.  Things get tight at home, work is on edge, you don't know if you are going to have your job tomorrow or not, finances are tough, and then all at once the grip or the magnetic pull begins to happen.  Not all of us are drawn to the same thing.  Multitudes of magnets in this world, but you have yours and I have mine.  It's good to name them because when you name them you've gotten your first step to overcome them.  For many these days it's found on a computer screen.  Don't know why it's that way, don't exactly understand all that happens, but many times when the circumstances are right, though you've said "No" a thousand times, you are drawn back to the computer screen to find your favorite spots you think you've hidden from the world and God and to look at things you ought not look at.  When its done, you feel that grip of guilt, but you can't get away from the grip that when the circumstances are right two weeks later, you still go back to it. Or maybe you find it in a bottle.  The bottle might be filled with liquid or it might be filled with pills.  You might find it in a person; those secret rendezvous that you kind of just can't get away from that person, though you've wanted to many times. 

Now, a couple of things go through our minds when we think like that.  Some very, very few people whose consciences happened to be tender at the moment thinking "How's he know about me?"  Many of us, however, sit back in our Christian pride and think, "Yeah, there's a lot of people around here like that."  That's the grip on you, my friend, your own sin of self-centered, pharisaical pride that keeps you in its grip so tight it never lets you go, and you're always looking at the sin of other people, never pulling the beam out of your own eye. Do you wrestle with any of those things?  Is your soul alive enough to feel the impulses of guilt and the grip of the addiction and the bondage of sin? The world I live in, the people I deal with, that's life!  That's where we all live if there is anything alive in our soul at all, and we want released from those things.  This morning I want to tell you how; that there is a power that can release the soul from the guilt and the grip of sin.  We read about it in this morning's passage.  Just to keep it clear in our minds, I'm going to give you three words.  It will be three words that guide our minds through this issue and the first one is right out of our passage:

·                     Redemption

There's nothing on the screen to help you remember this.  I want your mind to remember the word redemption.  In verse 7 we read these words:

Eph 1:7  In him [that is in Jesus]we have redemption…

He's writing to Christian people.  He is writing to them as if it is their present possession because it is in Him we have redemption, and how do we have this redemption? Through his blood, and what comes to us because of this redemption? The forgiveness of our trespasses. WOW!  God, tell me more…. Tell me more!  Can this redemption free me from the guilt of sin and the grip of sin? Tell me more!  I would have to think that every New Testament believer, especially the Jewish ones, but even the gentile ones, after being instructed in the scriptures, their minds would go to two places.  First, they would go to the auction block for slaves where slaves were purchased or they were redeemed.  The second one, and probably the greater one in the Biblical context is they would go to the Exodus when God redeemed his children, Israel, out of Egypt at great cost and display of His power.  Redemption has in its own meaning the issue of a payment of a price.  If there was no payment of a price, people could not be redeemed.  You could not be gotten out of your bondage.  Are you in bondage?  There is a power big enough to release you from that bondage and it is in the redemption Christ provides.  Now, redemption insinuates that something was paid.  I want you to understand that nothing was paid to the Devil to redeem you from the bondage he holds you in.  God owes him nothing!  What you need to know is, you need to be redeemed from sin's corruption and sin's curse so that you can be freed from the judgment of God.  That's where we get mixed up.  You see, this redemption is so powerful that our God, who sees everything in its absolute perfection, can detect the smallest speck of sin in the purest of human souls. The blood of Jesus was given to purchase our redemption that washes us whiter than snow, and when the x-ray vision of God looks upon our souls, not because of what we've done, but because of the redemption that we have through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, God will not look on us in judgment, but he will look on us in grace.  But, what's amazing about that is God initiated this act of judgment on His Son in our behalf in while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  As a matter fact, Paul said God decided to do that from before the foundation of the world.  We saw that in this passage of scripture.  There was a price paid; a great price, the death of Christ, to free us, yes it does free us from the devil, it does free us and deliver us from sin's captivity and curse, but better than that, it delivers us from the judgment of God.  If God doesn’t judge sin, you have no problem, my friend.  But, if He does, God is your biggest problem. 

So, can Christ do that for you?  What do you think? God's Son took on flesh.  He left heaven; He lived as a human being perfect and without flaw, no spot ever on his soul, more spotless than a spotless lamb.  Humanity hung Him on the cross.  He died there for the sins of any and all who would believe in Him, and three days later he raised from the dead to prove He could do what He died to do. More powerful than the miracles in Egypt, than the gnats and the fire and the darkness and the plagues.  More powerful than the parting of the Red Sea is the shed blood of Christ to take the human soul and deliver it completely from the guilt of sin and from the grip of sin so you no longer are under that cloud, but you can call God your Father, and no longer are you in the power of it for you are not under the law but under grace.  Sin shall not have dominion over you.  A battle, yes; dominion, no.  The word is redemption.

You say, "That sounds really good, Tony.  That's a great gospel story, but you don't know my life. God is angry with me, you see, and this would apply to other people, but not me."  Oh, my friend, how much you underestimate God.  Listen, Chapter 1: Verse 7, read it again, let's finish it.

Eph 1:7  In him [that is in Jesus]we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, [and just so we would know] according to the riches of his grace,

Now grace is God's free and unmerited favor.  And it's according to the riches of His grace, and just so we would know, that's not enough in the language of God, Verse 8:

Eph 1:8  which he lavished upon us…..

Superabundantly poured on us, overflowing, more than we could contain, greater than any sin] in all wisdom and insight…. My friend, do not underestimate the power of God's gospel in the Cross of Christ.  That is an affront to God!  Trust Him.  God does not dispense His grace with an eyedropper.  He's got a bucket-load that He just dumps it on you, superabundant, to take care of the guilt and the grip of sin.  Now, you might need to work through the wisdom and understanding as we see He gives to put that deep into your soul, to get the feeling of the guilt and grip let go, but I can promise you it's there.  We have in Him redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins.

The first is redemption.  You have been redeemed through Christ and if you haven't been but want to be, Jesus said that any who would come to Him He would in no wise cast out.  He said, "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest."

• The first word is redemption. 

• The second word is reason.

When you deal with those things in our technological, scientific world, people think we're playing on emotion, that we don't understand the large scheme of things; that Christianity and any other religion are just culturally-created phenoms that just help people get along in life.  That's not God's perspective nor the Bible's.

Eph 1:8  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

Eph 1:9  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

Eph 1:10  as a plan.

I'm going to stop there with the phrase, "as a plan."  There's nothing in that kind of language that sounds willy-nilly to me.  There's nothing in that kind of language that sounds emotional.  This is intellectual conversation.  This is reasoned out work.  In this grace that He's given, that He's lavished upon us, it's not for buffoons, it's not for the non-thinking, it's not for the superstitious, for the religious….

Eph 1:8  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

Now, that could go either way, it could be in God's wisdom and insight He lavished on us, I tend to go with the fact that when he lavished this grace on us, this wisdom and insight came. So that …..

Eph 1:9  making known to us the mystery of his will….

Now the mystery of God's will is Christ; that God would really send His Son and

die in our place that through a cross, a crucified God, we could be saved,

because that's a mystery.  But He helps us understand that so that we could see his purpose.  And his purpose… that word purpose, it's already been used once here, has the whole meaning of it is God's good pleasure.  God enjoyed doing this.  He wants you to understand it; He wants you to think about this.  He wants you to know He's the Creator of the world.  He wants you to think about that.  He gives you wisdom and insight to see that through Adam and Eve we have become corrupt.  He wants you to see that's why the world is full of problems, is humanity is infected with sin and we can't help but sin, and that's why there are so many absolutely ridiculous things in our world.  He wants us to see through this mystery of Christ, that this God who created everything is God indeed and He is a holy and just God and that demanded a payment for sin.  And through the wisdom He gives us, we see that on the cross God judged sin in His Son, or in eternity He will judge sin in hell.  And while we are still alive and we hear the gospel, we have the opportunity to say "Dear God, let Jesus take my judgment and let Him give me His righteousness."  He gives us that wisdom to understand that God's justice and the great, great love of God happened at the same time on the cross, so we could see it in this wisdom, He would open our eyes and give us wisdom unknown to humans without the revelation of God and then we could see it was God's good purpose to do this, and though we cannot understand evil and suffering in the world, though there are many things that no one has answers to, we then can rest in this mystery according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan.  WOW! That's a plan for our good and His glory because all this work is to be done to the praise of His glorious grace and as we praise, we are pleased.

The first word is redemption.

The second word is reason, and the church of today needs to understand that.  The church is not the place where you hear the great gospel story, make a decision as a kid, come to church every Sunday until you're an adult, die and go to heaven.  That's not biblical Christianity.  Biblical Christianity is you begin to reason life from the point of view of the cross and you see with wisdom and insight that God has lavished on this world his grace, and on you and particular, and you can go forward in your family life, in your work life.  Those are the things Paul begins to address later in this letter; how it is to affect and infect everything we do.  But so many times we have taken the great true gospel of Christ and made it a superstitious reasonless thing whereby we go weekly to get an emotional feeling and leave and it makes no change in our lives.  Oh…. When the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in a human soul, there are changes and there are many. 

Redemption, Reason, to you have a reasoned faith?  If you don't you may need to look for a reason why you don't have reason and you may see the reality of a real faith in Christ.

• Redemption, Reason, third word is reign. Not r-a-i-n, but r-e-i-g-n, as in rule. 

Jesus, the Bible teaches us was fully God and fully man. Errors in church history have happened through the centuries.  People want to emphasize his humanity over his deity.  People want to emphasize his deity over his humanity and you cannot.  He was fully human, just like you and I, without sin.  He was and is fully God.  Because of that He had the capacity to pay for the sins of the world.  He came the first time as redeemer, but he's coming the second time to reign.  Look at Verse 10.

Eph 1:9 …..which he set forth in Christ

Eph 1:10  as a plan  [that word plan is the word we get the word stewardship from.  From point to point, God is the steward, if I can say it that way, of all of history.  He is taking care of every step]

for the fullness of time,

[Now in the fullness of time, according to Galatians 4:4, Jesus came the first time.  There's a second time when time on earth is going to be full, but He's not coming in a cradle, he's coming with a crown,]

 As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him [That is Jesus], things in heaven and things on earth.

One day this Jesus who came as a babe, died on a cross, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven is going to return.  He is going to reigning as King.  When He does, will it be your delight to bow before the feet of King Jesus and worship Him as the satisfier of your soul, as the One who delivered you long ago from the guilt of sin and the grip of sin?

You see, if we don't take this mind He's given us and put those things reasonedly in it so it can trickle down to our soul, Jesus really isn't that beautiful to look at.  He's a nice thing to talk about in Sunday School, but He's really not Lord and a life-changer.  But what about when He comes back?  What's it going to be?  Are you hesitant to pray with the Revelator, John, 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus," because earth just holds so many things for you? Or can you say, Jesus, please come back, come now?

When we take the supper in a minute, He said, "You do show for the Lord's death till He comes." Every time we take this we are reminded of his death, but we're reminded of his reign, that he's going to come back, He's going to rule over his creation.  He's going to set things right forever, cast away, banished forever is sin and death and hell and the devil in the Lake of Fire never to rise again.  The smoke is the only thing that will rise as a reminder of God's triumphal victory of evil!

Oh…but it seems so far away, so foreign, and that is the curse of prosperity.  If you were a Christian in Darfur, you'd be praying 'Even so, Lord Jesus, Come, and come today.  You see, that's how I know the difference in a false gospel in our country and a true one.  If it won't preach there, it's not the real gospel.  But what I preached today, it'll preach there.  Freedom from the guilt and grip of sin, Jesus is going to come back and rescue us.  What's it going to be like when He comes back?  I can't describe it, and the best description we have is in Revelation 19, if you'd like to see it.  The last book in your Bible, the Book of Revelation, Chapter 19, Verse 11.  Listen to the Poet / Pastor John, inspired by God's Holy Spirit having these things revealed to him, talking about, not here, redemption, not here reason, but redemption and reason applied to the reign of the risen Christ.

ev 19:11  Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

Rev 19:12  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

Rev 19:13  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

Rev 19:14  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

Rev 19:15  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, [that's the Word of God, my friend, that's figurative language] and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

[Either Jesus takes your wrath on the cross or He takes out God's wrath on you when reigns and rules and returns]

Rev 19:16  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.