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*This outline is more different from my Sunday sermon than most.  It includes a different story than I used this morning.  Dr. David Clark’s story of adoption can be heard by ordering an MP3 copy of his sermon from the North American Christian Convention, his sermon with the story is available from CA Tapes by clicking here.

Peace is many things to us.  Peace is the angry shout of the protester.  Peace is the mantra of the 70s and its perpetual altered state.  Peace is the bond of Mennonite, Quakers and Amish who commit to total non-violence.  Peace is the hope of every soldier and their family.  Peace is non-violent resistance, even when children are met with vicious dogs and fire hoses on their march towards civil rights.  Peace is the agreement of a couple after an argument and a soothing sound to their children.  Peace is Memorial Day and the prayers for our soldiers who have died to preserve it.  Peace is the feeling of a sleeping baby.  Peace is silencing the nagging doubt that wonders about the future.  Peace is the quiet night after children have gone to bed.

Peace is a common theme in Ephesians and we see that God is the source of all peace.  Through these next six weeks we will be looking at the book of Ephesians and exploring all of the many ways that God gives us peace.

This week we’ll look at chapter one and how God wants to bring peace to your future.  Next week we’ll examine how God brings peace to your past and its memories.  In three weeks we’ll look at how God brings peace to our everyday moments right now.  The final three weeks we’ll explore how God brings peace in our relationship with the church, in our homes and finally in our hearts.  Peace to you – from God.

God’s generously provides for our future. (Ephesians 1:1-12) As you read the passage lookout for the generous words.  While we will divide these next verses up for ease of study, verses 3 – 14 are one long sentence in the Greek (the longest in the NT).  It is as though Paul filled with excitement just can’t take a breath as he describes the generosity of God!

• He chooses us “in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:4)
  • Not only did he choose us, but he chose us before the beginning of the world!
  • Some are bothered by and others make too much of the word, “chose” here and “destined” in verse five of this passage.  Other versions translate it “predestined.”   The word literally means, “to set out the boundaries” and taken literally we readily see that these boundaries are “in Christ.”  Therefore, anyone who makes the choice to be “in Christ” has been predestined to salvation.
    • When stop, we realize that God designed for everyone to be saved who was in Christ, our choice is whether or not we will be in Christ.
    • I like to think of it this way, God chose for all of us to be his children – he didn’t design us to fail.  He didn’t make us defective; he didn’t give us deficient souls!  But, he leaves us a choice, that choice is Christ.  God chooses, destines but it’s not until you believe in verse 13 does he seal you.
  • We see that God chooses us in love!  It is debated whether the “in love” is God’s love or our love for each other.  I think the answer is both.
  • He chose us in love and we become holy and blameless before him as we partner with that love in love for each other.
  • When I think of choosing, I think of Hosea.  In Hosea 1:2-3, we see that God tells Hosea to choose a wife – a wife with a past.  Why?  Because she was part of God’s plan to reveal his grace to the world – not because she deserved it.
  • Hosea chooses her in the name of the Father and the Father chooses us in the name of the Son!  Not because of our merit, but because of the merit of Christ!

• He adopts us “through Christ.” (Ephesians 1:5-6)
  • Hosea doesn’t just pick Gomer, he covenants with her – he commits to her.  Just as the Father covenants with us through adoption in Jesus Christ.
  • Listen to the language with which Paul and the Father refer to Christ: He is the “beloved.”  We are God’s children born out of love and adopted in love.
    • Talk about a stable home!  The love that unites the Trinity is so strong that the Orthodox Church refers to the Father as the “Lover,” the Son as the “Beloved,” and the Spirit as the “Love.”
    • We are born into God through the waters of baptism.  John 3:5 and Galatians 3:26-27.

• He forgives us “through his blood.” (Ephesians 1:7)
  • Perhaps a better word than forgive is “ransomed” or as the verse starts with: “redeemed.”  Christ’s blood has paid the price to set us free from our self-induced slavery to sin and our bondage to death.
  • The price was the blood of Jesus, Read 1 Peter 1:18-19.
  • Hosea gives us a beautiful picture of this as he redeems his wife from her past in Hosea 3.  He literally buys her back, just as God has bought us back from our own sin.  We were his, but we sold ourselves to death.

• He reveals our future “in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
  • The “mystery” is Christ, literally the body of Christ.  The body that hung on the tree to bring salvation to you and to me.
  • The “mystery” is Christ, literally the body of Christ.  The body that is here today to take the gift of salvation and present it to the world.  Our future is to proclaim the grace that saved us.
  • The word “plan” in the Greek is made from two words, “house” (oikos) and “law” (nomos).  Together they create a word often used for household administration or even state management.  We might combine them to make “house rules.”
    • Think about house rules on one level they are the code by which a house conducts itself.  The words we say and don’t, the way we treat each other.
    • On another and lighter level, they are the rules of the games we play.  In Monopoly we put $200 on “Go” if you land on it you get it.  It’s a house rule.
    • In Christ, we have a new set of house rules.  No longer are we condemned under the law, no we are set free with the house rules of grace!
    • The house rules encompass heaven and earth – the entire universe!  These gracious rules of grace make us joyful!

• He blesses us “in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3, 11)
  • If this was an infomercial for the grace of God, we could insert here, “But wait!  That’s not all!”  In addition to these wonderful gifts of salvation, God plans on blessing us on top of that!  We stand to receive an inheritance from his riches!
  • This passage has been translated other ways because of the original language’s construction.  We see that this could mean that we are God’s inheritance.  Looked at this way we see that God views us as the blessing.  He looks at our lives and says, “I would be blessed to have you as my son and my daughter.”
  • Perhaps this is the greatest blessing to us of all.   God wasn’t just willing to save – he wanted to!

We only need to accept his generosity through faith. (1:13-14)

• This passage tells us that God places a “deposit” on our inheritance.  It cost us nothing and yet we are left with the guarantee.  It cost him everything and yet he continues to give!
• We only need to accept this generosity through our faith!  The great step of faith is surrender through the waters of baptism.  It is here that He seals us in the Spirit, the Spirit we receive in baptism (Acts 2:38).
• Look at the passages in the New Testament that deal with faith and sealing, or baptism and sealing, or faith and baptism.  You are left with the understanding that either half of the verses in scripture are wrong – or that they are meant to work together.  Faith and baptism equal the perfect expression of our acceptance of grace through faith.

God’s generosity + our faith = peace for our future

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