Every Spiritual Blessing, Eph, 1:3
Ephesians 1:3 · Vern Peterman · Jan 25, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826232334884

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We are looking at this verse, Ephesians 1.3. It's one of those verses that is brief, simple, but boy, does it say a lot. So anyway, fasten your pew belts. These pews are a little older. They're not equipped with airbags. I'm the only airbag in here, okay? So, just fasten your pew belts. We'll move along.

One of the things we pointed out in past weeks, and we'll bring attention to it again, is this is just but the beginning of what is in the Greek a long sentence. Verses 3 through 14 in the Greek are one sentence. In the English, and this is the New American Standard translation in front of us here, where those large dots are, those are not measles. Those are where the translators put periods in English, but the Greek is all one sentence. It's, as we've mentioned before, the longest sentence known in all of Greek literature. And after we get through with this, guess what? We get to read 15-23, which is the second longest sentence in all of Greek literature. So, again, the English translations are broken up for the sake of being a little easier to follow, but the original language is all one sentence in 4-14 and 15-23.

One of the things that we notice as we look at this verse kind of jumps out at us, you see this idea of blessed or blessing three times in this short verse. And that is not accidental, as we'll see here shortly. The first blessed is an adjective. It's a spiritual description is what's intended there. The next one is a verb. It's a spiritual action. And finally, the last one is a noun. It's a spiritual reality. All three of those are described there in that verse. The spiritual description, the spiritual action, and the spiritual reality. Let's look at the first one here. Blessed. Eulogitas is the word there. And you might be thinking of something like this. No, it does not mean eulogitas. It has nothing to do with that. Alright, next thing. Let's get on to what it really means.

If you log off, it means the idea of good worded. Good worded is the thought. And we get our English word eulogy from this family of words. What happens is in English we'll speak of someone, usually someone deceased, and we'll have this eulogy that speaks good words about this person.

That's what this is based upon. Good words. But here the focus is upon good words directed to the Lord. He is worthy, inherently worthy of praise. That is, to be showered with these good words. That's the idea. Paul is saying, God the Father is inherently worthy of being showered with good words. That's what he's spelling out.

So he's starting off verse 3, and as a matter of fact, this whole long sentence from verse 3 through 14 with that eulogitos, worthy of good words, directed to him. Even more about it, it's interesting, eulogitos is a word that is only spoken of God. Romans 9.5, spoken of Christ. But this word is not used as directed to people. People are not said to be eulogitos, worthy of this kind of praise. So this is a special word. This is a special word that describes the kind of praise that only God is worthy of.

You'll find this word showing up in several different passages here, all the way from Mark into 1 Peter. Now, the next one, blessed, this one is eulogaio, and it's good wording. And while it might sound similar, and certainly it's intended to be, God is the one who does the good wording for us. Good wording, God is worthy of, because He has good worded on our behalf. So Paul is drawing on a similar idea, but it's a different direction. God is the one worthy of praise, of good words, because He has good worded on our behalf.

Now, you and I say things, and sometimes we just say things. When God says something, that's profound. Remember, how were things created? He spoke them into being. He spoke and it stood fast. What did He do? He good-worded, He stated things, He spoke things, and good things were accomplished on our behalf.

There were spiritual benefits. overwhelming spiritual benefits that resulted from what God spoke, the good wording that He did for us. Now, get a little greeky-geeky here. This is an aorist active participle, and here's the idea. God did it in the past, and without getting too complicated, in this case, that's what it means, in the past. He took the action, and that's really important.

God took the action, not us. We are not blessed because we did something. We are blessed because God took the action. He is the one worthy of praise, not us. And finally, the participle puts the focus on the action in process or in progress. God was the one who was doing it. Again, a focus on the action. God is the one who acts.

Here's another historical or cultural insight. And that is, as scholars have looked through all of Greek literature, the classical literature which describes the Greek gods and all their myths and pantheon, and they have not found one instance of a Greek god blessing a human being. Not one.

And this is special. Why is it special? So for Paul to say that the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, to the mind of those who are reading this for the first time, absolutely mind-boggling. What? A God that blesses a human being? A God might do something because you did something for Him. A God might kind of show you some favor.

But to have a God that actually blessed you was absolutely shocking, stunning. Magnificent revelation. That's incredible. When they first read this, Paul gets through saying, Hi, my name is Paul, and by the way, this comes out just booming, because as they're reading this, they have never, ever, in centuries of hearing about all the gods, heard of a God that would bless you. And not just once, and not just with a little bit, but every spiritual blessing, that is absolutely unfathomable. Unbelievable thing.

Now, see this word blessing now come up. This is the third occurrence of the same root word, eulogia, and this is now a noun. So what he's saying is each of these blessings has a spiritual benefit. God the Father is the one who is the source of these blessings. God the Father took the initiative, remember? He is the one who took the initiative, active voice. He is the one who did it and accomplished it, He had the power to make those words turn into reality. The good wording that he did is effective. It acts.

It isn't just noise. It isn't just air. And we've done nothing to deserve it. We haven't earned it at all. Every spiritual blessing, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and God was the one that acted, not us. He makes it real clear. So he repeats a family of words shifting just slightly to make his point, consistent in what he says, almost as a matter of poetry. And yet what he comes out clearly saying is, the good words are what the Lord deserves for His good wording for us, because we've received the result of all of His good words. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This phrase here, the God and Father, this is about one of 80 cases in the New Testament in which the Granville Sharp rule applies. Now you might say, Granville Sharp? Is it dangerous? No, it's not dangerous, even if it's sharp. This is a guy, Granville Sharp, okay?

He wrote a treatise towards the end of the 1700s, He was, by the way, he was a British civil servant and had to resign because when the Declaration of Independence hit Britain's shores, he said, I agree with it. And so he was kicked out of the British civil service for agreeing with it. He was also a Greek scholar.

And the point being here, let's look at the application. This means that the definite article translated the, applies to God and the Father. So the intended meaning is God the Father. Our translations often say the God and Father. It's not two different beings. It's God the Father is what is intended. That's the point here. It's God the Father. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he brings this up, what is he doing?

There's identical wording that's used with other churches, and 1 Peter uses it as well. Here is a relationship between God the Father and God the Son, and he says, in our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, it's personal. The relationship between God the Father and God the Son is the source of our blessing. God the Father is to be praised, but it's the relationship between God the Father and God the Son that is the source of our blessing here. And that's key. I think as we look at it, we say, well, that's great that they have a relationship. What's in it for me? Paul is telling us. Paul is telling us what is the benefit to us of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

And what he spells out here, he calls our Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord is kurios. It speaks of His authority. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who holds authority. He is Jesus. The name Yeshua or Joshua means Saviour. He is our Saviour. So He has authority and He is our Saviour. And finally, He is the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ meaning the Anointed One, the One when He comes again with us will reign as King upon the earth from Israel and from Jerusalem.

And what we'll see as we go through Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1, both of them extol and overwhelmingly shower upon us the consequences, the benefits of this relationship between God the Father and God the Son. See, rather than being something we read about and say, that's nice that they have a relationship, what's the difference to me? He spells it out overwhelmingly, It says, "'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'" Who has blessed us? Notice that it is God the Father who is the one who is getting credit for blessing us.

And key point here, it is past tense. The blessing has already happened. He has already blessed us. It's a done deal. And notice, for those who are in Christ, We are in Christ, not because we come to church, not because we just believe a lot of religious stuff, but we are in Christ because we put our trust in Christ for salvation. We believe that He died and rose again for us. With every spiritual blessing is this focus here. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and notice the every. It isn't a percentage deal, is it? It's not 75, not just most. It's not a 99% deal. It isn't, you know, God's given you 99% of the blessings, but the last 1% you're going to have to work for. What does he say here? Every single one. Every spiritual blessing, no exceptions. 100%. This is a total. Every. Notice that the blessings also have a characteristic.

They are spiritual. It's not, ah, money, ah, wealth, ah, health, or anything else like that. They are spiritual blessings. They're not physical. They are spiritual not just because they're in the spiritual realm. A lot of people in our culture have bought into the idea of being approximately spiritual. being vaguely, generally spiritual, and thinking anything spiritual is fine, it's all in the same category. But notice that the spiritual blessing here has a specific source. Not everything that is spiritual is part of spiritual blessings. Not everything that is spiritual has God as its source.

And finally, they're spiritual because of His eternal character. That's key. Notice that he doesn't simply say, this guy gives some credit, but he describes our Lord Jesus Christ and gives titles that give us an understanding of his character, who he is. It is his character that is the source of the blessings that we have.

Finally, he says, in the heavenly places. Now, one of the things that comes out as we look at that The Greek text here comes literally with this idea, word for word, of in the heavenlies. That's the literal. In the heavenlies. The article and the word are both plural. It has the idea of heaven and the places in it.

And remember when we went through Revelation, we saw that there were three heavens. There's the heaven that's our own earthly atmosphere. There's the heaven that goes from the solar system into outer space. and the third heaven, which is the heaven of the abode of the Lord and the spiritual realm. Those are the three heavens described in Scripture. If you hear somebody talk about seventh heaven, that's Islamic. That's not the Christian idea. Scripture refers to those three heavens.

This is talking about the third of those, the spiritual realm. Our blessings are in the heavenly places, in the spiritual realm. What's interesting is this phrase is only found in the book of Ephesians and nowhere else in the entire New Testament, but it's found five times. And so as we go through Ephesians, we'll see all five occurrences of it. And here are those locations. The last one has a different character, as we'll see when we get there. Several decades, I mean years from now. I mean months from now. Anyway. All right.

Finally, he says we are in Christ. As we look at this in Christ, Every believer is described as being in Christ. There isn't any other way to get in Christ. You notice that? There's no list of things you've got to do to get in Christ. And it talks about in Christ, but it doesn't talk about out of Christ. Being in Christ is for those who believe, and it's real interesting, this is a car that doesn't have a reverse gear, okay? No reverse gear in this thing. You are in Christ. You are placed in Christ. It is the Lord who does the placing in Christ, and not us.

There's no working to do for it. You can't even feel really intense and get there. There's nothing that a human being can do or work or earn or accomplish or feel good about or feel bad about that can make us in Christ. by putting one's trust in the Lord, period. Nothing else.

Now, he describes it with, in him, as we go through Ephesians, and by the way, these are only the chapter one references. It occurs later. He's going to continue to come back to what it means to be in Christ, in him. And we also see subsequent chapters, and in whom is another one. He's going to continue to refer to that being in Christ and what that means. That's a pivotal one. Being in Christ is His doing.

1 Corinthians 1.30, by His doing you are in Christ.

Critical that people understand that every spiritual blessing is by His doing and nothing we can do. On the one hand, it may make you feel absolutely helpless. On the other hand, all you can do is be grateful. And both of those are good things. Because there's nothing we can do to be in Christ. It is His doing entirely. It's His accomplishment that places us in Christ.

Now, one of the things to look at, this every spiritual blessing, where is it? And that's a very important question to ask. So we're going to ask it here this morning. Where is every spiritual blessing? Where is it? Is it here? Is it here on planet Earth? Do we find it there?

If you look at Moses, he's speaking to the Jews in Deuteronomy 30. They are about to enter the promised land. So Moses, he's a spiritual guy, right? He's talking to the Jews. They're spiritual people, right? Supposedly. But what does he say? In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, you gotta, okay, to walk in His ways and keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments that you may live and multiply, that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if, starts verse 17. Do you see a real big distinction here? It's a place on earth, and it's got a but if.

Do you see that in Ephesians 1.3? No. The blessing is entirely in the heavens, and there's no but ifs. No but ifs. Radical difference. between what was spoken here to Israel and what is true of the church today. Our blessing is not here on planet earth and there's nobody else. None. Not a single one. Now, let's look at how this would draw itself out. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing. Do you see that?

In the heavenlies. One of the things we pointed out in the past, this little Greek word, en, sounds similar to our in. means entirely within, unless there's some other exception clause. The natural concept in the Greek mind means entirely within. So every spiritual blessing is in the heavenlies. That's where it's at.

Inside of that, he says, in Christ. So where's Christ? In the heavenlies. Where are you? In the heavenlies. You are in Christ, You are in Christ who is in the heavenlies, you're in the heavenlies, that's where your blessings are. Man, that's pretty specific, isn't it? And it's pretty clear, isn't it? All of our blessings, every single one, are in Christ, in the heavenlies, that's where we are. You want to be blessed? It's a done deal. There it is. Real clear, real specific. Let's look at the characteristics that he's laid out for us. is heavenly, not earthly. Heavenly, not earthly.

There are a good many churches around today who are selling a gospel of, here's the blessings you're going to get. Oh, if you become a believer and if you really believe hard, you'll be healed and you won't have any physical problems. If you're a believer and you really believe hard, you'll have plenty of money. Some of the guys on the television are famous for saying things like that.

It's spiritual, not physical. The blessings are spiritual, not physical. It goes along with the earthly idea. What's happening is that a great many Christians are still glued on this idea of looking for blessings as if we were like Moses speaking to Israel. but there's a but-if that goes with it. That's not what we see in Ephesians 1-3. Finally, it's eternal.

It's not temporal. There is no end to these blessings. He doesn't say, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing until 3 o'clock this afternoon. He doesn't do that. Instead, it's eternal. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, and it keeps going, continuously.

That's why Ephesians 2.7 says it will take ages for the Lord to show it all to us. Ages. Ten thousand years will go by and we will still be going, because the Lord will still be revealing it. We'll just be learning more and more of what those things are.

It's eternal, not temporal. It's God's doing, not ours. It's not what we earn. It's not what we do. It's not if we feel really bad. It's not if we feel really good. A lot of churches today, unfortunately, are trying to sell a feel-good experience. Oh, come here and you'll be blessed. What do they mean? You'll feel good. It's God the Father's blessing.

It does not depend upon us. It's not a feeling. There may be by-products that are feelings, but the blessing is not the feeling. It's not ours to work. We cannot go into a building, we cannot perform a ritual, we cannot sacrifice anything or buy it to gain it. It is the Father's doing. It's His exclusively to do. It's in Christ. It's not in the flesh. It's entirely in Christ.

You cannot go anywhere else. Have you discovered that? Have you found that? You go lots of different places looking for different things, and it's only in Christ where this blessing is found. Only in Him. Have you found that the rest of the world disappoints, but Christ does not? It's only in Him. Only in Him.

The other thing is it's already given. What the world likes to do, and that's what worldly religion tries to do. It says, you want a blessing? It's out here. It's the carrot in front of you. And they dangle the carrot, and they say, okay, do this, and you'll get this blessing. This says, you've got it. It's already there, 100%, every spiritual blessing, completely, totally already given. There's no carrot to dangle out in front of you. every spiritual blessing right now, already, completely. Past tense.

As we move ahead in Ephesians 1, 3-14, we're going to see blessings and the election of God the Father in verses 3-6. We'll see the impact of the sacrifice of God the Son, Ephesians 1, 7-12. and we'll see the sealing and the other ministries related to the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved here. All three persons.

Isn't this amazing? He spends a goodly portion of the chapter laying out all of what God has done, begun in eternity past, accomplished throughout the course of history, implemented in our lives, and made effective on into eternity future. The entire Trinity is involved in the blessing that you already have. That is amazing.

Finally, one of the things that we'll see as we go through this passage, use of multiple superlatives. Lots of words that kind of reach the outer limits of what language can convey. We're going to see surpassing. We're going to see words that talk about overthrown, unfathomable. We're going to see words that talk about Now, I want to tell you a little story, and there is a purpose to it.

In the little town that I went to high school in, little farming community in northern California, you see there, you know, toward the coast from Sacramento, California, they had every year in the middle of late September a county fair. And one of the things that they would have at this county fair is they would get the local volunteer fire department and the California Division of Forestry on opposite lines opposing one another, and they would get these barrels lined up halfway between them.

And each of these groups was supposed to use the fire hoses to push the barrel towards the other side. And the idea is if you got all the barrels on the other side, that the other side would then win. Well, anyway, as it happened, These guys were lined up across from each other with the barrels and the fire hoses, they'd have several of these on each side shooting at the barrels.

Anyway, these two crazy high school guys go running out into the field. And they think it's a great idea to go run into the middle of this thing. And so anyway, as soon as they get out there, the firemen forget the barrels. All hoses are on these two guys. Let me tell you, these guys are just falling on their feet instantly, cannot get up, completely overwhelmed by the force of these fire hoses. Let me tell you, I will never do that again.

What's my point in this? If we understand what the Lord is saying about the overwhelmingness of what He has done, Paul stretches to use words that will convey the full sense. If we really understand about the overwhelmingness of the way that we have been blessed, it will be like me out there in the middle of the field with the fire hoses, totally blown away. As a matter of fact, if we don't understand how overwhelming this is, how it just knocks us off our feet, then I haven't done my job at explaining. I've been talking about this for a long time, explaining how marvelous these blessings are. These blessings are profound and immense and eternal, and far exceed and far surpass any earthly blessings that we could ever be promised. And there are no what-ifs. No what-ifs. Could not be.

Another thing I was looking at And the thought that I had is what God has done is He has already written a check. He's written a check to us. God the Father, out of Christ's count, has written a check. It was written when you and I were identified with Him about 30 AD. This check, you've seen some of those that are valid for 60 days, 90 days, 180 days. This is valid for eternity. So here's a check.

It's made out, signed by God the Father. It's paid to the order of every believer in Christ. It has written on it every spiritual blessing and nothing less. Oh, the memo line. In Christ, totally by grace. That's the check. It's been written. You're not waiting for it to be written. You're not watching as he writes it. It's a done deal. It's written. The Lord says, you're in Christ totally by grace. Here's your check. It's a done deal. Now, you say, that is really cool. And then you go to turn the check over.

This check is to be cashed all the time. Cash it all the time. It's not like any check you've ever seen. The signature line goes on and on and on. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing, and every time you sign it, there's another line below it. The Lord intends that we depend upon the value of this check every moment of every day. Cash it in. He wants us to count upon the blessings that we already have entirely, not the check we're waiting for.

In South Africa, there's an interesting story. There was, in the 1800s, a farmer who was working really hard to try to make a living off the land that he had there. The farmer worked really hard and he died and passed the land on and really was never able to get it to much of a place of development. After he died, two great discoveries were made. First, diamonds, then gold, all right underneath him all the time. What he was trying to do was scratch out a living, not recognizing the wealth that was right beneath him. What Paul wants us to recognize here is immense, incomparable wealth that we have already. He wants us to recognize it. He wants us to know it. He wants us to understand it. It's not a matter of asking the Lord for some blessing or benefit that's down the road.

It's a matter of us understanding the unfathomable riches that we already have in Him, right now, already, done deal, immediately, in the past. These surpassing unfathomable riches are all spelled out. He uses rich or riches a couple of times in each of the next three chapters as you go through Ephesians. And why does He keep doing that?

It's part of our position in Christ. Our position in Christ consists of these riches, these blessings that we already have, 100% blessed entirely by God the Father, totally by grace, nobody else, completely in the heavenlies in Christ. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. marvelous revelation for us to look at and begin to glimpse, to lift the curtain on this immense, unfathomable set of riches that we have, but completely by your grace. Lord, what a marvelous thing. And pray, Lord, that we would have our eyes open, that we would see that this check can be cashed every single moment of every single day, and what's in the fund will never be exhausted. And what's more, it will take eternity for us to even begin to understand how huge and immense is that marvelous blessing that we already have. Thank you for that, in Jesus' name, Amen.