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­­­­LSB Ephesians 1:3-6

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, 5 by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.

I'll begin with a side bar this morning, although everything biblically is connected to everything else, but Israel is on many of our minds and hearts and thoughts this morning.

Last week we spoke of the sovereignty of God over earthly matters. Right down to Paul's introduction of this letter in his opening statement defining his authorship. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

Paul will write the defining mandate of the church of Jesus Christ with the authority of the inspiration of God over his very words, and the reason for that authority is that he IS an apostle, because of the sovereign act of God in making him one.

God did not exit the sovereignty business after making Paul His apostle. God is still sovereign over history, and His sovereignty is precise to the minute and the second. Every day. God is in control of His ultimate plan. Israel may have been surprised 2 Saturdays ago, but God was not.

So what is the importance of modern secular Godless Israel in the over-all plan of God? And what should we think about current events on a timeline of biblical prophecy. Well, there are tons of opinions.

I'm going to borrow some things that Todd Friel said on his radio program about future prophecy and whether we can know the time and day of Jesus return.

First of all Jesus himself said no man knoweth the day or hour; Matt. 24:36 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

But on the other hand He told us to look for signs of His imminent return. 32 “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Matt. 24:32,33

We are instructed to watch. The Bible has lots of information about what will be happening in the days and eras as the window of time for His coming is drawing closer and closer. We don't know the day or the hour but we watch for events that tell us, the stage is set for end times events.

Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Matt. 24:5 - 8

We've always had wars. Always had earthquakes. Always a famine going on some place. Always some demon possessed lunatic claiming to be Jesus Christ. Birth pangs.

What do birth pangs do? They increase in severity and begin to happen closer and closer together. In my life time evil has most definitely increased, but these other signs have remained fairly constant.

The reason we watch Israel is because of specific signs that may or may not begin to take shape. Usually there are attacks and wars and then a nervous calm returns. If this current problem escalates to where other large nations get involved, then we get very interested.

There's a big 5 syllable word for what we're talking about, wondering if God is closing in on the "big one" in this latest flare up in Israel. Eschatology. Eschatology is the study of end times events.

Does what is happening in Israel align with Eschatalogical texts written in Scripture? The answer is always yes, because God is always sovereignly working to bring final things to a foredrawn conclusion.

Jesus will return and depose Satan from the throne of this world. Jesus will take back this planet and crush the current ruler, Satan. It will involve cataclysmic events on earth and in the sky. God has never stopped working in history to bring that final glorious conclusion that undoes the fall in the garden into sin and slavery to satan.

Is this current attack in Israel part of God's bigger plan to retake this planet for the glory of His Son, Jesus? Yes. But exactly where it is on that timeline, we simply don't know. How far to the conclusion? 500 years? 500 days? 500 minutes? We don't know.

Hermeneutics are important. Hermeneutics is the study of Biblical interpretation. Israel. Is Israel even important? Is this current iteration of the state of Israel important. Is God still dealing with Israel or has Israel been sent to the trash heap of history and forgotten.

Not less than John R W Stott, when asked what is the significance of modern Israel, ethnic jews, back in the holy land. He said, none at all. Many like him think it is an interesting phenomenon but that all of God's promises to the jews as a people are negated and fulfilled in the church.

And of course, we have a nice six syllable word to describe that idea. Supersessionism. Supersessionism is the belief by some christians that God has abandoned Israel, and that all of the unfulfilled promises to Israel, hundreds of them in the old testament, are fulfilled somehow, spiritually, in the church. The church has superseded Israel.

God threw them in the trash and all of the covenants and promises made to them, nationally, have been passed on to the church, instead.

That possibility can only happen if you play very fast and loose with hermeneutics. And likewise, that possibility makes me very very nervous. If God is so flighty that He abandons one group and gives all their promises to another, what makes you so secure that when the church is faithless, which is currently is, that He won't chuck us in the garbage and move His affections to the next group.

That's sort of like marrying a woman who has made the marriage vows 5 other times but assures you she'll never defect from you. Really? Kind of hard to be comfortable with promises from someone who made previous promises to someone else and then didn't fulfil them.

Dispensationalism (7 syl) and fundamentalism (6 syl) have both been relegated to the category of uneducated, unwashed masses of toothless folk who grasp at every wacko theory. Lowbrow believers.

And both systems went too far, but I hold to many of the tenets of both. Keep the baby, get rid of the bath water. Dispensationalism says that God deals with different groups in different long periods on the time line.

In Genesis He deals with individual patriarchs. Adam, Cain, Able, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and many others. Then God chooses an elect nation. Israel is the new name God gave to Jacob who had 12 sons who became the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses and the children of Israel are a long dispensational period.

Roughly 2000 years of the age of the Patriarchs, and then 2000 years of God's dealings with His elect nation, Israel, from whom came the Christ, and then 2000 years of the mystery that no one saw in the old testament, the church age, and then finally, 1000 years of Jesus the Messiah, having deposed Satan to chains, He reigns on David's throne, in Jerusalem.

I find dispensationalism helpful in looking at how God has dealt in times past with different groups. He doesn't abandon promises to one group, Israel, in this case, in order to work with and give promises to a different group, the church.

And I have to say, it makes perfect sense that in Daniels prophecy of 70 weeks of years for the completion of all things pertaining to sin, it's at exactly the end of the 69th week that Messiah the prince is murdered which leaves 1 week of years, 7 years of unfulfilled prophecy pertaining to Israel.

The church, the mystery dispensation that no one saw clearly in the previous dispensation, will be removed, taken out of the way at the rapture of the church, and Israel's clock of 1 final week of years, the tribulation period of 7 years, begins.

God DID set Israel aside for a long dispensation, the church age, the age of grace to all nations, but that doesn't mean He set a single promise aside that He made to Israel. They have a week of years to fulfil still left on their clock.

And Zechariah sees 2/3rds of modern Israel, the folks who are there in the land at the time the church is removed and God begins the 7 remaining years of Daniel's prophecy, 2/3 will perish in the cataclysm of the end time events, but 1/3 will look upon their Messiah, coming in the sky to save them, and be saved.

Paul speaks of this with exactness to the Romans, in Romans chapter 11; 25 For I do not want you, brothers, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” 27 “And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”

The population of Israel right now is perhaps 10 million. If that doesn't change much, we who use the historical - literal interpretive hemeneutic for the Bible, the hermeneutic which teaches, it actually means what it literally says, we believe 6.66 million jews will perish in that time period called jacob's trouble, but get this, 3.333 million jews will all be saved at the same time. 3.333 million converts to Jesus.

Right at the end, when He appears in the sky. They will look on Him who they pierced and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. That's what Paul means when he says, a day is coming when ALL Israel will be saved. All of the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. Pretty exciting stuff.

Lots of opinions. I miss our dear departed brother Carl. Carl always thought I was under excited about biblical prophecy, and I in turn thought Carl was over excited. So what of our current events? Are they foretold in scripture? Should we be waiting on our rooftops?

First of all, I would say on any day, any time, any place, if you've got business to do with God, if your sins are not removed by faith alone in the finished work of the Son of God, on Calvary, take care of it. Now. Do not wait another minute.

That's true, every minute of all eternity since Jesus departed. His return is imminent. Do not wait. But as to Israel's current situation, on my biblical prophetic time line, this current war is only different from the 1967 and 1973 conflicts in the fact that the whole world has progressed into a deeper depravity than ever before.

That's a very general but undeniable marker on the timeline of ultimate judgement. Evil men will grow worse and worse. 2 Tim, 3:13

I do believe the current state of Israel will be the one that will see the time of Jacob's trouble. The 7 year tribulation period. I believe the stage is set for the end time events to unfold.

But the current war against the sovereign nation of modern Israel isn't something we can point to in prophecy. Wars and rumors of wars is pretty wide. Pretty general. All we can do is pray for Israel and watch with interest.

On a biblical time line of prophetic events that can be used as marking posts, the general build up of enemies surrounding Israel will continue, but that's also pretty wide, pretty general.

One possibility that we might see, before the rapture, would be a land invasion of modern Israel from the north. The reason I hold out that possibility of being pre-rapture is because in Ezekiel 39:9 it tells us that after God intervenes against the raiding forces from the north, Israel will burn the remains of their weaponry for 7 years.

7 years is all they've got on their clock before the return of Jesus. After the rapture of the church and the coincidental treaty Israel makes with the anti christ, there will be 7 years.

Well if they're going to burn that stuff for 7 years, we may be here to see that invasion, before we're taken out. That's a possibility. But this current situation is only an escalation of general things that have been written down for us to ponder and marvel at God's sovereign plan for the ages. Pray for Israel.

Well, you can consider that a sidebar, or the introduction to our study in Ephesians this morning. Either way. Give a guy a pulpit, and you're going to get what you get. Right?

But, if your non-christian friends ask you about the meaning of the current situation in Israel, by all means, you tell them, it's time to repent and give the remainder of your life to the Lord who already owns it anyways. Repent and believe in the finished work of Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins. Do Not Wait. That's the significance of Israel's current predicament. Embrace Jesus while there is time. Do it now.

These events in Israel could absolutely be the pre-cursor of the church being removed in the rapture. The stage is completely set for end time events. All we need for the next scene is for the curtain to be lifted up and the players begin the final scene. And the church going up is the curtain that sets those events in motion.

OK, then, let's turn to Ephesians and spend some time looking at the storehouses of wealth that are held in account for us. These are our promises. These promises of inestimable wealth are for the saints in the mystery age, the church.

Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Perhaps the key to unpacking the truths of this opening statement of Paul's is to understand the word he has used 3 times. Blessed, blessed, blessing.

The root word in all 3 forms in our opening statement is eulogeó (yoo-log-eh'-o). We get our anglicized word eulogy. And this compound word comes from two greek roots. Eu which is wellness, positive, goodness, and logos which of course is the greek word for words. So good words.

In the first use, Eulogētos, the first word in our verse, this use is only directed or used in speaking adoration and worshipful praise towards God. Worthy of praise and worship and adoration is our God, Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Godhead is a trinity. 3 persons. Co-equal. One God. Our brains can only begin to partially comprehend the incomprehensible iscrutable God who is 3 in One. He is worthy of worship, far above our intellect to understand or comprehend.

But, never the less, our God, in His grace in revealing Himself to His people has chosen the metaphor that we can almost understand, of Father, Son, and Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three co-equal persons who are One God.

In this case, in vs. 3, it is God the Father who has poured out good things, blessings, on us. But actually not us, if you look at the structure of the verse, we are only the recipients because of our location, our status of being IN Christ.

Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

The blessings are for all who are IN Christ. We spoke at length last week of what it means to be IN Christ. Under His federal headship as opposed to being IN Adam.

We have come out of this condemned world that was born into sin, born into Adam's federal headship, Adam's race, and we have been born again, into the family that Jesus is the federal head of. We are IN Christ.

God the Father has poured out blessings on His Son and anyone attached to His Son become the recipients of the goodness. The blessings.

Therefore Paul can say, it's us who have been blessed. The us, in that verse, is anyone who is IN Christ, and the corporate group of individuals who are all in common, In Christ is the church.

So, then, what exactly is this wealth. What is it that God is showering us with in this blessing. Or, to be blunt in our materialistic age, how do I cash this check? What is my blessing, and how do I use it.

Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Actually, verse 3 is just the grand over-all view. Paul's going to spend the next 19 verses defining all of the blessings we're inheriting, if we are IN Christ. Verse 3 is looking down into the canyon from the top, and vss 4 - 22 and beyond in chapters 2 and 3, are the hike down into the canyon.

every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

If, like the name it and claim it branches of so-called christianity, you are only interested in physical treasure you can touch and feel in this world, silver and gold and cash and airplanes, in this verse, you got exactly nothing. There's no Mercedes Benz for Janis Joplin here.

It's hard to turn this promise into cash you can spend here. What we've received are spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Oh. What's that. Ether? I got ether? Holy smoke?

The world would look at this promise and say, you can have your pie in the sky, bye and bye, I'm gonna get me some pie I can eat. Now. And to be honest, in our remaining flesh, our old man, we might be sympathetic to what they're saying.

What are spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and what does that mean to me in this life. Today. Let me try to help you with some realities in this life that are connected to spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.

First of all, we need to consider the importance of this world, this life. Are we in balance? Are our loves, our values weighted in accordance to the realities of this book.

Are we anywhere near to where Paul is when he looks at everything of value in this world, in his previous life, and says compared to my relationship with Jesus, all of that old stuff I held in high esteem is dung. Waste. Garbage for the garbage heap.

I think that's our biggest challenge in our middle american comfort and security and ease. I'm preaching to myself of course. John wrote; Love not the world, neither the things in the world.

We hear vs 3, we're the recipients of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and you're thinking, I wish jim would hurry up. I want to go home and watch golden bachelor. It's like we're in a dazed disconnect. This world is pretty comfortable, pretty enjoyable. We're like frogs in a frying pan, and Satan keeps increasing the heat, and we're all like, I like my frying pan just fine.

Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

At the final verses of the gospel of Matthew, and the first verses of Acts, what do we see? Jesus departed. Jesus ascended. He went up. And up and up and up, and the disciples gazed into the heavens until they couldn't see Him any more. He disappeared into the clouds.

Jesus, the Lord of everything, is where? In the heavenly places.

Paul says in effect, our promises of blessing, here and now, are connected to the heavens, the heavenly places, the abode of Jesus who is at the right hand of God.

Paul didn't say; Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every physical blessing in the earthly realms.

God did do that, for all of us, to some extent, but that isn't what this verse is about. Our treasure, our inheritance, has very little to do with the nasty now and now. Our wealth is being held in trust for us, in the heavens. This life is of minimal importance. It is what it is. Difficult or easy, poverty or material wealth, hunger or fatness. None of that matters much when this 5 minute life is over.

Our inheritance and inestimable wealth is held in trust for us, in heaven. You say, is there a connection now? OK, I understand that this world is of minimal importance and the wealth is in the heavenlies, but is there any connection to that wealth, now. Right now?

Let me show you a connection that is real, that Jesus asked for, to be given to us on this side. IN this world. In the High Priestly prayer of Jesus, in John chapter 17, listen to what Jesus asked the FAther to give us right now, in this present situation, this physical world, right now;

13 But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

I see three things that are available to us right now. Heavenly treasures that are translated to us in this life. Joy, in vs. 13. The Word of God, in vs. 14, and protection from Satan in vs. 15.

If you're looking for a Mercedes Benz, Ephesians 1:3 is useless to you. But if Joy and a deeper walk with Jesus, through the sanctification of going deep into the Word of God, and a deep confidence that you are a protected child of God, kept from Satan is important to you, then Eph. 1:3 is your verse.

Vs. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Next week, if God allows us, we will try to bore down deep into this well of blessings in Ephesians chapter 1.