Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130317.htm

THE PRISON EPISTLES: NURTURE FOR OPPRESSED BELIEVERS
I. Ephesians: Nurture In Living Focused On God's Eternal Purpose For Christians
A. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Election And Sealing In Christ, Ephesians 1:1-23
2. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Gracious, Beloved Status With God
(Ephesians 1:6-12)
  1. Introduction
    1. When Paul wrote the "Prison Epistles" of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon in his Roman imprisonment, his status as a prisoner troubled believers, cf. Philippians 1:12-13; Colossians 2:1-2; 4:7-8 and Philemon 22; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672, "Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians."
    2. Aware of this need, Paul's Prison Epistles highlight special focuses toward comforting and stabilizing his readers, a ministry of nurture greatly applicable for oppressed Christians today.
    3. In Ephesians 1:6-12, we focus on our gracious, beloved status with God for nurture under oppression:
  2. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Gracious, Beloved Status With God, Ephesians 1:6-12.
    1. God has graciously endowed (charistoo, Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 480) us believers in Christ with His unmerited favor, His grace in the Beloved One ( agapao = perfect passive ptc., the One Who has been permanently Beloved of the Father (William D. Mounce, The Anal. Lex. to the Greek N. T., 1993, p. 235; U. B. S. Greek N. T. , 1966, p. 664), Ephesians 1:6.
    2. The term "The Beloved One" is actually a Messianic term in Paul's era (Ibid., Abbott-Smith, p. 4), so Paul relates that the believer in Christ has been graciously endowed with God's unmerited favor in His Son Whom He has permanently Loved and delegated to be the Messianic King of the world!
    3. As such, Ephesians 1:7-12 clarifies the astounding bounty of that unmerited favor toward the believer:
      1. First, believers in Christ in their spiritual position in Christ have the redemption (apolutrosis, Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.), Ephesians 1:7a. Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross , 1972, p. 37-48, reveals that apolutrosis implies the payment of a price, and in the Ephesians 1:7b context where the blood of Christ is mentioned, the price is the death of Christ to satisfy God's wrath against the sinner, cf. Romans 3:25. Thus, Paul here teaches that in the death of the One Whom the Father has permanently Beloved, He poured out all of His wrath that was against the believer upon that Beloved One that he might not go to hell, but become a recipient of God's unmerited favor and infinite love.
      2. Second, through the blood, the death of the Beloved One, the believer in Christ has the pardon from (aphesis, Ibid., Abbott-Smith, p. 70) his trespasses (paraptoma, Ibid., p. 342) of God's Law according to the riches of God's unmerited favor, Eph. 1:7b. God's expression of wrath was so totally poured out on Christ in His death that God's wrath against the believer was thus expended, and God has fully positionally released him from all guilt regarding his violations of God's righteousness! (Col. 1:14).
      3. Third, God has made the riches of His unmerited favor to abound (perisseuo, Ibid., p. 357) unto us in all absolute wisdom (sophia, Ibid., p. 412) and practical prudence ( phronesis, Ibid., p. 412, 474) in that He has made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure that He purposed for His own benefit (proetheto = aorist middle voice, implying action in one's own interests, Ibid., Mounce, p. 390; Ibid., Abbott-Smith, p. 390 [protithemi]) in Christ, Ephesians 1:8-9. Namely, God abounded in His unmerited favor unto us in revealing through Paul's ministry that He plans to gather together all things on earth and in heaven in the Messiah in the Messianic Kingdom, Ephesians 1:10. To that end, He has chosen the believer in Christ in the Church age upon having eternally predestined him to be glorified, one day to be taken up in the rapture from the earth and glorified and placed in His heavenly presence with Christ, all to the praise of the glory of His unmerited favor, Eph. 1:11-12, 4.
      4. In summary, then, God has richly totally saved the believer who was once an object of His great wrath, so completely saving him from sin that invoked that wrath via the Beloved Messiah's substitutionary work for him on the cross, that God plans to glorify the believer in Christ and bring him up to heaven to dwell in God's own presence, all to the praise of the glory of God's great unmerited favor.
Lesson: Paul's readers were to be sure that regardless of his imprisonment, God's unmerited favor would yet bless them all in heaven in the Beloved Messiah though all were once objects of His wrath.

Application: May we focus on God's great unmerited favor to us to cease fretting over earthly concerns.