Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130324.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
3. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Unconditional Salvation Security
(Ephesians 1:13-14)
  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 1:13-14, we focus on our unconditional salvation security for nurture in an insecure world:
  2. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Unconditional Salvation Security, Ephesians 1:13-14.
    1. A large part of evangelicalism holds that one is saved from hell providing he keeps on believing firmly in Christ, but that if his faith falters, he loses his salvation, a position called conditional salvation security.
    2. However, encouraging his readers who were tempted to feel insecure in a troubled world where their human spiritual leader, Paul was imprisoned, Paul taught unconditional salvation security, Eph. 1:13-14:
      1. The verbs rendered "after that ye heart" and "after that ye believed," akousantes and pisteusantes in the Greek New Testament at Ephesians 1:13 respectively, are aorist participles ( U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 665; William D. Mounce, The Analy. Lex. to the Greek N. T., 1993, p. 59, 374 respectively).
      2. They thus teach that the sealing of the Holy Spirit occurs logically based upon one's hearing and then responding to this hearing by believing in the Gospel of Christ for salvation.
      3. [Charismatic evangelicals teach the "sealing" occurs at a time subsequent to faith when one speaks in tongues (W. J. Hollenberger, The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches , 1972, p. 9 as cited in Donald Ray Shell, The Doctrine of the Seal of the Spirit and Its Implications, 1976, a master's thesis presented to the Dallas Theological Seminary, p. 2). However, the aorist participle pisteusantes in this context presents the logical basis for the sealing, not a temporal timeline (Ibid., Shell, p. 14-20), meaning one is sealed the instant he trusts in Christ, cf. 1 Corinthians 12:13.]
      4. The verb "sealed" in Ephesians 1:13, esphragisthete, is an aorist passive, meaning the believer is the passive recipient of the Holy Spirit's sealing, Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; Ibid., Mounce, p. 219.
      5. The Holy Spirit Himself Who is the Seal also acts as the arrabon of the believer's inheritance, the "earnest, part payment in advance for security, a first installment" (Abbott-Smith, Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 60), and He is the partial installment unto the redemption (apolutrosin, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.) of the "possession" ( peripoiesis, Ibid., Abbott-Smith, p. 357), Eph. 1:14a. The Holy Spirit thus seals the believer unto the day of "redemption" (cf. Ephesians 4:30) when he is taken to heaven in the rapture and acts as an advance security, God's first installment of heavenly blessings!
      6. This truth was illustrated at Ephesus in Paul's day: timber from area hills was felled, brought and tied to form floats in the Ephesian harbor for sale to traveling merchants. Upon buying a float, a merchant would put his seal of ownership upon it to preserve it for himself until he returned with a ship to tug it home, Ibid., Shell, p. 9-10 in citing W. E. Biederwolf, Help to the Study of the Holy Spirit, 1904, p. 40.
      7. Thus, in the historical context, Paul taught that when a believer trusts in Christ, God marks him as His possession by sealing him with the Person of God the Holy Spirit until the rapture of the Church when Christ returns to take him to heaven. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit's ministry to the believer "as he floats sealed with the Spirit in the harbor" encourages him that what he experiences now with the Spirit's ministry unto him is just a foretaste of his wonderful future life once he reaches heaven in the rapture!
      8. Thus, the believer is unconditionally sealed in his salvation status to the glory of God, Eph. 1:14b!
Lesson: The believer is to be encouraged that regardless of this life's insecurities, he is unconditionally sealed by God the Holy Spirit until he reaches heaven in bliss in the rapture.

Application: May we focus on our unconditional salvation security status to cease fretting over earthly insecurities, and relish the foretaste of heaven we have in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to our hearts.