Right Living In A World Gone Wrong – Studies in Ephesians
Ephesians 1:13&14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Some of us have experienced the American Dream, or maybe we should call it the American Nightmare, of coming up with the down payment to buy a house. It is a common practice in buying a home, or a car, that a certain amount of earnest money be deposited. The reason it is called “earnest money” is because the owners need to know if you are "in earnest." If they are going to take their house off the market, and not sell it to the next guy who comes along, they need to know you are serious. It seems to be a reasonable request. After you have deposited your earnest money, if someone were to ask the owners of the house how they knew you were serious, they would simply point to the deposit.
I remember when Carol and bought our first house in South Dakota. We were such kids. The real estate agent said, “Do you have some earnest money to put down?” We looked at him with wide eyes. “You know, some money to show that you’re serious about buying the property.” We said, “Well, I suppose we could put down something.” He said, “Do you have even a hundred bucks?” I said, “I suppose we could come up with a hundred.” And we did. Obviously the house was more then a hundred dollars - even in South Dakota, it wasn’t nearly enough to by the whole thing, but it showed that we were serious about buying the place – even a hundred dollars showed we were willing to give something.
How do we know that God is serious when He gives us all these promises? In the first chapter of Ephesians alone we have seen a multitude of blessings which God has said He has already given us. In Ephesians 1:3 we read that God has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." In 1:4 it says that "He chose us in Him." In 1:5 we read that "He predestined us to adoption as sons." In 1:6 it says that "He freely bestowed on us" His grace. In fact, in 1:8 it says that "He lavished upon us" this grace. In 1:7 it says that He redeemed us and that He forgave us. In 1:9 we find that "He made known to us the mystery of His will." In 1:11 we find that in Christ "we have obtained an inheritance." And these are just a few of the things God claims to have done for us. There are hundreds more promises found elsewhere in His Word. Is this real? Is He in earnest? How can we know for certain that you are a child of God and that the inheritance of God's eternal riches of grace is yours in Christ?
Well, according to our text, we can know because God has given us a guarantee! This guarantee is in the form of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit is given as a guarantee and a foretaste of eternal glory. By experiencing His presence in our lives, we can be confident and encouraged in all God has said. In this passage of Scripture, we will see that the Holy Spirit is the down payment, or earnest payment, to show God is serious and that His Word to us is true.
The two verses we are looking at today provide a thumbnail sketch of the entire process of salvation, and they deserve our careful consideration. First, we see that the Ephesians “listened to the message of truth.” Even though Paul has just said that we were “chosen by God before the creation of the world, “ it is obvious that we also have some role in the plan of salvation – we need to listen. Before we go on to the next step, let me point out that they could never have heard unless someone told them. And that is each of our jobs. Paul points out in Romans 10:14&15 that no one can believe in someone that they have never heard of, and that they will never hear unless someone tells them, and no one will tell them unless they are sent. The intent of his words are clear – each of us is to be telling so that others can hear.
It is not the job of the pastor alone – this week I had lunch with a pastor from a different denomination. His group had some people in Fond du Lac who had gone up there a year ago to see about planting a new church. They had run into some roadblocks, and he wanted to know how I would coach them. It seems that they had done some surveying, and invited some people to come to a Bible study – but when they got positive responses, their next step was to stop everything and ask for a full time or bi-vocational pastor! As soon as people started responding, they wanted someone else to be responsible for them! They wanted someone to hand that burden to – rather than bear it themselves.
That is a bad chemistry for a new church, and it will destroy an existing one, too. The responsibility to share the gospel, and care for those who hear it, belongs to each and every one of us – pastors and lay people alike!
Having heard, we need to believe. There are a lot of people in the world today who have heard the truth of Jesus Christ many times. They have heard it so much that they can even tell it themselves – but they have never believed. Unless there is belief, there can be no salvation.
I’m sure you’ve heard the tale of the man who strung a rope across Niagara Falls in the early 20th Century. He walked across. He did all sorts of
Acrobatics on the rope. HE pushed a wheel burro across the rope. He put a 200 pound weight in the wheel burro and pushed it across. The crowds cheered wildly. He stood before the crowd, and said, “How many of you believe I can push this wheel burro across the falls again?” The crowd agreed he could. “How many of you believe I could push it across with a man in it?” They wildly agreed he could. Then the man said, “OK, will be the first to get in?” There was deadly silence. Belief is one thing – acting on the belief is another. We must place ourselves – our eternal souls - squarely in the truth of Jesus. Let’s face it – if the Muslims are right – then I’m going to hell. But I believe in Jesus Christ, and He alone is the way to God – and I have placed my eternal destiny in His claims…That is belief! And the reason for my certainty in that belief is that God Himself, by the Holy Spirit, lives in me!
When they believed, Paul tells us that the Ephesians were “sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit.” I want us to spend the rest of the morning talking about this idea of being “sealed with the Holy Spirit.”
There is an interesting encounter recorded in Acts 19. There the apostle Paul encountered some people who were calling people to repent, and get their lives right with God. In verse 2 we read that he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Their reply was interesting, and unfortunately, it is also indicative of many in the church today. They said in reply, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." It turns out that some one from that city had gone to Israel, and had heard John the Baptist preaching that the Messiah was coming, and that people needed to get ready. They believed John, and repented of their sins, and went back home to tell their friends to get ready for the Messiah. In the years that had passed they had not heard that Jesus had come, ministered for three years, and been crucified, buried and resurrected.
That city was Ephesus. Paul explained to them the truth of Jesus, and they believed, and the Holy Spirit came and lived within them in that moment of belief. Now Paul, in writing to the church in that city many years later, gives praise to God for the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the church.
Many Christians today live as though the Holy Spirit doesn't exist. The Holy Spirit tends to be ignored in many circles. Why? There are several reasons. It could be true that He is ignored because many don't understand much about the Holy Spirit. Perhaps they were never taught. Perhaps those who are teaching them were never taught themselves. It also seems, because of some of the excesses in some groups, that many are simply afraid of the Holy Spirit. As a result many believers are terribly uninformed about the nature and value of the Holy Spirit's work today. This is unfortunate because the Holy Spirit is vital to the life of every believer.
It is important that we understand something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit today. The Bible speaks volumes concerning His ministry in relation to believers. The Scriptures reveal to us that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit baptizes or places us into Christ's body (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit indwells us (John 14:16-17), empowers us (Acts 1:4-5), and annoints us for specific service (1 Samuel 9:16). The Holy Spirit gives us various spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12), fills us (Ephesians 5:18), and changes us into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). And here we are told, in Ephesians 1:13-14, that the Holy Spirit seals us, and that He guarantees our inheritance.
And the Holy Spirit is a person. Through the New and Old Testaments we find overwhelming evidence that the Holy Spirit is a person. He has personality – intelligence, emotion, will. He speaks, he prays, he teaches. The Holy Spirit is not an “it,” He is a person. And now this spiritual person is promised to come and live within the believer, as the presence of God Himself within us.
This is shown in John 16:7, when Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, at the request of the Son, to encourage us, to come along side us, as our divine Helper.
Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (1:13)
Paul goes on to say of the Holy Spirit of promise that He was given as a seal. Every person who has trusted Jesus as their Savior has been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
A seal in ancient times was generally made of wax. It was common practice to melt a bit of wax to seal a scroll. Into this melted wax a signet ring was often pressed, leaving the mark of it's owner. It was to guarantee that the letter was authentic. You might think of the common practice on cattle ranches of branding cows to identify them as belonging to their owners. The Jews saw circumcision as the sign or seal of their faith. And Christians now possess a sign or seal of their faith. It is the Holy Spirit. His presence in your life is the seal that assures that you belong to Him.
Does every believer receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as this sign or seal? The answer is found in Romans 8:9b. There we read, "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." The Spirit is given to every believer. He is the evidence that the believer belongs to Christ. Indeed, in Romans 8:16 we read, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God." The Holy Spirit is in you, if you are a believer, to lead, to reveal Jesus Christ to you, and to witness to your spirit that you belong to Christ.
We find that Holy Spirit is not only given to us as a seal, He is given as a deposit of our inheritance. The Greek word translated deposit is “arrabon”. This word means "an earnest, a part payment given in advance." What is in view here is earnest money or a down payment. Literally, the Holy Spirit is given to us as the first installment of all that will follow. When you get a first installment, you are assured that there will be much more of the same kind of thing to follow. The Holy Spirit by whom we are indwelt is the real thing, but only just a taste! He is merely the down payment.
The Holy Spirit is a deposit indicating that God is serious regarding our inheritance. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit means that all God's says He did, He has done. When He said He blessed us with all spiritual blessings, it means He has blessed us. When He says He choose us, and predestined us, and bestowed His grace upon us freely and lavishly, and redeemed us, and revealed His mystery to us, and provided an inheritance for us, it means that He has done it. We know it is real because we have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit's presence also means that all God says He will do, He will do! In other words, the future is absolutely secure.
But the Holy Spirit is not only a down payment, He is also a preview. Experiencing life in the Holy Spirit is experiencing abundant life, but in a limited way. In other words, we are experiencing just a little of what is to come. We are not experiencing the absolute and total fullness of our inheritance yet. We are catching only a glimpse of the riches which will be ours ultimately in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a foretaste of what is to come. We will sing in a few moments,
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!
What will heaven be like? What will it mean to inherit all the promises of God? What will it mean to be fully saturated with the presence of the living God? What will it mean to experience abundant and eternal life in heaven? I'm not sure. And neither are you. Let the Holy Spirit show you a glimpse of what it means. The Bible exhorts us to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). Unless we are open to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the extent of His work in us, we will never begin to experience His power and ministry. And there is so much He has to offer us. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is just the beginning. It is at that point that we start our adventure with God – it’s just a deposit of what’s to come. There is much more to come than any of us have experienced.
It has not been my purpose to examine in this message the extent of the work of the Holy Spirit today. When we study Ephesians 5:18, we will look in more detail at the Holy Spirit, and the daily filling of the Holy Spirit. For now, I would like to encourage you to become aware of the Holy Spirit's presence in your life. If you have believed, He is in you!
Yield to Him. Surrender yourself to Him. Give Him control of your life. He will begin to reveal Jesus Christ to you, and assure you of your inheritance in Christ. He will also begin to open you to more of His activity in your life. You will never get more of the Holy Spirit – but you can give Him more of you. You don't have to do it, but if you would like more of the Holy Spirit's presence and power in your life, then the secret is yielding and surrendering to Him. Simply ask Him to take you on a spiritual adventure in which Jesus becomes more real and your spiritual life becomes more dynamic. He will do it.
You have had a chance today to hear the truth of Jesus. Having heard, you have the choice of belief. I pray that the Spirit will work in your heart to draw you to that place of faith in Jesus Christ, and that He will do that sealing work in your heart, and that you will experience the down payment of His presence in you, anticipating one day your presence with Him in heaven.
If you have believed, as these Ephesians already had believed, then live in the joy and the blessing of fellowship with God! Put the struggles of this world in perspective, practice the presence of God in your daily life, and live to the praise of His glory!
Prayer