Living the Father's Grand Story

Living the Father’s Grand Story

Sermon on Ephesians 1:3-14

“In matters of God’s grace, hyperboles are understatements.”

Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection (63)

You take after your Father…

I was fortunate to have a good father and I’m grateful for the legacy that he gave me. Typical of his generation, he didn’t spend a lot of time with me – for him, nurturing the kids was my mom’s job. But he modeled faithfulness, hard work, kindness and an appreciation for beauty that I have inherited. He taught us how to do things – to not be afraid to get our hands dirty. When he was happy, he would dance, sing silly songs or say things in a language that he made up himself. (His father did the same thing.)

My father’s hobby was building boats, which was his father’s vocation. When my day died several years ago, I built a model boat to affirm my connection to him and to mourn my loss – a hobby that I have continued to today. I miss my dad; but I’m thankful for the legacy that he gave to me and the story of my family that I’m privileged to live.

How about you? What was your dad like? Maybe your situation was not as good as mine. I greive when I hear stories of absent or abusive fathers – a situation that is all too common in the community in which we live. I cannot imagine what it would be like to live life having experienced so much hurt from the one who should protect and care for you. Others struggle with absent fathers, never having that stable influence to guide you through the challenges of life and celebrate your victories with you.

We live in a broken world – a mixture of both good and bad. And whether good or bad, fathers have a profound influence on us throughout our lives. We are their legacy, a continuation of the life story that they brought us into.

God the Father- Ephesians 1:3-14

But there is another narrative – a greater Father’s Story – that we who have placed our trust in Christ have been brought into by His design. It’s our text for today.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In lovehepredestined us for adoption to sonshipthrough Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, hemade known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you 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.

The passage that we just read is “theological ecstasy.” Paul is hardly out of the gate in his letter to the Ephesians and he cannot contain himself. It’s not in our translation, but the passage is all one sentence – one theological truth cascading on top of another. These nine verses are the Niagara Falls of the salvation story described in the Scriptures. We’re almost drowning in the cataracts of God’s grace as we consider the rich truths found in this passage. There is, however, one big idea that I want us to grasp as we seek to hear God’s voice in His word this morning.

This is God’s Narrative – the Father’s Grand Story – and He has written us into His script.

In Paul’s gushing account of God’s story, he lists seven things that the Father has done for us:

1. He blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

2. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

3. He predestined us for adoption as not as little children, but for adult sonship.

4. He lavished redemption and forgiveness on us. He didn’t just bless us. He gives, and gives, and gives again. Eugene Peterson puts it this way: “In matters of God’s grace, exaggerations are understatements.”

5. He revealed the mystery of His will to us.

6. We were included in Christ.

7. And finally, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit as a down-payment on our eternal destiny in union with God.

This is the Father’s story. He is the writer, director, producer, and primary actor. He is the one who initiates, sustains, and moves it to its final conclusion.

But every story has purpose – a goal to which the narrative points. What is the end-game to all of this? Paul lays it out for us.

· He chose us to be holy and blameless in His sight. We are not just some cast of extras brought in to fill out a scene in God’s story. We all have a part to play – a destiny to fulfill. And in every good story, each character is transformed. We will be made like Christ - holy and blameless. Paul says it in chapter four of this same epistle: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” This is what Paul means when he writes that the Father predestined us for adoption to adult sonship through Jesus Christ. It is not enough that we should just be saved to go to heaven, but rather that we would grow and be mature. This is the point that many of us as evangelicals often miss. It is not enough just to bring people to Christ. The purpose of the church, in C.S. Lewis’ words is “to bring people into Christ.” It is not enough to get more people into heaven. The Father’s purpose is to get more heaven into people.

· Paul reveals the mystery of God’s will is to “bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” This is the Grand Story in which we have been invited to live. God created this world and it was perfect. But sin entered in and turned everything upside down. God intervened through the Incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ to take on the power of sin and death at the cross and crushed them in victory when He rose from the grave. By His resurrection power, Christ is making and will make all things new. Creation – Incarnation – Recreation. That is the Father’s Grand Story and He has brought us in to play our part.

· All of this is for the praise of His glory. That God might be known in all His fullness throughout all time and all His creation.

Grand Stories are powerful. They are not make-believe, inconsequential, fanciful yarns that people spin just to entertain themselves. They shape our values and determine our destiny.

· We live the American story, conceived in the hearts of the Pilgrims, given birth by patriots in 1776, with liberty enduring through over 200 years of hardship and triumph.

· There is the Illinois story - a tale of rivers, canals, railroads, and broken prairie land. We are a people inspired by a martyred President and energized by one of the greatest cities in the world.

· Galesburg has its story. We were founded by a group of passionate religious entrprenuers whose zealous soul was activated in abolitionalist zeal. We are a diverse community of Hoosiers, Yankees, conservatives and progressives that have met our challenges with courage and good will.

· First Baptist has a story, too. We are now in our 171^st year and our church family has worshiped in this beautiful space for over 100 years. With 33 pastors, we have experienced ups and downs, but God’s providence has sustained us through times of plenty and want, peacetime and conflict. We smile at the future because we know remember God’s faithfulness to us.

All of these narratives shape and frame how we live. And there are more competing stories as well in our culture. There’s the consumer’s story that tells us to buy things in order to be happy; the capitalist story that says money makes the world go round; there’s the secular humanist story that carries no transcendence and has no accountability; and there’s the libertine story that says, “if it feels good, do it.” We live in a world of multiple stories. The question is not whether or not you will order your life according to some narrative. We all do. The question is, “who gets to narrate your world?”

Invited into the Father’s Story

As Christians, we have been invited to live in the Father’s Grand Story. For far too long, we have thought of the Christian faith as a value-added commodity to our life – something that will make our lives here on earth better and when we die, we’ll go to heaven. That is all true, but God’s Story is much bigger than our own personal welfare.

What would happen if we would grasp the Christian faith as living out God’s story – the story that will completely transform the entire cosmos? What would happen if we found our place in the same script as Noah, Abraham, King David, the prophets, the Apostles, the reformers, John Wesley, D.L. Moody, Adoriam Judson, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham. The truth is, we, with them, are all part of the Father’s Grand Story.

Friends, if we would understand our place in this grand story, I believe it could radically change the way we live our lives in our families, in our church, and in our world. Life would no longer be centered on us, but rather on God and the destiny that we have in His plan. We are called to maturity in Christ – to be holy and blameless. We are critical players in God’s plan to bring all things together in heaven and earth in Christ. We don’t stand alone today, but rather on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. And we bear the burden of helping those who will come after us.

How would such an understanding change us? In every way, I think. I’ve developed a little litany for us to say together to spur our imagination in considering how being in God’s Story could change our lives. I’ll relay a situation, leading up to the words, “I remember,” to which, if you will respond, “I am living the Father’s Grand Story.”

When I read the Bible, and rehearse the lives of God’s people, I recognize that this is my story as well - and I remember: