The Holy Path

It has been a while since we talked about the Apostle Paul. Paul was a Pharisee from Greek-speaking Turkey, with a Jewish father who had been granted Roman citizenship. As a teenager, Paul had gone to Jerusalem and studied under the rabbi Gamaliel, one of the greatest Jewish teachers, a man who is still quoted today in academic discussions about the Jewish Law. When Jesus appeared, was crucified, and rose from the dead, Paul was not in the story. But a few months later, after Jesus ascended to Heaven, after the great outbreak of the Holy Spirit among the disciples at Pentecost, after Stephen began to debate Pharisees in the street, got in trouble, and was stoned – Paul stood there holding the cloaks of the men who stoned Stephen. Paul was convinced that this Jesus movement was blasphemous, sacrilege, and needed to be stamped out. So Paul lead a movement to grab Christians and throw them into jail. He even got a letter from the high priest to travel to Damascus to pursue Christians there and bring them back to Jerusalem. Paul was convinced that those who claimed Jesus was Lord should be removed before this dangerous idea spread.

Until he traveled to Damascus. On the road to Damascus, he was struck blind by a bright light and heard Jesus speaking to him. He was led into Damascus, was visited by a Christian believer, had his sight restored, and was baptized. Then Paul put his fantastic mind to work, went to the desert, studied and understood the Old Testament scriptures about Jesus and came out of the desert preaching that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, God Himself walking upon the earth. He traveled across modern Turkey several times, to Greece, and even to Italy to found many churches and train other evangelists. He also wrote several letters, which make up much of the New Testament. One of those letters was written to the church he founded in Ephesus, then a Greek-speaking port city and center of goddess worship in western Turkey.

Today, Paul has written a letter to the Ephesian church. After a customary greeting explaining who Paul is and who he is writing to, Paul gets down to business and writes perhaps the wisest, densest letter

“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.”

It is a reflection of Paul’s spiritual maturity that he begins the body of this letter with a praising of God the Father. Praising God at the beginning of a conversation is a great way to turn the conversation the way all conversations should turn, which is to acknowledge that God is present with us. We are never alone; we are never hidden from God when we speak – God is able to hear and see us, and we might as well take a moment to praise God for what God has done for us. God has given us EVERY spiritual blessing. There are earthly blessings and there are spiritual blessings, and it is good to understand the differences.

Earthly blessings are those gifts that God gives us on earth that remain on earth. For example, a person may be blessed with financial riches, or wonderful children or good health or the ability to sing or paint or solve mechanical problems. In general, we are only given a few of these earthly blessings; other people are given a different mix of blessings. One person is a wealthy mechanic; another person is a superbly healthy accountant who loves working with numbers all day long.

But spiritual blessings come in the heavenly realms as a package. All spiritual blessings are given to all Christians – Let me list some of these blessings.

For example, Christians are being adopted as children of God. What is the blessing of this? When a beggar flags you down at the traffic light, you may or may not check your wallet for a few dollars to give to him or her. But to your children you plan long and carefully to support them with food, water, shelter, clothing, education, and many luxuries such as bicycles, phones, toys, tennis shoes, perhaps even a used car or books or cable television or internet, and especially you plan carefully with a last will and testament for your grown children. And we have become adopted children of God! Imagine the long term blessings that God is even now planning for us!

We are chosen by God to become holy, not because he saw that we were holy or saw we would become holy, but because he determined that his children would become holy. Those who are Christians WILL BE holy and blameless in God’s sight, which is a wonderful thing. And so we will be spiritually blessed with the attention of the wisest mind in the universe to show us how to become holy, for holiness leads to happiness and joy. Of course, sometimes this training course, this movement along the path of holiness is difficult for us, like being thrown in a 4-ft pool of water is unpleasant for a 7-year-old who does not like the feel of getting wet, but with the child’s parent watching carefully, there is no real danger, just the fear of the unknown. And so, within a week or two, the child loves the swimming pool. In the same way, we children of God do not like the feeling of being fired or laid off from a job, we hate the idea of moving to a different home, teenagers are aghast and fearful at the idea of losing a boyfriend or a girlfriend, but we all adapt quickly to the new job, the new home, the new friend who is better for us.

Before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, do you remember what a trap for the poor that New Orleans had become? Filled with the occult, drug use, alcoholism, and no hope of ever getting away, many New Orleans residents were filled with sadness, depression, and loneliness. Then, with the Hurricane that God sent, people had to leave town. They had two choices: Leave or die. So they loaded onto the buses and were taken to Memphis or Houston or Nashville. And there, they found Christians and churches that opened their doors to them, that found them jobs, and connected them with Twelve-step programs. Many of the people who left New Orleans never returned, because they found a better life. God had moved them along to that better life even though they would have never left New Orleans if the Hurricane had not arrived. When God is behind a change in your life, it is best not to fight it, but hold on for the ride and smile!

And God does not do these things to punish us or because of how good or how bad we’ve been, but God does these things, as verse 5 says, “in accordance with His pleasure and will.” This is grace in action – God giving us a blessing that we did not deserve, did not ask for, and was not forced by any reason. It is simply the character of God to do good for us because God wants to do good for us.

Another spiritual blessing given all Christians is to be accepted by God because we simply belong to Jesus Christ, God’s Son. It doesn’t matter how good we’ve been or whether we’ve been terrible people, God accepts us simply because we belong to Jesus. Like a stray cat adopted by a little child, the cat is accepted by the child’s father, not because of how good a cat it is, but because the child, whom the father loves, has claimed the cat as its own. God has given us grace because we belong to the One he loves.

As Christians, we also receive the spiritual blessings of forgiveness of sins and the redemption from slavery to sin because of the blood of Christ. We each have the stain of sin, the wrong actions we have committed in our lives, but the blood of Christ removes that stain. We are like people who sold ourselves into slavery, in this case slavery to sins such as addiction, anger, hatred, and immorality. But Jesus has paid the price to buy us back from slavery, to redeem us from that slavery to sin. He has set us free – and this is given to all who choose to follow Jesus Christ and accept that He is the Son of God.

Another spiritual blessing, a privilege granted to all Christians is we can understand and receive God’s will, the mystery of His will are made known to us. The deep reasons that He sent Jesus Christ to the world are revealed to us. And thus we can see more and more the wisdom and the planning of God – and the world makes more sense.

We receive the spiritual blessing of being united in Christ. We are no longer divided people, more and more we have a unity of purpose and a unity of belonging with Christ. It is simple and easy to see in our world the dangers of the various factions in the world – and even in our own country. But we are united to and in Christ, the Son of God, tapping into that healing and protection that comes from the greatest and wisest power in the Universe.

We have the spiritual blessing of the eternal inheritance, a home with God forever, heirs of the kingdom, a happiness which is given to us from our heavenly Father, like a trust fund that will never expire, more security than any billionaire has received from his money, an eternal protection from God our Father.

We receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit, which is the deposit which guarantees our inheritance. We were marked by the Spirit and sealed in protection when we hear the gospel of our salvation, the message of truth. We are now secured, like earnest money secures a home. Yet in our case the home secured is a mansion in the future with God and Christ. All of the promises are secured by this blessing of the Holy Spirit, until the full redemption of these promises and blessings at the general resurrection – which will be the ultimate day of praising God’s glory.

Those of us who have been believers for longer are to praise God even more. This is part of the plan. As we move from those first days of wondering about Jesus, to understanding Jesus’ purpose, to believing in Him, to following Him, to proclaiming His Gospel to others, our praises should grow.

And this series of Spiritual blessings are given to all who choose to follow Jesus Christ. It does not matter whether you have follow Jesus since you were a child – or whether you are right now considering whether to really commit to Him, these spiritual blessings of adoption, acceptance, forgiveness, redemption from sin, the revelation of God’s will, unity in Christ, eternal inheritance, and the Holy Spirit are waiting for us. We may receive earthly blessings from day to day, the type we talk about during prayer time which differ from person to person. But we all receive the spiritual blessings.

And so we see a huge shower of blessings awaiting us at the end of our walk with Christ. There is much more to following Christ than “living forever” or “going to Heaven”.

I am constantly amazed at how small the blessing are that most Christians acknowledge. Are we so used to this world, are we so self-absorbed, are we so focused upon the material things of this world that we cannot see the great blessings God gives to us each day? Or are we so blind, so deaf, so spiritually asleep that we do not see or hear or even notice that God is performing a brass band with fireworks around us each and every day trying to get our attention. Let me draw your attention to some blessings from God…

1)    God has told you He exists. God does this in the Bible, in the testimony of people around you, and in the little wonders of life. For example, why is a rainbow pretty? As a physicist, I could explain to you why a rainbow looks like it does, the size of the rainbow, the color progression of the rainbow, why it mostly appears when there is rain. But why is it pretty? There is no good reason for a rainbow – or a coral reef, for that matter – to be pretty. Except that God wants to get your attention, and He loves pretty. What a blessing!

2)    Another blessing is that God has given us a wonderful land to live in. It does not have massive wildfires like the West, it rarely has earthquakes, it rarely gets below -20 F nor above 100 F, crops grow, rain falls, the land is green and well-watered, not brown, not sand or rock.

3)    Another blessing is that God gives us stable physical laws. A ball thrown into the air rises and falls on a predictable path. Airplanes can fly because the laws of physics are stable, the same every day. Electricity flows because 120 volts can only jump so far, and that distance can be predicted. Chemistry always works the same, day after day, and so food has predictable effects, even though I know we’d all like ice cream and chocolate to have less predictable effects on our bodies. But predictable physical laws are a blessing – God could have created an unstable universe. Imagine living in Alice’s Wonderland! Imagine a life where the force of gravity is different from minute to minute, where food is healthy one day and poison the next day.

4)    Another blessing from God is that we do not have bands of raiders and criminals that attack our city – just the occasional isolated person or two. Artillery does not pound our buildings day and night. God has led most people to prefer to buy and sell, to work for a wage, and not to use weapons to take. This is not true around the world – but it is true in almost all countries which are dominated by Christians, because we respect that all people are formed in the image of God, walking, talking sculptures of a view of God. Other countries have different religions, and in many of those countries, the gun or the sword or the fist are the principle ways people distribute wealth. But when the evening news talks about raiders and criminals that run countries around the world – be blessed that God protects us here.

5)    And another blessing from God is that we have children and grandchildren. Imagine how dull the world would be without children and grandchildren. Imagine how dull things would be if God had established people more like trees instead of as humans. But God did not. God, even in our fallen world, after Adam ate the Apple, God blessed us with the joy that comes from children and grandchildren – either our own or others.

Yes, God gives us many blessings. He allows us to ride in cars that almost always get to where they are supposed to go safely. Healthy days are the general rule – it is only when we don’t have a healthy day that we notice and say we are “sick”. The sun shines every day – although it is sometimes covered by clouds and then,  it cools us down or rains – which we need. We can see the moon and planets and stars at night; we can see and hear birds during the day. And sitting here beside us we have friends, people we enjoy being next to. God designed us so that we would be blessed by friends, not sit here like a group of wild cats, ready to scratch and claw and hiss at everyone else.

We are blessed by God, my friends. Look around, develop “blessing-vision”, where you see the blessings around you every day, every hour. Blessings occur in a normal day – you don’t have to wait until the semi-truck misses your car by half an inch to be blessed. No, your child called you or gave you a hug. It was a blessing. You hit a green light on the way to town. A blessing. You hit a red light and saw a beautiful cloud while you waited. A blessing.

Or you can give a blessing. You called a friend and your phone call was a blessing to your friend. Or you gave an extra 2 dollar tip to the waitress – or even 10 dollars – and were a blessing to your new friend, the waitress who you just blessed.

So today, I’d like to ask every person here, every single one of you, to come up to the altar during this song, and thank God in prayer for some blessing you’ve found over the last week. You don’t need to kneel – you can stand if kneeling is difficult for you. If you CAN kneel, well, that’s a blessing from God. Just stand up from your seat and make your way to the front to thank God for a blessing you’ve received.

And as you begin to make your way up here, let us share a blessing with you, the greatest blessing that you will receive, when one day you stand before Jesus and God the Father, and they tell you, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Amen!

Post-Sermon Song: Well Done Video

Benediction: May God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit fill you and guide you this week, that you may do the will of God. Be blessed!

5 Closing Song – There Shall be Showers of Blessing 349