“Called to Follow”

Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23

Last week, we considered the challenges that we face in faith through the temptations that Jesus was subjected to in the desert. We are tempted to work hard for the things of earth, and let the things of heaven take a back seat. We are challenged to turn away from the word of God, and to put our trust in the standards and mores of the world for our guidance and focus in this life. And people tell us that the powers and princes and hopes and dreams and promises that come from earth are the only things that we can truly count on, and that God is only a figment of some fanatic’s imagination. And we fall for the lies.

But Jesus would have us know differently. He told us that it is the word of God that will nourish our soul, and that the words of the deceiver will only bring us starvation. He told us that God is true, and his commandments are good, and that we can trust all that comes from him, but other than the Lord, there is no one and no thing that can claim that hope. He told us that there is only one who is worthy of our lives and our worship, and that we are to give our all to the Lord God Almighty, no matter what others may try to tell us.

Rev. John M. Buchanan, a Presbyterian pastor, prays the following thoughts every time the music stops and the lights go down and the holy hush descends [on the church],: “Startle us, O God! Startle us with the wild improbability of what we say we believe. Startle us with the incredible beauty and goodness of the affirmations this place, and our being in it this morning, represent.”
- Homiletics Online

And when we can say that we truly believe the things of Jesus, when we can honestly, and with confidence, ask the Father to “startle us” in those things, it is then that we are finally on our way in faith.

Read Matthew 4:12-17

Jesus returned to the Galilee, to a city named Capernaum. Capernaum is located at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee and is just a few miles from Nazareth. And as cities go in that day, it was fairly large. This community would become the area that would be the home base for Jesus as he ministered throughout Galilee.
His cousin John’s ministry is coming to a close, while Jesus’ ministry is just beginning. And where will it begin? Not in Jerusalem, not in the center of Jewish faith, but many miles to the north in an out of the way place that the intellectuals of the day considered to be the home of pagans and the ignorant. Even the prophet described this as a place where the people lived in darkness. But Isaiah would also say that the people have seen a “great light”, one that was the dawn of a new day for them, that this new light would lead them out of death and into a life unlike any they had ever known.
This area is also one where Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles lived side by side. And I believe that the significance of this can’t be overlooked. He had come for both the chosen and the exile, for the righteous and the wicked, for the insider and the outcast. His ministry would be for all who lived in the shadow of darkness, and while he would shed the Light of Heaven on all who came near, only those who would follow him in faith would receive the Light.

And he began to spread the word that repentance was absolutely necessary if they were to have any hope of experiencing heaven. And this, in and of itself, was a strange thought for most of the people. Whether they were Jews or Gentiles, the journey to heaven had little to do with repentance from the way each person was living. The only hope of heaven was seen, in nearly every case, as doing as many good things as you possibly could. It was about working your way out of condemnation.
And the Church has struggled with this concept throughout the centuries, too. Even John Wesley said “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” Of course this is generally taken out of context, as Wesley never intended for anyone to think that “doing good” should ever be seen as a substitute for faith and repentance from our sin.
And why are we to repent? Because the Kingdom of God has come near. The kingdom has come in Jesus Christ. Now it’s true that the kingdom of earth is also still in place, but in Christ, we can now also know the better way through him. The 2 kingdoms will continue to exist side by side until Christ’s return, but the Light is now before us, and Hope has come to free us.

Read Matthew 4:18-22

This is, on the surface, not an unusual event. Rabbis, Greek philosophers, and other learned men of that day gathered others, usually students, around them, so that others could be duly impressed with the teacher’s great knowledge. The teachers would teach, and the students would learn, and ideas and concepts would be developed and honed and advanced. But in these cases, the students would generally seek out the learned teachers, and apply to be accepted into their circle. But note what happens in Jesus’ case – he goes and finds Simon and Andrew, not the other way around; he calls them, they do not ask to be his disciple; and they respond immediately, without a word. And the same happens with James and John.
This is important for us to understand. In John 15:14-16, Jesus intentionally tells us that he has walked into our lives, and that he has called us to follow him, and that we are to learn from him and we are to share him with others, and that we have had little to do any of it. Becoming a follower of Jesus isn’t the same thing as becoming a disciple of some other teacher. Yes, we are to sit at Jesus’ feet, to give him the best and worst that is in us, and to receive the very best from him. But we are to sit with him only so long – soon the time will come that we need to begin walking with him, for the learning to begin being applied. The students will learn for the rest of their lives, but if anyone thinks that learning is a solitary existence, you have another think coming!
Learning Jesus’ ways is never an “end all” condition – once we have begun to grasp the meaning of being his, we are to begin calling others to his side, so they, too, can learn, and so they can reach out to even more, and so the cycle can continue through the end of this age.

Read Matthew 4:23

Teaching, and preaching, and healing – the name of Jesus can do it all. And in John 14:12-14, we are told that if we call on his name, we will do the same things that he has done, and not only that, but we will do even greater things!
Have you been fishing for lost souls? What you have been teaching them, and how often have you been teaching them about Jesus? What have you explained to them about his grace and mercy, his redemption and salvation? What lives have you brought to the healing power of Jesus name? I don’t mean to chastise anyone for not doing more, but we all have to know that unless we are doing the very things that he has called us to do, we aren’t following him very closely.

That’s how others will come to meet Jesus. That’s how others will begin to open their eyes to the Light of the Lord. That’s how they will begin listening for his call on their lives. Remember that we don’t actually bring others to Christ – we simply alert them to his voice and his message, and he will do the coming and the calling.

Responding to God's call will not always be easy. But denying the reality of a call can wound the entire mind and body of the individual, or even the entire community. In Jeremiah's words:
“But if I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”
--Jeremiah 20:9, from Homiletics Online

These are the words that a follower of Jesus must understand. It is no longer a matter of deciding to witness to his presence – it’s a matter of not being able to stop! George Burns once said “When you stop giving and offering something to the rest of the world, it's time to turn out the lights.”

For a follower of Jesus, for one who has answered his call on their life, it’s more a matter that when you stop giving and offering Jesus to the rest of the world, it’s because your lights have already gone out! And it appears to me that we all have a lot of light-time left.

Give them Jesus! Today!

“The Challenges of Faith”

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

How is your faith? Are you comfortable in it? Uncomfortable? Do you find that you can easily live out your faith, or does it give you fits at times? Is your faith all that you think it should be, or could it be stronger?

Lots of good questions, you may be thinking! But do you have any good answers?

The truth is that faith is anything BUT easy to define, not to mention the living of it. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The very definition is puzzling to many!
And the Lord understands. Over and over, Jesus was chastising his disciples for having so little faith (Matthew 8:23-27, Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 16:14, and others), and yet, the faith of the paralytic’s friends was sufficient to bring, not only forgiveness to his life, but also strength and healing for his limbs (Matthew 9:2), and the faith of the woman with the hemorrhage brought healing to her (Luke 8:40-48), and the faith of the Syrophoenician woman was sufficient to allow healing to work in the life of her daughter (Mark 7:24-30).
Those who were the closest to Jesus seemed to struggle the most in faith, and those who were on the outskirts of society seemed to have such great faith. Challenges to faith abound, and no one is excluded, and no one can explain it! Does God have any idea just how difficult it is to live a faith that is worthy of him? Of course he does!

The account of the 3 temptations is well known, and is intended to serve as a parallel to the conflict that each of us are in right now – it is, quite simply, the battle that rages between the desires that come from the Kingdom of God and those that come from the kingdom of earth. In Matthew 10:34-39, he teaches his disciples that he has come, not to bring peace, but a sword. I don’t believe that he wanted it to come down this way, but he knew without a doubt that faith in him would bring salvation and healing to some, and denial and rejection to others.

Today, we look at the temptations that Jesus experienced toward the end of his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. But before we begin, I will tell you that I see a lot of symbolism in this passage, and will be presenting my understandings in that context - what I see as the teachings that Jesus is offering. If you disagree with my interpretation, that is OK, and if you would like to discuss this further, I would be more than willing to accommodate you. But this is what I have gained from this event in Jesus’ life.

Read Matthew 4:1-4

Satan has been a tempter extraordinaire throughout time. We see him at work throughout the Old Testament, causing the children of Israel to rebel time and time again. He constantly worked against the faith of the 12. The early church was always under attack, and his power continues to besiege the church of today and beyond. But as much as humanity has struggled with the accuser’s snares, Jesus, in his humanity, was also challenged by the fallen angel.

Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan, and had promptly gone out to fast and pray and focus his life completely on the Father’s will. This time was more than just a struggle to last 40 days without food – it was a struggle between his humanness and his Godliness. During these 40 days, his body would, naturally, become weaker, but his spiritual power and Godly strength would grow. Fasting is a time to set our physical needs aside while we focus our life completely on the Lord. And this is exactly what Jesus was doing. And at the end of his physical ordeal, and at the peak of his spiritual strength, the Satan arrives.

As the old saying goes, Jesus’ “belly was rubbing on his backbone”, and the first temptation is meant to challenge his hunger. But remember the first part of the question – “If you are the Son of God ….” Satan knows very well who this is, so his question is not so much a question of Jesus’ divinity, but more likely what does his divinity – his title “Son of God” – actually mean for Jesus. One of the expectations that Israel had of Messiah was that he would provide boundless supplies of the best food. Satan was testing Jesus to see if he might exhibit this particular quality – can you turn the stones of Israel into bread? And for anyone who has been in the Holy Land, you quickly discover that there is no shortage of stones - not anywhere in the entire region! With one word, Jesus could have fed all of the people for the rest of time.
But Messiah isn’t about physical food. Messiah is about the feeding of our souls through the giving and receiving of the word of God. If Jesus had provided the bread, he would have fit very nicely into the messianic expectations that many Jews had, and he could have gained enormous political and secular authority, but he knew that the most important thing that he could bring to the world was the truth of God.
And so, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:1-3, reminding Satan that it is God’s truth, and not the satisfying of our human needs, that will see us through this life and into the next.

Read Matthew 4:5-7

What does the term “the highest point of the temple” mean for us? It doesn’t say the pinnacle, it doesn’t say the roof, it doesn’t say the top of a spire – it says “the highest point of the temple”. It’s a very non-specific term. I don’t think that it refers to a physical place on the temple, but rather to the law. The original purpose of the tabernacle, and later to the temple, was to be a place where the nation could come to meet with God. But by Jesus’ time, holiness in the temple had been replaced, for the most part, with legalism. Legalism had become the highest purpose of the temple. It was all about what you did so that you could be welcomed back into God’s good graces. True faith had taken a holiday for most of the nation.
In Romans 9:30-33, Paul is discussing the difference between the Gentiles and the Jews – that the gentiles, even though they never sought out righteousness, have gained it through faith. But that Israel, who pursued righteousness through their good works, or in other words, the law, have gained nothing. Then he writes “They stumbled over the stumbling stone”.
I believe that Satan is suggesting that Jesus throw himself upon the law of the temple, and that he will never stumble on it, because he will be saved by divine will. And Jesus replies that the angels may very well protect him, but why throw up a challenge to what God has already told us? We’ve been told to keep the commandments that God has given us, not the laws that men have handed down. (Deuteronomy 6:16-19)

Read Matthew 4:8-11

In the third temptation, the Lord is offered authority over the entire earth, and all he has to do is give his allegiance to Satan. He is being asked to reject the relationship that he has with the Light of Glory, and to take up the one that the Darkness of earth proposes. All that he would have to do is to accept the divisiveness, and the pagan worship, and the sinfulness, and the rebellion, and everything else that stands in direct opposition to his mission to the people of earth. Satan doesn’t even say that Jesus would have to worship him exclusively – pluralism would suit him just fine!
And Jesus, in no uncertain terms, tells Satan to take a hike, because there is only one God who is worthy of worship, and that is the Lord God Almighty of Heaven and earth. And because Jesus already has all authority, Satan departs, prepared to take up the conflict at a later day and time. He has been defeated in this battle of wills, but he has yet to admit it – strife and conflict will continue to be his curse on the earth, and will only end on the day that had already been set.

The temptations that Jesus had to endure were no different than the ones we experience on a daily basis.
The gospel of prosperity is still being preached all across this land – that if we see to our earthy riches, that will be the evidence that God is on our side. And many have fallen for that satanic lie throughout the ages, and will continue to do so until the Judgment Day.
Many still believe that the good things that we do will earn us entrance into the Kingdom of God. Just another bold faced lie that continues to emerge from the Darkness, and continues to cause people to stumble and fall flat on their face.
And how many folks continue to strive to gain authority and power for themselves? Whether through political office, or in organizations that we belong to, or in our secular employment, or even by the granting of authority in the church. The truth is that none of these things carry any weight in our relationship with the Lord – only faith in Christ can do that.

Jesus experienced it all, just as he knew that we would. And he resisted them, not by his own spiritual strength, but by the very word of God that has come to each and every one of us.

Feast on the glorious Word of God, not on the meager fare of earth!
Trust that the Word of God is true and that it will never fail you!
Look to the One and Only God, and worship him alone!

Those are the very thoughts that carried Jesus the entire time he spent in the wilderness – first in fasting, and then in temptation, and they are the same thoughts that will carry us into his glorious Kingdom.

“Growing the Relationship”

Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23

Have you ever had a relationship that never changed? With your parents? With your spouse? With a child? With a brother or sister? With a friend? Even with your dog or cat? The ones that you never seemed to gain a single thing from. We all may have had one or more of those, but personally, they aren’t much of a relationship – they’re more of an existence than they are a bond – they’re more of an unworthy connection than a relationship.
What should we be looking for in a relationship that will mean something to us – that will be worthy of our life? It should be mutually beneficial, mutually rewarding, mutually desired, mutually worthy, mutually respected, mutually … well you should have gotten the point by now – relationships must always be two sided and have a growth potential for both parties. And it’s not something that just happens by chance. It takes a dedicated effort by both.

How about our relationship with God? Not much different, except that God is always involved in it, always perfect in it, but we have so much to learn from him, and so much to grow into.

Read Ephesians 1:15-19a

Paul had spent quite a bit of time in Ephesus. It was his last stop during his second missionary trip, and was an important part of his third trip. As a matter of fact, Acts 19:23-41 tells of a major riot that happened there because so many people were coming to Christ that the trades supporting the pagan practices of that day were beginning to suffer from lack of work. The Church was very strong in this region, and Paul’s most recent letter to them wasn’t meant to correct or chastise them, but rather to encourage them in the faith.
The power of faith appears to be upon them. But in Revelation 2:1-7, we read of a great condemnation that would settle on the church, and it would rest specifically on Ephesus. Apparently, they had been doing everything right in faith, except for one thing – they had “forsaken their first love”. And what is that “first love”? It’s the love we have for Christ! It would seem that even though their faith was strong, it only existed in the things they did, and not in their love of Jesus and all that he had done on their behalf.

The letters to the 7 churches that we find in Revelation 2 & 3 are not just statements against the addressees, but ones that are for the Church Universal – from the day it was written until the day that Christ returns. And this particular warning can be the most insidious of all. It is easy to evaluate the things we do – whether we are affirming and glorifying the Lord, or whether we are falling far short – but the purpose behind our efforts can so easily be turned away from our love of God, and into our love of the efforts we make.

But Paul only sees the things the church is doing, and the assumption is that it is out of their love of Christ. They had grown in mighty ways – most notably, away from their worship of pagan gods, and for Ephesus, that would be Artemis. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, of the wilderness, of birth and of women in general, and the goddess was widely worshipped. But the church was overcoming this false worship for many in the region, and Paul was very pleased. He lets the church know that he is praying for them, that the Father will give them the Spirit of wisdom, that they will have revelation, or understanding, and that their hearts will be enlightened so that they might know the hope and promise that they have been given through their faith in Christ.

Have we ever prayed for those things? For wisdom and understanding and enlightened hearts? Paul was lifting up these qualities for a church that was active and remaining faithful in so many ways, but he thinks that they need a greater understanding of the “whys” behind their “whats” – that they need to have the love that is the basis for their good works.
Remember that good works alone are insufficient in faith. In James 2:26, we read “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” We need the fullness of faith if our good works are to be an acceptable offering to the Lord, and our faith needs to be evidenced by the things we do! Ephesus was doing lots of things to protect and project the faith, but maybe they still needed to grow in their understanding of why they had responded to the call to do them.

Read Ephesians 1:19b-23

Paul is calling them back to their “fist love” – not the second, not the third, but the first. Love of Christ must always be our first, and last, experience when we claim him as Lord and Savior, and when we have that, everything else will fall into place.

Remember the comic strip “Andy Capp”? He always seemed to be doing things to please himself instead of doing the things that needed to be done.

In one strip, Andy strolls up to a neighborhood pub and apologizs to a waiting friend:
He says “Sorry I'm a bit late, Chalkie, but I was spinnin' a coin t' decide whether I should spend the morning playin' billiards or spend it lookin' for a job!
His friend Chalkie smiles and replies: “An' billiards won, eh?”
Andy replies, “Yep, but it took about 15 throws!”
- Homiletics OnLine

Our friend Andy had the answer for his coin flip all worked out before it even left his hand, and he kept flipping until his answer came up! Ephesus was doing all the right things, but they didn’t have the right reason for doing them! They still had some growing to do, didn’t they?

Paul wants the church to grow beyond a superficial faith. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the people a very peculiar truth. (Matthew 7:21-23) He said that just because we do wonderful things in his glorious name, it doesn’t mean that we have arrived at his glory! And Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, is outlining the depth of faith that the Church must evidence.

First, Paul reminds the people that the power of God came into play when Jesus was raised from the dead. Why would it be important that we believe this? If we don’t, then we can never claim that Jesus is the Living God. He was executed in hatred, but he rose again in love for the very ones who wanted him out of the way. Jesus lives, so that those who believe in him will also live with him.
Second, Paul describes the authority that Jesus has. He sits on the throne of Judgment, and not by accident or election. He is there because he alone is worthy to take that position. And just to be sure that the Church can comprehend the extent of that authority, he says that it is far above any other power or governance, that it is greater than anything that will ever exist - either on earth or in heaven.
And third, the entire created order has been placed under his control, and he will judge and lead and do just as he knows is right. He will convey righteousness on those who he knows and who know him; he will judge all who have the will to choose – ethereal beings and human ones alike; and all will have no recourse but to accept. His power and authority will not be questioned, and every knee will bow to him, and every tongue will acknowledge that he, and he alone, is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).

Did Ephesus understand this? It’s possible that they did in a “head” sort of way, but not fully in their heart. Their growth had been good, but they still had a way to go. They had to get to know him, and love him, even better.

Where does our relationship with Jesus stand? What kind of soil are our seeds of faith growing in? Remember the Parable of the Sower? (Matthew 13:1-23) I trust that the seeds that have been sown in your life haven’t been gobbled up by others, but I also pray that your “soil” isn’t rocky or shallow, for the parable tells us that faith can never survive when it is only surface deep. Another caution that Jesus offers is that it can’t grow sufficiently when false faith is also present – he called them “thorns” - for the false will always choke out the goodness. We have to seek the truth of God throughout scripture, and when the world tries to step in and change the basis for our faith, we have to know that it will bring only disappointment in the Last Days.
The only hope for a full and wonderful harvest is when our faith is fully based on Jesus and his teaching, and lived out in every possible way - ways that will bring honor to him through our understanding, our action, our love, and above all, our heart.

Is your relationship with Jesus being given a chance to grow fully? We all have a long way to go, certainly, but no one can neglect their relationship with Almighty God until the last possible minute, because no one knows when that moment will be. Paul lived that old saying – “Life is short, pray hard!”, and the prayers he offered for the Ephesians were prayers offered for the Church through all time. Grow in the power of Christ, and let all the other things fall where they may.

“Welcome Home!”

Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14

One of the men in my Course of Study class this week was from New Jersey. He had a fairly long trip, but he traveled in a unique way compared to the rest of us. He came by train. Apparently, he has done this each time he has come to Washington, and it has worked out quite well for him – except for one issue. Once he gets to class, he needs to find a ride to the hotel on Friday evening, and back to the seminary on Saturday morning. Shouldn’t be a problem, though, as there are plenty of people who could give him a ride.
And it hasn’t been a problem for him, except for his first weekend – he couldn’t get anyone to give him a ride to the hotel on Friday! Out of the 8-10 folks in his class, and the other 25 or so who were attending other classes, no one could, or maybe even would, help him. Didn’t seem very Christian to me, but then I don’t know their reasons. The problem for Tim, though, was how to get to the hotel which is about 3 miles away from school. He told me that he had to walk – at 9:00 at night, and then back again at 8:00 the next morning – carrying his books and luggage both ways.
That was a couple years ago, and he is still troubled by the way he was treated. He felt like an outcast, and didn’t know why this was happening to him. And by the way, I heard his story while I was giving him a ride both to the hotel on Friday, and back to the seminary Saturday morning.

Have you ever felt as though no one cared that you were in a tough spot? And how would you feel if, eventually, someone offered to help you out of your dilemma? Tim thanked me many times Friday evening, and again Saturday morning, and even later that day as we were preparing to head home. I nearly told him that it was “no big deal”, until I suddenly realized that it was a big deal - for him. He had felt like an outsider, but now he feels as though he truly belongs.
And yes, I offered to give him a ride next month when we come back to Washington for part 2 of the class. It’s a simple thing for me, since I’m going that way anyway. But for Tim, it’s a huge burden that has been lifted from his heart.

Read Ephesians 1:3-6

Think about it – God created all that there is, and then he created us to care for it. But that was the end - he took another huge step, by electing to bless us far above the rest of the created order. And he did this before we, or anything else for that matter, ever existed. God chose us to be with him throughout eternity!
But there’s a caveat, isn’t there. We read that this adoption, this gift of heavenly, or eternal, blessing, is in and through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, there is no adoption. But what about that word “predestined”? Does that mean that God has chosen some, and rejected others? That some will get a “free pass”, while other will never even have a chance? I don’t think so. I don’t see God as being that controlling of our lives. He has given us “free will”, and as such, we get to decide if we will give our lives over to Jesus or not. If our choice is excluded, if God’s will is the only one in play, then we are no better than a puppet on a string. And that is not how we were made.
Think of it this way. What if I tell all of you that I have a gift for you, and all that you have to do is come up and receive it. Some will jump at the chance to get a gift, while others will probably hold back, suspecting that there may be strings attached. I never said that there were strings – only that you have to come to me to be blessed by the gift. I chose all of you to receive, but not all of you would accept.
The Lord has offered – he has chosen – all of humanity to be “holy and blameless in his sight”, and all that we have to do is to allow the Lord to adopt us as his own through faith in Jesus Christ. We can become sons and daughters of Almighty God, simply by giving ourselves over to his One and Only Son, and the gift of eternal life will be ours.

My wife’s oldest brother is adopted. Jim had nothing to do with the decision that Ivan and Hazel made, but as he grew in knowledge of the situation, he had to choose to continue to live as their son and as a brother to the other children. But he would, one day, have a decision to make - he could deny the status and head out on his own, or he could decide to accept the gift of family that had been held out to him. Membership in the family was offered to him, but he had to choose to continue to be a part of it. And praise God, he decided to continue as their son, and not become an outcast.

Jim was offered the gift of family when he was about 3 years old. But humanity was offered the gift of a relationship with God before anything existed! And the Lord knew, even then, who would accept this new life, and who would decide to make their own way.

Read Ephesians 1:7-10

Verse 7 is loaded with information, and we need to dig into it. We need to understand that humanity – all of it - was chosen to be holy and blameless, but we only receive that blessing through the blood of Jesus that destroys all the sin we have ever committed. The writer says that we have been redeemed by that blood. In Leviticus 25:47-53, we gain some insight into this concept of redemption – we read that it is the price that is paid to bring freedom to one who had previously been sold into slavery. The price that has been paid to bring us out of our slavery to sin and death is the blood sacrifice of the One and Only Innocent – Jesus Christ. Humanity could never pay the debt that wipes out the heavenly curse – only the author of heaven can do that. So our choices are either the Blood of Jesus, or continuation in the slavery that can only lead to death.
And through the grace and invitation that comes to us through Christ, God welcomes us into his family. And as members of that glorious kinship, we will come to know the fullness of what it means to be adopted by the One who created us in the first place. For Diane’s brother Jim, he may have heard about the people who would soon invite him to become one of their own, but he wasn’t able to truly know them until he became one of them. So it is in faith – we will never come to understand the glory of God’s grace until we know the sacrifice that was made on our behalf – the cost of our redemption, paid by God in Jesus.

But let’s go back to that concept of slavery versus freedom for a moment. Remember the children of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt? They weren’t very happy about their plight, but it was the only life that they had ever known. Living in freedom was a strange concept for them, and when it came suddenly through the blood of a lamb and the death of others, they weren’t prepared to experience this new found life. For months, and even years, they constantly complained about their redemption – their freedom – and they kept asking Moses to take them back to the life they had known, that former life in slavery. Who in their right mind would choose slavery over freedom, bondage over liberty? Only those who couldn't imagine what awaits them in this new found life. Freedom wouldn’t begin to mean much to them until they eventually found their way into that grand and glorious land that God had promised them – promised long before they were born, long before they became slaves, long before they gained a grasp of what God’s gift was going to bring them.
They kicked and complained and fought against the Lord’s leadership every step of their journey, but the offer of a new home wasn’t withdrawn – it just took longer and longer before they could receive it. They had been chosen by God, and he wasn’t about to change his mind. They could deny the relationship if they wanted to, and one day, they would, but God would never go back on his offer. He would continue to lead, and the people would have to choose to either follow his path, or turn to follow another way that would lead them in an entirely different direction.

Read Ephesians 1:11-14

In Christ, we have been chosen because that was God’s plan, and not ours. Some will still get stuck on that issue of “predestination”, but when we get to verse 13, we discover that the truth of the matter is this - “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” The word “marked” and the word “predestined” are synonymous, but now the source of the marking is clarified - that the mark comes in faith, in believing in the power of the blood of Jesus, and not by God’s arbitrary decision.
And not marked by some general symbol, either, but by the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. When we accept Jesus as the Redeeming Power for our lives, the Spirit marks us as one of the family. My wife’s brother Jim was marked as family through the symbol of the adoption papers. My friend Tim at Wesley Seminary discovered a new found freedom, when he suddenly began to feel as though he finally belonged – that he was no longer an outcast, no longer an undesirable – and it was through the simple generosity of a ride that didn’t cost him a single cent.

And the Holy Spirit that marks us is given at no cost to us, other than our becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. And not only have we been welcomed into the Family of God, but the gifts will continue to build up. Verse 14 reminds us that not only are we the adopted children of Almighty God, it also means that we will inherit untold riches on the Day of Christ. When we receive the Spirit, he is a guarantee that God will never change his mind, that Jesus’ blood is binding, that the Holy Spirit Himself will continue to work in our lives as long as we let him.

Remember Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son? (Luke 15:11-32) He had sold himself into slavery, and he tried as hard as he could to make it pay off. But when he realized that this “slave life” wasn’t getting him anywhere except down, he decided to accept his father’s gift of restoration, not as a slave under new circumstances, but as a full member of the family again. But he had to turn back toward home before he could be welcomed there.
Jim had to head toward his new home before he could begin to feel welcome.
Tim had to know that this seminary family was truly his to enjoy, and now he feels welcome.

In faith, when we come to the Father though Jesus Christ; when we understand that his freedom, even though it may be difficult to understand at times, is the best that we could ever hope for; when we claim the healing and cleansing and redeeming power of the blood of Jesus, we not only gain a family, not only gain a new life, but we gain the mark that says “You are finally home! Welcome! You have arrived.”

Where are you today? Are you still wallowing in slavery? Or have you come to the realization that the old life is going to get you nowhere? Are you beginning to turn your life toward the only Home of eternal and infinite worth? Have you felt the Father’s embrace when he spoke the words “Welcome home. I’ve been watching for you!” You have been chosen, you know. The way have been perfectly prepared, you know. And all you have to do is say “YES!”