“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!”