Episodes
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
This is Us // Blessing to Come
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Guarantee of More Blessing to Come
Ephesians 1:13-14 August 9, 2020
I. Introduction:
A. I love things that come with a guarantee, especially if it is a lifetime guarantee.
1. For example, I had a foundation crack in our house fixed many years ago and
the person who did it gave me a lifetime guarantee to fix it if it ever happened
again. It did happen again a few years ago, I gave him a call and he came
and fixed it at no cost.
2. There are all kinds of guarantees, both those that protect us from anything
happening to what we have – those give us a sense of security and guarantees
that promise us that there is something we will get in the future – they give us
a sense of assurance and hope.
3. In one sense, a down payment on a loan is a guarantee that I give to the bank.
A sizable amount of money given to the bank to show my seriousness in
paying the rest! It is the first installment of more payments to come!
B. This kind of guarantee are pledges! Sometimes pledges can be made with our
words as we solemnly promise to do something, sometime pledges carry even
more weight as you give something to someone as a way to show that you will
keep your promise!
1. Bill Chibe, who works in banking and mortgages, said to me that they refer to
a down payment as a person having “skin in the game!”
2. Today’s passage teaches us God has given us something as a pledge, His way
to show us that He will keep all His other promises to us!
3. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 1:13-14
C. The structure of the passage is very simple
1. v13 tells us what happened to us, what God did to us when we first believed
the gospel message and put our faith in Jesus Christ
2. v14 tells us why this happened to us
D. Before I read this passage, I am going to tell you what I believe the heart of this
whole passage says, “The blessing of the Holy spirit guarantees more blessing to
come!”
1. Repeat! You repeat with me! Now say it as if you were going to preach it!
2. Read!
• Let’s start by looking at
II. The blessing of the Holy Spirit
A. Again we see at the start of this verse that what follows took place when we put
our faith in the gospel message about Jesus Christ
B. What happened is we were sealed in Christ!
1. We seal things all kinds of different things all the time – for instance watch
me seal this envelope!
2. To seal something means to close something to make it secure and tamper
proof. Often back then, when they sealed something there was a symbol of
who was doing the sealing to identify them as the owner of what was in the
thing sealed!
3. We have been sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit
a) Illustrate with envelope – Jesus, piece of paper – believer - seal – Holy
Spirit
b) We are now enclosed in Christ, secure and tamper proof because the
Holy Spirit is the seal, an indication that God owns us!
C. Note at the end here it says the Holy Spirit of promise
1. In the Old Testament, many promises were made about the day when Holy
Spirit would come and live in God’s people. We especially see that in the
new covenant in Ezekiel 36 where He says He will give them a new heart and
a new spirit to live inside of that heart.
2. Jesus referred to these promises in Luke 24:49 when he spoke to His disciples
about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them soon.
D. What a gift, what a blessing the Holy Spirit is to us: He indwells us so the
presence of God is right inside of us, He is the one through whom God fills our
lives with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness
and self-control. He leads us, restrains us, breaks down the work of the flesh in
lives and fills us with the resurrected life of Jesus. He equips us with everything
we need to do god’s will in a way that is pleasing to him. The list goes on and on.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is truly a huge blessing in our lives!
• So the blessing of the Holy Spirit is God’s
III. Guarantee of more blessings to come!
A. Read v14a
B. He is given as a pledge! We already talked about that in the intro to this message.
The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee, His first instalment, His down payment, His
pledge, and His skin in the game!
C. But what is He a pledge of? Our inheritance
1. Reread v14a
2. In particular our future inheritance. Read 14a-c “with a view to”
D. Let me remind you of three things we have already learned as we put this part of
the verse together!
1. Inheritance – we learned last week that bottom line our inheritance is made of
all of God’s blessings that He has promised to us! –
a) That is why the word promise is so important in v13
b) The Holy Spirit was the first of many more promises yet to come! Our
future promised blessings!
2. Redemption –
a) We learned that there are three aspects to redemption – someone is in
bondage, a price is paid and the result of this is someone is delivered
from that bondage
b) We also learned there is a past, present and future aspect to our
redemption – past – set free from the penalty of sin, present – set free
from the power of sin, future set free from the – presence of sin
c) This passage is talking about our future deliverance from the presence of
sin in our bodies and our environment
3. The third thing we learned just a few minutes ago was that a seal is a sign of
ownership - read v14d – that’s us!
E. So as I reread these verses note that, “the blessing of the Holy Spirit guarantees
more blessing to come!” Read v13-14a-c
F. So why has God blessed us with the Holy Spirit? Why is He guaranteeing these
future blessings? Why is He going to bless us in the future? Why all these
promises? Why all these blessings? Why all this inheritance?
1. Read 14d and read 2:7
2. This is all about God’s grace, the great glory of His grace, and bringing
praise to Him because of it!
3. Last week it talked about our being, our entire existence and everything we
are and do being to the praise of His glory. Here it talks about us praising
God.
4. This section of spiritual blessings starts with saying the very nature of God
demands that we bless and praise Him especially for all the spiritual blessings
He has given us in Christ. Now He closes this section with telling us that all
of this is so we will praise the glory of His grace.
• So to prepare us to praise God. Let me
IV. Remind us of these promised blessings the Holy Spirit guarantees for us!
A. Read 1 Peter 1:3-5
1. In the future when we receive this inheritance, when we are delivered from
the presence of sin both in our bodies and in our environment. When we
experience all of God’s future promised blessing. Listen to my summary of
what life will be like as I try to summarize the heart of Scripture regarding
this!
2. In the eternal aspect of the kingdom in the new heaven and new earth
a) There will be no more funerals graveyards, or tearful goodbyes, no more
emotional pain and depression over rejection, separation, abuse or loss.
No more hospitals or cancer or deformities or diseases, no more migraine
headaches or need for painkillers and no more health insurance. No
more food pantries or food stamps. No more sin to affect people, their
relationships, their work or the earth. The earth will be fully productive
and beautiful.
b) That means we will never again suffer persecution, mocking or conflict
of beliefs or values with those who are unbelievers. Nothing shameful,
vile, detestable, unpleasant will be there, no news reports telling us about
murders that happened in the big cities, we can walk the streets safely
and without fear. No more adultery, rape or sexual abuse, no more
demonic influence through witchcraft or drugs. You can trust anything
and everything that is said. There will be no shaky deals or
misrepresentations. God will be the greatest love of everyone that is
there. No one will ever put anything or anyone above God and His will
for them. They will love Him with all their heart, all their soul, all their
mind and strength, and they will love their neighbor as themselves.
B. This is what receiving the Holy Spirit guarantees for us! Let’s praise the glory of
God’s grace!
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