Our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings...

Whether you are a follower of Jesus, whether you don’t buy the whole Jesus, Bible, thing; whether you are not sure that you could ever really know whether or not God exists, we are all on a search for identity. We are all on a search for the answer to the question “Who am I”?

And we all try to find our identity in something. Sure, we may have a driver’s license in our wallet that we use as I.D. But for some of us, we may find ourselves reaching for our credit cards far more often when it comes to finding our identity, because we find our identity in our possessions. For others of us, we may find ourselves reaching for our word I.D. far more often when it comes to finding our identity, because we find our identity in our position. And for others of us, we may reach for our driver’s license, but we only use that I.D. as a means to have access to what we really are trying to find our identity in, which is pleasure.

So, where are you trying to find your identity? What I.D. card do you pull out to define you? And what I.D. card should you pull out to define you? To answer these questions, we are going to spend the spring and summer in a sermon series entitled identity. During this series, we are going to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles that provides us the timeless answers to these questions.

And as we go through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would enable us to see our true identity, the identity that He designed us to live in, so that we would live our day to day lives in light of our true identity. So this morning, as we launch into this new series, let’s begin by looking at the opening section of this letter, which is called the book of Ephesians, which begins in Ephesians 1:1:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In these verses, we discover the author of this letter as the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was once a self righteous religious person who persecuted Christianity until he had an encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead. After His life transforming encounter with Jesus, Paul proceeded to become the chief missionary to the non-Jewish nations of the world and wrote the majority of the letters that we have that form the New Testament of our Bibles.

Paul planted the church of Ephesus in 53 A.D. during Paul’s third missionary journey, which is recorded for us in another letter in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Acts, in Acts 19. However, to fully understand the story of the church at Ephesus, we first need to understand where the city of Ephesus was located and the significance that the city played in the first century.

The city of Ephesus was a port city that was located in the southwest corner of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. Ephesus was the capital and the largest city in the Roman province of Asia.  The city was a port city that was one of the main entry points to Asia, which made it a leading commercial, political and religious center in the Roman Empire.

The centerpiece of the city of Ephesus was the temple of Artemis, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. The temple was four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, Greece and was the center of idolatrous worship to Artemis, who was the goddess of fertility. A major part of the economy in Ephesus revolved around tourism and worship to Artemis, including the manufacturing of portable shrines and images of Artemis that could be purchased. And even today, you can still view the ruins of the temple of Artemis.

As a result, the city was marked by rampant sexual immorality that occurred as part of their worship. In addition, the city was a regional center for various cultic practices and the publication of magic and their formulas. Ephesus also contained the largest theatre that was ever built by the Greeks, which was capable of holding up to 30,000 people. While largely populated by those who were of either Roman or Greek culture and ethnicity, there was also a large settlement of Jewish settlers who also lived in Ephesus.

And it is into this context that Paul planted the church at Ephesus. Then eight year after planting the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul found himself in jail in Rome after being arrested for proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And as Paul sat in prison awaiting trial, Paul wrote a letter to the church that is recorded for us in our Bibles today as the book of Ephesians.

After extending his customary greeting, we see Paul begin his letter to the members of the church of Ephesus with a powerful statement that reveals for us a powerful and timeless truth when it comes to our identity. So let’s look at that statement together, beginning in Ephesians 1:3:

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Now Paul’s statement here, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Praise God for providing us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ”.

Notice what Paul says here. The phrase, who has blessed us, is past tense. In other words, this is something that is already a reality in your life if you are a follower of Jesus. You have already been blessed by God. And how you have been blessed by God is with every spiritual blessing. God has provided followers of Jesus every Divine blessing and benefit that we could ever need. Paul then explains that these Divine blessings and benefits are in the Heavenly places, which is another way to refer to Heaven.

But not only are every Divine blessings and benefits in Heaven; Paul explains that every Divine blessing and benefit is in Christ. But what does that mean? What does it mean to be in Christ? With this phrase, Paul is revealing for us the reality that the reason why as followers of Jesus we are the recipients of every Divine blessing and benefit that we would ever need is due to God’s activity through Christ that results in our relationship with Christ.

You see, when God the Father looks at us as followers of Jesus, He does not simply see us. Instead, He sees us in Christ. Right now, in a mystical and spiritual way, God the Father sees you, in Christ, in Heaven. As followers of Jesus we are part of the church, which is the body of Christ here on earth. But even now, we are mystically and spiritually a part of the body of Christ in Heaven. Now doesn’t that make your head hurt?

And Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to clearly understand what their identity was. Paul wanted followers of Jesus to clearly understand that our identity was to be grounded in God’s activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ.

And Paul wanted followers of Jesus to recognize and worship God for the reality that God has already provided us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to our identity. And that timeless truth is that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. Just as it was for the members of the church at Ephesus, just as it has been throughout history, our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. If you are are a follower of Jesus, God has already blessed you with every Divine blessing and benefit that you could ever need. And in the verses that follow, we see Paul reveal for us these Divine blessings and benefits.

We will look at those verses tomorrow…