"Onions on My Salad"
EPISODE 183
Praise God for His Spiritual Blessings
When do you struggle to remember God’s rich blessings? Do you understand predestination, the Holy Spirit’s work, and what it means to be “in Christ”? Here in session two of Talking Through Ephesians, we discuss the spiritual blessings Paul praises God for in chapter one. After Finding Jesus described as “the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6), we explore what it means “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10). We also talk about finding a place to belong at God’s family table, how that table IS and ISN’T exclusive, and how Jesus’ victory is like David slaying Goliath. Go to biblegeeks.fm/ephesians to find the study guide, video, and all the other info for this study.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Jesus brings us together into a new spiritual family who lives to honor God for his incredible salvation.
This Week's Challenge: Ask a friend what spiritual blessings they're most grateful for.
Episode Transcription
I'm still redeemed from my sins when they put onions on my salad. That is wisdom you can't get anywhere but on the Bible Geeks podcast. Well hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. This is episode 183. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. Again, we are in session two of our talking through Ephesians guided study and man this section of scripture here that we're getting into in Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long sentence apparently in the Greek and we are gonna take a break and breathe here on this episode because if we try to do what Paul's doing I think we'd get into some big trouble this is a great way to kick off this book though I think this first section is so poetic it's so sweeping and it really does I think do a great job at summarizing what the rest of the book is all about. Oh, absolutely. I love lists and this is, it's a very flowery kind of a list that flows together. It's not bulleted or in a spreadsheet like you might like, but it gives us this big picture of all of these different gifts that, that God has given us and tells us where it's at and it's all found in Jesus. And so let's kick this thing off with our conversation starter this week, and that episode is called Gatorade Shower. This is Talking Through Ephesians. Gatorade Shower. Why do players love to dump orange coolers of icy cold sports drink all over their coach? That's just what you do when you're full of joy and appreciation after a giant win. As silly as a Gatorade shower might seem, here in Ephesians 1:3-14, as God lavishes the riches of his grace on us, we see Paul gushing out poetic words of praise for those bountiful spiritual blessings. Here's the big idea. Jesus brings us together into a new spiritual family who lives to honor God for his incredible salvation. A mystery since the beginning, God's plan for Christ was to reunite what was previously separated. Whereas we were once lost in our sins, outcasts, Now God has lovingly adopted us into his family through Jesus' sacrifice. And if being welcomed into a loving and intimate relationship with God wasn't enough, we confidently look forward to a heavenly inheritance someday. - Wow, God definitely didn't hold back from us. And how do we express our joy and appreciation? Paul says that we should aim to live every day blamelessly, in holiness, and to the praise of his glorious grace. A high standard of living or the high price paid for our salvation? But this section also leads us to wrestle with our understanding of some important questions. Like what does "in Christ" mean? How are we chosen or predestined today? What makes these blessings spiritual? And what's the Holy Spirit's role in our salvation? A lot to chew on in these verses. A sweeping and poetic start to the letter, Paul's words inspire joyful appreciation of God's saving grace toward us. So here's the big question. Have you been adopted into the Lord's family, united with God through Christ? So follow along with this guided study at biblegeeks.fm/ephesians and may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. I'm going to have that image stuck with me now of this Gatorade shower of blessings coming down. Bring it on. And the big idea of this whole conversation starter and really of this section of scripture is that Jesus brings us together into a new spiritual family who lives to honor God for His incredible salvation. I remember in my preteen, early teen years, trying to find myself, trying to find a group of friends I could be myself with. And it was never about being one of the cool kids. Not really. It was really about belonging. People spend a lot of time and energy trying to belong. Where do we belong? Who do we belong with? Paul says, you have a new table to sit at during lunch period. It's hosted by God and he chooses who sits there. It's a family table and you're now part of the family that's called together to enjoy and celebrate his goodness. Settle in. You belong over here. That's a really beautiful idea. Knowing what I know about you. Yeah. The fact that you were probably sitting at the Dungeons and Dragons table probably means you were not gonna belong. So that's a great way to think about this to kick it off. Yeah, so the big question there was, have you been adopted into the Lord's family, united with God through Christ? And I feel like we should give some caveats and disclaimers here that this question is really not meant to be exclusionary, because it almost might sound like, hey, do you know the secret password? Have you been adopted into the Lord's family? well, it's a choice to be a part of the Lord's family. It's your choice. And that's one of the cool things about thinking about that belonging that you were talking about there. You're welcomed in. If you walk up and you want to be a part of that belonging, if you wanna be a part of that family, then you get to. And that's the cool thing. It's not exclusionary. It's not keeping people at bay. And as we'll see in today's discussion, I think God has opened the door to a relationship with him and we just have to step through it. Like it's our choice. He's obviously done so much of the work that our choice, our decision seems minuscule in comparison. But yeah, we're not being kept at arm's length, which is I think a really nice way to kick this thing off. - Yeah, that's a cool way to put that. So our icebreaker, as we lighten things up a little as we do here, is when was the last time you were so excited about something you had to tell someone about it? What have you been excited about lately, Bryan? - Oh man, well, it's the off season And it's been wild few weeks to be a Suns fan with the free agent market opening up and everything else. But earlier when I found out that Chris Paul and Landry Shamett were traded for Bradley Beal on the Suns, I ran over from my cube and ran to my cube mates desk and basically announced the news. I was jumping for joy. I may have even squealed a little bit. I'm just saying it was an exciting day and I just had to let it be known to all in the office that I was excited. So I don't know. That's me. How about you? - Well, I can nerd out about sports, that's for sure. I can also nerd out about TV and be pretty excited about that, especially when there's somebody else who loves a show to watch it with me. And our whole family has a show that probably a lot of people watch. I know it's pretty popular, the show "Bluey." And there's a new season out of this cartoon, "Bluey." And it was funny 'cause we were all like trying to be coy with each other about, We had all separately seen that the new season was coming out and then when it was, hey, do you know what today is? Does anybody know what's today? It's Bluey Day! (laughing) - Oh man, Ashlyn was super stoked about it too. She had to come tell me. Definitely something to be excited about. A new season of Bluey and Landry Shamett being gone from the suns, two very exciting things occurring in our lives. Let's move on to the actual real substance, the meat of this episode, and that is finding Jesus. And so we're gonna focus a little bit more on the last episode, we sort of did a, where's Jesus in the whole grand story of the book of Ephesians? Let's center ourselves now on chapter one, verses three to 14, where we find really this grand sweeping poem as Paul lays out really all the amazing spiritual gifts that God has poured into our lives. And where do you find Jesus here in this section? - Well, this grand sweeping picture, as you say, doesn't get any grander than the phrase to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. That's what God's purpose is. To unite everything. It's not just like Jews and Gentiles, it's everything being united wherever this universe and those far-off heavenly places beyond our sight are broken and and fragmented and alienated from God. Jesus is the nexus that's bringing it all together. He's just so, you can almost like this special effects kind of industrial light and magic brain that I have. From years of watching sci-fi movies, I could see pieces from the whole universe that have been broken off, all brought together. And those who are far off have been brought in. It's just such a powerful picture and the idea that that there is ultimately this final reality of complete and utter oneness where there is no more conflict no more distance and others and they and everything is one because Everyone is in Jesus everything has been pulled together and not speaking of but of course anything that isn't in that oneness is cast out and So everything that is brought into this new heavens and new earth and all that will be one It's just a really again We talked about the put your fingers to your your temples and then blow your mind and mine alone That's one of those things. What about you? Where did you find Jesus in this? Amazing first passage here in Ephesians I was thinking about the last episode where you summed up how often Jesus was referred to as Christ and how often he's referred to as Jesus. But here in this section, actually, we find Jesus referred to in a term that doesn't get used very often, and that is the beloved, which I totally love. It's like, oh, what a cool way of thinking about Jesus and describing Jesus, like something that we see throughout the Gospels a few times, notably like when Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3 verse 17, "My beloved Son." I mean, this language is just like dripping with an affection and a closeness. If you imagine from God's perspective, just looking down at His beloved Son, imagine how this is a Son who's never disobeyed Him, a Son who's never disappointed Him. Not that God would hold these things over his head, but there's nothing to hold over his head. He's perfect. And how much God must just love him and feel such a closeness and a connection to him. And as God loves him so deeply and in such a complete way, it's cool to think how when we're in Christ, when we're connected to Christ, if we have that relationship with Jesus, then we become beloved in our relationship with God too. Just such a cool way to think about Jesus. And I love that little glimpse here in this first section of Ephesians. - Yeah, that is cool. He has blessed us in the beloved. And I like, it's just neat to look at the word beloved with a capital B. (laughing) There's the beloved of God, and then there's the beloved of God. (laughing) - Yep, for sure. And so that emphasis there, I think is super important. And I think that's gonna lead us into a few questions that we kicked off in that conversation starter. And we're gonna get into a segment here that we call, "Do you understand?" - Do you understand anything they're saying? - Oh yes, Master Luke. Remember that I am fluent in over six million forms of-- - What are you telling them? - Hello, I think. - So as we get into these sections here in these conversation starters, I think we're probably gonna be raising some questions, defining some terms, really getting into the meat of these discussions, of these chapters. And so we've got a couple of questions that we put there in the conversation starter. And if you wanna kick off this thing, we'll deal with the first one, which is what does in Christ really mean? - Yeah, it's a pretty big and loaded phrase, but we'll try to unpack it here. It's used 11 times in this, just this opening paragraph, just verses three to 14 has in Christ or in Him or in whom, 11 times. And in chapter one, verse three, he's not just the source of the blessings, he's the location. He's the person in which all spiritual blessings are found. And praise God, he's the person in which we are found. And so spiritually you could say Christ is where we are, but a strange way. He now defines who we are. We're integrated into the who of Jesus. Like you just said, you talked about he's beloved of God. We're beloved of God. We're blessed now in his beloved. And chapter two, verse 15 talks about how he has made a new humanity in himself, in himself. It's just such an interesting idea. It's a big idea, of course, because we're in Ephesians and we were in Adam. This is from first Corinthians 15, verse 22, but now we're in Christ. So that gives you this sense of a person being representative of a whole people in Adam versus in Christ. Another way of thinking of this, a person being representative of a whole people, you could think about Abraham, that all of the Jews were God's people, not because of who they were, but because they were in Abraham in a way. They were descendants of Abraham. They were in Israel. You could think about how David went and fought for Israel against Goliath. Remember that back in first Samuel 17, of course, the Goliath wanted someone to represent Israel and come and fight against him. And the King, often the anointed one, which David now was actually, often was the one that would represent the people. He would be representative in a lot of different ways. And so when David won, God's people won. When Jesus wins as our King, as Christ, we win. Or think about how the priest represented the people before God in their service and sacrifices, or even how the sacrifices themselves represented the people. All of that, that's the power of the chosen, the anointed one, the beloved. He can represent us as priest and king. He can make us holy and victorious through his faithfulness. We're in the Messiah, in Christ, and in him. We find favor that we couldn't find if we stood on our own. There's a lot that we could go into more. (laughing) - So much more, for sure. - I'm afraid, yeah, maybe I've already lost people. Let's go to the next question. How are we chosen or predestined today? - I love what you said there. And one of the ways that I've described it to my kids when I was teaching the younger kids class here at Monte Vista was in terms of a Venn diagram. Like you draw a big circle on the board and you draw a smaller circle that's tucked neatly and perfectly inside that circle. And that's the picture that we get here. We're not like intersecting with the circle. We're not outside the circle. When we're in Christ, we're in the circle. whatever happens to the outer circle like a Russian nesting doll, that's what happens to us who are inside. Just an interesting way of thinking about that. So this question, how are we chosen and predestined today? That's again, it's a loaded concept. There's a lot here. But really this word chosen and predestined are used a number of times here. And I think keeping that in the context with what is being said in the rest of the book and even what's being said in verse 10 how he's uniting together a new people a whole new people both Jews and Gentiles as he's gonna go on in later chapters to talk about this is not again Exclusionary it's not that it's only dedicated or only certain people who are like of a certain Nationality or of a certain gender or social status No God's eternal plan was to save anyone and everyone who are in Christ as you just talked about who are followers of Christ Christ, who are doing what the Master has called them to do, who have that relationship with Him. This language, I don't think is meant to say that there are only certain people who are eligible, but it's God's work as the one who is choosing. I think the focus here is when he's talking about those who are chosen, we are chosen, it's just really highlighting the fact that it's God who's done the work. And when he talks about predestination, that there was a plan that existed before time even began, that this was God's plan from way long ago before the "let there be light" was said. This was God's plan. And so these words, I think they are in overloaded terms, but my focus on this is just to see that we are chosen to live lives of holiness. We are, as Ephesians 2 verse 10 says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God predestined the works that we should do. God chose a people who were going to be beloved in Christ. Again, not an exclusionary offer, but open to all who love him and keep his commandments as he talks about in John 14 verse 15. So maybe a simplified way of summing it up. We could probably talk a lot more about it, but yeah, I think chosen and predestined have some meaning, but maybe not the meaning that some people want to ascribe them with. Well, yeah, I think of what it meant to be a chosen people in the Old Testament. Oh, yeah, they were chosen, not like an individual, but they were Abraham was chosen. Yeah. And Isaac was chosen. And so if you were part, you were in Abraham, then you were chosen. If we're in Christ, then we're chosen. So I think the way you explained that is really good. I love the idea from Romans 8, 28 and 29 of God working all things together for good for those called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. He knows those who will be faithful to him to the end and he can work things together for our good. And he has decided ahead of time how that's going to work out for us, those who will hold on to him without precluding choice. So our next question is, what makes these blessings spiritual? And there in verse three, it says that all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are found in Christ. And it's true that these blessings can't be touched or seen like a physical blessing, like this computer that I'm recording on. I think Paul actually uses spiritual here, as he often does, to describe not that which is untouchable or that which has to do with our spirit, but that which which has to do with God's Spirit, what the Holy Spirit does. So taken altogether from adoption to redemption, from finding insight and wisdom to obtaining our inheritance, everything he says, he talks about all these different blessings, all of them flow not only from the Father and the Son, but specifically in that word, also from the Spirit of God. They are spiritual. They have to do with God's Spirit bringing this renewal in us. And so the passage begins in verse three and ends in verses 11 to 14 talking about the Holy Spirit, which leads to our next question and some of these verses at the end of that passage about the Holy Spirit. Oh, that seems like you just punted that one to me on this question. I can appreciate what you've done there, but I think maybe the power in what you were saying, obviously the Holy Spirit is definitely central to all of this conversation. These are blessings like when you sing the song count your many blessings So often you're singing songs about the things you can touch and see and the things that you experience with your senses But clearly these are blessings talked about here that are beyond our perception And so again, I think that does lead us into this fourth question that you've punted to which is what is the Holy Spirit's role? In our salvation. Yeah And as you get into that last section there, we find out that the Holy Spirit is our seal. He is our guarantee that we are saved. And there is, again, we're gonna spend what, how many minutes talking about the Holy Spirit. There's an entire conversation we could have about who the Holy Spirit is and what he does, his role in our lives. But we don't have to really guess or doubt that we're saved. And I think that's the whole point or purpose of these last few verses in this great poetic section. He is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory We have this seal we have this promise that the Holy Spirit provides to us and it gives us confidence I think is the whole idea here We as he goes on to talk about here when you have heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believe in him We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit the beginning of that I think is important when you've heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation you've believed in him It reminds me of some things that John says in first John chapter 5 How when John's really trying to get us to see how the confidence we have how we can know that we are saved how we Can know and have confidence that we have eternal life he talks about there that we believe in the name of the Son of God and Before that he's talked about how the spirits testimony gives us that confidence how the spirit has been provided us an accurate retelling, an accurate summary as Jesus would actually promise that He was going to do, how the Spirit was going to come and deliver to them all the things about Himself, how the Spirit gives us an accurate testimony. And if we hear those words, if we believe the things that the Spirit has provided to us, we can have confidence and we can take it to the bank. It's a seal and we know that the words that are being presented to us here in God's Word are true and correct. And that gives us a sense of peace, it gives us a sense of settled confidence that we have to know that the Spirit is promising us that we have everything we need to know to believe in Him and to have faith. And it's just really a confidence factor that the Spirit provides to us. He gives us this sense of knowing that everything that we hold fast to and are faithful to in His Word is true. - Absolutely, God's Spirit is His presence in us, on us, with us. You know that His Holy Spirit is living in us and is present with us. And so we're, you know, a seal would mark something, who this belongs to, and we are marked by God. We are His, and we have already that down payment of the inheritance that's to come. - Signed, sealed, delivered. - Yeah. - I'm yours. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can, and He's at work in us and changing us, Spirit of God bringing fruit in us as we often talk about. Paul will talk about in chapter 3 verse 16 the power that the Spirit brings into our lives and yeah, we're not, it's not, oh someday we'll have something that gives us some sense of what's to come. We already are tasting of what's to come. We already have Christ in us. We already have His Spirit living in us and someday we'll have the full gift of this inheritance that is to come. - It's such cool language too. And again, this is very poetic, it's very sweeping, and really it's just one long run on sentence, but I think it all weaves together in such a way to paint this picture that God is showering down on us as we talked about in that conversation starter. Just every spiritual blessing you could ever think of and imagine, and one of those great blessings that he has given to us is his spirit, and really enables us to have all these things that we've been talking about. So let's move on to our next segment here on the episode. And that is our reach out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ So we're gonna get a little personal here, I think, you know, as we tend to do in these questions. But the question for today is, when do you struggle most to remember the blessings God pours into your life? You'd figure if you were just getting constantly deluged by God's amazing blessings, it would be hard to ignore that, like the Gatorade shower on the sidelines. but sometimes we miss it, I think. - Maybe it's like people who live in Seattle and they're just so used to being rained on all the time. We're just getting poured, downpour on us all the time of goodness and blessings. Or people who live in Arizona and are so used to sunshine. - It's a dry heat. - Yeah, I think that there's a couple different ways you could take this and think about it because on the one hand there's distraction And on the other hand, there's like getting down and discouragement. And so I think I can get distracted when I'm busy, get into that mode where all perspective is lost and I just try to get stuff done. And I don't think about all this. If something doesn't go well in that moment of what I'm trying to get done, then I'm all frustrated about it or I'm all focused on that or I don't know, just get caught up in it or when I'm not busy and I'm distracted with just shutting my brain off. And neither one of those are the way I want to carry on in life. You can be in the blessing of work or of rest and be productive and blessed and hold on to those blessings. And then I guess sometimes when I'm discouraged, I can lose sight of all that is right and all that I have to give thanks for. And certainly sometimes it's easy for this, a list like this collection of blessings that we've talked about here, redemption, adoption, and the pledge of the Spirit and enlightenment and all of these things to feel abstract or somehow miss how valuable and meaningful they are. So I don't know, I think it's almost more like you have to have, I have to have an intentional decision to remember these things and focus on them or I don't. It's my default setting is not to be super aware of all of these kinds of blessings, I think, unfortunately. What about you? Oh, I totally connect with the discouragement piece of it. Also the distraction, obviously, but for me, I think it's the most challenging or I have the most struggle to remember all of these amazing blessings God is constantly pouring into my life when I'm having a pity party about this or that. Like if I'm, if I'm feeling like put upon, it's really easy for me to like fixate on some small little thing, like a bad moment of my day or whatever it might be. And just to miss like all the great stuff that I haven't been paying attention to. And even just now as you're talking about being intentional and just focusing on it, like if I could only remind myself to remember that Christ is still on his throne, you while I'm frustrated about the meeting that I'm at at work, I think that would change the game for me. Like, if I could picture things that are happening beyond, as we talked about in that Gehazi moment in the last episode, if I could have that sight of what's going on, really, behind the scenes, that I think would help me out a lot. Things like, I'm still redeemed from my sins when they've put onions on my salad and I told them not to put onions on my salad. Like, listen, things are gonna be fine. I'm still washed in the blood of the lamb like oh man. That's good It's so silly though to get so worked up about tiny things when you really are just actually Acknowledging and picturing the amazing spiritual blessings that God is pouring into our life But yeah, I think what happens so often is they become obscured We have a hard time seeing it. It's there's something in the way There's something blocking it if we can just actually focus on what's supposed to be the primary piece of this But man, it is so easy just to get distracted for every little thing and I am easily distractible. So that's for sure I'm still redeemed from my sins when they put onions on my salad That is wisdom you can't get anywhere but on the Bible Geeks podcast Good it is so that is it really is truly pretty helpful But maybe we go from there into a challenge that kind of relates to this I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me So our challenge this week is to ask a friend what spiritual blessing they're most grateful for it's kind of neat that we can Help each other be intentional about focusing on these blessings I love that that's what these challenges do right because for me How do I remind myself to be more? remembering about things is like, oh, yeah, that's gonna be a challenge, right? It's a lot easier when somebody comes up and helps remind me of these things and so I think that's what these kind of challenges can do and It also very easy because you're asking somebody else and you don't really have to think too hard about it So just lob the question at somebody ask them What spiritual blessings that they're most grateful for but you probably should have a ready answer if they're a listener to the podcast They may just lob it straight back at you So good things to think about. - Check, check, get it done with. - Exactly, but yeah, I think asking these kinds of questions, what spiritual blessings they're most grateful for is probably going to be a confusing question because like I was talking about earlier, I think a lot of us, we gravitate to the blessings that we can see, touch, know, experience with our senses, not these kind of blessings that are most definitely more important that we don't really think about too often. Yeah, yeah, well, it takes that extra amount of faith and thought to bring our attention to those things we can't see. I think that's a reality and it's a good point. Let's finish up here as we like to on these guided studies with a prayer. And the closing prayer we suggested in the study guide is, "Oh God and Father, may you be praised forever for your glorious grace there from verses three and six. So let's pray. Our Father, you are worthy. You are all wise and all good and your grace pours into us and around us like a Niagara Falls. Just giving and giving without end. You deserve more praise than we can ever give you. You deserve better love and service than we can offer you, than we do offer you. We ask for your mercy and forgiveness for the times we've fallen short of your glory. You have seen us in our unworthy lives and you have decided in your own lavish love that we were worth sending Jesus to pay so much for us. Father, you have made us and then you have made us new and you've made us different and you've You made us better than we were. You are the source of all good around us, but you're also the source of all good within us. You have declared us yours and we pray that all the glory would go to you. May we send glory your way by the lives we live, by the consistency of our speaking about you. Praise your name, how good you are. Thank you for bringing us into Christ. Thank you for making us at home with you in Jesus Christ. it is in His name that we pray, amen. - Amen. That was really good. I feel like that summed up this conversation very well. And thinking about the next conversation, our next guided study is gonna be in this Talking Through Ephesians series about enlightened hearts. We're gonna get right into a conversation in verses 15 to 23 here of Ephesians chapter one, and we're gonna continue this thing. It's gonna be a few more periods, a few more actual sentences, a little bit less run on, and it's gonna be a whole bunch of praise and thanksgiving again for all the amazing things God has done. And I'm looking forward to that conversation 'cause it'll be thanksgiving in what, July? August? July? Sometime. Who knows? - Sometime, yeah. Turkey's good anytime and so is praising God. - Sign me up, all right. Thanks so much everyone for tuning in to the Bible Geeks Podcast. You can find us on our website at biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player of choice or at biblegeeks.fm/183. And if you wanna find more conversations in this guided study, you can go to biblegeeks.fm/ephesians. That is where all the study guides, all the conversation starters, everything about this series is located. Share it with a friend and follow along with our weekly challenges. Thanks again for tuning in. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [music]