Title: STABILITY IN THE MIDST OF TURMOIL
Focus: In the midst of today’s turmoil, we seek stability in God’s electing love in Christ.
Function: To encourage the people to draw strength and comfort from the mystery of God’s electing love and purpose throughout life.
Text: Ephesians 1:1-14
INTRODUCTION
It’s a scary world we face today: Israel is fighting a war on two fronts: Hamas in Palestine, and Hezbolla in Lebanon. The president of Iran is advocating the destruction of Israel as a nation. Radical Islamic clerics and so-called “Jihadists” teach hatred and violence toward Jews, Christians and the secular western nations, including America.
The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is still far from peaceful. Sectarian fighting seems on the increase; our men and women in uniform are still in harms way. And solutions toward peace seem elusive, out of reach.
The United Nations are divided; and politically, the same can be said for our nation. It’s a scary world we face today. And we have not even mentioned the weather. While America is facing a heat wave, South Africa is enduring an extremely harsh winter—all of which provide fuel for alarmists, scientists, and politicians alike—to warn of climate changes with catastrophic consequences.
How do you cope in the midst of such turmoil? How do you deal with the waves of violence, the sea of tears and turmoil, and the ocean of bitterness and hatred that keeps coming at us from so many different directions? Like a lighthouse battered by the waves of the sea, so I long to stand firm in the midst of today’s turmoil. But where does our stability come from? On what solid rocks shall we continue to build our lives?
As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I declare today: seek stability in God’s electing love in Christ! Draw strength and comfort from the mystery of God’s eternal purposes and divine election.
THE NEED FOR STABILITY
Most of us live secure lives. We raise our children and families in relative security. Do you, young people fret and worry about the future? Do you ever wonder what the world will look like 5 or 10 years from now? Us parents and adults like to protect our children from pain and instability. Yet, there are limits:
-Children get hurt; so where do they go: they run to Mom or Dad for comfort and stability. Young people do worry about themselves--their identity and future. So where do they go? They search for answers from their parents, and especially from their peers and pop culture. We all have a need for balance and stability in our lives.
In 1971, I drove a truck in the city of Rotterdam. One morning I got involved in an accident and killed a man with my truck. It was not my fault, but my world was in turmoil. Where did I go later that day? I went home to find support, and to sort out what happened. When waves of turmoil batter us and when our world seems to cave in, we need support and stability. Where shall we find it today?
Listen: (vs. 3,4) “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world….”
Here, the Spirit of God points us to the rock of our stability: Before the creation of the world, God was at work. And he had in mind you and me and this world—which so desperately needs deliverance and restoration.
And that God will neither let this world go to “hell in a hand basket,” nor will he abandon his people. What God began, he will complete. You and I may find stability today in the electing love of God in Christ—a love he showed before the creation of the world, and a love that includes God’s people and this world of ours.
THE PASSAGE
Paul’s opening words in his letter to the Christian church in Ephesus are delightful, rich, and very deep. His words make up a smorgasbord of spiritual food. Consider, for example,
· The Structure and Nature of the Passage: vs. 3-14 constitute one sentence in the original Greek language. In that one long sentence, Paul packs wonderful good news centering on God’s electing love in Christ Jesus.
God’s work of election is for many a troublesome doctrine: we don’t understand how a fair and just God can choose some and bypass others. Whatever objection you may have about this Biblical teaching of election, the apostle Paul seems to ignore it. In fact, God’s divine work of electing love is reason for celebration and praise. It provides God’s people with stability and confidence. How else do you explain the nature of this passage? This passage is a doxology, a song. The Holy Spirit invites us today to embrace the truth of God’s electing love in Christ as “truth that rings,” as “doctrine set to music.” (John Mackay. Stott, p. 16). Surely, the structure and nature of this passage points to truth that is music to the ears of faith: God “chose us in Christ before the creation of the world….”
The truth that gives us stability in the midst of turmoil centers on the spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. And those blessings go back to God’s electing love before the creation of the world.
GOD’S ELECTING LOVE
Now let’s dig deeper into these spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. Let’s explore the foundations of our stability in the midst of turmoil today: (Open your Bibles)
Note the TIME of God’s election (vs. 4).
Note the BASIS of God’s election (vs. 5,7,9,11).
Note the FOCUS of God’s electing love (vs. 4,5,7,9,11).
And note the PURPOSE of God’s election (vs. 4,5,12,14).
I agree with John Stott when he says (pp.37-38) that the doctrine of election is
-a divine revelation, not a human speculation
-an incentive to holiness, not an excuse for sin.
-a stimulus to humility, not a ground for boasting.
Positively, I would add that God’s revelation of his mysterious will and purposes (as seen in God’s electing love) provides us with tremendous stability in a world of turmoil. That’s why I encourage us to do the following:
APPLICATION
· Stand firm on the rock of God’s work of election: Take courage, strength and comfort in the workings and purposes of our heavenly Father. Our world may teeter and totter; bombs may fall, bullets may fly, and yes, friends and foes alike may die; our lives may be threatened and turn to chaos. But God does not abandon the work of his hands; God will work out his eternal purposes.
Is this easy? No. Does it come without tears and struggles and doubts? No. But the voice of faith as found in the scriptures says: seek your balance, your stability in God’s electing love. God will work out his purposes for us.
· Keep your eyes on the goal: History and the world as we know it, will not endlessly repeat themselves. Like a woman in labor, so the world looks forward to the day when God brings forth new life.
That “new life” is restoration, renewal of all things. Paul speaks of that in Romans 8 when he says: (vs. 19) “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” And (vs. 22) “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” And Paul reminds us that the renewal of creation goes together with our salvation, with our redemption.
In the passage for today, Paul puts that renewal of all things and the wondrous purposes of God in life in these words: (vs. 9,10) “And God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
As we face each day and continue our work, do your work with the confidence that God will realize his plan of restoration. Yes, as you keep your eyes on the news, as you ponder the chaos in the world with your mind, make sure that your eyes of faith are firmly fixed on the Word of God which says that God, in Christ Jesus, because of his electing love, is making all things new. Keep your eyes on the goal. How?
· Draw upon the presence and strength of the Holy Spirit:
Paul reminds us that all our spiritual blessings are found in Jesus Christ, who communicates these blessings to us by way of his Spirit. And we learn that every believer in Christ is “…marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
We have received the Spirit of Christ. In the midst of today’s turmoil, we find stability in God’s electing love as we draw
Patiently
Quietly
Prayerfully
upon the presence and power of God’s Spirit.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.