Christmas 2 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-18

Christmas 2 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-18

January 2, 2011

Friends in Christ, the faithful in Christ Jesus, saints who share the joy of salvation through faith in Jesus' blood,

Does anyone know what a “pickle gift” is?After all the other ornaments were hung on the tree, parents would hide one last ornament, shaped like a green pickle, on the Christmas tree.After all the other gifts have been opened, children will scour those branches high and low looking for that pickle.The first child to find it received an extra gift left by St. Nicholas. They all want that surprise gift!

Once again you and I have seen the gifts that God has given us at Christmas. The greatest of all is the gift of his Son, our Savior. Along with Jesus God has given us the gifts of forgiveness, everlasting friendship with God, and an eternal home heaven. Those gifts have been given to the whole world. But you and I also have received a pickle gift, a surprise gift, from God. It’s hidden in the pages of God’s Word. It isn’t one we can find on our own. In fact, this pickle giftfinds us. And it’s an important gift. Without it no one can have or even appreciate any of God’s other Christmas gifts.The special surprise gift I’m talking about is the gift of faith.

YOUR SURPRISE GIFT FROM GOD!

1. Planned from eternity

Have you ever bought a last-minute gift for someone? You almost forgot about him or her and had to rush to get something. There was nothing rushed or haphazard about any of God’s gifts to us. All of them were planned in eternity,and each one was planned in connection with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In John’s gospel he calls Jesus the “Word” and says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1,3) Think of it. Every breath you take, every bite you eat, every heartbeat, everything you see, hear, tasted, touch – all of it flows from Jesus and exists because of him. And within your body there also is an unseen soul that depends on Jesus for life. Here in Ephesians Paul tells us that the life of our soul, our faith in Jesus, also was planned in eternity: “For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world.”

Way back in eternity, before he called the universe into existence, God knew you. He knew what you would be like and all the sins you would commit against him. He knew you would be born spiritually dead in sin and unbelief. He knew that the slightest flaw in your soul disqualified you from being with him and deserved only his eternal punishment. He knew all this about youway before you were even born,before he created the first man and women, even before he said, “Let there be light”. Yet from eternity he had a purpose for you. He chose you to belong to him.

Paul adds that God predestinedyou.Although you would be born a sinful human being, God determined to make you “holy and blameless in his sight”and planned that you would share in everything that belongs to his Son. It has nothing to do with you making a right decision or being perceptive enough to figure out that Jesus is your Savior or drawing God’s attentionas if becoming a Christian is like winningan “America’s Got Talent” show.Before you did anything – before time began – God planned to make you his own. Why? Paul simply adds, “In love he predestined us.”

So how did you find this “pickle gift” from God? How did you discover that God loved you, wanted you, and made you holy in his sight? Well, as I said before, you didn’t find it. It found you. Paul adds, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”

2. Delivered in time

It is no accident that the Holy Spirit had Paul use the word “adopted”. Children are adopted because they have no parents. They are orphans. Someone must want them, find them, and go through the procedure to make them their children. They can’t make themselves someone’s child on their own.

So how did God adopt you? In his letter to the Christians in Thessalonica Paul told them, “From the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."God adopted you through the gospel message. If we continue reading here in his letter to the Christians in Ephesians Paul says it this way: “You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” At some point in your life, God, who foreknew you and predestined you,brought you to faith. He called you. Compare it to a telephone. If the phone doesn’t ring, you don’t answer it. Someone must call you first, then you answer. God calledyou by his Word, the gospel, and by his grace the Holy Spirit created in you the faith to answer the phone. Paul describes it this way to the Christians in Roman:“How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”(Romans 10:17)

This has been the story of God’s love for every single person who believes in Jesus as his or her Savior from sin. God foreknew you – he chose you to be his. God predestined you – he determined to make you his. God called you – he came to you in time through the gospel message, gave you his Holy Spirit through the gospel, and created in you the faith to say, “Jesus is my Savior.”Why did this surprise gift of faith come to you? Why did he send his Son to earth to live and die for you in the first place? Why did he give you the faith to see that this baby, who later grew up to be a despised and crucified man, is your Savior from sin’s terrible curse? Why did he tell you that in Christ you are set free from the condemnation your sins deserve and that in Christ you are not guilty in his court of law? In yet another letter Paul put it this way: “…not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:9,10)

3. Displayed through your life

I remember how one of my seminary professors used to tell us that the hardest thing for Christians to believe is that they believe in Jesus. Think of it. We have an ongoing struggle with temptations that are common to man. We hear the ongoing accusations of a guilty conscience. We feel deep sadness and regret over our sins and failures. So often the evil we don’t want to do we end up doing. And at times Jesus seems far away, almost not-existent.

Yet we believe in Jesus! Dear friends, God wants usto be sure of our calling and election.He wants us to be sure that if we were to die today we absolutely would be with him in heaven. He wants us to be sure that everything Jesus did for us is more than enough to get us there. This is why Paul prayed for the faith of his fellow believers: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” God wants us to be sure!

So instead of focusing on our sin and how unworthy we are to believe in Jesus; instead of wondering how God could possibly forgive us; instead of letting doubts crowd out these amazing truths, our heavenly Father urges us to fix our gaze on everything Jesus did for us. God really can do anything and all the things he tells you are real. He really didwant you to be his from eternity. You really are innocent in his eyes now and forever because of Jesus’ perfect life, his innocent death and his victorious resurrection from the dead. It is finished. It is history. It is yours, given to you as a free gift by a compassionate God who has “called [you] according to his purpose”and made you his own. No power on earth or hell can change any of those truths. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord!

In one of our Christmas hymns we sing, “Can I, will I forget how Love was born, and burned its way into my heart unasked, unforced, unearned?”(CW 54) Faith is a precious gift from God – planned in eternity, delivered in time, and now displayed in the lives of his dearly loved, adopted children in Christ. But like any other gift from God, the precious gift of faith can be tragically lost through neglect and abuse. Can I forget? Will I forget? What have the eyes of your heart not yet seen? What more can you learn about God’s amazing love for you? How much more confident in Christ can you become? What more will the power of his love do in your life as “he works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose”? (Philippians 2:13) There’s only one way for our hearts to see more. As we begin this new year,a coworker of Paul’s, the apostle Peter, gives us a resolution worth keeping: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

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