Blessed to Receive an Inheritance

January 14, 2024

Topic: Blessings

Book: Ephesians

Blessed to Receive an Inheritance
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Prior to his death in 2007, a wealthy Portuguese man named Luis Carlos made probably one of the most unusual wills to ever have been written. He didn’t have any family, and had very few friends, and mostly was just an unhappy, lonely person. So instead of leaving anything to anybody that he knew, he left it all to 70 random people in the phone book.

When his lawyer began calling the recipients of his will after Luis died, most of them thought that it was a scam call. I mean, wouldn’t you? “Hi, you’ve been randomly chosen to be the recipient of a rich man’s will. Would you like your inheritance in cash or check?” It sure sounds like a scam, right? But each of the 70 people actually ended up receiving several thousand dollars.

That’s how some people think God works, like He just picks a few people at random to bless with salvation, and everyone else gets nothing. But God is far more generous with His grace than this unhappy rich man.

Or listen to this story about another man. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it was printed in the paper in 1919.

A wealthy man in Brooklyn stated in his will: “I own seventy one pairs of trousers. It is my desire that they be sold by auction after my death and that the proceeds of the sale shall be distributed to the deserving poor of my parish. They must, however, be disposed of severally to different bidders, no single individual being permitted to purchase more than one pair.” So that’s what happened. After he passed away, there was an auction to sell his pants, and 71 people each bought a pair of his pants, and all the money from the auction went to the man’s church to be used for benevolence needs.

But what they didn’t know until after the auction was that the man had sewn ten $100 bills into each pair of the pants, so that he distributed all his wealth to those people who were generous enough to purchase his pants at an auction for charity.

But our inheritance from God isn’t random, and it isn’t based on how charitable we’ve been in our lives. God purposed to bless us in Christ before we were even born, and our inheritance in Christ is far more than we can ask or imagine.

Ephesians 1:11-12.

In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12)

Father, thank You for making us and saving us by grace through faith. Help us to glorify Your name, praising You for the hope that we have in Christ. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Throughout our lives, we find ourselves in a lot of different places, and where we are makes a huge difference in terms of the life that we experience. If you’re in your parents’ home, for example, you might have feelings of safety and comfort, or depending on your history with them, you might have feelings of resentment or uneasiness. If you spend most of your days in a bar, it might be because you feel all alone and like you have nowhere else to go, or it might be because that’s where you feel like you do belong, because that’s where everybody knows your name.

But not all of the places we go to in the course of our lives are physical places, some of them are metaphysical places.

At various times, you might be in love, or in trouble, or in need of help, navigating the complexities of a challenging situation. You could find yourself in a state of confusion, in a state of bliss, or in a state of anticipation for what the future holds. Or maybe, after hearing about all these metaphysical places you could be in, you’re wondering if this sermon is going to leave you feeling like you’re in over your head.

This morning, we are all in church. And because we are in church, we heard the message of the gospel through the songs we sang, and through the Bible passages we’ve read, through the message preached, and even through one another as we encourage one another’s faith. And we do all these things because we are in church, not talking about the building we’re in, but the fact that we’ve gathered together for that purpose. We’re in church, and that’s a very good place to be.

But there’s actually an even better place to be. And actually, if we’re in church as the Church, then we’re also in this better place as well.

Our passage this morning starts with the two words “In him.” And this, also, makes a huge difference in how we experience life. As we’ve seen several times in this sermon series, all of our blessings are found in Christ. It’s in him, in Christ, that we’re made holy and blameless. It’s in Christ that we’re adopted as God’s sons and daughters. It’s in Christ that we’re redeemed and united. And today we read that it’s in Christ that we’ve received an inheritance.

Usually when we think about an inheritance, we think about how one generation passes on their possessions to their kids, who then pass on their possessions to their kids, and so on. But it’s funny how successive generations might not appreciate the family heirlooms that meant so much to others.

I read an article about a family in California that had a diamond and sapphire ring that had been passed down several generations, and one day it was missing. As they were looking for it, the mom in the family said something like, “Oh, where could it be?” To which her three year old son responded, “Mama, I flushed it down the toilet. It’s gone. It’s really, really gone!”

They called a plumber, who checked all the possible pipes in the house where it could have been, but the ring was gone. So then they called the city’s sanitation department, and two men took it upon themselves to find the ring. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, only much, much dirtier.

But after 6 weeks of searching, the ring was actually found! And after a very thorough cleaning, it was returned to the family, who said that they would one day pass the ring on to their son, who would hopefully appreciate it more by then.

Now, as cool as that story is, the inheritance that we have in Jesus is far more valuable! We can’t lose what God has given us in Christ. Because it comes by grace through faith in Jesus, we didn’t earn it, and we do something careless in order to forfeit it. It’s a gift given to us that will not be lost, because it depends not on our strength to keep it, but on God’s strength to keep us.

Notice also that Paul writes that we’ve already received this inheritance. That’s what it says in verse 11. “In him, we have also received an inheritance.” It’s not future tense, “we will receive an inheritance,” but past tense, “we have received an inheritance.”

We sometimes think about future things like heaven and eternal life as the primary blessings that we receive because of Christ, but our inheritance in Christ isn’t just about the future. Jesus said this in John 17:3.

This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent —Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)

So eternal life isn’t just someday in the future. We have eternal life now. It’s an abundant, joyful, rich life of peace as we know Jesus as our Savior.

When Jesus died on the cross, He blessed us not only with future salvation, but with all of the inheritance now that we receive because of salvation. Yes, we’re blessed with heaven. Yes, we’re blessed with eternal life and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places we can possibly want. But primarily, and best of all, we’re blessed with Jesus, because He Himself is our greatest treasure.

Peter wrote in his first letter that we have:

an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:4)

All of the things that we might consider precious today, and we would be thrilled to receive as an inheritance, are nothing compared to the inheritance that we have in Christ. All of our temporary blessings pass away, but we will know Jesus for all eternity.

Do you feel that rich in Christ? If we’re honest, even if we know it to be true, there are at least moments in which we don’t feel it to be true. We can often feel defeated and alone, even spiritually bankrupt because of our sin. And at those times, we need to remember the truth that we are completely forgiven, even now. We have God as our Father, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, and because of that, we are extremely blessed in Christ, no matter how we feel.

Sometimes our feelings betray us. Sometimes our feelings lead us into sin. We tend to justify all kinds of immorality with our feelings, when the truth of God’s goodness calls us to do good even when we don’t feel like it.

Many married couples today say, “We fell out of love, so we’re getting a divorce.” But if we would only rest in the truth of God’s word, we would stay faithful to one another, because God is faithful.

A person might have an unhealthy relationship with social media because they feel alone. But God calls us to belong to a community of faith, in which we know and are known by one another.

The point is simply that if we would rely less on ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, and allow God’s word to shape our thoughts and feelings, then we would find that we are so incredibly blessed by God, and we would begin to live as if we’re unbelievably rich, because we are in Christ.

But why would God choose to bless us so much like this? Look at the second part of verse 11.

because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will (Ephesians 1:11b)

We talked a few weeks back about what it means to be predestined. It’s far more than the idea of “who’s in and who’s out.” Being predestined by God is all about being known by God. It’s about how God, in His love and wisdom, decided in eternity past to bless us and give us a purpose in Christ.

You see, as Paul writes, God has a plan to work out everything in agreement with the purpose of His will. That means that even when we have no idea how something lines up with God’s will, we can trust that God knows, because He’s working everything together for the good of those who love Him, being called according to the purpose of His will.

And when it says that God works out everything, I think that’s literally everything. Now, there’s definitely a range of beliefs here in terms of how much people think God is involved in the day to day. Those who profess to be atheists would, of course, say that God isn’t involved at all because they wouldn’t acknowledge God’s existence. But even Deists would say that although they believe in God, they don’t believe God is active in the world today. And on the opposite end of the spectrum from that, you might find someone who is what we call a fatalist, in that they believe God has ordained every moment such that everything is fate, and we can’t change a moment of history or future, because it’s all according to the will of God, so why even try.

In answer to the fatalist, the Bible says that we truly can make real choices, and because of our choices, we will experience real blessings and real consequences. But even then, God’s will will ultimately be accomplished. So God isn’t to blame for the evil that we see in the world, we are, and yet, knowing that we would sin, God was able to send Jesus to be our Savior, and save all sinners who would confess Jesus as Savior and Lord.

We talked briefly just last week about the mystery of God’s will, how in Christ God is bringing together all things – Jews and Gentiles, everything and everyone – in heaven and on earth, uniting them in Christ. God is doing this because God deserves all praise, and all glory, and in Christ, everything will glorify Him in the end. That’s what Paul writes in verse 12. He wrote:

so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. (Ephesians 1:12)

This is such an amazing thing that we often just skim over when we read the Bible. Usually, when we read the Bible, we’re concerned about what’s in it for us. We’re thinking primarily about our rewards, our inheritance, our blessings, but the Bible and all of history actually has a much higher goal. Paul tells us that the point of God saving us is to be to the praise of God’s glory.

When you put your hope in Christ, not only do you find hope and purpose, but God is glorified. We usually think about glorifying God in terms of doing good works, but Jesus actually taught that the work of God that glorifies God is simply believing in the Son. We put all this pressure on ourselves to live a certain way and follow all the rules, and certainly how we live matters. But we’ve already proven through our sin that we can’t truly glorify God through our good works alone, but Jesus did. Jesus lived the perfect life that we failed to live, so when we rest in Him, all His good works are credited to us.

I thought it was ironic that it lined up so that I would preach this message today, on this passage in Ephesians, on the same week that we received a check from Mike Neisler because his dad, Don Neisler, left our church in his will. Our church received a part of Don’s inheritance. While it was only 5% of the sale of his home, it was more than everything that we had in our church’s checking account, so it was a huge blessing to our church!

And God’s glory is much the same way toward us. God’s glory is infinite, for more than we can expect or imagine! And we truly can’t add anything to His glory! Even before God saved us or created us or anything, when God was simply by Himself before He made the universe, God truly had all glory! And yet, He chose to share His glory with us, making us in His image, even though we would sin and see His image broken in us, He chose to do it that way so that He could save us and magnify His glory, sharing it with us as He showed us His mercy and grace, so that we would see His glory even more clearly, and give Him all the praise for making us and saving us according to His will.

So this is the truly astounding thing about us and God: even though we sin, and even though we can’t praise Him perfectly because of our sinfulness, God delights in the praises of His people. When we place our faith in Jesus and begin to follow Him, God celebrates our faith and celebrates that though we were once lost, we are now found.

You see, we’ve been talking about how we have an inheritance in Jesus, but depending on how verse 11 is translated, it may actually be talking more about how God receives us as an inheritance.

The Revised Version of the King James Bible says:

In whom also we were made a heritage – Ephesians 1:11a, RV

The Rotherham Emphasized Bible translates it:

In whom also we were taken as an inheritance – Ephesians 1:11a, REB

And even a previous version of what I preach from, the Christian Standard Bible, back when it was called the Holman Christian Standard Bible, translates it:

In Him we were also made His inheritance – Ephesians 1:11a, HCSB

And I don’t really know if that’s a more accurate translation of the text, but I do know that this is a truth that’s actually taught in the Bible many times. God delights in His people! God loves to bless us, because God is love, and so God loves us! And in the end, because we’ve been purified by the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, God sees us as the unblemished Bride of Christ, because in Christ, we are. And Jesus loves His Bride.

You see, our greatest inheritance is Christ Himself because even though He’s our Savior, and we owe Him everything, He rejoices over us, even as He gives Himself to us! In Christ Himself, we have joy, and hope, and peace with God, and God gives us all these good gifts when we simply trust in Jesus.