We are looking at being claimed and embraced today, claimed and embraced by God. If you have your Bibles, your devices, you can turn ahead to Ephesians chapter one. That’s what we’re gonna be looking at this morning as we begin. A question for you. Have you ever found yourself like trying out. For a team of some kind, maybe a a, a sports team or a music group, an arts performing crew. For me, I can vividly remember like it was yesterday, yet as way back in my sophomore year of high school and I was on the edge of my seat because I was trying out for the high school junior boys basketball team. Now, this is a big deal for me. The year before grade nine, uh, we were city champs in basketball, boys basketball in Edmonton, Alberta, city of half a million people. I mean, it’s no small thing. Right? Kind of wore that as a badge of honor. I get to high school. Whoa. It’s just a whole nother level. Um, I mean the, um. The athleticism was just sharper. The competition was far fiercer and every tryout kind of felt like a personal trial of my own self-worth. And so the day that the team’s gonna be announced, you know that bulletin board that the roster gets posted on, I can remember walking toward that apprehensive, yet hopeful at the same time kinda air just seemed to be buzzing. I can still remember this with like tension, but also great anticipation and hope. And I got up to it, and there it was. My name Todd Mathison. I made the team. I was chosen. And here’s a picture of that wonderful basketball team from way back in 1976. Alright, I’m, I’m the guy on the right side. Second from the bottom. But I gotta say in that instant, knowing I was on that team, I was overwhelmed kind of with a, a mix of like joy and relief and pride kinda just all washed over me and all the sweat and the doubts that I had battled going through those trials were all melted away because I realized I belonged on that team. And that day, standing there with my, my heart still thumping and a smile I still can’t contain even to this day. I guess I knew I’d taken a great, a great just leap ahead in my own basketball journey, but more importantly, learning about who I was becoming had to do with my identity and don’t we all long to belong. To know that we belong somewhere. We belong to something, we belong with someone. And this desire, it’s far more personal and much deeper than just a sports team. It’s about who we are. It’s about our life, it’s about us, our identity. Who am I? Does anyone care about me? Do I matter to anyone? That electrifying moment, reading that bulletin board list, it reminds me then of something far deeper, a divine selection that goes far beyond any high school sports team, but just as that was claimed for that team.
The Bible reveals that God claims and embraces us in Jesus Christ. In his overwhelming love, God reaches out through the gospel and draws us into his family. I mean, imagine being so cherished that despite every setback or any doubt, that rather you’re enveloped in just this warmth that shatters away any and every sense of rejection to know that in Christ you are accepted. By God and welcomed into his family. And you’re chosen not just for a season, but we are adopted into God’s family for all eternity. And this eternal inheritance, it out shines and outlasts any trophy or fleeting victory. And in this profound divine embrace, that’s where we discover our true home. Our true family, a place of belonging where we are forever loved, eternally valued, and empowered to live out a destiny that’s beyond what we could dare to dream or imagine. So I wanna read about God doing this and it’s right out of Ephesians chapter one. I’m gonna begin reading at verse three. 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 to be holy and blameless in his sight, in love. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will in him. We were also chosen. Having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we who are the first to put our hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed you were marked in him 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. Wow. The gospel of our Lord. Praise to You O’Christ. Let me pray for us as we continue on. Lord God, we need your spirit now to come that we might grow in our spiritual understanding. Help us to find ourselves in in Christ, and in Him to know that we are truly loved, cared for, never forsaken, but cherished, claimed, and embraced. Encourage our hearts. This day, and Lord, especially for those who might be struggling with feeling alone or isolated or hurt or rejected, may they hear your word of acceptance in Christ Jesus. And it’s in His name that I pray. Amen.
I really, one of the blessings I get as a pastor is to give you this blessing every weekend. Dear friends, grace to you. And peace from God, our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. This past Wednesday night at our Lenten service, we looked at, I think, what is maybe one of the most soul rendering moments in all of scripture, that as Jesus hung on that cross, he cries out in utter abandonment. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And we looked at this and considered this truth that the son of God was forsaken. So that you and I need never be God’s answers, his answer to our deepest fears of abandonment. It’s the cross of Christ. And more than that, it’s this promise. The promise that in Jesus, we are brought into God’s family. We are welcomed, we’re claimed, and embraced. Through Christ Jesus and our passage in the Bible today in Ephesians, it speaks about God’s choice. It, it’s called election, talks about predestination. It’s really about adoption into God’s family, and I don’t know how it strikes your own ears, but what I’ve experienced myself and observed is that often when we hear these words like election or predestination, we kinda just immediately go to like, well, is that fair? Because we might worry about those who don’t believe or those who’ve not yet heard about Jesus. But what if we saw this teaching not as a, some kind of a mystery of exclusion, but rather for what it really is the most tender, caring expression of divine love and initiative that God would choose us in Christ. As the Bible says before, the creation of the world, God’s salvation, his plan, it’s never been an afterthought. It has been his loving intention for us to be His and that through the finished work of Jesus Christ. So if you’ve ever longed to belong, to be claimed to be cherished. Let these words sink in that God has set his affection upon you from all eternity. I need you to put your thinking caps on with me here for a bit. I wanna drop a little Latin. On you. Okay? There’s a Latin phrase that helps explain this. It goes this way and it means this. Dunno if I pronounced that right. I didn’t take Latin. Okay? Here’s what it means in English to know with affection and with the resultant effect. That’s what it means in God choosing you to know you with affection that has. A resultant effect. Theologians emphasize that the doctrine of predestination, it’s gotta be viewed as the Bible does.
That’s one of our core dis distinctives as a church, what the Bible says plainly, we can say. What it doesn’t, but we kind of want to infer or connect the dots. We gotta hold that humbly go with what the Bible says. And so there’s another Latin term that kind of speaks to this, and it goes this way that we must view predestination a ity, which means after the fact, not a priority before the fact. In other words, we are not encouraged to try to. Look back into eternity to pick God’s mind as to why he for knew and predestined us rather as we know his loving call given to us in Christ Jesus than we are given a greater comfort and assurance and being told that we were in the mind and the plan and the heart of God from all eternity. I was trying to think about how to illustrate this, and here’s perhaps one way. Imagine that you received an official invitation from our governor, okay, to a special invite only gathering a party. Now, you couldn’t choose to go to that party on your own without that invitation, that choice had to be made by the governor. Who chose you, but what you could do is to choose to not go to that party, and this is what God has done for you in Christ Jesus. He’s given you this invitation. He actually chose you to be his own by sending his son as your savior, and he’s made this known to you, and there’s the invitation to be part of God’s family through Christ Jesus. This choice of God is made effective. When you hear. What God has done for you in Christ and when you believe, here’s how our passage describes it, and you also, you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, what a wonderful reality.
That’s part of what Renee led us in when we confessed out loud together, our faith in the words that comes from this Luther Small catechism, the meaning of the article about who we believe the Holy Spirit to be. I believe that by my own understanding and strength, I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or I cannot come to him, but, but. The Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith. It’s God’s work, his initiative. So today I’d like us to look at three points to draw from our passage about being claimed and embraced by God the first consider God’s claim chosen in Christ. Before the foundation of the world. Here’s how our text puts it. He chose us in him. That’s in Jesus before the creation of the world in love. He predestined us for adoption. This is no last minute rescue plan. The Bible tells us that God knew you specifically before he ever said let there be light. Before Genesis one, one, God already had you in mind and he set his saving love upon you in Christ predestination election. In other words, it’s not about God randomly excluding others. It’s all about this measureless care that God takes to rescue sinners. It’s not about fairness, but rather about a father who loves lavishly and has made a way for us through Jesus to become a child of God. That’s exactly how scripture defines this divine adoption. One John three. See what great love the father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God and I love this, and that is what we are. Exclamation point. This divine tenderness, this sense of embrace, it’s written into the gospel from all eternity. Yes, Christ was forsaken on the cross as part of God’s plan, and Jesus willingly laying down his life and becoming a sin offering for you so that you and I would never be forsaken. So instead of abandonment, God extends belonging. Through his son. So if you’ve ever wondered if, if there’s room in God’s heart for you, the answer, it’s a resounding yes that God has chosen to claim you.
So second, consider God’s embrace being adopted into His family. Here’s how our texts put it to be adopted as his child through Jesus Christ in accordance with his. Pleasure and will adoption. It’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? A child beforehand has no claim on any family, but in adoption now, they are claimed and embraced as a genuine son or daughter. The Bible uses this picture in John chapter one, and we actually say it whenever we gather together. For worship. To all those who received him, to those who believed in his, that’s Jesus’ name. He gave the right or the power to become children of God. Hmm. This election, it flows into our story through the, the gospel being told through the proclamation of God’s word. As our text says, when you heard the message of truth, you believed. The Bible reminds us in Romans 10, that faith, it comes by hearing the message and the message by the word of Christ. So God is seen fit to open wide the doors of salvation through the living word, Jesus Christ proclaimed through the written word the scriptures. So the mins, the any mystery of election or predestination, it’s answered in the open arms of Christ Jesus and the open invitation of the good news of what he’s done for us. Come. Jesus says, you belong with me. We’ve got a place for you in God’s family. You belong in my father’s house. And this isn’t just a New Testament piece. This is, we see this in the Old Testament forward. What Carrie read for earlier, I think from Isaiah 43, 1 of the most tender and comforting passages in all of scripture. God speaks tenderly to his people then and to you, his people today. Fear not for I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called you by name. You are mine. It reminds me of, um, if you ever watched the chosen the very first episode, the end of it. There’s this scene where there’s Mary of Magdala as she’s hurriedly leaving a pub. And Mary, who’s really broken her eyes, carry a memory of a lifetime of hardships and hurt, rejection, and even abuse. And in this chaotic moment, as the world around her seems just to press in and darkness and blur, Jesus steps forward and with a tender intensity, he calls her by a name that resonates deeply within her own soul.
Mary, she’s been gone by a different name. He calls her by her real name. And in that single word, all the layers of her past and the brokenness of her identity are laid bare. And she’s immediately brought back to these words from Isaiah that she has this memory of her father gently telling her these words of comfort. We actually have to watch the clip, so watch it on the screen with me.
Mary, Mary of Magdalen How do you know my name? I says, the Lord who created you and he who formed you? Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name.
In Jesus, that same call rings in your own ears. God calls you by name. He knows your name. And in Christ, you are invited, welcomed, gathered, claimed, and embraced. Consider God’s embrace. And finally consider God’s ceiling that our inheritance and identity are in Christ. Here’s how our, our text puts it. When you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Our Bible passage today, it leads us to this wonder that when we are claimed and embraced by God, we are then given we receive this eternal inheritance kept in heaven for you. So if you’ve ever felt insecure, then these words are for you. When we come to faith, the Holy Spirit seals us, marks us as God’s own. So we are not on shaky ground or locked in some kind of a cosmic guessing game. Rather our inheritance is certain and sure, because it’s anchored in the finished work of Jesus Christ. It’s like a child waking up every day in their new adopted family, secure in the knowledge that that family name and all that they are and have belongs to them. That is you. In God’s kingdom in his family where you can stand tall, not because of your greatness or goodness, but rather because you’ve been made a member of his family. And with this comes a deep security that comes from knowing that you are a legitimate heir of all that God has through faith in Christ Jesus. If there’s only one thing that you’re to take from today. And I pray you’d take more, but if only one thing, it would be this for you to know who you are in Christ so you can live like a dearly loved child of God. Jesus was forsaken so that you need never be and more than that, and because of Christ, you are lifted to the most exalted status of a beloved daughter or son of God. This is the heart of our faith, and maybe you’ve known rejection. Maybe you’ve struggled with belonging in the arms of the Father through Jesus Christ. You are neither orphaned or never alone. You are cherished. You are loved. Hold fast to that identity. Claim it because God has already claimed you and live as one who’s been loved for all eternity, loved long, and loved enough that Jesus Christ, God’s son would even endure the cross in your place. God’s loving election. God’s predestining grace. It’s not a wall to keep people out. It’s the comfort that he is on the lookout for his lost children and will do anything and everything to call them back, calling them by name. And when we turn and believe, wrapping them in a embrace that we can scarcely believe ourselves.
You dear friend, in Christ Jesus are a child of God. Forever held, forever claimed, forever embraced through Jesus Christ our Lord. Join me in prayer. Lord God, thank you for choosing us before the world even began, and for wrapping us in your tender unending love that assures that we belong in your family. May our Holy Spirit guide our every step. Turning every moment of doubt into a reminder of the identity that we have in you because of Jesus, a beloved child forever cherished and claimed, and help us then to share this truth with a compassionate heart so that all who cross our path may witness the transforming power of your grace and come to know the promise of eternal belonging in Christ Jesus. I ask this in his precious name and for his sake, amen.
