Chosen

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 11th of July, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Saul was a good, devout Pharisee, a religious leader among the Jewish people.  He was dedicated to serving God and willingly did whatever task the synagogue ordered.  This included rounding up those who believed in Jesus as the Christ, and bringing them to trial.

All that was before Jesus struck him blind as he traveled to arrest believers in Damascus.  In that city, Jesus instructed a man named Ananias to go to Saul and restore his sight.  Ananias was hesitant to do so because of Saul’s reputation.  But Jesus told him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel."  A chosen vessel, chosen to do not as the synagogue or other people ordered but as Jesus commands.

Please listen and follow along to what that former Pharisee, now the Apostle Paul, wrote in the opening chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.

2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us His mysterious will regarding Christ — which is to fulfill His own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ — everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

15 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called — His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.

19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else — not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.

--Ephesians 1 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for blessing us with spiritual blessings in heaven and physical blessings on earth.  Even before You made the world, You chose us to be one in Christ, to be holy and faultless in Your eyes.  Thank You, God, for so great a gift.  Please help us as we walk through this life.  Help us follow Jesus and do as He commands.  And Father, please keep us safe from Satan and those who do his bidding.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and our service to Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Reassure us that You chose us to serve Your Son.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus, your Son and our Redeemer.   Amen.

American clergyman Henry Ward Beecher once noted that, "You cannot teach a child to take care of himself unless you will let him take care of himself. He will make mistakes, and out of these mistakes will come his wisdom."  

We who believe in and have accepted Christ Jesus as our Lord are now children of God.  So great is God’s mercy that our freedom from eternal death has been purchased by the blood of His Son Jesus.  And so great is God’s love that our heavenly Father allows us to make mistakes as we try to take care of ourselves.  I only wonder if we are gaining any wisdom from the constant exercise.

Paul was indeed chosen.  Jesus Himself said so.  Paul was chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, chosen to be a servant, chosen to go out and tell everyone he encountered all about Jesus.

Looking at his prior life as a Pharisee, we can see that Saul did not choose to serve Jesus.  Just the opposite!  Saul did not choose Jesus; Jesus chose Saul.  And Paul assures us that we too have been chosen, we who believe in and follow Jesus.

Before He even created the world, God chose us in Christ, chose us to be adopted into His own family, chose us to be brought to Himself through Jesus.  He chose us to share in His eternal, heavenly inheritance with Jesus.  He chose us and showed us His plan of salvation through Christ Jesus, so that we can share that Good News with others.  We are the chosen of God.

Remember that Paul never really walked alongside Jesus.  He was given special insight by Jesus during the three days of his blindness, but he did not experience Jesus one-on-one when our Lord walked among us as a man.

The Apostle Peter, on the other hand, did.  Peter and his brother Andrew were the first two chosen by Jesus to be His disciples, His followers.  Chosen by Jesus.  They did not choose Him, He chose them.  So Peter knows what it means, what it feels like to be chosen by God.  Listen to what he wrote to the early church, from his 1st letter to the persecuted Christians in Asia Minor, chapter 2, verses 4 through 10…

4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but He was chosen by God for great honor.

5 And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say,

“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,

chosen for great honor,

and anyone who trusts in Him

will never be disgraced.”

7 Yes, you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. But for those who reject Him,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has now become the cornerstone.”

8 And,

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,

the rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;

now you are God’s people.

Once you received no mercy;

now you have received God’s mercy.”

--1 Peter 2:4-10 (NLT)

Peter says that even Jesus was chosen by God, chosen to carry out God’s plan, chosen for great honor.  And Peter concurs with Paul that we too are chosen.  We are chosen as living stones in God’s spiritual temple.  Not only are we a chosen people, we are also chosen as royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.  Chosen so we can show others the goodness of God.

I love how that passage ends, with Peter reminding us that once we had no identity, but now we are God’s people.  I think about the labels we place upon ourselves in an attempt to identify ourselves.  Asian-American, Mexican-American, African-American, Irish-American.  Working-class, middle-class, rich, poor, young, old, Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Y, or Z.  These are labels we chose, not what was chosen for us.

We are God’s people, chosen by Him to serve a better purpose, chosen to be a vessel for Christ Jesus, bearing His name to all the world.  Let us do what we were chosen to do.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for choosing us to follow Your Son.  Thank You for allowing us to bear His name to all the world.  And thank You for granting us eternal life for our belief in Jesus.  Please, Father, help us be better disciples.  Sometimes we are too timid or shy, too hesitant to tell others the Good News of salvation through Jesus.  Sometimes we worry about what others may think, we fear how they might react, or maybe we’re just afraid we won’t say the right words and will do more harm than good.  Please, Father, stand by our side as we try to share the Gospel.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You hand-picked men to be Your disciples while You walked this earth, to be Your followers, Your friends.  We were also chosen to follow You and serve You.  God chose us and we are His, so we are Yours.  Thank You, Jesus, for making the ultimate sacrifice for us, for taking all our sin upon Yourself so that we can be seen as holy and righteous before our Father God.  Lord Jesus, we ask You to help us be better followers, better servants.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in a world filled with so much hatred and distrust.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.