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The Mystery of Predestination – Ephesians 1:3-14
Argyle –8/3/14 – You Asked for It!
Introduction to Scripture
This week Kim and I will be serving at Young Lives camp at Lake Champion.
Young Lives is Young Life’s ministry to teen moms. There will be 115 teen moms
and their babies in camp. Kim will be a coordinator for one of the nurseries and I
will be doing a variety of miscellaneous tasks. We would appreciate your prayers for
this opportunity.
One of the questions I had to answer on my application for Young Lives camp
was, “Tell us about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” In the past I would
have begun my answer by talking about how I came to know Christ through the
ministry of Young Life when I was a junior in high school.
But more and more,
influenced by this morning’s Scripture passage, I begin my answer “God chose me
before the creation of the world and I became aware of this at a Young Life camp
when I was in high school.” My salvation began with God, not with me.
This morning’s topic in our “You Asked for It” sermon series is the doctrine of
predestination, also known as the doctrine of election. After sermons on sex and
forgiveness, a sermon on predestination may seem like a letdown. But, as we’ll see
in this morning’s Scripture passage and others, predestination is an important truth in
Scripture. So, it is worth us taking some time to reflect on. In addition to Scripture
this morning, I will be drawing on a very helpful book, Know the Truth by Bruce
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Milne. I have scanned copy of his whole section on predestination onto my computer
and would be glad to send it to anyone who is interested. Just send me an email and
I’ll get it to you later this week.
We start our journey today with Paul’s classic list of the spiritual blessings
Christians have in Jesus Christ. See how many blessings you can name from this
passage. (Read) (Pray)
Introduction
Years ago I preached a sermon on this passage in which I listed the blessings
that we have through Christ. We were chosen before the creation of the world. We
were adopted into God’s family. We were redeemed with the blood of Christ. We
were enlightened with the mystery of God’s will. And we were sealed with the Holy
Spirit. Someone came up to me after worship and said, “Did you know that your
sermon points spell out the word “cares?” I didn’t realize that at the time, but that
acronym “God CARES” has become a great tool for me in my prayer life. I often
begin the thanksgiving portion of my morning prayer reviewing these five blessings.
I pass that along as a possible resource for you to use in thanking God. The blessing
in this list that we are most interested in is this morning is the first one - God
choosing us for salvation, which we call predestination.
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Predestination is a Revealed Truth
The first thing Bruce Milne points out about predestination is that
Predestination is a Revealed Truth. In other words, predestination is not something
we figured out on our own, but it is revealed to us in Scripture. We first encounter
this idea in Genesis 12 where we read that God chose Abraham and his descendants
to be his people. In Deuteronomy 7, Moses reminds the people of this fact. “For you
are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all
the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession”(7:6).
Throughout the rest of the Bible the Jews are referred to as God’s “chosen” people.
(By the way, this verse and the others I will refer to this morning are listed on the
back page of your bulletin along with some others for you to look up later.)
In the New Testament we encounter this idea of predestination first with Jesus.
In Matthew 22 he told a parable about a wedding banquet where a king throws a
wedding banquet for his son. He sends his servants to those who had been invited,
but they refuse to come. They are too busy with family and business obligations. So
the king sent his servants out to invite the people on the streets to come and the hall is
filled. The king notices, however, that there is a man there who does not have the
proper wedding clothes on. So he has the man thrown out. The parable ends with the
king giving this explanation of all that has taken place. “For many are invited, but
few are chosen.”
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John 6 contains Jesus’ most extensive comments on predestination. The
context is a large number of folks who had been following Jesus turn away from him
because they didn’t like some of his teaching. We see the same thing today from
time to time. In the midst of this, Jesus made a series of interesting observations
about those who would stick with him. He said, “All that the Father gives me will
come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”(37) “And this is the
will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise
them up at the last day.” (39) “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent
me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”(44) “This is why I told you
that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” (65)
We don’t have time to look at all the New Testament passages on
predestination, but there is one other verse that I want to highlight. Acts 13:48 was
the verse that was persuasive to me when I was trying to understand this
predestination. Luke wrote, “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and
honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
Predestination, the idea that God chooses some for salvation, is revealed throughout
Scripture.
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Predestination is a Complementary Truth
But these verses on predestination are not all that the Bible has to say about our
salvation. As Bruce Milne points out, predestination is a complementary truth.
Although the Bible teaches that God chooses some for salvation, it also teaches that
we are all responsible for our response to God’s invitation to follow Christ.
We
must hold in tension these two complementary and seemingly contradictory ideas God’s choosing and our responding. You can see why I titled this sermon “The
Mystery of Predestination.”
So the doctrine of predestination doesn’t mean that salvation is some rote
exercise that we have little say in. No, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, “And you also
were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit...”(1:13). We need to believe in Jesus Christ. That is the decision I made at
that Young Life camp back in 1968. We can’t afford to emphasize predestination
over against personal responsibility or vice versa. They are complementary trusts
that we must hold together.
It should not surprise us in dealing with the things of
God, that there will be mysteries beyond our understanding.
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Predestination is a Practical Truth
The last thing that Bruce Milne points out is that predestination is a practical
truth. Like everything else in Scripture, the doctrine of predestination should have a
practical impact on our lives. Knowing that we have been chosen by God should lead
to worship, a sense of security and holy living. One of the things that is often missed
about this morning’s Scripture passage is that this is not some theological treatise. It
is in an outpouring of praise that Paul gives his fullest expression to this doctrine of
predestination.
One of my least favorite things about elementary school was when we would
have to choose teams in gym class or during recess. We would all line up against the
fence and the two captains would choose teams. I wasn’t a very good athlete and this
daily ritual was a reminder of that fact. Often when we would get down to those of
us who weren’t very good, one of the captains would say, “You take those two guys
and I’ll take these two.” We didn’t even get chosen.
If you are a Christian, you have been chosen, not by some kid on the
playground, but by the Creator of the universe. Praise be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who chose us before the creation of the world. Knowing that
we have been chosen should lead to worship.
Knowing that we have been chosen should also lead to a sense security. One
of the major passages where Paul talks about predestination is Romans 8. He wrote,
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
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Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he
predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he
also glorified”(8:29-30). He went on, “What, then, shall we say in response to these
things?” (31)
This launches into one of our favorite passages in the New Testament where
Paul talked about the fact that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of
God. He concludes with these comforting words. “Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or
danger or sword? ...37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us.
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For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels
nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8:36-39) If God has chosen us, then as
Jesus promised in John 6, he shall lose none of those the Father has given him, but
raise them up at the last day. This should give us a tremendous sense of security as
we navigate the ups and downs of the Christian life.
Knowing that we have been chosen by God should lead to worship, a sense of
security and holy living. Some people have argued that if God chooses us for
salvation, it doesn’t matter how we live or what we do. But election is always to holy
living. Moses told the Israelites, “...for you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his
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treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 14:1-2) Paul wrote to the Ephesians that God
chose us before the creation of the world “to be holy and blameless.” God’s purpose
in choosing us is that we would live holy lives to his glory.
Conclusion
Like some of you, when I first encountered this doctrine of predestination, I
was confused by it. It raised all kinds of questions for me.
 What if I wasn’t chosen?
 What if my loved ones aren’t chosen?
 What good is it to pray for someone’s salvation or share the gospel with them
if God chooses who will be saved?
I announced to my college Bible study one night that I didn’t believe in
predestination. I’ll never forget one of the guys, Doug Latimore, saying to me,
“Steve, would you believe in predestination if the Bible taught it?” What could I say?
If God’s word teaches something, even if I don’t understand it or like it, I have no
choice but to submit myself to it. As I have read and studied the Bible over the years,
it has become clear to me that God chose the Jews to be his people and he continues
to choose people to be a part of his family. It is a mystery to me how that all works
out, but it causes me to worship God, to rejoice in the security of my salvation and to
seek to grow in holiness.