Well, we are in the season of gift-giving. Depending on what your perspective is, you might be interested more in the season of gift-receiving. But whatever may be the case, as you know, one thing that we're blessed with in our society is we have the wonderful assistance of advertisements to help us in this process. We learn that there are some gifts that keep on giving. such as the gift my brother gives me every year. He gives me a subscription of Sports Illustrated. There are practical gifts. There are gag gifts, sentimental gifts. There are gifts that we're told are just the right gifts for that special someone. And then, in our more modern society, there is the perfect gift. Of course, we know the perfect gift is that store card or credit card that allows the recipient to purchase whatever he or she really wants. And I imagine then, the greater the amount of the card, then the more perfect that gift is. What we're going to be doing for four Sundays, our four Sunday evenings, we're going to consider the gifts that God our Father considers to being truly perfect gifts. They are the gifts. They keep on giving blessing after blessing. And this evening we're going to begin with the gift through which all the other gifts come to us. And I invite you to look at the text with me again as we look at what this special gift is. Let me read the verses again. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And I don't think it takes too much effort here to realize what this special gift is. It's Christ. It's a Christ gift. We're going to consider just how in these three verses he impacts everything. So Paul begins by speaking of himself that he is, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. He's an apostle for the church. He's been made that way, as he says, by the will of God. But note that Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus. And if he's not an apostle of Christ Jesus, then he's an apostle of nothing. It is the Lord Jesus who, you recall, stopped in the middle of the road to Damascus and who gave Paul that commission to carry his name. He was to carry the name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, even to suffer for the sake of his name. Paul says later in Galatians that he received the gospel not from any man, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And then that gospel itself that he received was the death and the resurrection of Christ. Now an apostle then is commissioned to carry a message. And without Christ, Paul has no commission. He has no message to give. But it's not just a matter for Paul of needing to have something for a career. Without Christ, Paul himself remained lost. He has no savior. He has no redemption. You know, actually, Paul had considered himself before Christ that he was an apostle of sorts. He was an apostle for the law. And indeed, he says, so zealous was he in his cause. that he embarked on a journey beyond the bounds of Palestine to promote the law and to arrest lawbreakers. But his credentials as law keeper, his credentials as law enforcer, he would say later in Philippians, were but rubbish. All of his attempts at having a righteousness of his own came to nothing. But God gave to Paul the gift of Christ, both to save him and to make him an apostle. Now Paul then describes the readers that he's writing. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now note how Paul addresses his readers. He says they are saints. The Greek word here is agaios, and what that word means is that they are a people, holy in a sense that they are set apart. God has redeemed them and he has set them apart. Now, that's the essential meaning of saint. The saints are made saints because they are set apart in Christ Jesus. Now, as the verse will make clear as we go on later on in looking at the other passages, there are saints in Christ because they've been chosen by God in Christ. They're adopted as God's children through Christ in verse 5. Verse 7 tells us they're redeemed by Christ's blood and they receive forgiveness of their trespass in him. without Christ, we're told later on in chapter 2, that they are dead in their trespass, that they're children of wrath, but they're made alive with Christ. They are shown kindness in Christ Jesus. Paul goes on to note that it's in Christ Jesus that they are brought near to God by his blood. It is upon Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that they all grow together into a holy temple. Without the gift of Christ, they are not saints. And if they are set apart for anything, they are set apart for destruction. Now he notes here, further on, of the saints who are in Ephesus. That actually may or may not be in the original. It could have been a letter intended to be circulated among the churches that would have included Ephesus. But the other main descriptor of the readers here is that they are faithful. The saints are faithful. But in their faithfulness, they are faithful to Christ Jesus and in him. They have faith in Christ. And then even that faith is not their own. That faith is a gift of God. The power that God the Father gives to us, that is spoken of to be faithful, it's the same power that he worked in Christ. We're filled with the fullness of God as we know the love of Christ. We were given grace and gifts, as we're told in chapter four, by Christ. We grow into faith and knowledge of Christ. We live according to the way that we learned Christ, we're told. He goes on in chapter five, we walk in love as Christ loved us. We are light in the Lord that is in Jesus Christ. And whether we are wives or we're husbands or children or parents or even slaves, we live with Christ as our model. There is no sense of being faithful, of having any kind of faithfulness, if we're not faithful in Christ and faithful to Christ. Now, he then goes on in verse two, to say grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So we've seen already in chapter 1, we've seen how Paul regards himself in Christ, we've seen how he has regarded his readers as they are in Christ. Well this verse 2 speaks about Christ himself. Now what of him? Well, the greeting, which is the same greeting in every epistle that Paul writes, except one, places the Lord Jesus Christ on the same level as God our Father. It is from both God the Father and from Jesus Christ that believers are to receive grace and peace. You see, this is different from saying that God our Father blesses us with the grace and peace of Christ. Now that teaching is true. It's actually the primary teaching of the Epistle. But what we need to understand is this, as much as it is true that God our Father blesses us in and through Christ, we're not to understand this to mean that Christ is just merely some kind of instrument. He's here on one level and God the Father makes use of this instrument, you know, to bring his blessings. such as he might do through angels or even through fellow humans. There's no other kind of statement in the scriptures in which it speaks of anything coming from God the Father and from an angel or from an apostle or from anyone. It's only in regard to Christ Jesus. And so to raise Christ on such a level, Paul is equating him with God the Father. And therefore, if we're to be connected with Christ as saints set apart for him, or to receive anything through him, we're to understand that as we're connected with Christ, we are connected with God himself. Now verse three then brings to clarity and fullness what these previous two verses have been presenting. And it actually then sets forth the premise of these first three chapters of the epistle. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And note what he says here. God the Father is God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we who know Christ, we then know God the Father as the Father of our Lord. That's how we know the first person of the Trinity. You take Christ out of the equation, then we do not know the first person of the Trinity. We cannot relate to him. Let me give an example. You know me, those of you who know me, you regard me as Marian or as Pastor Clark. I have my own identity with you when I'm outside of temp. Or specifically, when I'm with my daughter, I am known as Sarah's dad. Oh, you're Sarah's dad. Everybody, this is Sarah's dad. You take away Sarah, I'm unknown. I have no relationship with anyone, no connection with people. Now this identity is more fused between God the Father and the Son. And we understand with the Trinity, we understand that there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. But even so, none of the persons exist or acts outside of the other. They're always acting independently. I do actually, however other people might think, have a life outside of and independent from my daughter. But God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always working, mysteriously to us, they're always working together. But also the point for us is this, we cannot know God the Father except in our own relationship to Christ. We cannot receive the blessings of redemption. what are described here as the spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, except in that relationship. You'll recall Jesus' words in John 14. He says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father. And it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? To put it briefly, again, we do not know God the father, apart from knowing him through God the Son, we don't know God the Son unless we understand that God the Son is our Lord Jesus Christ. And furthermore, we cannot even refer to God as our Father if we do not know God the Son, again, as our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there is the idea, and you'll hear this spoken of in our society, that we, well, we all worship the same God. You may speak of one religion or another religion, but it's the same God. Well, it's simply not true. The Trinity is not something that we just use as a way to help us as Christians to, you know, perceive what God might be like. The Trinity, God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, is the one true God. And if we do not worship the Trinity, we worship a false God. Now the last half of verse three brings us to a clear, really the all-encompassing point here. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is kind of the point of the whole message. It is in Christ that God the Father blesses us with every spiritual blessing. Now what are these spiritual blessings? Well, that's what the first three chapters present in Ephesians, and what really the rest of the chapters, four through six, are based upon. We're going to look at some of them in more detail in the next three messages, but let me just take time to list them all as they're presented in these first three chapters. There's the blessing of being personally chosen by God to belong to him. There's a blessing of being changed from sinners before him to becoming holy and blameless. We who are objects of wrath are adopted as his beloved children. We receive his glorious grace. We are redeemed. We are forgiven of our trespasses. We're given an inheritance of glory that is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. We're awakened to hope. We're given power. We were dead in our trespasses, but we have been raised to life. Indeed, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. We've been given faith. We have been recreated to do good works, and even those good works are gifts that have been given to us. And those of us who are Gentiles, who are far away from God have been brought near to God to be united with believing Jews and together with them to be made one with them in God's covenant. We are with them now, fellow citizens in God's kingdom. Indeed, we're united as a temple for God. We even have boldness and access directly to God. And these gifts which are of immeasurable value. We're told that they're poured out on us. God's grace is lavished upon us. He gives them all out of his love for us. And it's a love that he has because he is rich in mercy. Indeed, we're told him that the primary challenge for us is trying to comprehend the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us, to know the breadth and the length and the height and depth of God's love that actually surpasses knowledge. We're told that our great giver is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. In other words, God just blows out of the water any Christmas wish list we might come up with. And this is what's presented to us in these first few verses. Now I want to ask you, those of you who you know the giver, you know God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to ask you this, do you feel blessed? As you enter into the season of joy, do you count the uncountable blessings that you have in Christ? Do you bless God for blessing you? Now, it's easy. Indeed, it's so easy that it's to be expected that we allow the cares of living And then when Christmas comes, we're all the more filled with cares, but we allow those cares to crowd out the reflection and the thanksgiving for spiritual blessings that we receive. And what we see and experience in the flesh, if we're honest with ourselves, it's more real to us than these spiritual blessings that we only know by faith. But now, right now, we have time right now. Here in this sanctuary, you have the opportunity to reflect on what is the greater reality and to give thanks for the gifts that you have received from your father. Let's think about him again. Do you feel alone? Do you have no family or maybe you're estranged from your family? There's some relationships that are difficult. Well, that's painful. But don't forget the spiritual blessing and reality that you are adopted in Christ into the family of God, your Father. You will not be estranged from him. You will never be cast out. Think about it, the one relationship that matters most is the one relationship that is most secured. As we're told, it's sealed by the Holy Spirit. In this Christmas season, do you feel poor? Maybe you've lost your job? Are you stuck in a job that doesn't pay enough? And that is worrying. It can cause you to feel anxious, for sure. But don't forget that you are the richest person in the world. You possess the riches of God's glorious inheritance into saints. You possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and you will not lose a penny of what you possess. Your inheritance is kept safe. You are kept safe until that day that you receive your heavenly glorious reward. In this Christmas season, do you feel threatened or despised? Well, remember, You have been redeemed from slavery. You've been redeemed from death. You've been redeemed from anything that would try to hold you in bondage and that would seek to harm you. Your sins are forgiven. Do you hear that? Your sins are forgiven. You are dead, but you have been raised to new life. And all this has taken place because God, your Father, is rich in mercy. And because in His mercy, He loves you with a great love. Who then? What then should you fear? You know, life is difficult, we know that. It's painful. It's filled with grief, and again, many times, for many of us, it's the Christmas season. It seems to become more real to us, the pain. And yet the trials of life, all the more, all the more they should stir in us hope. desire, pleasure, thanksgiving for the spiritual blessings that we have. Blessings that cannot be taken away. Blessings that are assured of coming to full fruition and glory. Blessings that are ours securely in Christ. Because we possess the blessing of Christ himself. We possess the Christ's gift. We possess Christ. He's ours. It was unto us that this Savior was born. He's our Redeemer. He's our light. He shined in the darkness of our sinful hearts. He still shines for us as we make our way through this dark world. He's not going to leave us. It was to us that a child, a son was given to be our ruler, to sit on the throne as our king. He has won our forgiveness. He has claimed us as his own. He is our good shepherd, cares for us, who knows us by name and is not going to lose one of us. He protects us. He feeds us. He's our high priest who intercedes for us. He never stops interceding for you. He abides in us and we in him. He's not ashamed to be called our friend, our brother. He's not ashamed of us, he loves us, and he's merciful to us. Again, he will not let us go. He will never cast us away. Isn't that good to reflect upon, to think upon in this season? But to any of you who may be here who do not possess such a gift, Would you not now receive it? Wouldn't you not now receive him? You know, Christ is not being withheld from you. You might be on, indeed, you are on the naughty list. But all the more then, he freely becomes yours. As Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. That's who I'm here for. And it's only when you refuse to accept that you are a sinner, Well, that's when he doesn't become your Christ's gift. Would you let pride prevent you from receiving this gift? This gift that brings with it every spiritual blessing? Is your intellect offended? Maybe your moral character or your sense of independence? Would you be the kind of person who refuses good gifts because, well, they're not given to you on your terms? You know, all that is needed is a humbled heart, a meek heart to receive Him, and then Christ enters in. To all who receive this gift, to receive Christ, then let us delight in Him, and let us bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We give you praise and thanksgiving, our God. We bless you. Because you have blessed us with all the spiritual blessings that are in Jesus Christ, all of the riches. You have blessed us. We who were your enemies, you have made us your children. We who were far away from you, you have brought us near. We who were in darkness, you've given us light and you've done this because you love us. And you love us because of your great mercy. We thank you, our fathers, we have entered into this season of celebration. We thank you that it is Christ whom we celebrate, that he belongs to us, that we can never lose him. All praise be to you in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.