Anticipating Our Future Inheritance

Ephesians 1:11-14—Anticipating Our Future Inheritance

I’m sure many of you have probably heard by now of the house fire that occurred about a week and a half ago in Brentwood. The house caught fire in the middle of the night, around 3:00am we’re told. And thankfully, two neighbors were able to knock on the door and wake everyone up and make sure everyone got out safely so that no one was hurt in the fire. But it’s still a difficult thing. A family of five people lived in that house, and that evening they had probably gone to bed like any other night. And yet, during that night, probably in less than an hour, virtually all of their earthly possessions literally went up in smoke.  Fortunately, their needs are being met, and there’s been an outpouring of generosity across the community, but hearing about this house fire should really remind us of how temporary and how fragile everything in this world is. All of our possessions can literally be here one hour and gone the next. And even life itself is so fragile. Thankfully no lives were lost in this fire, but that very easily could have been the case, and it obviously is the case for many other people all the time. In fact, the Bible compares our lives to a mist that’s present for a little while and then vanishes. And really, you could say that for everything in this world—every possession, every relationship, every circumstance. It’s all here one day and gone the next. 

And yet, it’s so easy for us to set our hearts on various earthly things, isn’t it? Of course, someone who’s not a Christian is setting their heart entirely on earthly things. That’s all they have to set their heart on. But even many Christians can often get way too wrapped up in the cares and concerns of this present life. It’s so easy for us to neglect God’s priorities and pay way too much attention to acquiring material possessions and making a name for ourselves and fine-tuning every aspect of our lives to be exactly the way we want it to be. And of course it never is exactly the way we want it to be, so we’re perpetually stressed out, discouraged, and disappointed. That’s why I’ve enjoyed studying this week’s text so much, because this week’s text from everything I just described. More than anything else, it reminds us that the greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future. The greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future.

Please turn with me to Ephesians 1. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 811. You may remember that last week, we looked at the first part of Ephesians 1, at all of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. And we talked about how remembering those blessings brings us joy when we’re in a weary or joyless state.  That was verses 3-10. Well, this evening, we’re going to continue on in the passage by looking at another one of these blessings in verses 11-14. But let me begin at verse 3 to refresh us on the tone of the passage.

“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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. [And now, this evening’s main text:] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

So the last blessing Paul reminds the Ephesians of is their heavenly riches—that they have an inheritance in heaven that’s beyond anything they can imagine here on earth. And for those who have embraced Jesus, we’re able to share in that heavenly inheritance as well. The greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future. There are a lot of good things in our present lives that God has given us to enjoy, and it’s not bad or even unspiritual to enjoy those earthly things. Like if you don’t enjoy ice cream or steak or good pizza, there’s probably something wrong with you. You should enjoy good food and recreation and all of the relationships and possessions God blesses you with. But for someone who’s truly a Christian and actively following Jesus, the greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future. And that’s what makes Christians so unique. Just about everyone else around us in our secular society is totally invested in this present life, but Christians are people whose hearts are primarily invested in the life to come, in our heavenly inheritance. Looking at verses 11-14, I’ve identified four characteristics of our inheritance. 

Our Inheritance Is Undeserved

First, our inheritance is undeserved. It’s undeserved. And we talked a little bit about this last week, but look at the very first words of verse 11: “In him” we’ve obtained an inheritance. Who does the “him” refer to? If we look up at verse 9, we see that it refers to Christ. We have an inheritance “in” or through Christ—not through our efforts, not through our merit, not through us being good enough, but simply through Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, he took our sin upon himself. We were the ones who deserved to be punished for our sins, but Jesus stepped in and took the punishment in our place. He fully satisfied the requirements of divine justice, paying our debt in full. And he gave us his perfect record so that when God looks at us, as we saw last week in verse 4, he sees us as holy and blameless, not because that’s how we’ve lived, but simply because of Jesus.  And then, as we saw in verse 5, he adopted us into his family, again, not because of us but because of Jesus. And because we’re in God’s family, as is commonly the case, we get to enjoy the family inheritance. It’s not something we’ve earned. It’s not something we’ve achieved. It’s something we’ve been given. 

I think a lot of people view this inheritance as a paycheck. But it’s not a paycheck it’s an inheritance. A paycheck is earned. You put in your hours, you accomplish your tasks, you help the company be profitable, and in return, they give you a paycheck. An inheritance is different. Typically, the only thing you do is simply exist as a member of the family, and you receive it. And if you’re parents or whoever passed away doesn’t want to write you into their will for whatever reason so that you don’t receive an inheritance, that’s their decision to make. They’re not under any legal obligation to give it to you. They can donate it to the “Save the Whales” foundation. It’s their money. And if they do give it to you, they give it as a gift, not as an obligation. And that’s the way it is with our heavenly inheritance as well. It comes simply as a gift that God freely chose to give us. In the words of verse 11, it comes to us because we’ve been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” God gave it to us because he wanted to, and that’s basically it. 

Our Inheritance is Eternal

Second, not only is our inheritance undeserved but it’s also eternal. Paul isn’t making such a big deal about this inheritance because it’s here today and gone tomorrow, like everything else in this world. He’s operating on the premise that this inheritance is eternal. In 1 Peter 1:4, Peter calls it “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” Take a moment, and just think about take. “An inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” It’s kind of hard to imagine, isn’t it? We have difficulty picturing that because we’ve never seen anything like it. The only things we’ve ever seen are things that perish, spoil, and fade. Roofs need to be replaced, back pains start creeping in, family pets die—first Rusty, then Duke, and then even poor old Mr. Wiggles, bless his heart. Temporary things are all we’ve ever known. And so, when Peter talks about an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade,” we don’t have the mental equipment to even begin to grasp what that’s like. We just joyfully anticipate experiencing it one day. 

And it doesn’t take a genius IQ to figure out that’s the day we should be living for. I mean, if Ephesians 1 is for real and if that inheritance is really something that god offers us, how foolish would we have to be to invest our energy in things that’ll fade away when we could be investing it in treasures that will last for eternity. That’s why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” In other words, don’t make a dumb investment. Set your heart and invest your life in things that have eternal value. 

During the Civil War, since the Confederate states cut ties with the federal government, they had to supply for themselves everything that the federal government once supplied for them. And one of those things was their own money. And I remember going to a museum as a kid and actually seeing confederate up close. And I remember thinking how strange it look with different pictures and designs and things like that. And I remember the museum curator explaining to us how at the end of the war, when the Confederate states lost, the people down there had all of this Confederate money that was all of a sudden completely worthless. It literally wasn’t even worth the paper it was printed on because the Confederacy was no longer a functioning entity. And so people would actually take stacks of this confederate money and just burn it. They couldn’t trade it in, they could buy anything with it, so it was just taking up space in their house. Now, I’m not a Civic War historian, but I imagine that in the final months of the war, there were  probably some signs that the South was probably going to lose. I’m sure it wasn’t a complete shock to them when General Robert E. Lee finally surrendered at Appomattox. And I just think to myself how foolish you would have to be to continue acquiring Confederate money in those final months. You’d have to be insane. And this evening, I would suggest that it requires an equal level of insanity to continue setting our hearts on the things of this world that are so temporary and so transient when we have an eternal inheritance that God offers us. If you’re not a Christian, why wouldn’t you embrace that inheritance? And if you are a Christian, why wouldn’t you set your heart on that inheritance?

Our Inheritance Is Guaranteed

 Moving forward, the third characteristic of our inheritance, as we see back in our main text is that it’s guaranteed. Our inheritance is guaranteed. One reason we know it’s guaranteed is because of verse 11, where it again says, again, how we’ve been “predestined” according to God’s purpose. God predestined us to this inheritance, he’s not gonna change his mind. He’s not fickle the way we are, and neither will he ever be surprised by some circumstance or factor that he failed to take into account at first. He’s known from eternity past exactly what he’s gonna do. 

And in addition to that, this passage says in verses 13 and 14 that God’s given us the Spirit as a kind of down payment on this inheritance. Look what it says, verse 13: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee [or down payment] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” So in the words of this verse, if we’ve heard the word of truth which is the gospel, and responded to it in an appropriate way by believing in Christ, we’ve been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” as it says. Back in ancient times, a seal was a sign of ownership. This word was used of marking or branding cattle to identify them as your own in case they jumped the fence and got mixed up with your neighbor’s cattle. I’m sure most of you have had that problem several times with your cattle; I know it happens all the time on my street. That’s why you’ve gotta put your seal on them to identify them as your own. 

And, looking at verse 14, it says that the Spirit “is the guarantee [or the down payment] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” The reason for a down payment is to show that you’re serious about making the rest of the payments down the road. It’s the first installment among many additional installments. And back in ancient times, once you made that down payment, you couldn’t get it back. Like if you changed your mind and no longer wanted to make the purchase, the person kept your down payment. So making that down payment was a pretty good indicator that you were serious about this purchase. And so according to this verse, God has given us his Spirit, he’s sent his Spirit to live within us, as a kind of down payment of heaven. We might not be able to see heaven, but as Christians we can see evidence of the Spirit living within us, giving us new desires, new priorities, new spiritual appetites—all of that comes from the Spirit. And because we have the Spirit living within us, we can be confident that one day, God’s gonna give us the full measure of our heavenly inheritance.

Our Inheritance Is All-Satisfying.

And, in reality, the Spirit is a taste of what’s to come. It makes sense that if the Spirit is a down payment of our inheritance, the full inheritance must consist of more of the same. And in fact, it does. Our inheritance is nothing less than God’s gift of himself. God gives us himself here and now by sending his Spirit to live within us from conversion onward. And then he allows us to enjoy the fullness of his presence in heaven without any of the hindrances or limitations we have here on earth. And so the final characteristic of our inheritance is that our inheritance is all-satisfying. 

And it’s all-satisfying because God is all-satisfying. God is perfect in every aspect of his being. He’s perfectly righteous, perfectly holy, perfectly loving, perfectly good, perfectly wise, perfectly beautiful, perfectly majestic. He has no deficiencies. And when we receive our inheritance and get to be in the presence of this God, it’s the most satisfying thing we could ever experience. You know why? Because that’s what we were made for. We were made for communion and fellowship with this all-perfect God. So when we get to experience that, it satisfies us like nothing else can. And that’s why heaven is so wonderful. Heaven isn’t heaven because of the absence of the bad things we experience on earth or because it’s decorated really nice. Heaven is heaven because God’s there. Revelation 21:23 describes the heavenly city as having “no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light,” it says. That’s pretty incredible. God himself is the light of heaven, and there simply won’t be a need for any other light. And the reason we’ll never get bored in heaven is because every day, we’ll have new revelations of the beauty and glory of God. And because God’s infinite, there will always be more of his beauty and glory to discover. Are you beginning to see why this inheritance is gonna be so wonderful? The best gift God could possibly give us is the gift of himself, and that’s exactly what he does. So our inheritance is undeserved, it’s eternal, it’s guaranteed, and it’s all-satisfying. And this is why the greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future. So you can see why the greatest joy of our present is anticipating our future. 

Conclusion

So don’t let yourself get wrapped up in the present. Sometimes, if I’m watching a good movie, I’ll get so wrapped up in the movie, I’ll forget where I am. I’ll literally have my drink and my food still in my hand because I’ve forgotten to enjoy them. And by the time the movie ends, I’ll have gotten so absorbed in the characters and in the plot that it takes me a little while to transition back into reality. And that may be okay for a movie, but if that’s the way we approach life in general, that’s not a good thing. I think a lot of people, even many Christians, might not be dealing with a fictional movie eclipsing real life, but we are dealing with the temporary eclipsing the eternal. And we’re basically robbing ourselves. We’re robbing ourselves of the joy of anticipating our future inheritance, and we’re robbing ourselves of the comfort of viewing present difficulties in light of our future inheritance. And if you haven’t renounced your sinful lifestyle and embraced Jesus yet, your preoccupation with this present life is robbing you of any inheritance whatsoever. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I love the way C. S. Lewis describes it in the Chronicles of Narnia. He says it’s as if our earthly lives have many different stories, but when we get to heaven, that’s the real story. And when we arrive in heaven, we’re only at the beginning of that real story. He says it’s as if everything we experience in this world is just the title and the cover page and that when we get to heaven, to quote him directly, we’ll be “beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” That’s something I can’t wait to be a part of.