Eph. 1:15-23
I want to start by reading the Introduction to Ephesians from the Message translation of the Bible:
What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives. The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin wrecked world. He begins with an exuberant exploration of what Christians believe about God, and then like a surgeon skillfully setting a compound fracture, “sets” this belief in God into our behavior before God so that the bones ----belief and behavior----knit together and heal.
Once our attention is called to it, we notice these fractures all over the place. There is hardly a bone in our bodies that has escaped injury, hardly a relationship in the city or job, school or church, family, country, that isn’t out of joint or limping in pain. There is much work to be done.
And so Paul goes to work. He ranges widely, from heaven to earth and back again, showing how Jesus, the Messiah, is eternally and tirelessly bringing everything and everyone together. He also shows us that in addition to having this work done in and for us, we are participants in this most urgent work.
Now that we know what is going on, that the energy of reconciliation is the dynamo at the heart of the universe, it is imperative that we join in vigorously and perseveringly, convinced that every detail is our contribution (or not) to what Paul describes as God’s plan worked out by Christ, “ a long range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.” - The Message
Last week Carl spoke on Ephesians 1:1-14. Before I begin today’s message from Ephesians 1:15-23, I want to highlight a few verses from Carl’s message.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. – Eph. 1:1-2
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 to be adopted as His sons 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. – Eph. 1:4-5,11
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, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory. – Eph. 1:13-14
Now here are three takeaways that I received from Carl’s message:
- If Jesus Christ is our Lord we are saints whether people call us that or not. We don’t have to wait until 5 years after we die and someone shows proof of our life of heroic virtue and we don’t have to show proof of verified miracles and we don’t have to be Canonized by the church to be saints and be called saints by other believers.
- We are chosen by God. Predestination and Free Will can coexist. God being all knowing decided before He created the foundation of the earth that He would create us through Adam and Eve and that they would have free will and because He is all knowing, He knew that they would fall and would need to be reconciled back to Himself. In keeping with the God given free will their offspring had and still have the free will choice to be reconciled or not. Because He is all knowing and He lives outside of time and space He knew and knows what choice each of us would make and will make. If He didn’t He would not be God.
- After Jesus’ death and resurrection, those who make the free will choice to be reconciled according to God’s plan by asking Jesus to be Lord of our lives are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. The guarantee is that we will in the fullness of time inherit heaven as adopted children of God. At the same time that we were given the Holy Spirit our names were written in the Lambs book of life. This book will be significant when it comes time for judgement and rewards to be given at the end of the age.
Now today we are going to go over the rest of chapter 1, i.e., Ephesians 1:15-23.
Now that was my takeaways from last week’s message. But before I begin today’s message let’s take a moment and ask the Lord to open our minds and hearts to both understand today’s passages and apply them to our everyday lives.
Now I read a commentary that stated Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through 23 are part of a single sentence in the Greek Bible Translation. Without taking a course in Greek I have no way of verifying that this is true. But supposing that this commentary was correct I will first read the entire set of verses in this supposedly long run-on sentence. Then I will unpack the thoughts contained in this passage one small portion at a time. So here is the passage:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church; which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. – Eph. 1:15-23
So with that I will begin unpacking this passage. I will start at verses 15 and 16.
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Paul says for this reason. I asked myself for what reason? Well since verse 1 was just the From and the To Paul must mean for all the reasons given in verses 2 through 14 but mainly for the three takeaways that I mentioned.
Namely that if, Jesus is our Lord and we are saints and we were chosen by God to inherit the kingdom of heaven and that the Holy Spirit who now lives inside of us was given to us as a permanent seal of God’s promise to be bestowed at the end of the age.
So for that reason singular Paul goes on to say; “ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
Now why did Paul continually give thanks when he heard about their faith in the Lord Jesus and their Love for all the saints? Well the answer is that he experienced great joy to hear that the saints that he had preached to were still walking in the truth of the Gospel. We get a glimpse of this great joy from another famous believer i.e., John the Author of the Gospel of John and the Author of First John, Second John and Third John and the Book of Revelation. When John had received news of the people that he had preached to he wrote in Third John:
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. – 3 John 1:2-4
Christine and I got a glimpse of this great joy when we recently visited our friend and brother in the Lord Linton Abraham and his family. Most of you may not remember Linton but he went to school here at Clemson University for his Master’s degree in computer Science Engineering. He graduated around 2010 and took a job in the Boston Area. In 2012 he got engaged to his now wife Cassia. Linton and Cassia later invited Christine and I to their wedding in Boston which we attended in 2013. At that time Christine and I flew up to their wedding. At their wedding we met his parents who were both from India but they had moved to Kuwait where his father worked as a manager of one of the oil refineries there. Since that time Christine and I continued to keep in touch with Linton and Cassia through the years. We visited them and their children again in Boston in August of 2018 while we were there for our son John and his wife Lindsay’s wedding.
While there we even drove up to Cape Cod to hear Linton Preach at one of the local churches. Linton and Cassia now have four children and they have since moved to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area where he continues to preach at local area churches while still working as a computer science engineer for one of the local companies. Christine and I again visited with them this past September while we were in the Pittsburgh area for my sisters 60th birthday celebration. It was so encouraging to see him and his family again still walking in the truth and living for the Lord.
So like these two apostles, Christine and I took great pleasure in hearing Linton tell us that he was continuing to preach the Gospel in the surrounding area in Pennsylvania and how grateful he was to us and the others here at Clemson Community Church for inspiring him to continue living whole heartedly for the Lord . This is how it must have been for Paul, when he heard of the Ephesians faith and their love for the saints. Paul was continually thankful for them. So as a result of their faith and their love for each other these believers were on his mind when he prayed.
What kind of things do you think Paul kept praying for them? Well he tells us starting in verse 17:
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. – Eph. 1:17
Just like Jesus was subject to the Father’s will, the Holy Spirit who imparts wisdom and revelation to whom the Father choses is also subject to the Father’s will. So why does Paul pray this to the Father for the saints? Well Paul tells us that too. “so that you may know Him better.” Of all the things that Paul could pray for them he asked first that they be given wisdom and revelation so that they may know the Father better. Why? Because there is nothing better than knowing the Father and experiencing His love for us His adopted children.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. – Eph. 1:18-19
So what does it mean to have the eyes of your heart enlightened?
Someone once said the biblical concept of the heart is the convergence of our soul, spirit, body, brain and overall our perceptive faculties.
The heart is one’s entire emotional nature and understanding and Paul prays that this be illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why does Paul pray this? He tells us directly that he prays it for three reasons:
- That you may know the hope to which He has called you - which is likened to divine hope.
- That you may know the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints - which is likened to divine faith.
- That you may know His incomparable great power for us who believe - which is likened to divine love.
First to know the hope to which He calls us is a concrete and everlasting hope, as opposed to a temporary hope. A temporary hope for example is when Christine hopes there is a parking spot in the shade for her to park her van in so it won’t be hot when she is done shopping. That is not the permanent concrete everlasting hope that we are called to. Now we need the eyes of our heart enlightened to understand the concrete and everlasting type hope so that we can hold on to it day and night for our whole life.
Second to know the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. This is likened to Divine Faith. If we think of all the faith in Hebrews 11 as though it were a bank with enough gold to back up the value of every U.S. dollar ever printed. This was what the bank of Fort Knox Kentucky was used for before they replaced the gold standard with a promise.
If you add to this faith the faith of every person who has ever lived by faith this is our inheritance. Ok, He wants us to know that He gives us this inheritance in the form of people. Think of it as faith (aka treasure) handed down as an inheritance from the saints of the past and being passed on through all generations as though it were gaining exponentially compounded interest year after year. The value of this inheritance then is off the charts. So that makes us treasure for each other.
Third to know His incomparable great power for us who believe. Ok this is something I think about frequently. He has the power to create the Universe and hold it all together. There is nothing that we should fear because He is the God of our circumstance. He doesn’t allow things to happen to us by accident. To think that He does allow accidents to happen to us is to fall into the trap of believing one of the many lies of Satan (the father of lies). The Father’s great power is His Love for us who believe.
So if Paul is praying to God the Father to give them wisdom and revelation for these three areas it begs the question, “Do you and I need more wisdom and revelation to know the hope of our calling? Or do you and I need more wisdom and revelation to know the riches in His inheritance in us? Or do you and I need more wisdom and revelation to know and the great Love the Father has for us?”. In other words do we need more Hope, or more Faith, or more knowledge of the Father’s Love? I would say we need all three.
But Paul goes on to say,
That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. – Eph. 1:19-20
Now as I was preparing this message I thought to myself that might be a poor analogy because it probably didn’t take too much power and strength for God to raise Jesus from the dead. After all He created the Universe with hardly any effort at all. And Jesus raised many people from the Dead as did other prophets and disciples mentioned in the Bible. And it probably didn’t take too much strength and power to seat Jesus at His right hand in the heavenly realm. After all Jesus had come from heaven and was just returning home. What I missed here was that fact that the Father loved us enough to ask Jesus to leave heaven and comedown and suffer and die for us in general and me in particular. That Love is beyond comprehension. That Love is power, great power beyond comprehension.
Paul tells us in First Corinthians that there are three things that last forever.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – I Cor. 13:13
Now here in Paul’s Ephesians letter he swaps the order a little and prays for hope, faith and love (aka power). The order is a little different but the greatest of these is still love. That is what Paul prays for them, that they may know the great power of the Father’s love for them.
Now Paul goes on to describe Jesus’ present title, location, position and authority. He says:
...far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. – Eph 1:21
Paul also referred to this age to come in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 and 10 that Carl went over with us last week. If you recall Paul says in those verses:
And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. – Eph. 1:9-10
So Paul again ties the “to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head even Christ as stated in verse 10 to verses 20 and 21 when he says:
...when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. – Eph. 1:20-21
He goes on to say in verses 22 and 23:
And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Eph. 1:22-23
The church is Christ’s Body. Body here refers to the universal church of all believers, regardless of denomination. The body, then, is not literal but metaphorical. The phrase the fullness of Him refers to the fact that God imparts His personal fullness into Christ. Therefore it is the glory God and the glory of Christ that makes the church what is supposed to be. That is a pure spotless bride under the headship of Christ.
Referring to Christ and the church Paul wrote something very similar to the Colossians in Colossians 1 when he said:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. - Col. 1:15-19
The Apostle John also wrote in First John chapter 3:
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. – 1 John 3:2
So if the fullness of God dwells in Christ and we will be like Him when He appears the fullness of God will dwell in us just like the Holy Spirit dwells in us now.
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. – 1 Cor. 15:50-53
Takeaways:
- Paul prayed that wisdom and revelation be given to us so that we may know the Love of the Father better. There is nothing better than knowing the Love of the Father.
- Paul prayed that the eyes of heart would be open so that we would know the hope of our calling the great riches of our inheritance in the saints being passed down to us through the ages from one generation of saints to the next compounding interest exponentially. This is true treasure worth more than all the gold in the entire world.
- Paul prayed that we might know His incomparably great power for us who believe. His love for us is the source of that great power and it is far beyond all comprehension.
- We should pray the same things for ourselves and for each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment