Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23
Title: Knowing
Structure:
- Introduction
- Know the hope of God’s calling
- Know the glory of God’s inheritance
- Know the greatness of God’s power
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Knowledge is K.E.Y. – Knowledge Empowers You
– I may have the latest computer with 10 terabytes of memory, all the latest application software and lightning fast broadband, but if I don’t know how to turn it on (let alone use it) then it’s wasted on me
– I may own a luxury launch equipped with satellite TV, full kitchen facilities and a spa pool, but if I don’t know where I am in relation to land then I’m lost at sea
– I may have access to the finest library in the world, all the books, journals and source documents I could wish for, but if I can’t read then I’m just guessing
This morning we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians
– Last week we looked at verses 3-14 which, in the original Greek, are one long sentence of praise to God for his blessings for us in Christ
– This morning we focus on chapter 1, verses 15-23, which is another long sentence, only this time it’s a prayer
– Paul follows his praise of God with a prayer for the Ephesian believers
– After thanking God for their faith and love Paul prayers for wisdom and revelation for them – he asks for the eyes of their heart to opened so they would know God better – because knowing God is KEY
– Knowing God empowers you.
From Ephesians 1:15-23, in the New International Version, we read…
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 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 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ 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 name that is invoked, 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.
May the Spirit of Jesus open the eyes of our heart to know God better
In some ways our faith is like a puppy
– When it is born its eyes are closed over – it is blind
– But as it grows its eyes are opened
– Enlightenment is when the eyes of our heart (our inner being) are opened and our faith begins to see God’s blessings
In this prayer Paul asks that the Ephesians would know God better
– This knowing isn’t just an intellectual head knowledge – it is the deeper kind of knowing that comes with relationship and experience
– I might have read lots of books on parenting and attended all sorts of helpful courses, but I don’t really know what it is to be a parent until I care for a child through all the ages and stages of their development
– It’s this kind of long and deep experiential, relational knowledge that Paul is praying for the Ephesians
– It’s a knowledge of God born of faith & love as well as vulnerability and suffering – it’s a knowledge not given lightly
In particular Paul asks that the Ephesian believers would know… [1]
– The hope of God’s calling
– The glory of God’s inheritance
– And the greatness of God’s power
If you can imagine a bridge anchored at one end by God’s call and at the other by God’s inheritance, with God’s great power spanning the chasm in between
– It’s the hope of God’s call and the strength of God’s power that gets us to the other side, the glory of his inheritance
– First lets us consider the hope of God’s call
The hope of God’s call:
When we applied for ministry training one of the things they wanted us to be sure about was God’s call – how well did we know God’s call on our lives?
– Knowing the hope of God’s call on your life is important for all Christian believers, in whatever capacity you might serve
– Knowing deep within that God has called you to himself and to a greater purpose in Christ, provides a firm foothold when the going gets tough
– God’s call often comes with some kind of promise which inspires hope
The Bible is full of stories of God calling people
– For example, when God called Abram to leave his homeland he promised to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation
– And that promise sustained Abraham with hope for a journey of a lifetime
When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery he promised to be with Moses, to give him the words and power needed for the task
– And that call, from the burning bush, guided Moses as he led the people of Israel for 40 years in the wilderness
When God called Isaiah to be a prophet he gave Isaiah a vision of His splendour and touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal saying, ‘Your guilt is gone, your sins are forgiven.’
– And that vision informed Isaiah’s message even as he preached to a people who refused to listen
When Jesus called Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples he said, ‘Come follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.’
– And that promise was fulfilled as the disciples became witnesses of Jesus’ death, resurrection & ascension in a hostile environment
When Jesus called Zacchaeus (the tax collector) he did so by inviting himself over for dinner, which gave great honour to Zacchaeus in his culture
– And, as Zacchaeus opened his home to Jesus in hospitality, the little tax collector realised God’s call to be fair and generous despite being hated by the community
God’s call can come in any number of different ways
– It may come quietly while you are alone, as it did for Samuel at Shiloh
– Or it may come very publicly, as it did for Zacchaeus in front of a crowd
– It may come while you are at church, as it did for Zechariah in the temple
– Or it may come while you at work, as it did for Matthew the tax collector
– It may come all of a sudden, as it did for Saul on the road to Damascus
– Or it may develop slowly over a period of time, like the growing seed in Jesus’ parable
– It may be a call to leave, as it was for the Israelites in Egypt
– Or it may be a call to stay and bear witness where you are, as it was for the man delivered from a legion of demons
– It may be a call to a particular vocation or task, as it was for king David and the prophets of old
– Or it may be a call, not so much to do something for God but, simply to receive something from God, as it was for so many of those whom Jesus healed – Unless we let Jesus wash our feet we have no part in him
God’s call on your life is likely to be unique – so we can’t measure the call we receive with the call others have received
– We don’t all get a burning bush like Moses
Now some of you may be thinking, ‘I don’t know what my calling is. How do I find out?’
I like what Frederick Beuchner says…
– The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
– This tells us at least two things:
– God’s call fits who you are – it goes with the grain of your soul
– So God is not going to call you to a place or a vocation that you are not suited to – he has made you a certain way for a certain purpose
– The other thing this tells us is that God’s call is not all about us – it’s about others and their deep need
Some couples would be deeply glad to become parents but for whatever reason they aren’t able to have children
– There are many kids out there who have a deep hunger for a loving home
– The Open Home Foundation are always looking for couples to foster kids
– The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
Often we have already been called and we aren’t aware of it or we’ve forgotten
– If that’s the case for you then ask God to make you aware of His call and the hope which comes with it.
The glory of God’s inheritance:
Okay, so Paul prays for the Ephesians to know the hope of God’s call and the glory of God’s inheritance
– What then does it mean to know the glory of God’s inheritance?
Well, God’s inheritance could mean either the inheritance God receives or the inheritance God bestows
– If it means the inheritance God receives then, according to the Old Testament, God’s people are his inheritance
– But, if we follow Colossians 1:12, it means the inheritance God gives us – that is eternal life
– Either way God’s inheritance amounts to the same thing – enjoying abundant life with the Lord forever
Now, this side of Christ’s second coming, we can’t fully comprehend what the inheritance of eternal life is like – it is hidden in the realm of mystery
– But we can catch a glimpse of it in the here & now
– And perhaps this is what Paul wants for the Ephesians, that the glory of God’s inheritance wouldn’t be some pie in the sky a way off in the future
– But rather they (and we) would experience now the sort of closeness and union with God, in Christ, that is the essence of eternal life
– Because, at its core, that’s what eternal life is – union with God
Please turn with me to Luke 14, verse 15 – page 99 toward the back of your pew Bibles
– In Luke 14 Jesus tells a parable which I think speaks to this idea of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints and of our need to not be so focused on the temporary things of this world that we miss the eternal
– From Luke 14, verses 15-24 we read…
15 When one of the guests sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”
16 Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people. 17 When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, ‘Come, everything is ready!’ 18 But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought a field and must go and look at it; please accept my apologies.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, ‘Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 Soon the servant said, ‘Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.’ 23 So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you all that none of those who were invited will taste my dinner!’”
May the Spirit Jesus open the eyes of our heart to know God better
Jesus uses the image of a great feast (a party) to point to God’s glorious inheritance in the saints
– Some of those who were invited declined the invitation because they didn’t know the importance of it
– Paul wants his readers to understand the eternal significance of God’s invitation in Christ
Again I’d like to quote Frederick Beuchner…
Whatever you do with your life – whatever you end up achieving or not achieving – the great gift you have in you, to give to the world, is the gift of who you alone are; your way of seeing things, and saying things, and feeling about things, that is like nobody else’s. If so much as a single one of you were missing, there would be an empty place at the great feast of life that nobody else in all creation could fill.
This life is not all there is – beyond this life God is planning a party and there is room for you
– Sadly not everyone accepts God’s invitation, perhaps because they don’t know the one who is calling them or the inheritance to which they are called
Paul prays for the Ephesians to know the hope of God’s call, the glory of God’s inheritance and the greatness of God’s power
The greatness of God’s power:
God’s great power bridges the gap between the hope of his call and the glory of his inheritance
Power is the ability to do something
– Paul describes God’s power (His ability to make things happen) as beyond compare
– The message is, no matter what obstacles we might face, no matter how weak or inadequate we might feel in our circumstances, God’s power is all sufficient for those who believe
The interesting thing here is that Paul is writing from prison
– Ironically Paul writes about enlightenment while he is in a dark place
– And he writes about God’s power in exalting Christ while he is powerless
– Paul’s confidence in God’s power is not wishful thinking – it is not based on blind (puppy) faith
– Paul’s claim about God’s power is based on the historical facts of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven
When Jesus was at his weakest – when he was dead and buried in the tomb – God’s power was evident, raising Jesus from the dead
– But God’s power at work in Christ did not stop there
– Because after God had raised Jesus from the dead, He exalted Jesus to his right hand in the spiritual realm
– To be seated at God’s right hand means to be given the highest honour, the highest authority and the most power of all
– Paul is saying that Jesus is above all powers
John Stott sums it up nicely when he writes…
– The resurrection and ascension were a decisive demonstration of divine power. For if there are two powers which human beings cannot control, but which hold us in bondage, they are death and evil. Human beings are mortal; we cannot avoid death. Human beings are fallen; we cannot overcome evil. But God, in Christ, has conquered both and therefore can rescue us from both.
God’s power, in Jesus, does not necessarily mean the absence of evil
– Nor does the presence of evil in the world in any way discount Jesus’ power or authority over evil
– If evil exists in the world it is only because Jesus (in his ultimate wisdom) allows it for a time – but he won’t allow it forever
– At the end of the age evil will be uprooted and destroyed
– In the meantime Jesus gives the strength we need to live with it
Okay, so God is more powerful than anyone or anything else and he shares that power with Jesus – but knowing God is all powerful doesn’t necessarily give me comfort, unless I also know that God’s intentions toward me are good
In verse 22 of Ephesians 1, Paul says that God… appointed Jesus to be head over everything for the church, which is his body…
– This tells us that God’s power is for our good
– Jesus exercises power as someone who himself knows first-hand what it is be powerless and oppressed
– Jesus exercises power from a place of understanding and compassion and love toward us
Let me give you an analogy
– At the same time that Jacinda Ardern is the Prime Minister of NZ, she is also the mother of Neve
– Neve has a mum with more political clout than anyone else in her kindergarten or neighbourhood
At the same time that Jesus is head over all things, he is also head of the church and so we Christians have a leader with more clout than anyone else
– Jesus isn’t our mother but, spiritually speaking, he is our older brother if we believe in him
– Which means we have a special relationship with the one who is above all powers
To say the church is the body of Christ, means that we are closely connected to Jesus and to each other
– So, if something happens to us – if we suffer in some way for example – then Christ (who is head over all) feels that and is moved by it
– And knowing this is what gives us comfort and strength in this life
Conclusion:
Knowledge is key – knowledge empowers you
– When we know the hope of God’s call on our life, we have purpose to sustain us when life is difficult
– When we know the glory of God’s inheritance that awaits us, we can keep our perspective when others are losing theirs
– And when we know the greatness of God’s power for us, we are released from fear and free to love
Questions for discussion or reflection:
1.) What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?
– Why do you think this stood out to you?
2.) Why do you think Paul prays for the Ephesians to know God better?
– What kind of ‘knowing’ is Paul praying for?
3.) Are you aware of God’s call on your life?
– If so, what is that call and how did you become aware of it?
– If not, how might you become aware of it?
4.) Why is it important that we know the hope of God’s call?
– How does this help us?
5.) What is meant by God’s inheritance?
6.) Why is it important that we know the glory of God’s inheritance?
– How does this help us?
7.) How did Paul know that God’s power is great beyond compare?
8.) Why is it important that we know the greatness of God’s power?
– How does this help us?
[1] The structure for the sermon (taken from the text) aligns with John Stott’s view, in his BST commentary on Ephesians, page 55ff.
Tawa Baptist 