Enlightened Through Prayer

Introduction

Read Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all…”

If you ask me when are we going to finished this series on Ephesians, I will say till kingdom come. We have been week 7 now in our series and we transition in this new section vv.15-23. As I study this, I’m planning to preach this whole section in one message, but I can’t do it, there’s a lot that I will missed if I’m going to compress this in one message. So here I am I’m going to divide this into parts. Today we are going to cover. vv.14-18a, then next week the rest of the verses to 23.

I entitled my message “Enlightened Through Prayer” because that’s what Paul is doing here in this section. He is praying that believers (like us) will be enlightened by God so that they could live lives according to the spiritual riches that they already received in Christ Jesus.

Doctrine and theology, biblical teachings are great but they are not enough. God’s goal for us is to sink His truths deeper from our heads to our hearts. It’s possible to know a lot of things in the Bible and yet our hearts are remain unchanged. Its’ possible to attend church every Sunday and yet remain a spiritual baby in Christ. Why? Because we forget to practice the most basic discipline of prayer that Paul is showing us in this passage - prayer for continual enlightenment. That’s our subject today.

We are going to look at 3 things today:

The Cause of this Prayer (v.15)

The Content of this Prayer (v.16-18)

The Core of this Prayer (v.17c)

The Cause of This Payer

Notice how Paul begins v.15, “For this reason”, the LEB “Because of this...” It points us back to his outburst of praise in vv. 3-14 about what God has done for every believers. They have been chosen before the foundation of the world, they have been adopted into the family of God, they have redeemed and forgiven, they have been included in God’s purpose and is given an inheritance and now they are sealed by the Spirit when they believed the gospel.

So Paul then transitions into prayer of thanksgiving to God on behalf of this believers.By the way, for most of them, Paul never meet them. How do you pray to God for the people you’ve never meet?

First you begin to thank God for the evidences of His grace in the believers around you.

Paul ‘heard’ a praise report about them. And in these report we can learn that there are two evidences of grace Paul is thankful for - faith in the Lord Jesus & love toward all the saints. (These marks of their genuine salvation)

A) Faith in the Lord Jesus

Paul says Ephesians 1:15 “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,” ...

Last time we learn that this faith is generated when they hear the word of truth - the gospel. And later on he will remind them that they are saved by grace through faith - complete trust - in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9)

Why does Paul emphasize that?

Listen, Christianity is primarily faith driven not behavior driven. It’s reliance is upon a Person, not in one’s behavior. Today, the culture will say ‘it’s not important what you believe, as long as your behavior contributes good to the society (maayong tao ka; nagbuhat kag matarong sa imong kapwa). That’s wrong.

We forgot that what drives people’s behavior /actions / attitudes is ‘faith’ - they have a system of beliefs. Change belief = change actions. If your actions does not correspond to your fundamental beliefs - that’s called compromise or hypocrisy. But your faith drives your behavior.

Illus: Let’s you are a young man, you got ‘heart broken’ a lot of times with a lot of women and that experience generated a belief system in your heart that “all women out there can’t be trusted” - that’s a system of belief. It drives your behavior so that every time you date a woman, there’s always a tendency in you to always doubt her, to be insecure, to always check on her etc.

So faith drives actions. That’s why to say “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you do good” is wrong and misleading.

So as believer we believe that faith in Jesus (not ourselves) is primary and fundamental, not our behavior. Behavior are byproducts of that faith in Jesus. We rely ON HIM not on our behavior.

Do we care about our behavior? Of course. Do we care about acts of generosity? Yes, because Jesus we trust care about that as well. Because I trust Jesus, and Jesus says this is the way to live that reflects and honors him and I trust him, therefore I try to follow that ethics in my own life. Why do I try to forgive people? Because taught me and command me and I trust Him. Why do show kindness, because Jesus shows me kindness and he invites me to be kind and I trust him enough to follow in his footsteps.

(The second evidence of grace, he is thankful for…)

B) Love toward all the saints

Not only they have faith in the Lord Jesus, but this faith resulted in love to all the saints.

This is what Paul calls in Galatians 5:6 “...faith working through love.”

In other words, the evidence of genuine saving faith is “love for others”. Sure, it’s not always perfect love, but there’s a certain amount of manifestation of it.

Sometimes we hear Christians says “I love him in the Lord.” which means they have no personal affection for nor commitment to the needs of individual. They extend some sort of esoteric and ‘spiritualized’ form of love because that fellow is a believer. But that is not Christian love. To truly love a person in the Lord is to love him as the Lord loves him—genuinely and sacrificially.

1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

My friends sound theology as important as it is, is no substitute for love. Knowledge alone leads to pride. Our knowledge should lead us to love and meet the needs of others.

Ephesians, John MacArthur

Always in the New Testament true spiritual love is defined as an attitude of selfless sacrifice that results in generous acts of kindness done to others. It is far more than a feeling, an attraction or emotion. When the Lord had washed the feet of the proud and self-seeking disciples, He told them that what He had done for them was the example of how they were to love each other (John 13:34). John emphasizes the same truth: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (l John 3:16-18).

Pastor Ray Stedman, warns us of having profess faith that doesn’t result in love...

Ray Stedman, Ephesians

If your faith has not resulted in your becoming a more loving person, in your growing in this direction, then it is not genuine faith. It is merely an intellectual acceptance, which means nothing. Remember how James stresses this very fact. He says that faith is revealed by the concern that it awakens for the hungry, the homeless, the needy, and the heartbroken, and our willingness to reach out to heal the hurts of those in society around us. He said, in effect, "Show me your love, and I'll see your faith; but don't talk to me about faith unless love is present," (James 2:18). And Paul agrees. He has heard of their love, and so he is aware that their faith is genuine.

So these are evidences of grace in their lives and Paul was thankful for them…

And notice that it is love toward ALL the saints, not just toward some of them. Some saints are easy to love. Some are beautiful people, joyful and happy, and everybody likes to be around them. But Paul is struck by the fact that these Christians love all the saints, and, therefore, their love is not based upon people's personalities, their friendliness, nor upon their wealth; rather, it is based upon the fact that they are saints, they belong to the Lord Jesus, they are in the family of God.

This love reflects the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Why? The Gospel does not say that God accepts me, forgives me or saves me because I’m so lovable, adorable, good personality, accomplished etc. He loves me not because of me but despite of me. And If I believe in that Gospel who am I to pick and choose whom to love. In fact, my lovelessness questions the very gospel that I believe.

Illus: If you see ‘someone’ and says “that person can’t be a Christian” - that contradicts the very message of the gospel. No one is “Christian-able”. Even you. Even me. I am a Christian because of sovereign grace of God alone. That gives hope to everybody.

If you truly understand it, there will be humility and no self-righteousness in you that you think you are better than anyone else. You look and others and you are able to love them because it reminds you of the grace of God and the hope of the Gospel - no one is beyond hope for God to reach. That’s why you are able to love even to the people you disagree with.

These are “evidences” - sign that you are genuine believer of Christ. Now this doesn’t mean that there’s always perfect manifestation of this graces, but you will see this even in it’s imperfect form. Therefore we ought to thank God and praise God for this if we see in our lives and in our fellow believer’s life.

There are two ways to approach church life or the ministry life, you can approach it with “critical lens” or “gratitude lens”. Critical lens is seeing the manure in the mile of a green grass. Seeing the glass half-empty rather than half-pull. “Naa juy mahinawayan...” In the church, there will always be people that you see that “needs a lot of work.” Rather than criticise or avoid them, why not thank God for them, and pray for them and serve them. If they need criticism, sure, do it, but wrap in prayer and gratitude and love.

The Content of Prayer

(Paul could just stop and say if they are saved…we’ll, praise God move on… but no getting saved isn’t enough… now you have to pray! The goal of the Christian life is not to go to heaven to live lives that fruitful and pleasing to the Lord so he prays for what we really need...)

Ephesians 1:16–18 “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”

Paul is not praying for good health although some of them are sick and there’s nothing wrong about praying for that. Paul is not praying for new kind of government although that’s needed because their government is so anti-Christian. Paul’s prayer transcend all these prayers that we often pray. He is asking God to open the eyes of their hearts.

Paul is NOT asking God to open their eyes to the truth of the Gospel. They already have that, they are sealed by the Spirit. The evidences are clear in their lives. Paul is asking the Father of glory to give to this believers an ongoing supply of wisdom and revelation that they might understand what God has already given to them so that they can live lives that are fruitful, honoring and pleasing to God.

Wisdom and Revelation are inseparable in the Scripture.

A) Revelation is “God’s imparting knowledge to us i.e - The Scripture”. There is no other revelation apart from the Bible.

Through the Scripture, it’s been revealed to us that salvation by grace alone through Christ alone apart from human works. It’s been revealed to us that as believers we have been sealed by the Spirit of God, elected and predestined to be adopted in the family of God.

B) Wisdom on the other hand is the application of that knowledge. This wisdom comes through the Spirit. He is the One who gives you discernment to practically apply God’s Word in your daily life.

Why is this important? Because, listen, not every issue and problems in your life are directly addressed by God’s Word. So you need to discern (wisdom) how to practically apply God’s Word in situation where God doesn’t have a direct Word for it.

Should I spend Tiktok on my free time or do something else? Should I buy an Iphone or not? What schools should I go to? Should I work overseas or not? (There’s a lot of practical questions that the Bible does not directly addressed; it doesn’t mean that we leave the Scripture behind in terms of dealing with those issues. Every situation is different. We can’t compare one to the other. (You need God’s wisdom personally to gives you discernment on doing what honors the Lord and pleasing to Him)

How do you faithfully follow Christ in world filled with digital distractions? How do you apply God’s wisdom in that, so that your life will be fruitful, pleasing and honoring to the Lord?

How do you parent as followers of Jesus Christ today where you manage two or three jobs and you have business to run and you have a ministry you are involved with? Where should I sacrifice and where should I focus?

As a teenager or a single person, how would you follow Christ faithfully in a world full of doubts and gender confusions and trivialities?

Application: This is why you cannot rely on the Sunday Preaching alone to feed you spiritually, all I can do is wet your appetite and point you to the source of all wisdom. But you got to develop a habit of reading the Word and asking the Spirit of God to illumine your mind to give you spiritual wisdom.

Paul repeats this concept in the beginning of v.18 - “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened...” What does it mean to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened? When we use the word ‘heart’ today we usually mean emotions. “Ingatan ang heart ha”. But heart in the Scripture is the core, the center of the person. Primarily it refers to the thinking faculty, feeling and willing (decision). Think of it like a triad - mind, emotions and will. Our mind influences our emotion and actions/decision-making.

So God’s desire is that through the Spirit, our internal disposition (heart) will be flooded by the light of His truth (revelation & wisdom). So that when a person gets enlightened what does he/she say “Now I get it”. It creates new emotions and then influences new decisions.

Illustration: The best example for this is when Jesus opens the eyes of the disciples in the Emmaus road. They were walking away from Jersualem sad and dismayed because they thought that Jesus was dead. The risen Lord came along with them and start a conversation with them and they even take a supper together… and it says in v.31

Luke 24:31–32 “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?””

Luke 24:45 “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,”

As believers, we have the responsibility to study the Scripture but at the same time to rely on the Spirit to give us wisdom and light to apply and obey His Word in our lives. Although we have been enlightened to see the truth, we still need to grow in that enlightenment.

R.C. Sproul says

The Purpose of God: Ephesians (Chapter 2: Paul’s First Prayer for His Readers (1:15–23))

The whole Christian life involves an unfolding and enlarging of the heart’s openness to the things of God. There are concepts, attitudes, and values in my life at present that do not please God, for there will be stony parts to my heart as long as sin abides within me. Sin clouds my thinking, my will, my desires, my affections. There will always be parts of me that need to be opened more and more to let the fullness of God’s truth dwell in me.

That’s the prayer of Paul, Paul is not content that they are saved, they must grow in awareness of what God has already given to them. They must learn to allow God’s truth to shine continually in their hearts so that their mind, emotions and will are grounded in the truth of God. Why? (Let’s look at the parallel prayer of Paul in Colossians)

Colossians 1:9–10 ESV

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

The goal of evangelism is not to go “heaven” but to bring heaven to our hearts. The goal is that we grow in wisdom and understanding so that he can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work… [This is why Paul pray this prayer]

My beloved, is this the way we pray? Is this the content of your prayers? Are we praying that our lives will be filled with comfort or that we will be enlightened to be fruitful for God? Living a life that is pleasing and fruitful to the Lord is not always comfortable. But it’s a life that is always satisfying - because it leads to Knowing God more.

The Core of Prayer

Ephesians 1:17 “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,”

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. (NIV)

That’s the ultimate goal - knowing God better. This is the focal point of Paul’s prayer and it should be the focal point of our prayers.

It should be the longing and the desires of our hearts.

Jesus reminds us that this is the very essence of eternal life (not going to heaven) but to know God. Notice what he says in John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Paul in the middle of his life with years and years of walking with God and seeing his miraculous hands of grace still desire to know God. If you ask what is your wish, desire and goal Paul? He would respond in Philippians 3:10“that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”

What is the difference between knowing God and knowing about God? Knowing about God simply gathers “facts” about God which is important. Knowing doctrine, studying the Bible, listening to sermons - those are ways we can know about God. But it should not be limited in your heard. The journey must take from the head straight to the heart. Because the goal is not informational, but transformational.

Illus: How many of you knows about “snow”? Of course you know about it, you read about it, you’ve seen in TV or movies, you are ignorant about it, you know it. In fact maybe you can describe it better than me, you can provide data and statistics and trivia that not every snow flakes are alike, all of them are different. But that is just ‘factual’ and ‘informational’. There’s a difference when you travel to Alaska and touch that snow for the very first time. Information becomes experience. And that’s a different knowledge. That’s the NT terms of knowledge - “epignosis”.

Yes you can recite that God is omnipresence, omniscience, transcendent, etc. You can give theological meanings and nuances of those attributes and characters which is great, we should know that. We should desire to study God more and more. But that’s not enough.

We must translate those knowledge into wisdom through the Spirit so that we can know God personally. The key to that is faith and obedience. Trusting God and following Him in his personal dealings with you.

Sadly many Christians settle for less - than knowing God. They are content for little inspirational sermons. They don’t want even doctrine or theology. They just want pure practical teachings that is less than a Bible. It’s about making life more manageable. It’s about feeling good, feeling a little bit of inspirational for the day or for the week. No wonder their lives are superficial and they are easily offended.

Some also sadly settle for knowledge - mere knowledge and facts about God. By the way, there’s no need for Paul to pray for that. He already told them in vv.3-14 all these big theological truths about God and what he has done. They already know them. Paul’s concern is not knowing about God, but to truly know God.

Knowing God is always grounded in God’s initiative but we must posture ourselves to know Him. I like what J.I. Packer in his classic book, Knowing God suggests, he says there are three elements to consider.

Boice Exposition - Ephesians (To Know Him Better)

"First, knowing God is a matter of personal dealing.... It is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you.... Second, knowing God is a matter of personal involvement, in mind, will and feeling.... The believer rejoices when his God is honored and vindicated, and feels the acutest distress when he sees God flouted....

"Equally, the Christian feels shame and grief when convicted of having failed his Lord.... Third, knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God—as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on his favour by our sins.

And then he concludes...

Boice Exposition - Ephesians (To Know Him Better)

"What matters supremely... is not... the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me."

He knows me, that’s why I want to know Him. I want to trust Him. I want to follow Him. That’s the context of Ephesians - God first knows us by choosing us before the foundation of the world. He already set his heart and love for us. In response, Paul prays that we pursue to know Him.

Let us pray that God will open our eyes that we may know Him better.

Conclusion

Let me recap what we’ve learn so far:

We explore “The Cause for our Prayer”

Learn to find and thank God for the evidence of God’s grace in other Christians’ life. When is the last time you rejoice and thank God for __________?

We know the “The Content of our Prayer “

Ask God that He will grant you divine illumination and wisdom to apply the Word practically in your life so you could lives that are honoring, fruitful and pleasing to Him.

We know the “The Core of our Prayer”

The ultimate goal is to know God not just about God.

Illus: I heard a real story by Pastor Ray Steadman, long time ago about a member in his church.

A young man became a Christian, came into the church, and married a girl who had grown up in this church. At first his Christian life was glorious to behold. He was warm, open, responsive, and eagerly read the Scriptures. But after a while it all began to ebb away, as often happens. Many Christians go through this experience. He turned cold, lost his interest in the Scriptures, and quit coming to church. He was no longer interested in fellowship with other believers and he avoided them. To use the term of a generation ago, he "back-slid."

Naturally his wife became very concerned. So she and a friend decided that they would pray together for her husband every day. She decided in her heart that she would not nag him nor plague him nor push him. She wouldn't urge him to come to church, and thus gain some kind of outward conformity by pressure, because she didn't want him to come if his heart wasn't in it. She resolved simply to pray. And she and her friend met daily. For a month or more nothing happened. He went on in pretty much the same way. But they took the advice of the Lord Jesus: "Men ought always to pray and not to faint, not to give up," (Luke 18:1). So they kept on praying.

Gradually her husband's attitude began to change a bit. One day she came home and found him reading the Bible. But she didn't say anything to him, and he didn't say anything to her. But it was a note of encouragement. Then, one Sunday, he announced that the was going to church with her. Again she rejoiced inwardly, but didn't make a big deal of it. After a while, he finally said to her, "You know, dear, I've really been way out of it! Somehow or other I lost all my interest in the Lord. But God has moved in, and met me, and brought me back." And he came alive again. What a wonderful testimony to the power of prayer to open eyes!

It isn't enough simply to teach truth. It isn't enough to spread doctrine. It isn't enough to have a Bible class in which you are getting the students to learn certain facts from the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul, and the other great leaders of the early church, understood man much better than that. You never get the whole man until the heart is moved, until the eyes of the heart are enlightened, until truth is moved from the head down to the heart, and thus it has gripped the emotions. Then the will is properly motivated. Then the person begins to grow tremendously.

Start a ministry of prayer. Pray for one another. Pray for the class that you teach. Pray for your children. Pray that the truth we are learning will become vivid to our hearts. Pray for your husband, pray for your wife -- that this enlightenment of the heart may come. Don’t guilt trip. Don’t manipulate. Don’t gaslight. Rather pray.