Ephesians 1:15-23

Prison Letters

I like looking at transformations. It is fun to study transformations. Much of culture fixates on transformations but it is typically those of the negative time. Crime TV binge watchers know what I am talking about.

What made them do what they did? What drove them to this place to do such an evil act.

I like to study transformations of the positive kind. It’s fun to look at communities that have changed from a rough community to a thriving community.

It is also so fun to hear stories of transformations of individuals. To hear about their life before Christ then to hear how they came to know Christ as Lord and Savior. As you hear the story of change, it is fun to see where they are now and who they are now in comparison to what they were.

When we look at Paul the apostle, we see him in prison or under house arrest because of his faith in the Lord Jesus.

This is not who Paul always was. He was Saul of Tarsus who persecuted the church. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

As we study the book of Ephesians, He is writing this letter in jail for his faith in the Lord Jesus. The people he was once wanting to kill he is now one of them.

Throughout this study I want to see what God has done in his life and how he has changed. I also want to see some of the key points of his faith that has changed him.

So let’s continue to try and learn and also allow the Lord to change us.

More about Paul the Author

Before his name was Paul his name was Saul of Tarsus

Philippians 3 says he was a Pharisee

So he is from the city of Tarsus.

As a loyal Jew

Focus of life is on the Law of God

Study Torah and you will be aware of God’s presence in your midst

Jews would live close to each other during this time.

Houses would be very close to each other.

It was clear you was a Jew in this community

You did not participate in pagan community events

Small tight knit community and everybody knew everyone else’s business

Streets are narrow

Houses stacked on top of each other

The only people that would have privacy were the very rich.

The rich would have slaves that were deaf or mute so that they could not tell anyone what was going on inside their homes. So the rich could maintain their privacy.

So for Saul of Tarsus his family is a Jew

So if you are a Jew and life is public all the other Jews know if you are really keeping the Torah

They know if you really are saying your prayers morning and evening

They can hear if you are reciting the traditional Jewish prayers

So out of all this there becomes this “Holy Zeal” if you will.

To the point of violence

When we meet Saul of Tarsus he is present at the Christian martyr Stephen and gives approval of his death

He also has letters to arrest anyone who belongs to the way.

Ephesians 1:15 HCSB

15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

This is why

Have Dayle read Ephesians 1:3-14. to explain and refresh our minds on this next section.

Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints

Faith:

What we believe

Being Loyal to that which we have been given

So Paul has heard the people he is writing to in Ephesus and other communities

They have believed the Gospel

They are loyal to Jesus the master

This is evidenced by their love for all the saints or their love for one another. These new communities of transformation are popping up that people are loving each other across races, economic statuses, and other cultural bounds.

Ephesians 1:16 HCSB

16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

Here we see Paul at work in his daily life.

A portion of Paul’s work is prayer.

We look to this transformation from Saul of Tarsus into Paul the apostle and one the things that brings about a person of transformation is prayer. Paul goes from breathing threats and murder for people of Jesus to now he is praying for them.

He says I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

A large portion of what Paul does is praying. Notice he says I never stop giving thanks. Day by day and hour by hour he is bringing these people before God.

Prayer is a tool that continues to allow us to resist a Plato view of the world that our present reality can’t experience anything that is to come. Plato’s vies is the idea that we are saved but God is distant and not with us in the current world. God and us are just waiting for the afterlife.

Prayer allows us to resist this idea and to experience overlap or interface of heaven and earth now. Prayer helps us to realize that God is present in our life now. He is doing a new work in you now. He is changing and transforming you now.

I remember you in my prayers

I find it so much more difficult to talk or Gossip about people if I am praying and interceding for those people. Someone challenging you in your life. Pray for them. Intercede for the saints.

Exercise/application:

Write down one person this morning that you want to thank God for.

Maybe a fellow saint has been a challenge for you. Thank God for them and start to pray for them.

Never stop giving thanks for them.

This prayer is one of the things that changes Paul as he writes from prison these beautiful God given letters of scripture.

Ephesians 1:17 HCSB

17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

I pray that

God of our Lord Jesus Christ (the glorious Father)

This is temple language when you hear the Glorious Father.

I immediately thought of 2 Chronicles 7 when the glory of the Lord comes down and fills the temple. Scripture says the priest could not enter the temple because the Glory of the Lord had filled the temple and they bowed down and worshipped with their faces to the ground and gave thanks to the Lord.

Now we look to Jesus to see the Glory of the Lord.

He prays for wisdom and revelation

Ephesians 1:18 ESV

18 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,

He prays for wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

The connection between the heart and the brain has been studied quite extensively. We see correlation between the two.

Check out this video from the mayo clinic heart doctor in 2019.

Gratitude daily can help with your heart health. Interesting as Paul being transformed is thankful for the saints. Paul in prison prays that they might receive wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

That the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened

That is that they might see and understand the things of God that they once could not see. Open the eyes of their hearts that they may see.

Three things he says will happen when the eyes of your heart are enlightened

Hope to which he has called you

The Christian hope is the beginning of the end. The renewal of the whole creation. The resurrection of our bodies to share in the new world. It is the garden of Eden restored. It is New Jerusalem.

It can be a challenge in our current world to imagine this world.

Side note: This is where people gifted in the arts come in. Artist can help us imagine something greater and something better. Musicians can help us imagine with their gift of music for something greater.

My wife is gifted with a Camera in her hands. She is designed to capture things with a camera that I don’t often see with my own eyes. This helps to imagine something greater.

Gardeners create gardens that we dream and imagine a world renewed with flowers and produce in abundance.

It helps us through these gifts to see that one day Heaven and Earth will be one.

When the Gospel reaches down and grabs us or saves us, he wants us to know this hope that he has called you to.

The riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints

The imagery here is that of the land owner who’s house is full of goodness.

God has this treasure house of good things.

This is not about human wealth but he uses this picture of the full storehouse to say that this world is full of wonderful things that the Lord has given us. These wonderful things are the handiwork of God.

I was driving to St. Louis listening to this passage and the sun was coming up… The sun setting on Lake Taneycomo

Wow God you have given this for us to enjoy

You also have an inheritance that is coming and it is an inheritance from this God. It is the fullness of His Glory. Forever

Ephesians 1:19 HCSB

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

3. To Know God’s power and ability to do things

Dynamus:

power n. — possession of controlling influence; often understood as manifesting influence over reality in a supernatural manner.

Energeia:

operation n. — process or manner of functioning or operating.

Kratos:

controlling power n. — power to direct or determine (and govern).

Ischys:

capability ⇔ strength n. — possession of the qualities required to do something or get something done; especially the possession of physical qualities.

During Paul’s day there was a sense that the gods and goddess ran the world and if you could somehow tap into them then you could get done what you needed done.

Paul says forget all that

Creator God, King Jesus is the real God with all the power with the dynamus, energia, kratos, and Ischyos. He is the one that gets things done.

Ephesians 1:20–22 HCSB

20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church,

This is the power at work when God raised King Jesus from the dead.

and seats Him at His right hand in the heavens

Daniel 7.

God restores all creation so that he is all in all. God is the great God over all the powers of the world.

The monsters and beast that wreak havoc in the world are brought to account.

Psalm 110:1 HCSB

1 This is the declaration of the Lord to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

A Kingdom that is at work until all the powers that are resisting are brought into subjection to this King.

Ephesians 1:23 HCSB

23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary c. Prayer for Divine Enlightenment (1:15–23)

it is God’s purpose that the church should be the full expression of Jesus Christ, who himself fills everything there is

Christ filling all things and bringing all things to completeness of being;

Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 10, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 75.

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary c. Prayer for Divine Enlightenment (1:15–23)

As Barth (AB) puts it, ‘the head fills the body with powers of movement and perception, and thereby inspires the whole body with life and direction’.

Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary c. Prayer for Divine Enlightenment (1:15–23)

by his resurrection and ascension Christ is exalted to be Lord of all, he is head of all things for the church; the church is his body intended to express him in the world; more than that, the church is intended to be a full expression of him by being filled by him whose purpose it is to fill everything there is