Our inheritance in Christ

Eyes Opened: Understanding Our Inheritance in Christ

Bible Passage: Eph 1:15–23

Summary: In this passage, Paul expresses gratitude for the faith of the Ephesian believers and prays for them to receive wisdom and revelation, so they may know the hope of their calling and the richness of their inheritance in Christ.

Application: This passage can help Christians recognize the importance of spiritual wisdom in navigating their daily lives. By understanding their identity and inheritance in Christ, believers can face life's challenges with confidence and hope, knowing they are part of God's eternal plan.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that prayer is vital in seeking spiritual understanding and that believers are called to live in the hope and power that comes from knowing Christ and their inheritance in Him.

How this passage could point to Christ: This passage points to Christ as the source of our hope and the one who enables us to access the spiritual blessings of God. Understanding our inheritanc e in Christ connects the Old Testament promise of a land and a people to the New Testament fulfillment in the church as the body of Christ.

Big Idea: The big idea communicates that through prayer, believers can gain a deeper understanding of their identity and inheritance in Christ, which empowers them to live fully for Him.

Recommended Study: As you prepare this sermon using your Logos library, consider exploring the historical context of Ephesians to better understand Paul's audience. Examining the original Greek terms used for 'wisdom' and 'revelation' may offer deeper insights. Additionally, look into commentaries that discuss the implications of our inheritance in Christ to enrich your application points.

1. Prayer Promotes Perception

Eph 1:15-17

You could explore how Paul's gratitude for the Ephesians' faith suggests that spiritual wisdom and revelation begin with a foundation of thankfulness and prayer.

By highlighting the importance of praying for others, believers can learn to seek spiritual wisdom not just for themselves but also to support and uplift their community.

Spiritual wisdom begins with a foundation of THANKFULNESS and prayer.

Being thankful is important

Remember when I was a negative nancy (self pity) vs. when I was dirt poor. (gratitude)

Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road.

John Henry Jowett (English Congregationalist Preacher)

Where does thankfulness come from?

Humility.

Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well excepting upon a root of deep humility.

John Charles Ryle (Bishop of Liverpool)

May we all walk in humility before a Holy God. When we dont walk in humility with God, we will often try to walk in pride without him.

Isaiah 57:15 ESV

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

In order to pray. We have to be humble at heart.

How often do we pray for others or how often do we even pray?

When you feel disinclined to pray, let it be a sign to you that prayer is doubly necessary! Pray for prayer!

The Sealed Hand-A Winter Sermon, Volume 58, Sermon #3289 - Job 37:7

Charles Spurgeon

987God the Holy Ghost writes our prayers, God the Son presents our prayers, and God the Father accepts our prayers. And with the whole Trinity to help us in it, what cannot prayer perform?—54.342, 343

Charles Spurgeon

SO IF we want to SEEK GOD why are we not praying? When we pray are our prayers selfish or selfless? Prayer is our weapon

Ephesians 6:18 ESV

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Thankfulness and prayer will expose and open our eyes to Gods will and His son.

2. Enlightened Eyes Embrace Hope

Eph 1:18

Perhaps reflect on how the 'eyes of the heart' being enlightened symbolizes a deeper, spiritual understanding that goes beyond surface knowledge

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

The Lord wants us to have spiritual understanding.

Remember Paul debated in Ephesus for some time with theological and rational understanding but it was ultimately the spiritual understanding that led the people to burn their books.

You might have a concept of God, you might know the scriptures, but that will never triumph over the person who walks intimately with Christ and FOLLOWS his word.

The HOLY spirit will change our perception and will reconstruct our life from the inside out.

Once the Spirit makes us understand and know WHO God is intimately then we can recognize the HOPE we have in him. Our knowledge will continue to transform into JOY and HOPE. not just puffing us up.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

INHERITANCE???

. This enlightenment reveals the hope and richness of an individual's calling in Christ, encouraging believers to find confidence in their divine purpose and inheritance.

3. Power Proven in Resurrection

Eph 1:19-20

Jesus is a picture of what God will do in us.

1 Corinthians 15:45–49 ESV

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

REMEMBER FAITH AND LOVE

Maybe discuss the immeasurable greatness of God's power towards believers as demonstrated through the resurrection of Christ. Believers can grasp how this divine power, which raised Christ from the dead, is also accessible in their lives, encouraging them to live with boldness and courage.

Resurrection meant bodies. We cannot emphasize this too strongly, not least because much modern writing continues, most misleadingly, to use the word ‘resurrection’ as a virtual synonym for ‘life after death’ in the popular sense.

N. T. Wright

the resurection does not only apply to what happens to us once we leave the earth but it applies to our daily death.

4. Christ Crowned Above All

Eph 1:21-23

You could show that Christ's exalted position, far above all rulers and powers, places Him as head over the church, which is His body. This understanding helps believers recognize their vital connection to Christ and His supremacy in all things, motivating them to live out their faith collectively as part of His body.

The Ephesian readers, coming as they did from a background of strong magical belief, might have found the power of Diana more imposing and fearful than that of God. (Ephesian Diana was regarded as queen over both the heavenly powers, including the potent zodiacal powers, and the gods of the underworld; see Arnold.) This could have eroded their confidence in God, and undermined their determination in the spiritual conflict in which they were engaged. Paul knew that the spectacular scale of God’s power in his people will only be fully disclosed at the end of this creation (so 1:5–6, 9–10, 14), but he could show the readers where to look in the present to see it displayed (1:19b–2:10

Max Turner, “Ephesians,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1228.

v.21

Believer’s Bible Commentary C. Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayers for the Saints (1:15–23)

The Lord Jesus is superior to every ruler or authority, human or angelic, now and forever.

In the heavenlies there are different ranks of angelic beings, some evil and some good. They have different degrees of power. Some, for instance, might correspond to our human offices of president, governor, mayor, or ward alderman. No matter how great their rule, authority, power, and dominion might be, Christ is far above them.

And this is true not only in the age in which we live but also in the coming age, that is, the literal Thousand-Year Reign of Christ on earth. He will then be King over all kings and Lord over all lords. He will be exalted above all created beings; no exception can be named.

v.23

Believer’s Bible Commentary C. Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayers for the Saints (1:15–23)

) The church is His body; (2) It is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

No relationship could be closer than that of the head and the body. They are one in vital union and indwelt by one Spirit. The church is a company of people called out from the world between Pentecost and the Rapture, saved by marvelous grace, and given the unique privilege of being the body of Christ. No other group of believers in any age ever has had or will have this distinction.

The second description of the church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. This simply means that the church is the complement of Christ, who is everywhere at one and the same time. A complement is that which fills up or completes. It implies two things which when brought together constitute a whole. Just as a body is the complement of the head, so the church is the complement of Christ.

But lest anyone should think this implies any imperfection or incompleteness in Christ, Paul quickly adds, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Far from His needing anything to fill up any lack of completeness, the Lord Jesus is Himself the One who fills all in all, who permeates the universe and supplies it with all that it needs.

Admittedly, this is too much for us to understand. We can only admire the infinite mind and plan of God while admitting our own inability to comprehend it.