Ephesians 1 Verses 15 to 23 Are You Rich in Jesus January 12, 2025

Ephesians 1 Verses 15 to 23 Are You Rich in Jesus January 12, 2025, Lesson 2 The Immeasurable Love of Christ Class Presentation Notes AAAAA

Background Scriptures:

• Ephesians 2:4–6 (NASB95)

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

• Romans 8:14–17 (NASB95)

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Main Idea:

• If you don’t understand where you are spiritually, you will have no idea where you are going.

Study Aim:

• To understand that you have inherited all the spiritual riches in Christ Jesus. Once your eyes are open to that realization, you will start to live differently.

Create Interest:

• Have you ever met Christians that made a great impact upon your life? Perhaps their faith, their dedication, or their love challenged or encouraged you greatly. The testimony of the Ephesus church made quite an impact on the Apostle Paul. The love that these believers had for other saints of God greatly blessed the Apostle Paul. Their attitude and actions motivated Paul to pray for them on a regular basis.

• Praying for one another is something we are to do regularly but unfortunately is done rarely by many Christians who are too busy to pray at all. When we fail to pray for others, then it is easier to be apathetic, irritated, impatient, offended, or fussy with one another. Faults can cause our anger or displeasure to fester and fume.

• On the other hand, when you pray for one another, it helps you to be more patient with them. It also yields other benefits for the person you are praying for including possible healing, knowing God’s will, and being prepared for Christ’s second coming.

• In this portion of Ephesians, we find some more insights on how to actually pray for other Christians and what we should desire for them and what we should desire in our own lives.

Lesson in Historical Context:

• Paul desired the Ephesian Christians to understand what great wealth they had in Christ. Paul knew of their faith and love, and in this he rejoiced. The Christian life has two dimensions: faith toward God and love toward men, and you cannot separate the two. But Paul knew that faith and love were just the beginning. The Ephesians needed to know much more. This is why he prayed for them….and we should pray for each other.

• In the prison prayers of Paul (Eph. 1:15–23; 3:14–21; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:9–12), we discover the blessings he wanted his converts to enjoy. In none of these prayers does Paul request material things.

o His emphasis is on spiritual perception and real Christian character. He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, but rather prays that God will reveal to them what they already have.

• Before we study Paul’s requests in this “prayer for enlightenment,” we must notice two facts.

o First, enlightenment comes from the Holy Spirit. He is the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Isa. 11:2; John 14:25–26; 16:12–14). With his natural mind, man cannot understand the things of God. He needs the Spirit to enlighten him (1 Cor. 2:9–16).

 The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us from the Word, and then gives us the wisdom to understand and apply it.

 He also gives us the power—the enablement—to practice the truth (Eph. 3:14–21).

• Second, this enlightenment comes to the heart of the believer (Eph. 1:18). Literally this verse reads, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened.” We think of the heart as the emotional part of man, but…………

o in the Bible, the heart means the inner man, and includes the emotions, the mind, and the will. The inner man, the heart, has spiritual faculties that parallel the physical senses.

o The inner man can see (Ps. 119:18; John 3:3), hear (Matt. 13:9; Heb. 5:11), taste (Ps. 34:8; 1 Peter 2:3), smell (Phil. 4:18; 2 Cor. 2:14), and touch (Acts 17:27). This is what Jesus meant when He said of the people: “They seeing see not, and hearing they hear not” (Matt. 13:13).

• The inability to see and understand spiritual things is not the fault of intelligence, but of the heart. The eyes of the heart must be opened by the Spirit of God.

Bible Study:

Ephesians 1:15–17 (NASB95)

15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,

16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

• Paul has spent the first fourteen verses of this epistle blessing the Lord for the fact that his people receive “every spiritual blessing … in Christ,” “according to the riches of [God’s] grace” and all “to the praise of His glory.” He was so thrilled with his subject matter that he carried on with it nonstop, adding one blessing to another until he had composed a sentence that is twelve verses long!

• In verse 15, though, Paul finally begins a new sentence and a new thought. Now, instead of praising God for his blessings, he begins praying that God’s people will understand and appreciate them. More accurately, he begins informing the Ephesians in Verse 16 as to how he often prays for them

• Vs. 15: Because of (For this reason) the believers’ acquisition of every spiritual blessing—including election, predestination, adoption, grace, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom, understanding, knowledge of the mystery of His will, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and inheritance—Paul now prayed that his readers might know God personally and intimately. Verses 15–23 are one sentence in the Greek, as are verses 3–14.

o Paul heard of the Ephesians’ faith in Christ, their vertical relationship, and their love for all the saints, their horizontal relationship (cf. Col. 1:4; 2 Thes. 1:3).

o A proper relationship with God should lead to a proper relationship with other Christians. Interestingly Paul wrote about “love with faith” in Ephesians 6:23.

• Vs. 16: Because of the Ephesians’ faith and love, Paul continued to give thanks for them (cf. Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4; Phil. 1:3; Col. 1:3; 1 Thes. 1:2; 2 Thes. 1:3) and to make requests for them (cf. Phil. 1:4; Col. 1:9; 1 Thes. 1:3).

• For Paul, the greatest display of power the world had ever seen took place when God raised Jesus from the dead (verse 20). Nobody had ever been raised bodily from the dead, before or since. And at the center of Paul’s prayer for the church in the area, which he now reports, is his longing that they will come to realize that this same power, the power seen at Easter and now vested in Jesus, is available to them for their daily use.

Setting the stage for verse 17:

• Power is one of the great themes of Ephesians. Perhaps this is because Ephesus itself, and the surrounding area, was seen as a place of power. Certainly, in social and civic terms the city was powerful, and was set to become more so. It was a major center of imperial influence in Paul’s day. The Roman emperors were keen to establish and maintain places where their rule could be celebrated and enhanced.

• But it was also a center of religious power. All sorts of cults and beliefs flourished, and frequently they focused on power: the power of what we might call magic, power to make things happen in the world, to influence people and events, to gain wealth or health or influence for yourself and to bring about the downfall of your enemies.

o Their world, in other words, was dominated by the ‘principalities and powers’, the various levels of rulers and authorities from local magistrates up to internationally recognized gods and goddesses, and all stages in between.

• Vs. 17: Far too many Christians today, and one suspects, in Paul’s day, are quite unaware that this power is there and is available. Paul doesn’t imagine that all Christians will automatically be able to recognize the power of God.

o It will take, as he says in verse 17, a fresh gift of wisdom, of coming to see things people don’t normally see.

o And this in turn will come about through knowing Jesus and having what Paul calls ‘the eyes of your inmost self-opened to God’s light.

• God has already begun to work in them powerfully, as their loyal faith and love indicates (verse 15).

o So, Paul can pray with confidence that God will now add this increase in wisdom and knowledge, especially in showing them two things:

 The inheritance, in all its glory—in other words, the vision of the renewed cosmos of which we spoke in the previous section

 The power of God which will bring it about in its proper time.

For what do you thank God on a daily basis?

What motivated Paul to pray for the Ephesians? (1:15–16)

What did Paul ask God to give to the Ephesian Christians? (1:17)

What is the purpose of having wisdom and revelation? (1:17)

Ephesians 1:18–19 (NASB95)

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

• Paul asks that God will give his people:

o “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (v. 17);

o that the eyes of their hearts “may be enlightened” (v. 18)…and…

o to understand their rich inheritance, and to realize how great is God’s power toward those who believe (v. 19).

• Vs. 19: What is that rich inheritance? What is “the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe”?

o It is the fact that we are predestined, sanctified, and adopted by God in Jesus (vv. 4–5);

o that we are redeemed from our sins and forgiven through Jesus’ blood (v. 7);

o that we await a heavenly inheritance (v. 11) …and….

o that is assured to all who believe (vv. 13–14).

 These are “the riches of [God’s] grace” in the lives of his people. These are the very blessings that Paul prays, in verses 17–19, that his readers will comprehend.

• In short, Paul constantly prays for the Christians of Asia Minor, asking God to help them understand and appreciate the inheritance that he has just finished detailing in verses 3–14.

o He wants the Ephesians to be just as thrilled about “every spiritual blessing” as he himself is.

o So, he prays that God will open their eyes and give them spiritual insight; that his people will not be oblivious to just how good they have it in Jesus!

• What a prayer to pray for your fellow Christians! What a wonderful petition to make each time you gather with God’s people to hear his Word preached, taught, sung, and prayed over:

o “O Father, open the eyes of our hearts!

o Enlighten us to see just what we have in Christ.

o Help us to realize your power toward us, and the glory of your inheritance in the saints.

o Help us to revel just as Paul revels, because we see as Paul sees!”

 That is the essence of Paul’s petition for his fellow believers in verses 17–19: “Lord, let your rich mercy and your ‘power toward us who believe’ be evident to your people.”

But how is God’s “power toward us who believe” demonstrated? Once again, Paul reminds us that spiritual blessing is found … like an inheritance buried.

Consider the following example:

• As saints, we’re God’s inheritance, His treasure, His prize.

o In Jesus’ day, men would bury their treasure in a field for safekeeping. But if a man died before he could tell someone where his treasure was buried, it would be left in the field until someone stumbled upon it. Such is the case in Matthew 13.…

o Jesus said that’s the way the kingdom is. The field is the world. God the Father gave the world to Adam. But when Adam sinned, he inadvertently handed it over to Satan. That’s why there is rape, famine, pollution, corruption, and death on our planet. Jesus came to buy the world back. Why? He bought the world to get the treasure. He bought the world to get you.

• Vs. 1:19 “and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe”. When a believer really knows God, he experiences power—the power of God Himself. Note how God’s power is described:

o It is exceeding (huperballon): surpassing, unlimited, immeasurable, beyond imagination.

o It is great (megathos): mighty, explosive, beyond measure. This is the word from which we get the English word megathon which measures atomic explosives. Imagine the great explosive power of God!

• The thing to note is that God’s power is to us-ward; that is, God takes His power and extends it, presents it, makes it available to the believer. How do we know this? Because of what God did for Christ. What God did for Christ He will do for us. God’s power is demonstrated by what He did for Christ.

Why did Paul ask that the Ephesians’ hearts would continue to be enlightened?

(1:18)

Ephesians 1:20–23 (NASB95)

20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

• Vs. 20: The supernatural power … working … strength and might with which God supplies every believer and with which He will glorify every believer is that which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

o His prayer here is that we understand the power of His keeping, His securing us and His fulfilling the marvelous hope which is ours in Christ. The resurrection and ascension power—the divine energy that lifted Christ from the grave to the earth, and from the earth to heaven—is the power that will lift us to glory.

• And seated Him at His right hand: It is the mighty power that raised Jesus to heaven after His resurrection, raising Him above all demonic foes and every potential enemy of all time—this same power is at work in Christians.

o “The right hand is the place of friendship, honor, confidence, and authority.” (Clarke)

• Vs. 21: Far above all principality and power and might and dominion: From other passages in Ephesians (Ephesians 3:10 and 6:12) we know that this refers to angelic beings, both loyal and lethal. We don’t completely understand the ranks of the angelic realm, but we do know that Jesus is raised above them. “We know that the king is above all, though we cannot name all the officers of his court. So, we know that Christ is above all, though we are not able to name all His subjects.” (Alford)

o “Think of the paradox. The Apostle is speaking of a Personage of history, of recent, almost contemporary, history … He had worked with His hands, He had walked from place to place like other men, and man could no doubt accurately describe His look and manner when He talked … He is now ‘seated at the right hand of’ Almighty God, on His very throne.” (Moule)

What kind of help is available to all Christians? (1:19–20)

How is God’s power at work in all creation? (1:21)

How does God’s power reach across time? (1:21)

• To understand what Paul means, let us go back to the basic thought of his letter. As it stands, this world is in complete disunity. There is disunity between Jew and Gentile, between Greek and barbarian; there is disunity between different men within the same nation; there is disunity within every man, for in every man the good strives with the evil; there is disunity between man and the beasts; and, above all, there is disunity between man and God. It was Paul’s thesis that Jesus died to bring all the discordant elements in this universe into one, to wipe out the separations, to reconcile man to man and to reconcile man to God. Jesus Christ was above all things God’s instrument of reconciliation.

• VS. 22-23: The Church is called by its greatest title—the body of Christ.

It was to bring all things and all men into one family that Christ died. But, clearly, that unity does not as yet exist.

o Let us take a human analogy. Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there but one man cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers. That precisely is what the Church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all men and all nations can become one; but before that can happen they must know about Jesus Christ. And it is the task of the Church to bring that about.

• Christ is the head; the Church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The Church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon his errands, a voice to speak his words.

• In the very last phrase of the chapter Paul has two tremendous thoughts. The Church, he says, is the complement of Christ. Just as the ideas of the mind cannot become effective without the work of the body, the tremendous glory which Christ brought to this world cannot be made effective without the work of the Church. Paul goes on to say that Jesus is bit by bit filling all things in all places; and that filling is being worked out by the Church. This is one of the most tremendous thoughts in all Christianity. It means nothing less than that God’s plan for one world is in the hands of the Church.

Let’s hear some applications of our lesson from Dr. Charles R. Swindoll

Putting God’s Power on Display

• We need God’s incomparable power. This is an undisputable theological truth. Yet so many Christians live their lives relying on their own wisdom, insight, knowledge, and strength. Though we desperately need God’s power given to us through Christ and by the Holy Spirit, we often fail to tap into His infinite might.

o Why? Because we disconnect ourselves from the one true Source of all things.

• We often mistakenly believe we’ve outgrown the need for God’s power. We can handle these difficult situations on our own, thank you! We have acquired experience, skill, and training, so we only call upon the Lord when we mess things up and must awaken to hard, cold reality.

• To avoid this self-sufficient attitude, we need to remember two things about the power of God, based on Eph.1:15–23.

• First, remember that the greatest evidence of power is change. How can we tell when we’re connected to God’s power? Even in the physical realm, power produces results. We know something has energy, vitality, and life when we see movement, growth, and development. The same is true in the spiritual realm.

o When we see the fruit of the Spirit manifested in our lives, we know God is working. God’s power works inside our hearts to change us. To better grasp this power, read the following passages and note the power that brings about change in the believer. What is the cause? What are the effects?

 Acts 1:8 (NASB95) “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

 Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”

 2 Timothy 1:7 (NASB95) “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline”.

• Second, remember that God’s power is best displayed through our weakness. Let’s face it. Self-made success leads to confidence, confidence breeds pride, and pride ends in a fall.

o When we begin to believe the lie that we’re blessed because we’re smarter, stronger, luckier, or more skilled, we will have completely missed the kind of conditions in which God demonstrates His power.

o Hard as it is to endure it, the most fertile soil for demonstrating God’s work in our lives is the thick sod of adversity. Paul himself experienced a nettlesome “thorn in the flesh,” a condition that plagued him and weakened him physically (2 Cor. 12:7). Yet this very condition forced him to lean on God’s power (2 Cor. 12:9). As a result, the apostle of grace boasted about his weaknesses, knowing that through the cracked and broken vessel of his body, the brilliant light of God’s glory could shine through.

o To connect with God’s power, we must admit our own brokenness. Only then is His power able to freely flow through us. To better grasp the concept of God’s power made perfect in our weakness, read the following passages and note the effects of God working through human weaknesses.

 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NASB95)

26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

29 so that no man may boast before God.

 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 (NASB95)

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

 2 Corinthians 13:4 (NASB95)

For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.

Note a special closing message:

• The words of the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon to his congregation sum up the need to seek our strength only in God, who raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in heaven:

o “Dear brothers and sisters, go home and

 never ask the Lord to make you strong in yourselves,

 never ask Him to make you anybody or anything, but be content to be nothing and nobody.

 Next ask that His power may have room in you, and that all those who come near you may see what God can do by nothings and nobodies.

 Live with this desire, to glorify God.”

What did God place under Christ’s control? (1:22)

What appointment did God give Christ? (1:22)

What is the church’s relationship to Christ? (1:22–23)

How did Paul support the Ephesian Christians?

How do you know that Christ’s power is sufficient for your life?

Since God’s power is available to you, what do you need to do to take hold of it this week?

Submitted by Dr. Ted A. Duck in response to the following question he cogitated on from the Create Interest section on page 1. 1-9-2025

Have you ever met Christians that made a great impact upon your life? Perhaps their faith, their dedication, or their love challenged or encouraged you greatly.

There are several, but three stand out. All three had an impact before becoming a Christian. The first was a young Captain that was in my unit in Vietnam. His name was Fred O. Jackson. I’m not the greatest on remembering names, but his I’ve never forgotten. We were in a Cavalry unit in which life expectancy wasn’t the greatest. Fred stood out because he was always smiling and when not flying, often reading his Bible. He always had a good word for you. The day I was leaving the unit to prepare to leave and return home. Fred was shot down and killed. And I later remember asking God, why someone like Fred and not me?

The second Christian who had a major impact on my life several years after Vietnam was a man named Hart Armstrong. We lived next door to each other at Fort Knox, Ky. Hart lost his wife in a tornado in I believe Mississippi while he was in Vietnam. He led a Bible Study group in his home and my wife, and I attended. He worked in the same office as did I, and Christ just exuded from him in his speech, when under pressure, and in his love for his family. And again, I wondered why the tragedy of losing a wife with two children while in Vietnam would strike him and not me.

The third person, and I do not know if he was a Christian, but God used him for me to ask the same question. He was an American Marine who was stationed with me in Israel, the Golan Heights side of the October 1973 war. Six hours after relieving me and my partner from Denmark, Captain Jack Holly and his partner were captured by a Syrian, Iraqi patrol and received severe injuries from being forced to walk naked and barefoot across the Golan to Damacus. I later learned he had to leave the Marine Corps because of the injuries. And, once again, God six hours earlier and it could have been me. All three of these experiences led me to accept Christ a few months later. When I returned to Fort Knox, I was baptized.

Point, you don’t always know who is watching you. Who is listening to you. Who is allowing Christ to live His life through you to touch those in His plan and purpose for salvation and ministry. God in His sovereignty even uses those who are not His followers, to fulfill His plan for those He chose before their creation. What a wonderful God we serve and who came to serve us!

Added by JSJ while still fresh in my mind……………………

It is my understanding from Ted (Col Ted A. Duck U.S.Army Retired) that when he retired he felt the call to ministry, entered Southwestern Theological Seminary and graduated in 1994. Earned a doctorate from Louisiana Baptist Seminary during his preaching years. He retired after 30 years of preaching in 2024. His last church was Pine Drive Baptist Church in Dickinson, Tx.

Author of "His Hands, Feet, and Voice." written after Hurricane Harvey’s devastation.