EPHESIANS 1:15-23 - Be Thou My Vision

(READ EPHESIANS 1:15-23)

Introduction

So, as you may have noticed, I was finally able to save up enough to afford the other half of my glasses… The eye doctor said it was probably time to move from cheaters to full time corrective lenses, so that’s what I did.

I don’t know for sure what I was expecting when I put them on, but I think I was kind of expecting instantaneous super-vision—clear and sharp and noticeably better eyesight the moment I started wearing them.

But if you’ve ever started wearing glasses you know what really happens—headaches, eye strain, fuzzy vision and disorientation (especially going down stairs!) What I didn’t expect was that when you start wearing glasses all the muscles in your eyes have to suddenly adjust to focusing through the lens differently, and your brain has to re-wire itself to be able to interpret the images coming through the lens differently (especially with progressive lenses...) So getting new glasses really does require some time for your vision to adjust.

The Apostle Paul uses the metaphor for eyesight in our text this morning in verses 18-19 as he praye

Ephesians 1:18–19 LSB

...that you—the eyes of your heart having been enlightened—will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe...

Paul spent the first fourteen verses of this chapter in one long Greek sentence of praise of the glorious grace of God in our salvation—like we said last week, it is so spectacular and so glorious and weighty that it feels like the first big drop on a roller coaster: It makes your heart leap into your throat as you cling for dear life as it plummets down into the depths of God’s amazing grace, and the momentum of that first plunge carries you through the rest of the book!

If the first half of Ephesians 1 is Paul’s magnificent praise of God’s glorious grace in our salvation, then the rest of this chapter is Paul’s prayer for his readers that they may fully grasp the consequences of God’s glorious grace in our salvation. Paul is praying that the “eyes of our heart” be enlightened to understand the glorious things he has just written about.

The theological term for Paul’s prayer here is that he is praying for the illumination of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Illumination: God OPENS our EYES to know HIM and His TRUTH

“Illumination is the simple idea that God opens our eyes to know Him and His truth. Inspiration is what we refer to as the nature of Scripture. Illumination is how we understand Scripture. It is absolutely necessary that we seek the Spirit’s help in understanding His truth. God’s mind is revealed in Scripture, but we need ‘Holy Spirit glasses’ to understand it accurately and deeply.” Merida, T. (2014). Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (p. 35). Holman Reference.

Remember how Jesus opened the eyes of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection in Luke 24:31-32

Luke 24:31–32 LSB

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:45 LSB

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

Or as Psalm 119 teaches us to pray:

Psalm 119:18 LSB

Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.

Or as we read earlier:

Psalm 119:34 LSB

Cause me to understand, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart.

Like a new pair of eyeglasses, we need the Holy Spirit’s ministry of illumination in our lives to correct our poor vision. Because left to ourselves:

Our vision of ourselves is too high—we believe we are perfectly capable of living a Christian life pleasing to God on our own. We trust ourselves to overcome temptation far more than we should; we are far too prone to giving ourselves a “pass” when it comes to our behavior.

Our vision of God is too low—we do not fear Him as we ought, we do not reverence Him as He deserves; all too often He is pushed aside in our affections and attention in favor of the passing duties and pleasures of the world around us.

Our vision of our calling is too dim—we do not look at the harvest of souls all around us as urgently as we ought; we don’t see the fields white to harvest, we have no vision for the growth and reach of the Kingdom of God in our community or our state or our world.

And so as we examine the rest of this chapter this morning, I want us to take the Apostle Paul’s example here and learn to pray that the eyes of our hearts be opened to these things. What I aim to commend to you this morning from God’s Word open before us here is that you will

Pray for spiritual VISION to walk DAILY in the BLESSINGS of your salvation

Paul’s prayer in these verses follows a very familiar pattern of prayer: He begins in verses 15-16 with Thanksgiving, followed in verses 17-20 with petitions, and finally in verses 20-23 praise.

So let’s follow this pattern through these verses together, shall we? Paul begins his prayer for our illumination with thanksgiving, and so your first order of business in praying for spiritual vision to walk daily in the blessings of our salvation is to

I. THANK God for the GRACE you see in His PEOPLE (Ephesians 1:15-16)

Look at verses 15-16 with me:

Ephesians 1:15–16 LSB

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

Paul says that he does not cease giving thanks to God for the things that he sees in the saints there at Ephesus (and the other churches that received this letter). First, he gives thanks

For their FAITH in Christ (cp. Eph. 2:8-9; Rev. 2:2-3)

Consider the fact that Paul thanks God for the Ephesian believers’ faith in Christ—he recognizes that their faith is a gift of God’s grace:

Ephesians 2:8–9 LSB

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.

Paul saw the vibrant, living faith the church in Ephesus had for Christ—even though they lived in a pagan city dedicated to the false goddess Artemis, they stood firm in their faith. Christ Himself recognized the firm faith of the Ephesian church decades later as He wrote to them through the Apostle John in Revelation 2:2-3

Revelation 2:2–3 LSB

‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, you also have not grown weary.

Paul thanked God for the strength of the Ephesian church’s faith, and in the same way he thanked God

For their LOVE for each other (cp. John 13:35; 1 John 3:16)

Ephesians 1:15–16 LSB

...having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints...

Just as it was appropriate for Paul to thank God for the Ephesian Christians’ faith, so it is fitting that he thank them for the love that the had for one another. Just as our faith is a gift of God, so our love for one another is supernaturally granted and sustained by God. We read in 1 John 4:19

1 John 4:19 LSB

We love, because He first loved us.

The love that we have received from God is what then drives us to love one another:

1 John 3:16 LSB

By this we have known love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Paul thanks God for what he has seen in the church in Ephesus—for their bold faith in Christ and their deep love for one another. What a great blessing from God it is to be part of a church family that is trusting in Christ wholly and loving one another fully! If you have been in a place where this kind of love and faithfulness has not been present, then you know why Paul is so thankful!

If we are to have spiritual vision to walk daily in the blessings of our salvation, we must begin with thanking God for His grace displayed in His people. And I want to suggest that along with expressing our gratitude to God, we ought to express our gratitude to God to others when we encounter that faith and love.

It is one thing to tell someone how much their faithfulness has encouraged you, as you see them holding fast to their hope in Christ through their trials—but how much more of an encouragement is it to say, “I am so thankful to God for your example of faithfulness to Him!” “I am so very grateful to God for the love He has given you for me—He has used you so wonderfully in my life!”

Paul thanked God for the faith and love he saw so abundantly in the church in Ephesus, and he thanked god for the grace he saw in His people.

In verses 17-20, Paul turns for a prayer of thanksgiving to God to a prayer of intercession—of asking God to work in the lives of his readers. And so as you pray for spiritual vision to walk daily in the blessings of your salvation, you begin by thanking God for the grace you see in His people, and then you

II. ASK God to show His GREATNESS in your LIFE (Ephesians 1:17-20)

This is the way Paul continues his prayer in verse 17—praying

Ephesians 1:17 LSB

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of Him,

Once again we see that beautiful Trinitarian pattern of Paul’s prayer—that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The first way that we need our vision to be adjusted is to pray

To see the BEAUTY of GOD in our lives (1:17b)

J.I. Packer, in his classic work Knowing God says that those who know God have four characteristics: great energy for God, great thoughts of God, great boldness for God, and great contentment in God (Knowing God, 27–31, quoted in Merida, T. (2014). Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (p. 37). Holman Reference.)

Everything in our Christian life, from beginning to end, is about knowing God through Jesus Christ. The beginning of our Christian life is about knowing Him— Jesus says, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). And Jesus told some who were doing ministry in His name, “I never knew you! Depart from Me” (Matt 7:22–23).

We live day by day with the same goal as Paul expressed in Philippians 3:10:

Philippians 3:10 LSB

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

And we are promised that, at the end of human history when Christ appears at the consummation of all things,

1 John 3:2 LSB

...We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Everything about our lives as believers is wrapped up in knowing God more and more deeply as we hear Him speak through His Word and as He draws us into closer communion with Him and with His people. The Christian life is about knowing God—and making Him known to others.

Paul shows us how we are to ask God to show His greatness in our life as we ask to see the beauty of God in our lives, and in verses 18-20 we are to pray

To see the BLESSINGS of the GOSPEL in our lives (1:18-20a)

Paul lays out at least three blessings of the Gospel in these verses:

Ephesians 1:18–20 LSB

so that you—the eyes of your heart having been enlightened—will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of His strength, which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

Now, in any good eye exam you have to read the letters on the eye chart, right? Focus on the smallest row you can and read the characters. So let’s focus intently on these three blessings that the Gospel has brought into your life.

Focus intently on the hope of

1. God’s CALLING in your SALVATION

as you battle Satan’s slanders and attacks to make you doubt your salvation:

1 Thessalonians 5:8 LSB

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Focus intently on the hope of God’s calling in your battles with sin, that you have been promised His righteousness:

Galatians 5:5 LSB

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are eagerly waiting for the hope of righteousness.

Focus intently on the hope of God’s calling as you suffer from disease and weakness and the frailty of your body:, that there is a resurrection coming someday:

1 Corinthians 15:19–20 LSB

If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Focus intently on the hope of God’s calling as you look ahead to the Day when you will enter His presence for all eternity:

Titus 1:2 LSB

in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity,

Look at the second blessing of the Gospel Paul lays out here, “the riches of the glory of

2. God’s INHERITANCE of the SAINTS

Consider from this verse how God treasures you as His own possession! Christian, you are His inheritance! As one commentator put it,

That God should set such a high value on the community of sinners rescued from perdition and still bearing too many traces of their former state, might well seem incredible were it not made clear that he sees them in Christ, as from the beginning, he chose them in Christ (F. F. Bruce, Ephesians, 270, Quoted in Merida, T. (2014). Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (p. 38). Holman Reference.)

Because you are in Christ, Christian, God the Father looks on you as His precious and beloved people; His treasured possession and the apple of His eye; the recipients of His unique blessing and presence and delight—the highest affection and greatest love and purest joy of His infinite being rests on you—because you are found by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ!

And third, look at the third blessing in this verse:

3. God’s POWER toward BELIEVERS

“...what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe...”

The Ephesian believers lived in a city that had been dedicated to the demonic power of Artemis, the false goddess of the Greeks and Romans—in Acts 19:28-29 we see how the crowds were so easily whipped into a satanic rage over Paul’s preaching the truth of Christ’s supremacy that they screamed their goddess’s name for hours on end (Acts 19:28, 34). But the believers in Ephesus were protected by power far greater than the power of the Evil One—they had the protection of Almighty God Himself.

Christian, the power that you have in Christ is the power to “stand firm against the schemes of the Devil”, to resist him in this evil day, to stand firm in the armor of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it is in God’s power not only to deliver you from Satan in this life, but to deliver you safely to His presence in the next life! Consider for a moment: Throughout the Old Testament, what was the one event that the Old Testament writers kept coming back to over and over again to exult in the power of YHWH? It was always the Exodus—God’s power in reducing Egypt to a smoking ruin in order to bring His children out of slavery and through the waters of the Red Sea and the wilderness into the land He promised them.

But in the New Testament the power of God is measured by the resurrection of His Son from the dead! The power that Paul rejoices in here in Ephesians is the power of God that delivered His people from the slavery of their sin and through the waters of baptism and the wilderness of this present dark world into their promised eternal life with Him through the resurrection of Christ from the dead!

This is what the Apostle Paul is praying for you to see—this is the illumination that the Holy Spirit gives you so that you can see the blessings of the Gospel and walk in them every day—you thank Him for the grace that you see in His people, you ask Him to see His greatness in your life, and you

III. PRAISE God as you see the GLORY of your SAVIOR (Ephesians 1:20-23)

In verse 19 Paul calls us to focus our gaze on God’s power toward us who believe “according to the might of His strength”—and then goes on to give the specific demonstration of that power—

Ephesians 1:20 LSB

which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

When you focus your sight on the power of God revealed in Christ you praise Him for the glory revealed as

In His RETURN from the GRAVE (v. 1:20a; cp. 1 Cor 15:55-58)

In the Old Testament the grave was the final victor—Sheol swallowed up kings, emperors, armies, cities—no one could escape its hunger, and no one ever came back. Even those who were revived from death by the prophets as signs of their authority from YHWH eventually died again. Sheol always won.

But by the power of God working in His Son, Jesus Christ broke the gates of Sheol forever! He went down into the dark heart of the grave bearing your sins, and when He burst forth from that tomb three days later He brought with Him the promise that Death will not hold you, Christian! As we sing in our worship,

“No guilt in life / No fear in death / THIS IS THE POWER OF CHRIST IN ME!

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 LSB

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Because the power of God through Jesus Christ has conquered death, beloved, you can stand steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because your labor is never in vain!

Praise God as you see the glory of your Savior in His return from the grave, and praise Him for

His RULE over His KINGDOM (v. 1:20b; Ps 2; Dan. 7:13-14; Acts 1:9)

When Christ was raised from the dead, He went on to receive the kingdom that had been promised throughout the Scriptures:

Psalm 2:7–9 LSB

“I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’”

When He ascended through the clouds in Acts 1:9, He came into the presence of the Ancient of Days to receive His Kingdom:

Daniel 7:13–14 LSB

“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And came near before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory, and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

The Man of Sorrows has won through His suffering to claim His Kingdom, and so we praise Him for

His SOVEREIGN reign over all POWERS (vv. 1:21-22a; Dan. 4:35)

As King Nebuchadnezzar confessed in the Book of Daniel,

Daniel 4:35 LSB

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’

Christian, praise God as you set your sight on the utter and absolute control that King Jesus exercises in this world; there is nothing outside of His reach; not “one rogue molecule” as RC Sproul put it, that is outside His sovereign hand.

And there is no spiritual power outside His command—no principality or power or rulers in high places that can set their strength against Him. Consider the accounts we have in the Gospels of the terror that Christ struck in that legion of demons in Luke 8:28

Luke 8:28 LSB

Now seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”

And now, consider, Christian, that this same Jesus has been enthroned above not just one demonic horde in ancient Israel, but over every spiritual power of wickedness in every place. The screams of terrified demons that echoed off the canyon walls of the Gerasenes two millennia ago now reverberate throughout the whole of Creation—King Jesus reigns, and they know they are doomed!

He is enthroned over the physical world, He is enthroned over the supernatural world, and His reign will outlive Death itself!

1 Corinthians 15:25–26 LSB

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death.

Christian, the surpassingly great power of your sovereignly reigning Savior is working with the might of His strength for you—nothing in the heavens above or the earth beneath can tear you out of His hand or prevent Him from working all His power to do you eternal good. Even Death itself will be betrayed at the last, as all it can do is deliver you safe into His welcoming embrace in glory!

Pray for the spiritual vision to praise God as you see the glory of your Savior—His return from the grave, His rule over His kingdom, His sovereign reign over all powers, and

His HEADSHIP over His CHURCH (vv. 1:22b-23; cp. 1 Peter 5:1-4)

Ephesians 1:22–23 LSB

And He put all things in subjection 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.

Consider the flow of Paul’s argument here as he exults in the glorious power of God revealed toward His people through Christ—he begins with His resurrection, and then builds up to His rule over his Kingdom and His sovereignty over all powers in heaven and on earth. And the very pinnacle of Christ’s authority, the most glorious and lofty and magnificent of all of these offices is His headship over the Church! Think of it—for the Apostle Paul the cosmic and universal authority of Christ over the heavens and the earth and all that fills them is merely a stopping point on His way to headship of the Church!

Consider with me what a great comfort that is, beloved! Here we sit in this little country church in a quiet corner of our state, never more than fifty or sixty souls gathered together to devote ourselves to the apostle’s teaching, the breaking of bread and prayer on the first day of the week according to God’s command, unremarked and unregarded by anyone except the eternally reigning King of the Cosmos Who purchased us with His blood! He not only sees us here, but He delights in us here; He cares about our concerns and He rules over us by His Word! We are “His body, the fulness of Him Who fills all in all!”

The church is not the “fullness” of Christ in that we somehow complete Him, as if He suffered some imperfection or emptiness without Him. The “fullness” of Christ means that He fills us! This little flock, this congregation of 45 members worshipping in a sanctuary built for 200—in a lot of big churches out there, 45 members is a rounding error!—this little church is filled with all the fullness of the King of Eternity! He is our Head—just as your head fills your body with the power to move and think and see, so He fills His church here in Sykesville to move in Him and think with His mind and see what He sees—this is the glory of your Savior that drives your praise as you see the surpassing greatness of His power toward you according to the working of the might of His strength!

Beloved, pray for spiritual vision to walk daily in the blessings of your salvation—just like the headaches that come with getting used to a new pair of glasses, having the eyes of our heart enlightened with the illumination of the Holy Spirit can cause some heartaches as we train ourselves to see the way He calls us to see.

First, train the eyes of your heart to see with gratitude the grace that you see displayed in His people. It is so easy to let grudges and disappointments and envy grow between us. To let our pettiness cloud our vision of the grace of God poured out on us here in faith and love. Where you are tempted to be frustrated or angered or offended by one of your brothers or sisters here at Bethel, pray that God will instead give you a vision of the love that brother or sister has for you in Christ; for the faithfulness in which they stand for Him in a dark world. With worldly sight you will always see some fault in them; pray for the vision to see the good work that Christ is doing in and through them. And let them know how thankful you are to God for their faith and love!

Train the eyes of your heart to see with delight His greatness in your life. It is so easy to let the beauty of God fade in your eyes as you go through your day—so many things that demand your attention, so many competing delights and attractions that pull at you. Make it your aim to begin every day alone with Him in His Word—you need to prime the pump of your mind with His thoughts and His commands and His encouragements. Commit His Word to memory so that you can take His promises of your salvation with you everywhere you go:

Take His promise of your forgiveness of sin from Psalm 103:11-12

Psalm 103:11–12 LSB

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Take His promise of hope from verses like Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 LSB

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.

Take His promise that you are His beloved inheritance from Deuteronomy 7:6

Deuteronomy 7:6 LSB

“For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Train the eyes of your heart to see with hope the headship of Christ over all things. It is so easy for our vision to be blurred by the uncertainty and turmoil of our lives—train your heart instead to focus on the truth that Jesus Christ reigns over all of these things—above every rule, every authority, every power and dominion in this world and the world to come! Yes, it looks like our Congress has all the dignity and intelligence of a junior high cafeteria food fight—but Christ reigns over all of it! Yes, your health is fragile and you don’t know what the future holds, but Christ reigns over your life and health! Yes, it seems as though you have laid your anxieties and cares before Him over and over, but He reigns over those anxieties and cares and will certainly turn them to your good and His glory. Set the eyes of your heart on the truth that your Savior has been raised from the dead and enthroned in Heaven far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named in this world and the next!

But perhaps God’s Word has revealed to you that you have no spiritual vision at all; that you are actually blind to these glories. As Paul has unfolded glory after glory in these verses about the grace of God in His people and the greatness of God in their lives and the glory of God revealed in Christ you have come to the realization that none of it means anything to you; that you have no eyes to see these things at all. The Scriptures tell us in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that

1 Corinthians 2:14 LSB

...the natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined.

If that describes your perception of these things this morning, then will you allow me to give you a warning and an invitation? The warning is this: The eternally reigning Son of God, Jesus Christ, demands your obedience:

Psalm 2:10–12 LSB

So now, O kings, show insight; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

And the invitation is this: The reigning Head over all things in Heaven and on earth has not only declared His wrath over all who refuse to submit to Him by clinging to their insubordination and rebellion; He has provided a way for you to escape His wrath. Because this reigning King received His throne by suffering and dying for the forgiveness of your sin. The wrath that threatens you He has already borne. The sin that enslaves you He has already atoned for. The grave that terrifies you He has already broken open—all things are being put in subjection under His feet, and the last enemy of all—Death itself—will one day die and be cast into the lake of fire forever. This promise is sure because He reigns over all of it. So repent of your sin and kiss the Son; submit yourself to Him, lay your neck under His foot and serve Him with fear and rejoice with trembling as you find your blessed refuge in your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Jude 24–25 LSB

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

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