If You Only Knew

Have you ever found yourself saying to someone, “If you only knew...” There are certain truths and experiences that have enlightened you and sometimes it is hard to get someone else to see it until they experience it for themselves. In the meantime, if it is truly vital, we pray that God would enlighten them. Our passage today is a prayer by the Apostle Paul for Christians that our knowledge of God would give us enlightenment to some vital truth.

Review Context: In the fist fourteen verses of Ephesians, Paul has told us all the ways God has worked powerfully for us in Christ, and sealed that work in the Holy Spirit. Today, his prayer teaches us that If we truly know God and what He has given us in Christ Jesus, we would live with confidence, invest in others, and surrender to the authority of Christ by completing His work.

The Reason for the Prayer

The reason Paul prays for Christians is that we would live according to the faith we profess.

Someone asked me last week, “when you talk about being believers in Jesus Christ, what does that mean? What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? If I believe in God and do the best I can to be good, do I go to heaven?” These are great questions. Many people say they believe in Jesus but their life does not look like the life of Jesus. Other people are very good people on their own apart from Christ. Why is believing in Jesus Christ necessary?

First, let’s clarify, what we mean by “heaven” is eternal communion with God. We cannot have communion with God apart from Jesus Christ because it is only in Christ that God has demonstrated His love for sinners to redeem them to Himself. One way we could answer these questions from Ephesians 1 is to say that to believe in Jesus is to have the eyes of our heart opened to God’s love for us, demonstrated in Jesus Christ, so completely that we surrender to Christ to transform us to love God and love others.

Paul says in verse 15 that he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints. One mark of belief, or faith, in Jesus Christ, is that we love what He loves. And He really loves HIs people (saints, holy, set-apart to God). So when we demonstrate love for God’s people in the church, this is one sign that our faith in Jesus is genuine. Love is a demonstration that we truly know God.

And this is the reason for Paul’s prayer. He prays that we will know God in such a way that we will gain wisdom to live according to our faith.

Verses 16-17

Knowing God is the beginning of wisdom. The Holy Spirit reveals to us when we know God. Paul says in verse 18, the result is that we have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. God wants to give us a vision in our hearts of what our life can be because we have come to know Him in Christ. What can our life be? Paul makes three requests of God for us.

The Requests in the Prayer

Know the hope to which you are called. Paul prays for Christians that knowing God, we would know what is the hope to which He has called us. What is the hope to which God has called us?

We use the word “hope” in ways that water down it’s meaning. When I was younger, I hoped that I could make it into the NBA. That hope died when I didn’t make my college team. I hope all the time that I can make a 20 minute drive in 15 minutes. That is not a realistic hope. We use the word hope when we really mean we wish or would like something to happen. But that’s not hope the way the Bible uses it. Hope, according to the Bible, is confident expectation that God will keep His promises. Hope gives us confidence to live life without fear or intimidation or worry. Hope is setting my mind on the unseen reality of God and making God’s plans my goals.

This hope is our calling. How would you describe your calling in life? Whatever else you are called to do, God has called you to hope. There are no hopeless Christians. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If God has granted us an inheritance in Him, what can we lose that we will not gain a hundred times more? In all the same ways you pursue your calling as a husband, wife, mother, father, teacher, nurse, driver, auto technician, friend, whatever else, you should pursue hope. Be looking with confident expectation for God to work in all those areas of your life. Don’t give in to fear or intimidation or worry. Look with the eyes of your heart for the unseen reality of God in all the challenges of life.

2. Know your worth.

Paul’s second request in verse 18 is that we may know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. This is a concept that comes out of the Hebrew Bible. God has given all the nations an inheritance, a land of their own.

Deuteronomy 32:9 ESV

But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

Paul’s message in the first fourteen verses of Ephesians is that God has included all the nations into His inheritance in Christ. No matter who you are or where you are from, when you trust in Christ to redeem you and adopt you as God’s child, you are included in all the promises of God for His people, to give them a hope and a future and plans for eternal blessings. There are no second class Christians.

When I think about who I am, the things that I have done, the things I have left undone, my foolish choices, my self-centeredness and pride, my failures, I struggle sometimes to believe in my worth. But when I look up at Jesus, God the Son who came to rescue sinners like me and adopt us into the family of God, I am convinced that God values me. Not for any reason other than He is the most loving person I have ever known. And every one of us is made in His image. Every human being has worth according to our Maker.

Many of us also struggle to see the worth in others. Our inability to work out our differences have caused anger, fear, hatred, and even dehumanization of those we disagree with or don’t understand. When we can lift our eyes to Jesus, it enlightens the eyes of our hearts to see the worth in others. Matthew Henry said it this way, “And if we dispute less, and prayed more with and for each other, we should daily see more and more what is the hope of our calling, and the riches of the Divine glory in this inheritance.”

Paul’s third request is that we would,

3. Know the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.

This one is huge. It must be because it’s the longest part of the sentence. Verses 19-21. Paul is saying that when God demonstrated his great power by raising Jesus from the dead and elevating Him to throne of heaven, and giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth for all eternity, He was directing all of that power our way. It was all for our benefit. The risen Christ who cannot be conquered by death and cannot be overcome by all the power of evil in our world reigns for you.

Jesus has a vested interest in your life, but more than that, in our life together as the church. Verses 22-23 is the punchline to this whole thing. Verses 22-23. Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is head over all things. He is in charge, working all things out according to God’s will. Remember, everything God is, Jesus is. God is everywhere, He fills all space and time with His presence. And Jesus, even though He has taken a human body, in His resurrected glory is exalted and His authority, His reign, His presence, fills all in all. How does He do that? Partly through us. While the church exists on earth, we bring the presence of Christ into the whole world. We are His body on earth. We, together, are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Let that sink in for a moment. Our role is to bring the authority and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ into all the spaces God has given us.

That means, our congregation, the representation of the body of Christ in this neighborhood, has been put in this neighborhood to bring the authority and presence of Jesus Christ into this neighborhood, this city, this region, with all the power of God working for us. In what ways does this inform our ministry? How would we pray? What would we try if we all together sought Jesus and listened to the Spirit and obeyed what we heard together?

If the eyes of my heart have been enlightened to see reality as Paul is seeing it, I think I would tell people, “If you only knew how powerful, vast, and sovereign Jesus Christ is, for us, your whole life would be transformed.” In what ways?

The Results of the Prayer

Paul is going to say much more as we go through this letter about our transformation in Christ. But to begin, let’s just use our passage for today.

Do we truly know the hope Paul is talking about? If we truly know God and He has enlightened the eyes of our hearts to what He has given us in Christ Jesus, we would live with confident expectation that God is always working in us and in our world. We would put our hope in Him and seek to work with Him, trusting every seed planted for His kingdom will bear fruit. We would never give in to despair. Our hope in Jesus’ authority and soon return would motivate us, as our statement of faith says, “to godly living, sacrificial service, and energetic mission.”

The second result relates to the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints. David said in Psalm 16,

Psalm 16:3 ESV

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

Can you say this in all honesty? Leave out for the moment all the people with whom you have nothing in common. Just your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, do you delight in them? If the eyes of your heart were enlightened to see the worth of every brother and sister, you would invest in others. In whom are you investing right now? What are some ways you can build them up in Christ? In what ways can you help them discover their gifts and encourage them to live more fruitfully in Christ?

The third result we see here is that if we only knew just how sovereign Jesus is for us, we would surrender to His authority by completing His work. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave His disciples a commission,

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Are we fulfilling this work? Jesus began it and Jesus continues to carry it out with all the parts of His body that are surrendered to His authority. He is completing the plans of God the Father to redeem sinners and send His Spirit. Where are the places He has called us to carry out that plan under His authority. In what ways do we seek Him as we make our plans as a church? If we only knew His sovereign power working in our direction, we would spend much more time in prayer than planning.

Does our life together demonstrate the faith we profess in Jesus Christ? Are we living powerfully in hope, in love, and in submission to Jesus Christ our head? Coming to the Lord’s table is a confession that all our hope is in Him, we need to be filled with His love, and our life comes from Him.

Communion

Discussion Questions

What are some truths you wish you knew when you were younger? Have you ever said, “If you only knew...” to someone, and how would you help them understand?

What are some ways you are praying for others? Is there someone that you would like to see grow in knowing God and understanding His plans and power for their life?

What do we learn about God in our passage?

In what ways has God given you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, and in what ways has that enlightened to the eyes of your heart? What are some major lessons you have learned from knowing God?

What does our passage teach us about who we are as Christians, and who we are together as the body of Christ?

What is the hope to which God has called us (verse 18)? How do we fulfill that calling?

What are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints (verse 18)? How can we invest our lives in that inheritance?

In what ways is the immeasurable greatness of God’s power working in our church, and in what ways are we praying it will work through us?

How will you respond to this passage this week?

Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?