The First Step of Wisdom is Obedience

Ephesians 1:15-23

Please stand…

English Standard Version Chapter 1

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 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, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked 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 above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things 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.

Pray

Above this passage, in probably many of your bibles, there will be a heading that might say something like “Thanksgiving and Prayer” for this section of Scripture. That is exactly what this section is.

I think there is a lot of times that we can look at Scripture and the authors of Scripture and have a picture of statues or paintings of these men. The picture that comes to mind for me when I think of Paul, the author of Ephesians, is this one (show picture). He is an old man, balding, leaning over a table writing something. He doesn’t seem very approachable. He looks like he may yell at kids and tell them to get off his lawn.

The paintings are sometimes good. It helps us put a face to the person, even though it is probably the wrong face, it is still nice to read about a Paul and then see a Paul, But I was reading a book this week that talked about reading Scripture in a way that you can feel the text.

For example, Adam McHugh, the author the book, The Listening Life, talked about the story of the boy in Mark 9 that was suffering from seizures and Jesus comes to heal him. He says,

“When you employ all your imaginative faculties…You smell the sweat of the hot crowd packed in around the boy. You see the poor boy convulsing on the ground, eyes rolled back in his head, the dust swirling all around him. You feel his pain and his fear. You hear the gasps of the onlookers. You detect the tremble in the dad’s voice when he begs Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

Then you see Jesus approach the boy, his face still glowing from his transfiguration on the mountain, and speak with the authority only he has. The boy exhales and his body goes limp, and you are sure that he is dead. But then Jesus takes the boy’s hand and raises him off the ground, new life bursting forth. You feel the warmth in their clasped hands and you are pierced with joy and relief as dad and son embrace.”

When we do this with Scripture, trying to get the marrow out of the bones, we are not just reading it for life lessons, but we are trying to fully immerse ourself into what the author is trying to show us.

When we look at today’s text this way, I want us to see the heart and the pleading of the pastor. This isn’t the Saul of Tarsus that wanted to exact judgement on all that didn’t follow the law perfectly. That man is dead, this is Paul, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ with love for the people of this church in Ephesus like a father to children.

Have you ever felt that way? Thinking of a group of friends or some distant family member that you love so much but you are separated by distance. Now we can FaceTime people or call, but back then all you had was the written word. You had to write in such a way that the reader could feel your excitement, joy, pain, love, sadness.

That is what Paul is doing in our text today.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

Paul, loving this group of believers, is telling them that because they are believers and have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, from verse 13, and he can see the fruit of it in their faith in Jesus and love toward the saints, he is so grateful for them.

It’s like helping little children learn how to walk. You help them stand up, you might help them hold on to the coffee table and they shuffle around it from side to side strengthening their leg muscles. Then one day, they stand up on their own and take those first wobbly steps and you say, “Yes!!! He’s got it!”

That is the kind of joy that I assume Paul is describing. “You’re getting it!” “You are walking it out!” Paul helps set up the church, he establishes leaders in the church and now he has heard, even after he has gone, that they still have faith in Jesus and they are showing Christ-like love.

When new believers continue in the faith, it is worth rejoicing. As a pastor, you are always contending with different soils and we don’t know what soil seeds are going to fall into. We pray for fertile soil, but there is a lot of rocky soil, a lot of birds eating the seed and a lot of weeds that choke out faith. This new church in Ephesus has fertile soil. We see that there was a real love for Jesus early on in this church in Revelation 2:2-4

Revelation 2:2–4 ESV

“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

This love they had a first was something to be cherished and praised.

Paul gives thanks for them and then the third verse of this paragraph, Paul switches to a prayer that he has for the church. He remembers them in his prayers…

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

What is Paul asking? He is asking that God would give this church wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is not something they can do, this is something he is praying that God would give.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened

The only one that can make the lame walk, the blind see and the dead have life is God. That should be our prayer everyday for this church and for us. “God, give me eyes to see and ears to hear what You are saying to me.”

How is it that we receive this? We ask. We plead that God would open our hearts and our minds, but this next part is so important. We must obey.

There may be some of you in here that say, “I have believed in Jesus for years, but I still feel the same and I don’t know that I am any better in my fight against sin than I was when I walked an aisle or before I got baptized.” You might even say that you have read the bible cover to cover and you are in it everyday, but you still don’t see the change that you think you should.

The early church fathers understood this plight. They would say that our misunderstanding of the bible or lack of growth comes from our refusal to live what we read. It is not that our minds are empty, it is that our hearts are closed.

Jesus says in John 7:17

John 7:17 ESV

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

To quote Adam McHugh again, “A commitment to act on what we hear is what authenticates the truth of Jesus’ words. We do not understand because we do not obey….Wisdom is given along the way to obedience. To declare the Bible is inspired is not the same thing as living a life inspired by the Bible.“

Paul’s prayer and my prayer to us is that we would receive wisdom from God that would act in concert with our obedience in faith to Him. You do not get the wisdom if you perpetually walk in the darkness. It is when we strive for holiness that God starts to change lives. It is when we bend the knee in submission to Jesus to do and work in His will that He starts to give further wisdom and revelation.

He wants us to have this change of heart, this complete life change…

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,

What is this hope? That no matter what you have done, you can be made right with the Father. That it is no longer your effort that saves you. It is no longer contingent upon rules and regulations. It is no longer chasing after an unattainable perfection.

You can live in perfect union with the Father NOW and through eternity. You can live in peace with everyone. You are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness. You no longer have to worry or have anxiety. You can live in perfect joy being carried along by the Father like a child. You can be taken care of by the Father all of your days.

You don’t have to worry about tomorrow or your children or your job, or your health or your money or your church or your country or community so long as you are loving those around you and are working as if unto the Lord with what He puts in front of you.

Our friends are here this morning as missionaries in another country. How fruitful do you think their missionary efforts will be if they are consumed with worry all of the time. They are reliant on God moving in people’s hearts, that are striving to be obedient, to send them money to live while they try to reach the people in the country in which God has sent them.

Even on your mission field here, do people see the love and trust that you have in the Lord for your life? Are you living in the freedom that Christ has given you? Some of us need to be like the father in Mark 9, “I believe, help my unbelief.” When we fully trust in the washing of the lamb, the gift of Jesus, we have hope for the future and we know that we do not live a second of this life alone. He has promised to be with us to the end of the age and after we get a glorious inheritance.

What is this glorious inheritance as if the hope wasn’t enough, we get to be with Him for all eternity. We get to enjoy a new heaven and a new earth after this life. We get to, for eternity, experience the concentrated love of the Father, not watered down like this life, but full strength and we will spend all our time in His presence.

What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? There is no “too far”. There is no lifestyle that He can’t break, there is no hole too deep, no mountain too high, no diagnoses or prognoses too big that He can’t save you from. There is no addiction strong enough that God can’t break.

It reminds me of the song “Power in the Blood”. There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. The mysterious, majestic, life saving power of Jesus changes the hearts of murderers, rapists, thieves, adulterers, musicians, greedy accountants, lustful construction workers, bitter old ladies, weak old men and angry housewives.

We need that because some of us have hearts of limestone that our friends or our family have tried to penetrate, but we are proud of our hard hearts. Paul’s prayer and mine is that God would crush your heart to a million pieces that can’t be put together again so that we can throw that one out and get a new one. Some of us need a heart transplant quick. I am thankful that job is not up to me, but it is …

English Standard Version Chapter 1

according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places

Jesus has all the power to do whatever He will. If you have a changed heart and a heart that is in the direction of the Lord to serve Him, you should thank Him everyday. He did that. You weren’t smart enough to do that yourself. It is only the working of the Spirit, through the preaching of the Son who was sent by the Father that you believed.

God worked it so that through Jesus, sinners could be saved. He took all our sins on His shoulders and took them to the grave. When we was raised He defeated death, His job was finished. There is nothing more that needs to be done. You can’t add to that incredible act of love. It is finished and it is all in the name of Jesus. That is why Romans 10:13 says…

Romans 10:13 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Salvation is possible, hope is possible, inheritance is possible through Christ and Him alone. He is …

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

He is God in the flesh. He is seated at the right hand of the Father which means that they are almost indistinguishable in power and authority. We must believe in Him rightly. We must give Him the honor that He deserves. He was not just a man, He was not just a good teacher with good things to say.

I saw something this week that I had no idea would work its way into the sermon, but it pointed out something I had never seen. In Matthew 26, Jesus, before He is crucified, celebrates Passover with His disciples. In verse 20 it says..

English Standard Version Chapter 26

20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I,

All the disciples were at the table and most all of them say, “Is it I, Lord?”

Then when you look down at verse 25..

English Standard Version Chapter 26

25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I,

See the 11 referred to Jesus as their Lord or Master or as one who has authority. Once the risen Jesus comes it means having authority over all. Whatever degree you want to put on it, when someone is your Lord, you are obedient to them and you follow them, but Judas used the term “rabbi” which just means teacher. Meaning Judas liked what Jesus said, but did not submit to Him as Lord.

We find out later in the text that Jesus calls Judas the “son of perdition” and it was better that he had not been born. If you think that Jesus is just a good dude or a solid teacher, you are no better than Judas. What He requires are those that will bend the knee and acknowledge Him in His right position. He is Lord of all. He is the author and perfecter of your salvation, seated at the right hand of the Father. Without Him you have nothing. It is in His name that the church has power at all because..

English Standard Version Chapter 1

22 he (God) put all things 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.

We are the manifestation of Christ on earth today. We are to live like He lived, preach what He preached and show people the way of freedom that He opened up to the world. We are the body of Christ.

Paul and my prayer is that this church would consider the goodness of God in our lives and not read the bible not with the question of “What does this mean?” but be open to the life changing question of “What can I obey?” Obedience is where we find wisdom. Killing our flesh everyday and picking up our cross is where we find closeness with Christ. Disciplining our lives with the truth of the Gospel is where freedom is found.

He takes the pieces of our shipwrecked lives and makes new boats out of them. Lean into His goodness and be open through your obedience to receive His wisdom and revelation of His knowledge.