Seeing Clearly

Ephesians 1:13–23 NASB95

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. 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. 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 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.

INTRO: Have you ever went find something and it seem like the thing you are after has turned invisible? Maybe you went into the pantry or the fridge to get something... You know it’s there somewhere, but you just can’t see it?

ILL: This happens to me when I’m playing golf. Not just when I hit into the woods either. I’ve lost golf balls that I know are in the middle of the fairway.

Now, sometimes we can’t see things because they are behind something else- the paprika was behind the oregano; the golf ball was under some leaves. Well, sometimes our view of Christ gets obscured too. And when that happens, we lose the meaning of our devotion and can easily turn to what is plainly visible in the world.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve walked through the Discipleship Trail. I’ve brought the map back out for you this morning- we’ll have this hanging in the hallway soon. We’ve looked at each trail marker and even some cautions to avoid. More recently, we’ve looked to the NT church to see the origins of this trail- the church as God designed it.

And you might be wondering why I have put so much effort into having a map and brochures and all the rest. The reason is that my great desire for this church is that we would be living authentically Christian lives where we are becoming and making mature disciples of Jesus Christ. That will not happen on accident and it cannot happen if we do not really grasp the truth of Christ and His gospel.

My hope today is to help you see a clear and fuller picture. You see, the shape of our trail is simply how our devotion to God is made visible. Each trail marker indicates biblical practices that help build a culture of authentic Christian growth. But that map is useless without revelation.

Revelation means unveiling. IOW, it’s when something that was once hidden, becomes visible. If you cannot see the point in these trail markers, or disciplines, then you will see no reason to change anything about your life. You will continue on blindly and miss the blessings that God has in store through the trail life.

I don’t want that for you. I care about each of you deeply, and that is why I am so insistent upon getting this message across. But this is not simply about the trail.

Paul wrote this passage in Ephesians 1 because believers in Ephesus struggled to see what is already theirs in Christ - His power and glory and calling… and when believer cannot see clearly, one can get lost or discouraged in their walk.

My aim this morning is simple: I want you to see Christ clearly, because when Jesus becomes clear, the Christian life becomes both desirable and inevitable.

Paul, in v. 13-15 here, describes his hearers as believers, and this is our starting point as well. That being said, if you are here this morning and have not yet surrendered your life to Christ, I pray that you will hear the invitation of Jesus to come to Him as we walk through this passage.

If you have a bulletin, I encourage you to open it and use the sermon guide as you follow along. In our time, I am going to bring into focus three essentials to seeing Christ clearly.

The first focal point to see clearly is:

The Knowledge of Christ (15-18a)

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The word ‘knowledge’ in v 17 can be literally translated ‘true knowledge’ and is intended to emphasize the sincerity and authentic understanding of Christ. IOW, this is not simply about a data accrual in your mind. Many people know about Jesus- they know the basic story, maybe they even know the message of the gospel.

But to have true knowledge of Jesus is quite different that just to know about him. Let’s try to paint a bit of a picture from scripture:

When the disciples were with Jesus, they knew him. But they did not have a true understanding until Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah- the very God of creation in human flesh. He did this through miracles, healings, on the mountain when he was transfigured to show his glory, through the testimony of God the father, and of course, through his defeat of death and grave.

Scripture gives us a revelation of Jesus that invites us this kind of knowledge of Him.

I want you to listen to this from Rev. 1:12-16

Revelation 1:12–16 NASB95

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

You see, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church was that they would have that kind of knowledge of Christ. He was not praying that they would see some new vision or new revelation of Jesus, but that they would see Him as He is- full of glory, power, and honor.

And to know Him as he is is the kind of knowledge that strikes fear and awe in your heart, that gives us confidence because He has overcome and has invited us into His kingdom. The knowledge that gives us boldness because of our righteous standing before God as ones He has redeemed!

When we truly know Jesus, we want to live devoted lives, we want to dig in deeper, we want to glorify Him. But we have to peel back the junk that has hidden this revelation of Jesus from us. Junk that comes from Satan, from the world, and even from our own sinful flesh. We must allow ourselves to see Him as Scripture tells it.

Church, do you know Jesus? Are the eyes of you heart enlightened? And you might think, “How can I know Him?”

Here’s one thing you can do this week to see clearly the true knowledge of Jesus: Read and meditate on the Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1. Take your time. And as Jesus is described, slow down… pray and receive God’s word.

True Knowledge of Christ helps us see clearly. The next focal point is:

The Hope of Christ (13,14,18b)

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When I use the word hope, I do not mean a baseless hope or a long shot kind of hope… like those of you who hope your team will win the super bowl. No, when we see this word in scripture, it is a promise or guarantee. As a verb, we would maybe phrase it like this: To be assured in Christ. Paul uses the word hope here and points to our sure inheritance in Christ.

To appreciate this, we have to understand the basics. God is good and holy - we are not. No thing that is not perfectly holy can survive in the presence of a holy God. But, because Christ paid our sin debt and we have placed our hope in Him, we are assured of both our redemption (that we will be considered innocent before God) and an even greater inheritance (we will live and reign with Christ for eternity).

When we have this kind of hope in Christ, then we can realize the value of living a life unto him. Jesus said, in John 14:2–3 “2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

IOW, that which awaits us is way better than everything this world could offer. There is no wealth or luxury that can compare and on the negative, there is no pain or suffering that will not be worth it.

ILL: Have you seen the picture of a rock climber just kinda dangling from the edge of a cliff? So many of us think of our hope like that guy- we are holding on, but whether we make it or not is a bit risky. That is reckless and why I think folks don’t buy in fully to Christianity. They don’t see the assurance.

What I want you to see is that when we hope in Christ, it is the safest, best place to be! There is no risk or despair because he has us in his hand. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit (13), which means it is a done deal. No take-backs! The Holy Spirit is like collateral- God gave us Himself so we could live confidently for Christ! We are not dangling from a cliff, we are standing on the rock!

Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,”

Paul was praying for this church in Ephesus to be grasp the assurance of Christ, and if you and I can grab hold of this assurance, friend we will know joy and peace and rest like we’ve never thought possible. And to have that assurance helps us to see just how valuable the gospel is- for us and for those who are perishing.

Let me ask you to be honest right now- Do you struggle with assurance? Are you doubtful? It could be that the Holy Spirit is trying to get your attention! Look, I will not give you any false sense of assurance, but I want you to see clearly.

So, here is what I invite you to do today: Examine your heart. John writes in 1 John 5:10-15

1 John 5:10–15 NASB95

10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

There is an old hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood! This is MY STORY, This is my song!!!”

Can you see clearly the knowledge Christ, and the Hope of Christ? I want to point you to one final focal point. That is:

The Authority of Christ (19-23)

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Folks, Paul is making very clear that there is no greater authority in all of time and space- in earthly and heavenly realms. Christ is above ALL. He put all things in subjection to Christ.

Subjection means to be subject to or subordinate to. IOW, ALL things- all creatures, all humans, and especially all of His church is under His authority. (22-23)

So, I just want to pause here and ask what might be a dumb question: How can we be subject to Christ- even call Him Lord and Savior, and yet not obey Him?

Do you wrestle with that? I do. I think one of the things I look forward to most about heaven is that I will finally obey Christ perfectly.

But in the meantime, we must constantly remind ourselves that Christ alone has all power and dominion. Christ alone is holy and worthy to be obeyed and worshipped. It is Christ alone who will one day judge the living and the dead. There is not greater authority.

Paul says that Christ is the head and we, the church are His body.

Now, I am going to give you a little lesson in the way the human body works: My brain tells my arms to move, and they move. My brain tells my feet to move, and they move. My brain tells my heart to beat, my lungs to breathe, my eyes to blink. My brain is the command center for my body, and without my brain sending commands, I cannot do anything!

And that’s the image of the church- Jesus said, John 15, “apart from Me you can do NOTHING!” But we can so often be like an arm with a spasm- we sometimes want to jerk around and do our own thing. But whatever we’re doing, we are not accomplishing the will of our LORD.

The church at Ephesus was situated right smack dab in the middle of idolatry and all kinds of debauchery. Sin was rampant and normal within the culture. I can imagine the social pressure- everyone is doing it! But Paul reminded them, Christ is above ALL of that.

You see, the reality is that one day, EVERY KNEE will bow before Christ. But church, we who know the truth must to surrender ourselves now. Or if I can adapt an old saying, “When it comes to Christ, surrender early and surrender often.”

You see, Paul doesn’t pray for the Ephesians to do more; but to see more. Because once Christ becomes clear, obedience stops feeling like obligation and starts feeling like joy

Church, Do you see Christ Clearly?

Can you lean into His goodness?

Can you rejoice in His promises?

Can you humble yourself under His Lordship?

Today, I leave you with this: What will you do with the revelation of Jesus?

Christ is the treasure. The trail is simply the path where you walk with Him.

If you see Him clearly, you will walk that path gladly.

[PRAY]

Discuss: What’s the difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Him personally?

Discuss: When you think of the word hope, what images or emotions come to mind? How does biblical hope differ from worldly hope?

Discuss: “When it comes to Christ, surrender early and surrender often.” What does surrender look like in your life right now? Is there an area where you’re resisting His authority?

Discuss: How does seeing Christ clearly — in His knowledge, hope, and authority — make following Him more desirable rather than dutiful?