Sermon Tone Analysis

*Lesson 16*

*/Resurrection and Session of Christ/*

*/Eph 1:18b-20/*

 

There are 5 points to the Doctrine of Sanctification:

 

DEFINITION OF SANCTIFICATION

First of all, what is sanctification?

/Sanctification begins with one’s spiritual birth and ends at physical death or the rapture during which time he learns loyalty to God/ (1 Thess.

4:13-18).

PHASES OF SANCTIFICATION

Second, there are three phases of sanctification.

There is phase 1: Positional Sanctification (penalty of sin) which refers to the moment you believed in Christ.

This refers to your position “in Christ”.

This is a past completed action that took place the moment you believed.

“you have been sanctified” (1 Cor.

1:2).

Phase 3: Ultimate Sanctification (presence of sin) is also positional, just like phase 1 but it refers to the moment you physically die or are raptured, whichever comes first.

At that moment you are totally sanctified because you receive a new resurrection body free from the presence of any sin.

Phase 2: Experiential Sanctification (power of sin) refers to the time between Phase 1: Position in Christ at your spiritual birth and Phase 3: Ultimate Sanctification.

Phase 2 is the time that God has given you to learn loyalty to God through His word.

THE AIM OF SANCTIFICATION

The aim of sanctification is not to get rid of sin or to destroy one’s enemies.

/The aim of sanctification is to learn loyalty to God through His word/.

How do we know this?

Well, both Adam and Eve as well as Jesus Christ himself had to learn loyalty to God even while they had no sin or sin nature.

After the Fall we have the world, the flesh, and the devil trying to impede our learning loyalty to God (1 John 2:16), but the aim of sanctification remains the same /before/ and /after/ the fall, namely, /to learn loyalty to God through His word/.

| AIM OF LOYALTY |

| AIM OF LOYALTY |

BEFORE THE FALL                                                   AFTER THE FALL

 

 

| IMPEDIMENTS |

 

 

 

 

 

\\ ENEMIES OF SANCTIFICATION

As just mentioned we have enemies to our sanctification.

You can’t fight against the forces of the world, flesh, and devil by directly attacking them.

This won’t work.

World, Flesh, Devil

 

 

\\ Remember, the aim of sanctification is not to destroy your enemies.

Instead the aim of sanctification is to learn loyalty to God through His word.

Thus, we have to take an indirect approach to defeating our enemies.

\\                                     LOYALTY TO GOD’S WORD

 

 

 

                                          world, flesh, and devil

                                   

 

Once we learn loyalty to God’s word we can put the word to work by means of faith.

Faith is the means of sanctification.

It is the word of God that fights off our enemies and so one must learn loyalty to God’s word as an indirect means.

Additionally, we have two dimensions to Phase 2: Experiential Sanctification.

 

2 DIMENSIONS OF SANCTIFICATION

Often misunderstood but necessary are the 2 dimensions of sanctification: Existential Present and Long-Term Growth.

We are either in-or-out of fellowship and therefore either spiritual or carnal at any given moment.

This is the first dimension of sanctification; the Existential Present…you are either thinking God’s thoughts or your own thoughts…DVP or HVP.

This dimension does not denote maturity, just spirituality.

| 1          2          34          5          67          8          9 |

| 258 |

However, what is often missed is the second dimension of sanctification: Long-Term Growth.

Long-Term Growth looks at sanctification from the perspective of overall growth…and therefore refers to maturity.

1                      3          TIME

4                      6          TEACHING

7                      9

 

 

 

 

Mathematically it is a function of time and teaching.

Of course, these two dimensions are related.

As one stays in fellowship in the Existential Present his knowledge of the general will of God for his life increases as he studies the Bible so that he matures.

Conversely, the longer one stays out of fellowship the more likely he will encounter what is sometimes called “compound carnality”.

So, the 2 dimensions of sanctification look something like a good stock if one is continually in fellowship and maturing, or a bad stock if one is stuck in “compound carnality”.

100

 

 

\\ %         50

 

 

\\ 0

 

                        years of spiritual growth

 

Paul began chapter 1 with a Prologue (1:1-2), followed by a Praise (1:3-14), and now we are looking at Paul’s Prayer (1:15-23).

Prayer and Praise should always go together.

This section might be called the “Prayer for Those Who Have Everything” because Paul has just finished telling us the spiritual blessings we possess.

However, too often we can become complacent if we simply know intellectually that we have these spiritual blessings (vv.

3-14).

Rather than becoming complacent Paul prays that we might appropriate these truths so that our human spirits are strengthened in the areas of Divine wisdom and revelation.

v. 15 is Paul’s commendation of the saints in Ephesus.

He commends them for their faith toward God and their love for one another.

Paul is making a point to recognize both their vertical and horizontal actions.

In v. 16 Paul makes a request for them.

He wants the Ephesians to know God precisely, to increase their depth of knowledge about Him. in v. 18 Paul tells them that they have been enlightened at the moment they believed the gospel.

This is the precondition for anyone coming to know God precisely.

You first have to be enlightened so that you can come to /epignosis/ through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.

So, what Paul is praying about is our sanctification.

He wants us to grow up as believers.

Tonight turn to Ephesians 1:18-20.

Now Paul describes the goal of his prayer request; Paul wants us to comprehend three things; 1) the hope of His calling (v.

18b), 2) the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (v.

18c), and 3) the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (v.

19a).

So, Paul is making one request for knowledge that has three goals.

Paul saw that in his day the believers at Ephesus had a need to understand the whole plan of God; past, present, and future so he casts these three things as the goal of his prayer.

*/Greek Text: 1:18 /**/eivj to.

eivde,nai u`ma~/j ti,j evstin h` evlpi.j

th~/j klh,sewj auvtou~/( ti,j o` plou~/toj th~/j do,xhj th~/j klhronomi,aj auvtou~/ evn toi~/j a`gi,oij( /**/ /*

*Translation: 1:18 in order that you might perceive~/know what is the hope of His calling, what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,*

 

*eivj to.

eivde,nai u`ma~/j**,* /“*in order that you might know”*/* *The Greek word for "know" here is not the more common word /ginosko/, instead it is the Greek word /oida/.

There has been a lot of discussion about these two words.

Most agree that they differ only slightly.

The word /ginosko /means “to find something out”.

/Oida /means “to perceive something” and is related to the eyes.

Thus, it is very appropriate that Paul uses /oida /rather than /ginosko /because his request for the Ephesians is based on the fact that */the eyes of their heart have been enlightened/* (1:18a).

/Oida /is a very internal knowledge that is working, a deep seated knowledge of something, not surface-like.

Paul wants them to have a working knowledge of three things that they could not perceive before they believed the gospel.

Each of these three spiritual truths is marked off in the Greek text by a /tis /“what” clause.

*ti,j evstin h` evlpi.j

th~/j klh,sewj auvtou~/( **/“what is the hope of His calling,”/*…First, */the hope of His calling/*.*/

/*The word for */hope /*is /elpis/.

*/hope /*was the one thing missing in v. 15 when Paul commended the Ephesian saints.

They were strong in faith and love but they were lacking hope, so this is a part of his request for them.

In our culture and time the word */hope /*simply means “to wish for something that is not certain”, some desire that may or may not take place.

This is not the biblical usage of */hope /*in the NT.

*/Hope /*in the NT is the absolute certainty that God will make true what He has promised.

Turn to Romans 8:20ff.