Open the Eyes of My Heart

Read: Ephesians 1

I want to use as a text: Ephesians 1:18 - Open the eyes of my heart. Before I get to that however I want to speak briefly on some of these other passages.

I like to write when I feel inspired. When I am struggling over every word or thought it becomes more of a discipline than a joy. However sometimes I forget about puntuation. You can ask Sis. Laird who has help edit some of my drafts before.

=> Perhaps you could do a little trivia question and see if anyone knows this before saying it.

I am prone to use run on sentences. Sentences that could be broken into two or more. In the earliest manuscripts we have of this passage, Paul never paused or came to a full stop as he was dictating to Tychicus from Ephesians 1:3-14 it is the longest sentence in the Bible.

The reason I feel this happened is not because Paul was sloppy, or lazy but rather that Paul was moved.

We sometimes think that the Bible characters were stoic and serious - But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised when we get to heaven and we ask Paul about his writings that he won’t tell us something like;

“As I was speaking, something just came over me. I was moved to tears. I just couldn’t stop. The words just tumbled out one right after another in praise and adoration. It was a powerful moment.”

It was probably something like what happened to Jimmy

Years ago up in Philadelphia there was a woman who had a little boy who was crippled in his legs. He had some bone disease. The mother was exceedingly poor and she was a widow. This was her only son? She would go off to work and she would spread newspapers down on the floor because the floor in that little apartment was not really fit for the boy to stay on. So she would spread newspapers on the floor for little Jimmy to crawl around on. He had no babysitter and she had to go out and work as a maid just to get a few pennies to keep body and soul together. Little Jimmy was a bright boy and he was a crawling around on those newspapers and he read a story about a famous physician—an orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Lorenze—who was from Austria. And, in this story he read how a very wealthy man—there in the city of Philadelphia—had sent all the way to Austria and flown this physician across the ocean to come and operate on his daughter who also had problem and could not walk. And doctor almost a miracle surgeon had done this very intricate and marvelous surgery. When Jimmy's mother got home, Jimmy called her over and said, "I want you to read that." And, then he said, "Mother wouldn't it be wonderful if I could have that kind of an operation?" She convulsed and sobbed because she knew how poor they were but she read the paper and found where the hotel was. She found out where Dr. Lorenze was staying. She got a streetcar and went to the hotel. She knocked on the door and when the physician opened the door she fell at his feet and started to weep, just convulsed, and sobbed. And, he said, "Madam, please, what's wrong, can I help you, are you sick?" She said, "No, no," and finally she poured out her story and said, "Could you do something for my Jimmy?" He said, "Well, madam, do you have any money?" and again she broken into sobs. He said, "Lady, not for me, for the hospital and the other expenses. Do you have," she said, "I don't have any money." He said, "Let me see what I can do." And, he went to this foundation and took some of his money and some other things and the next scene is little Jimmy is in that hospital room. And, he's being operated on and with those loving and tender and skilled hands. Those bones are being made right and he's in the hospital room. And, Jimmy's mother after she'd get off work would come by the hospital to see him and talk with him and unbeknown to her he'd already been doing those exercises. One day he said to his mother, "Mama, I want you to close your eyes. Stand over by the window and don't look until I tell you to." And, he said, "Now, open your eyes." And, when she opened her eyes Jimmy had been off the bed and had walked the first time she'd ever seen him across that room. She began to leap and dance and praise God for that miracle.

Later Dr. Lorenze came into see little Jimmy and he said, "Jimmy, got to go back to Austria." He said, "Doc, please don't go." He said, "I've got to go. I've got my family over there. I've got friends. I've got to go, but Jimmy I love you and it's been such a joy to know you." That little boy looked into the face of that doctor and he pulled him down close to the bed and this is what he said to him. He said, "Doc, as long as there's a tongue wagging in my head there isn't anybody ever going to forget what you've done for me." Adrian Rogers, Sermons, (North Palm Beach, FL: Adrian Rogers Foundation, 2011), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "Praise to the Trinity".

Now maybe I’m reading more into this that is really there, but did you really catch the words and spirit of this passage.

I’m tempted to read it again but for times sake will leave that to you to read again and again this week.

I want to get back to our theme for this morning Eph. 1:18 - Open the eyes of my heart.

Introduction:

I had a teacher in elementary school, Mrs. Corbett I believe it was third grade, who used to tell the class that she had eyes in the back of her head. I’m still not convinced that she didn’t have a hidden mirror or camera somewhere.

I saw her writing on the chalkboard and call on someone who was quietly misbehaving. But somehow she knew. Needless to say the class was convinced.

Now while I know that Mrs. Corbett didn’t really have eyes in the back of her head - we do have a second pair of eyes. No they are not physical but a part of our make up. A part of what Paul calls our “understanding” or as he would have understood it to be what we westerners call “heart”.

Paul is praying for the believers at Ephesus that their “second pair of eyes” or the eyes of their hearts would be opened. He is asking that God would give them a revelation of Himself.

This revelation would produce a “knowing” or a cognitive awareness of something they did not previously know or were aware of.

Enlightenment in the Christian sense refers to spiritual insight given to people by God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Mark A. Holmes, Ephesians, (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 59.

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. Spurgeon said that apart from the Spirit it is easier to teach a tiger vegetarianism than an unregenerate person the gospel (An All-Around Ministry, 322). There is that great example of Jesus opening the eyes of the disciples. Luke writes,

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, but He disappeared from their sight. So they said to each other, "Weren't our hearts ablaze within us while He was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?" ... Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:31-32,45)

Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus In Ephesians: Christ-Centered Exposition, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, Tony Merida, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2014), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 35.

Look at Eph. 1:17 its a tremendous prayer - That God would give you the “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him..”

A few things I want us to notice this morning. Some of these may seem somewhat disjointed but hang with me here.

It’s A Revealed Knowledge

This is not something a Bible Scholar or a Pastor can give you. They might be able to present the truth of God, but until God through the power of the Holy Spirit opens it to you or “enlightens the eyes of your heart” it is just words.

There are some truths and treasures about God that can only be seen by the “enlightened” eyes of the heart.

Lets look at that term “enlightened” for a moment: It is a verb that means to be understanding or be illuminated.

I remember hearing about a young man who prior to becoming a Christian would read his Bible, but it didn’t make any sense to him. After he was born again, he testified that it was like the Bible had a flashlight underneath it, the words, messages, and stories had meaning and truth - because of the workings of the Holy Spirit or the “enlightening of the eyes of the heart.”

While Paul lists several things He wants the Church at Ephesus to see by the power of the Holy Spirit:

1. The Hope of His Calling Eph. 1:18

Charles W. Carter, “The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians,” in Romans-Philemon, vol. 5, The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966), 385.

Some use this to teach Predestination: I like what Dwight L. Moody said, when he said, "The whosoever wills are the elect, and the whosoever won'ts are the non-elect." You want to be saved? Ah, God will save you.

2. The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints Eph. 1:18

it must be observed that here the reference is to God’s inheritance in the saints and not to the believer’s inheritance of salvation (cf. vv. 11, 14). God’s people are His own possession; He has redeemed them unto Himself by the blood of His Son. They are precious to Him. Without them the body of Christ is incomplete. The Church is Christ’s body, and the believers make up that Church. Thus Paul prays that the believers may come to know and appreciate what they mean to their Redeemer and Lord.

Charles W. Carter, “The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians,” in Romans-Philemon, vol. 5, The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966), 386.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT YOU MEAN TO THE LORD???

3. The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe - Eph. 1:18

“A new object of knowledge is here brought forward—knowledge of a power which works in us—a great power, a Divine power, a power surpassingly great.”H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Ephesians, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 7.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on energy drinks which are primarily made of sugar and caffeine - this is an energizing spiritual force that Spiritually energizes you.

There is another that is often overlooked and fills the passage...

2. Its a Revealed Knowledge of God

Isn’t that what we were promised by Jesus:

Philip Melanchthon said, “To know Christ is to know his benefits.”29

29 See The Loci Communes of Philipp Melanchthon, trans. Charles L. Hill (Boston: Meador, 1944), 68. Klyne Snodgrass, The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996). 82.

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 5: Romans–Philemon 4. The Apostle’s First Prayer for the Church (1:15–23)

Jesus had promised His disciples that when He, the Holy Spirit of truth, was come he would guide them into all truth, that He would show them things yet future, and that He would receive the things of Christ and show them to them (John 16:13–15; cf. 1 John 2:20, 27).

In the Western Christian Calendar today is Trinity Sunday, now while I am not going to make that the theme of this sermon, I do want you to see that Paul was trinitarian. Meaning God believed in the doctrine of the Trinity. He expresses it clearly in this passage.

Lets look at this together:

First he prays in verse 1 that they would be given grace and peace from “God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He draws the distinction even further in Eph. 1:3 when he begins his “Eulogy of Praise” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then further points out that after you believed you were “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13)

Dr. Alan Brown pointed out in a sermon he preached on this several years ago on this passage that the roles of the Trinity in the plan of redemption are clearly defined;

The Father is the Planner

The Son is the Provider (He came to pay the ransom for many)

The Holy Spirit is the Pledge (down payment)

Ephesians 1:9 says that God has made known unto us the mystery of His will - which he clarifies in Eph. 1:10 “That he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him..”

I don’t want to just keep repeating myself - but there are somethings about God that are only revealed, given to us by the aid of the Holy Spirit enlightening the eyes of our heart.

I pray along with the Apostle - Open the Eyes of my heart.

But as I have said before, I am a “WHY” person - there are times I don’t understand something until I understand the “why” of it.

I obviously am not alone as Simon Sinek made a living off his book, “Start With Why” in which he advises people to begin the “Why” of whatever you are doing.

But I ask why is it important to have a greater understanding or revelation of who God is and what He has provided for us?

Why Its a Revealed Knowledge

I think for a couple of reasons:

If this type of knowledge were acquired, someone would copyright the intellectual rights and we would all be in trouble.

If it was acquired knowledge it would not require the work and effort or relationship with God through Christ Jesus.

Being revealed knowledge we are dependent upon God for illumination and enlightenment.

This morning I want to challenge you to pray along with Paul for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened - that you may be cognitively aware of some things

The Hope of His calling

The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints

What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe

That you may be more aware or have a greater understanding of who God is.