Growing Deeper in the Gospel

I. Introduction

Introduce me | Name & role

I want to start this morning by asking you a question. I want each of you to think about this for a moment and consider your response. And the question is this: How is your spiritual life doing? Does your faith feel invigorated, alive and vibrant, ready to take on whatever challenge may come your way? Or maybe, do you feel like your faith is somewhat weathered and worn? After all, we have weathered a lot over the last year, haven’t we?

COVID is still a thing, social distancing has led to social isolation which has led to increased depression and suicide.

A shrinking economy has led to a shrinking job force, which has led to harder and longer days for those with jobs and shrinking bank accounts for those without. In both cases our faith gets stretched and strained as we look for hope in the midst of crisis.

To add to the strain on our faith, Christian faith seems to be under an ever-present attack from culture and the divisiveness inherent to politics has now bled into every other area of life.

It hardly seems like you can talk to your neighbor about anything with more substance than “boy, the grass looks really green today, huh?” Anything deeper is fightin’ words.

In all this turmoil our faith gets strained and often it feels as if we’re barely weathering the storm. And be sure, this storm swirling about threatening to erode the very ground on which our faith stands. When this happens we start to wonder, God, what are you doing in times such as these? Are you listening to the pleas of your people? How are we supposed to stand strong in our faith when we’re constantly under attack? We wonder if the hope for which we are reaching is far too distant for the present, personal, and very real trials. And our faith feels strained.

What we’ll see in our passage today is the prayer of a pastor—a spiritual father whose heart goes out to a people he knows well and loves deeply. A people who he witnessed come to faith day after day as he ministered among them—whose faith he longs to see grow and flourish as they stand steadfast amid a world which threatens to erode the very ground in which the seed of their faith was planted. We’ll read of his encouragement to let their faith grow in the knowledge of the gospel. That was Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and I’m confident that if he stood here today, we would hear him gently call, “dear friend, grow your faith in the knowledge of the gospel.”

Read with me as I read from the book of Ephesians, chapter one, verses fifteen through twenty-three.

Ephesians 1.15-23

PRAY

II. Body

Believers should rejoice over genuine faith

[Locate]

Ephesians 1:15–16 ESV

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,

[Explicate]

1. What should strike us at the outset of this verse is the mere fact that Paul, while he sat in a jail cell separated from the Ephesian believers by more than 1,400 miles, had heard reports about the faith and love of the Ephesian believers. This is significant.

Paul couldn’t simply whip out his smartphone to check:

The latest tweet from Alexander, “I prayed for a widow today. #faithbeonfleek

Tyrannus’ latest TikTok, dancing to Amazing Grace.

The evidence of their faith was more than an emoji on a phone screen, the evidence of their faith was their continued perseverance amidst a culture that threatened their faith at every turn.

Consider the ways in which their faith was tested:

Ephesus was the worldwide religious center for pagan worship of Artemis, a goddess of fertility.

It was a cultural hub of unbridled sexuality with temptation lurking around every corner.

It was a culture filled with greed as people sought to profit from the religious artifacts sold in the marketplaces.

It was a culture filled with malice when its way of life was threatened.

When Christianity began to take hold in the city it fomented such seething anger that a riot was started. The people of Ephesus were overcome with mass hysteria at the thought of their precious Artemis being threatened by this God of the Christians.

Under such a cloud of idol worship, greed, and vitriol, to become a Christian meant not only the risk of social persecution, but the tangible risk of physical persecution and even of martyrdom. Yet, in spite of such antagonism, people continued to come to faith.

And Paul, as he sat in prison far removed from the trials of Ephesian life, received word: the church is thriving in Ephesus. And his heart was encouraged, and he was driven to praise.

2. The perseverance of the Ephesians’ faith was also evident in their love for all the saints. While we often think of love for God and love for mankind as two distinct spheres of conviction, Scripture doesn’t allow for such a dichotomy.

Consider Jesus’ claim:

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In his first Epistle, John continues:

1 John 4:20 ESV

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

What Jesus, Paul, and John are telling us is that our faith in God and our love for Him is inextricably interwoven with our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And here’s the kicker—Paul doesn’t leave room for loving only those Christians who are easy to love. Loving those who are kind, gracious, and generous isn’t Christian love or evidence of our faith.

Story about sitting on a child abuse prevention panel as a foster parent.

Some kids just know how to test you, they know how to find just the right button, then they sit there and hammer it like a toddler with a squeaky hammer all hopped up on Red Bull.

It’s in those moments that we find out, do I really love kids, or is my love conditional?

Do I just love kids that behave well, or kids that do the right thing, or kids that say the right thing, or look a certain way, or act in a certain manner?

Or do I love all kids, even if they’re broken? Do I love all kids even if they speak or behave in ways that I wouldn’t want my own children to see.

This is what Paul identified in the Ephesian saints—that they showed a genuine love for all the saints and it confirmed the reality of their faith in God.

[Bridge]

Upon hearing such reports, Paul was driven to rejoice, praising God for the faith that had taken hold among the believers in Ephesus and the occasions of love through which their faith was revealed.

We too should consume our prayers with issues of faith.

All too often our prayers are consumed with things of temporal significance

granny Jo’s bad hip

uncle Fred’s job problems

the cataracts aunt Karen’s dog is suffering from.

We’re so wrapped up in the problems of today that we fail to consider the spiritual condition of those we do life with!

Our spiritual home is ablaze with opportunity for prayer and we seem to have fixed our attention on preserving the patio furniture rather than saving our home!

Pray for new faith among those who are perishing in the fires of hell

rejoice with those who are placing their faith in the Lord Jesus!

While for most of us it comes as no surprise that the seed of faith is planted in the rich soil of the gospel, many of us are guilty of leaving such fertile ground in search of something deeper, something richer, with which to feed the growth of our faith.

Growing Faith Remains Rooted in the Gospel

We search endlessly for some spiritual or religious experience with which to water our faith.

Ultimately, such a search leaves us with nothing more than a parched and arid soul—one that’s emaciated and unable to thrive in the drought of trials.

What we need is an ever-increasing knowledge of the gospel which is the very well-spring of life that waters and nourishes our faith.

Growing faith doesn’t seek a new foundation. Growing faith remains rooted in knowledge of the gospel.

[LOCATE]

Ephesians 1:17–19 ESV

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

[EXPLICATE]

Maybe you’ve heard this: “with everything we know from science, I don’t get how you can still believe that God stuff?”

We’re told that faith and knowledge are like oil and water. By definition faith cannot be proved and is therefore unknowable—it is a separate kind of thing from knowledge.

Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene & The God Delusion

Immanuel Kant ‘I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith”

According to these men, faith has no room in the house built by knowledge.

The crux of the matter is this, If you are going to have a fanciful belief in the God fairytale then you had better check your brain at the door because faith and fantasy are comfortable bedfellows.

Have you bought into these arguments?

When giving a reason for your belief in God, have you said, “well, I just have faith?”

The reality is our faith does not have to be divorced from knowledge. More than that, our faith cannot be divorced from knowledge.

What we need, as Paul prays, is a greater depth of knowledge of who God is, and this is a knowledge which goes beyond mere facts—it is an experiential knowledge.

We can say things like God is holy or God is just, or God is merciful or mighty. These are things we learned to recite from our earliest days in Sunday School.

We can say God is a creator, but have you experienced the wonderment of creation, taking in the majesty of the world which he spoke into existence?

Have you witnessed with your eyes the regal majesty of the ancient redwoods

ridden to the depths of the Grand Canyon?

Inhaled the intoxicating aroma of the fields of wildflowers which take root in the wilderness?

Experienced the joy of witnessing the birth of new life—the creative majesty contained in the tiniest newborn baby—each one uniquely fashioned by an infinitely creative God?

We say God is Holy, that He is mighty, that He is all powerful, that He is glorious, that He is loving, and that He is merciful, but I am asking you today, is your faith informed by an experience of these things?

Have you experienced His peace that transcends all understanding?

Have you felt the hope which comes from His gracious gift in Jesus?

Have you witnessed with your very eyes the power of God to transform hearts and change lives?

Just as a widow knows the comforting embrace of her loved ones at a wake, just as a child experiences the safety of his parents arms at some nightmare-filled midnight hour, does your faith know, through experience, the wonderful and terrible realities of our God?

These are the things of the gospel—that God is the majestic creator and therefore King over creation. He is the authoritative judge over sinful man. He is the merciful redeemer who sent His son in love to those who would reject Him. He is the powerful mediator of sin. He is the patient Father who beckons His children to come to Him.

Your faith doesn’t need to grow beyond the gospel, your faith needs to grow in the gospel—in the experiential knowledge of who God is!

What knowledge? Look at verse 18

Ephesians 1:18 ESV

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,

Verse eighteen shows us that growing faith is rooted in the knowledge of hope. - the hope of our calling.

we have been given hope in God’s call to reconciliation.

We often talk about the word sin, we assign it a moralistic value. Such an assignment, however, isn’t complete. Sin isn’t just a moralistic problem, it’s first and foremost a relational problem.

Although God created us to live in relationship with Him, we have all rejected God and rebelled against His authority over us. That rejection and rebellion makes you and I sinners.

Our sin is first and foremost a violation of the very relationship in we were first created to dwell. The first hope to which we have been called is a restored relationship with the God of creation—the original and perfect design of God’s creative purpose!

Like a long-lost child who is at once reunited with the Father he had never known, we have been given an experiential knowledge of reconciliation in the most important relationship we can ever inhabit.

We have been given hope in God’s call to salvation.

Having at once been restored in our relationship to God we are at the same time saved from the eternal consequences of the sin which had separated us from Him.

Consider Paul’s words: Eph. 2.1-5

Don’t let such a passage pass, like the wisp of a gentile breeze, right through the grasp of your rational mind! You at one time were an object of God’s wrath, set apart from God—your preeminent relationship destroyed beyond hope.

But God! Being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ and saved us from the coming wrath which is to be poured out on all sin when Jesus returns to judge the living and dead!

We have been given hope in God’s call to adoption.

We have been adopted as sons and daughters of the King of Creation. Not only have we been restored to God in friendship, but we have been adopted into daughter and sonship—folded into the family of God.

Consider the gospel of John

John 1:12–13 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The beauty of such a reality is that sons and daughters—those who are born again into the family of God—are heirs according to the promises of God. And heirs receive an inheritance!

Growing faith is rooted in the knowledge of a future inheritance.

Have your days felt dark? Have your nights felt long? Have you felt squeezed in the grips of trials which at times seem to constrict more than you can bear?

Like you, Paul experienced the crushing power of worldly trials and yet he clung to the knowledge of his future inheritance

Romans 8:18–21 ESV

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The inheritance you and I are set to receive is an inheritance which is free from: the corruption of sin, it is free from the pain and suffering of this temporal world, it is free from job stress, from marital strife, from bondage to pride; it is free from selfishness, from sexual idolatry, from violence, and the pain caused by gossip and slander.

The inheritance that awaits you and I is one of glorification when we are taken up to heaven in glory to live in eternal peace with our loving Father and merciful King.

You who are brokenhearted, will inherit an unending and undefiled love which restores the heart.

You who suffer disease and illness, will receive an inheritance of a new body, free from the suffering of sickness.

You who are tired and weary, will receive an inheritance of rest in the Lord.

You who are anxious over the trials of this world, will receive a peace unending that overcomes the deepest anxieties that life has to offer.

For those of you who suffer depression, God offers an inheritance of uninhibited joy.

The orphan inherits a father and a family of brothers and sisters who rejoice at their adoption

For those who have suffered the pain of a broken marriage, God offers an inheritance of perfect marriage—Christ and His bride, which is the church.

All of these things will at once be inherited by the Saints when they are ushered into the glorious presence of God. Thanks be to God for the immeasurable riches of our glorious inheritance in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Paul wants us to know, experientially, this inheritance. For although these things are a future inheritance, we receive a foretaste of them in this world as we pursue a deeper relationship with the crucified Lord Jesus.

Growing faith is rooted in the knowledge of God’s immeasurable power.

For what hope is there of a future inheritance if God is powerless to provide it.

Ephesians 1:19–23 ESV

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.

It is on this final statement that all our hope and knowledge depend. It is nothing for a man to die, to be crucified as a criminal. It takes divine power to raise a God-man from the dead, to draw Him, alive and well, into Heaven, and to seat Him on His rightful throne as King of creation.

God has demonstrated His power in many ways throughout the history of the world.

Creation demonstrated His power to create

The exodus demonstrated His power to punish sin, his power to control the forces of nature, and his power to provide physical reprieve.

Through David He demonstrated His power to overcome the mightiest foes

His power to heal the sick he demonstrated through the ministry of Jesus.

But His greatest demonstration of power was displayed in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, when our salvation, when our reconciliation, and when our inheritance were secured.

When He drew Christ into the heavenly places and made Him the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, over every other “rule and authority and power and dominion” in this world. His power was displayed when He gave Christ as “head over all things to the church.”

If He has the power to physically resurrect the Lord Jesus, then His power is sufficient to cancel the record of sin for which you and I stand in condemnation.

Paul encourages us to grow in our knowledge of God’s power, for in this knowledge our faith is invigorated.

Just as no part of our bodies operates independently from the head, no member of the body of Christ operates independently from Him. We must continually acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and submit to Him if we hope to grow in our faith.

This is what is known as a cruciformed life—living each day with a conscious pursuit of Christlikeness.

Christ does not become your Savior until you have first acknowledged Him as Lord. The whole of the Christian life is built upon submission to the Lordship, to the authority of Christ.

III. Conclusion

Paul bookends His prayer with the Lordship of Christ—first in verse 15, and then with a wonderful depiction of this Lordship in verses 20-23.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, for you and I, is that we would grow our faith in the fertile soil of the knowledge of the gospel.

I learned this week that there is a term used for plant growth—it’s indeterminate growth. While you and I witness a plant grow upward into whatever vibrant and thick foliage it will become, below ground, the roots of the plant continue to grow deeply into the soil.

The roots grow throughout the entire lifespan of that plant—they never stop going deeper.

Do you want faith that is strong to weather the droughts of life’s trials? Do you desire to grow in your Christlikeness day after day as you await the return of our Lord Jesus? Grow your faith in the gospel of Jesus. You need no other ground.