Sermon for 5/16/21 14 Minutes
Notes
Transcript
Ephesians 1:15-23
Ephesians 1:15-23
This morning I'll be reading Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through 23.
And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
Ephesians 1:15-23
In the verses that we will look at this morning,,, Paul says that he has heard about their faith in the Lord,,, and he is writing this to give them encouragement as he prays for the things that they need going forward.
Ephesians 1:15–23 (HCSB) —
15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. 20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.
God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.
Let us pray:
Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.
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Last Sunday,,, we learned that our walk needs to be cemented in sound doctrine,,, which leads to the love and obedience it produces,,, and the faith that overcomes the world.
And I used Christian mother's and the way that they teach their children as an example of the way that the church should act.
In the verses that we will look at this morning,,, Paul has heard great things about the church in Ephesus and it is something that we as a church can take note of today.
When we are doing the things that God has called us to do,,, word will get out,,, because people are watching to see how we really act in our communities today.
And they are watching,,, because they really want to believe that we are helping,,, but sometimes we hurt ourselves by ignoring needs,,, and that hurts many in the long run.
So let's look at these verses,,, and see how they can help us in our walk with God this week.
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Verses 15 and 16 say: 15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
There is a lot to unpack from these two verses.
Paul has received word that the people in the church at Ephesus have shown their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for all of the saints.
If you remember,,, Paul was in prison during this time so all of his information would have been from others telling him about them.
In my commentaries,,, it says that this is one of the arguments that is used to say that Paul didn't write this letter because Paul had definitely been to Ephesus and he actually spent 3 years there.
But there is just too much evidence that points to Paul as being the author and it doesn't change any of the meaning of the letter any way.
So Paul is praising them for the good news that he has heard and this is something that we need to be aware of as a church today.
We want the recognition of being faithful in showing our faith in Jesus Christ.
And we do that by trying our best to be servants in our community as best we can.
Trying to help others when we see a need,,, and praying for others,,, as we do with our prayer request each Sunday and our prayer request text messages.
Notice that it said,,, faith and love.
So many people profess faith in Jesus but don't have the love of others like they should.
Then we have those who love everyone but don't put their faith in Christ,,, and it says we must have both.
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Verse 17 says: 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Since every believer has the Holy Spirit already,,, Paul isn't praying that his readers might receive the Holy Spirit but instead that they might receive a special measure of illumination from Him.
Revelation deals with the imparting of knowledge; wisdom has to do with the proper use of it in our lives.
Paul isn't referring to knowledge in general but to specific knowledge of Him.
He wants the believers to have a deep,,, spiritual,,, and personal knowledge of God—a knowledge that cannot be gained by intellectual ability,,, but only by the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit.
This is a question you need to ask yourself,,, "Do you "know" God,,, or do you just "know" about God?
And remember,,, even Satan knows about God,,, but he lacks the relationship with God that is needed!
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Verse 18 and 19 say: 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.
We have seen that the source of spiritual illumination is God; the channel is the Holy Spirit; and the supreme subject is the full knowledge of God.
Now we come to the organs of enlightenment:
The King James Version says: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
This figurative expression teaches us that proper understanding of God's word doesn't just dependent on how intelligent we are,,, but it,,, also depends on our hearts.
It is a matter of the affections as well as of the mind.
God’s revelations are given to those who love Him.
This opens up wonderful possibilities for every believer,,, because we may not all have high I.Q.’s,,, we can all have loving hearts.
Next,,, Paul highlights three blessings the believers can expect:
Which are,,, hope for the future,,, God’s claim on them as His inheritance,,, and the great power of God Himself at work on their behalf.
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Verses 20 and 21 say: 20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Jesus’ resurrection displayed God’s power over death,,, and God's approval of His Son
Jesus' resurrection and glorification,,, was also a shattering defeat for Satan.
And,,, Jesus is superior to every ruler or authority,,, human or angelic,,, now and forever.
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Verses 22 and 23 say: 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.
Paul is saying that,,, not only will Jesus be appointed over men and angels,,, but over all of the rest of His creation as well.
And the writer of Hebrews reminds us in Hebrews 2:8 that says: For in subjecting everything to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to Him.
And that is true.
Because even though all authority belongs to Jesus Christ,,, it hasn't been enforced yet.
Men,,, today for instance,,, still rebel against Him and deny Him or resist Him.
But,,, the time is coming,,, when Jesus “will” come back to take control of this world and everything in it,,, and we need to be sure that we are ready,,, for that day.
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So we’ve seen how Paul has heard about the church in Ephesus and their faith in Jesus and their love for the saints and how thankful for them he was.
This is what we need to be aware of as well because it’s through our actions in our communities that we will either win or lose people that are watching us.
And we don’t want anyone staying away from the church because of any mistakes that we make because that might be their last chance at making a decision to accept Christ before their time is up.
We also want to do everything that we can do to ensure that we are ready for the last days as well,,, since we know that day will come upon us without any warning.
We also need to remember,,, that anything that we see that needs to be done,,, can be done,,, because God gives us all the strength that we will need,,, to get that job done.
So as we go through our week,,, remember these verses and how we need to be watchful of the things that we do in our communities,,, because we are a walking witness of the church,,, in everything,,, that we do.
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