The Blessing of Redemption

Series: Study of Ephesians: Unsearchable Riches… Undeniable Identity!

Topic: Our Resources in Christ

Text: Ephesians 1:15-23

Big Idea: As believers our greatest need is not in gaining something or someone that we currently do not possess but is to grow in knowledge and awareness of our inheritance in Christ!

Introduction:

In verses 3–14 Paul has set forth the amazing and unlimited blessings believers have in Jesus Christ, blessings that amount to our personal inheritance of all that belongs to Him. In the remainder of the chapter (vv. 15–23) Paul prays that the believers to whom he writes will come to fully understand, appreciate, and apply every one of those blessings.

This text reveals some important truths about prayer, emphasizing prayer for knowledge and understanding. We need the spirits help to grasp the greatness of God, the supremacy of Christ, and the rich benefits of the gospel. In this prayer he focuses on believers’ comprehension of their resources in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In verses 15–16 he praises them, and in verses 17–23 he makes petitions to God for them.

Praise for Believers: 1:15-16

Ephesians 1:15–16 (NKJV)

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

· In light of their marvelous inheritance in Jesus Christ (For this reason), Paul now intercedes for the possessors of that treasure.

· As mentioned in the Introduction, these initially included not only the believers in Ephesus but probably those in all the churches of Asia Minor.

o It had been about four years since Paul ministered there, and he was now in prison.

o But from letters, as well as through personal reports from friends who visited him in prison, he had received considerable information from and about the churches.

· He heard two things that indicated the genuineness of their salvation, and for those two cardinal marks of a true Christian—faith in Christ and love for other Christians—he affectionately praises them. Those two dimensions of spiritual life are inseparable.

PRAISE FOR THEIR FAITH

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord, (1:15b)

FAITH: What is Faith?

Faith is me believing in the Word of God, and acting upon it

Regardless of how I feel,

Because God has promised a good result!

· The emphasis here is on true saving belief, with the lordship of Jesus as the object of that belief. Some Christians, perhaps intending to protect the gospel from any taint of works righteousness, underplay Christ’s lordship almost to the point of denying it.

· Others would like to accept the term Lordonly as a reference to deity, not sovereignty. But such a separation is artificial, because deity implies sovereignty.

· The One who alone is God rules alone.

· The New Testament does not separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord. He is both, or He is neither.

o Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9; cf. Acts 16:31).

o Jesus becomes Savior when He is accepted as Lord. “For to this end,” Paul explains later in Romans, “Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (14:9).

o Only believers can say—“Jesus is Lord” because they possess the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), who was given to them when they were saved (Rom. 8:9).

o To receive Jesus as Savior but not as Lord would be to divide His nature in two. When we receive Him, we receive Him wholly as He is.

· Jesus the Savior is Jesus the Lord, and Jesus the Lord is Jesus the Savior. He does not exist in parts or relate to believers in parts. Awareness, appreciation, and obedience to Him as Savior and Lord change.

· When we are faithful to Him those things increase, and when we are unfaithful they diminish.

Paul is not praising the Ephesians for some later, supplemental act of faith but for the original faith that brought them to saving submission to the sovereign Lord. The faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you refers to this same saving faith with which they entered the Christian life and in which they were continuing to live.

PRAISE FOR THEIR LOVE

and your love for all the saints,(15c)

A second mark of genuine salvation is love for all the saints, and because of such love Paul offers thanks for the Ephesian believers.

· Christian love is indiscriminate; it does not pick and choose which believers it will love. Christ loves all believers, and they are precious to Him.

· By definition, therefore, Christian love extends to all Christians. To the extent that it does not, it is less than Christian. Paul calls for believers to be “maintaining the same love” (Phil. 2:2), which is to love all believers the same.

· To truly love a person in the Lord is to love him as the Lord loves him—genuinely and sacrificially.

“We know that we have passed out of death into life,” John says, “because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14).

o Important as it is, sound theology is no substitute for love. Without love the best doctrine is like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).

o True salvation goes from the head and heart of the believer out to other believers and out to the world to touch unbelievers in Christ’s name.

o True salvation produces true love, and true love does “not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

· Always in the New Testament true spiritual love is defined as an attitude of selfless sacrifice that results in generous acts of kindness done to others.

o It is far more than a feeling, an attraction or emotion.

o When the Lord had washed the feet of the proud and self-seeking disciples, He told them that what He had done for them was the example of how they were to love each other (John 13:34).

o John emphasizes the same truth: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:16–18).

That is the sort of love the Ephesian Christians then had for all the saints. Sadly, however, their love did not last. They kept the faith pure and persevered in it. Yet in His letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor the Lord says of the church at Ephesus, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:2–4). They had lost the great love for Christ and their fellow believers for which only a few decades earlier Paul had so warmly praised them.

Faith and love must be kept in balance. Many monks, hermits, and countless others throughout the history of the church have endeavored to keep their faith pure but have not reached out to others in love as the Lord commands every believer to do. They often become heresy hunters, eager to tear down what is wrong but doing little to build up what is good, full of criticism but deficient in love.

It is unfortunate that some Christians have a loveless kind of faith. Because it is loveless there is reason to doubt that such faith is even genuine. True faith cannot exist apart from true love. We cannot love the Lord Jesus without loving those whom He loves. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him” (1 John 5:1).

The Christians to whom Paul wrote his Ephesian letter had the right balance, and it was for their great faith and their great love that the apostle assured them, I … do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.

Petition for Believers: 1:17-23

Ephesians 1:17–23 (NKJV)

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may 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 exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which 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 principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The remainder of the chapter is a petition in which Paul prays for God to give believers true comprehension and appreciation of who they are in Jesus Christ, in order that they might begin to have some idea of how magnificent and unlimited are the blessings that already belonged to them in their Lord and Savior.

· In essence Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be spared from frantically searching for what was already theirs, but rather would see that the great God who is their God is the source of all they need and has it ready for them if they are open to receive it.

· Such a receptive attitude requires that God Himself give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Illustration: William Randolph Hearst once read of an extremely valuable piece of art, which he decided he must add to his extensive collection. He instructed his agent to scour the galleries of the world to find the masterpiece he was determined to have at any price. After many months of painstaking search, the agent reported that the piece already belonged to Mr. Hearst and had been stored in one of his warehouses for many years.

It is tragic that many believers become entangled in a quest for something more in the Christian life, for something special, something extra that the “ordinary” Christian life does not possess. They talk of getting more of Jesus Christ, more of the Holy Spirit, more power, more blessings, a higher life, a deeper life—as if the resources of God were divinely doled out one at a time like so many pharmaceutical prescriptions or were unlocked by some spiritual combination that only an initiated few can know.

To say, “I want to get all of Jesus there is,” implies that when we were saved Christ did not give us all of Himself, that He held some blessings in reserve to be parceled out to those who meet certain extra requirements.

· Peter explicitly says, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3).

· The New Testament teaching of salvation is that the new birth grants every believer everything in Christ. There is consequently no need and no justification in searching for anything more. Though it does not do so intentionally, such searching undermines the essence of God’s revealed truth about salvation.

· The germ of this great truth is found in the words of the Preacher: “I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should [reverence] Him” (Eccles. 3:14).

· Yet today many Christians spend a great deal of time and effort vainly looking for blessings already available to them.

· They pray for God’s light, although He has already supplied light in abundance through His Word.

· Their need is to follow the light they already have.

o They pray for strength, although His Word tells them they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them (Phil. 4:13).

o They pray for more love, although Paul says that God’s own love is already poured out within their hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).

o They pray for more grace, although the Lord says the grace He has already given is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9).

o They pray for peace, although the Lord has given them His own peace, “which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7).

It is expected that we pray for such blessings if the tone of the prayer is one of seeking the grace to appropriate what is already given, rather than one of pleading for something we think is scarcely available or is reluctantly shared by God.

(PTR) The Christian’s primary need is for wisdom and obedience to appropriate the abundance of blessings the Lord has already given. Our problem is not lack of blessings, but lack of insight and wisdom to understand and use them properly and faithfully.

· Our blessings are so vast that the human mind cannot comprehend them.

· In our own minds we cannot fathom the riches we have in our position in Jesus Christ.

· Such things are totally beyond the human mind to grasp.

· Only the Holy Spirit Himself can search the deep things of the mind of God, and only the Spirit can bring them to our understanding. “Just as it is written,” Paul says, “ ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:9–12).

(PTR) God’s deeper truths cannot be seen with our eyes, heard with our ears, or comprehended by our reason or intuition. They are revealed only to those who love Him.

· Every Christian has many specific needs—physical, moral, and spiritual—for which He must ask the Lord’s help. But no Christian needs, or can have, more of the Lord or of His blessing and inheritance than he already has.

· That is why Paul tells us, as he told the Ephesian believers, not to seek more spiritual resources but to understand and use those we were given in absolute completeness the moment we received Christ.

Paul prays specifically that God may give the faculty of understanding so that we can know our resources, which he calls a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Paul prayed for God to give the Ephesians a special disposition of wisdom, the fullness of godly knowledge and understanding of which the sanctified human mind is capable of receiving. “Let them know how much they possess in your Son,” he says, in effect. “Give them a keen, rich, deep, strong understanding of their inheritance in Christ.” He prays for the Holy Spirit to give their spirits the right spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Revelation, though used here as a synonym of wisdom, deals with God’s imparting knowledge to us, whereas wisdomcould emphasize our use of that knowledge. We must know and understand our position in the Lord before we are capable of serving Him. We must know what we have before we can satisfactorily use it. This additional wisdom goes beyond intellectual knowledge. It is far richer; and Paul desired that the Ephesian Christians, like those in Colossae, would “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is” (Col. 3:1).

If ever man is to come to a knowledge of God… two veils must be taken away: that which hides God’s mind and that which clouds our heart. God in his mercy removes both. Thus our knowledge of God, first to last, is his gracious gift. J. I. Packer[1]

Transition Statement: In his praying for the Ephesian believers Paul asks God to give them revelation and wisdom in three particular areas of God’s magnificent, incomparable truth. He prays for them to come to a clearer understanding of the greatness of God’s plan, the greatness of His power, and the greatness of His Person.

understanding the greatness of god’s plan

Ephesians 1:18 (NKJV)

18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

· One cause of immaturity in the church at Corinth was reliance on feelings above knowledge.

· Many believers were more interested in doing what felt right than in doing what God declared to be right.

· (2 Cor. 6:11–13). The apostle said, in effect, “I can’t take God’s truth from my mind and give it to your minds, because your emotions get in the way.” Instead of their emotions being controlled by God’s truth, their emotions distorted their understanding of His truth.

· Paul therefore prays for the minds of the Ephesians to be enlightened.

(PTR) Emotions have a significant place in the Christian life, but they are reliable only as they are guided and controlled by God’s truth—which we come to know and understand through our minds.

· That is why we are to “let the word of Christ richly dwell within [us]” (Col. 3:16). When the Holy Spirit works in the believer’s mind, He enriches it to understand divine truth that is deep and profound, and then relates that truth to life—including those aspects of life that involve our emotions.

While Jesus talked with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, their hearts (that is, their minds) burned within them; but it was not until “their eyes were opened [that] they recognized Him” (Luke 24:31–32). Before the Spirit enlightened them they had the information but not the understanding; what they knew was true, but they could not in the power of their own minds grasp the meaning and significance of it.

The first thing for which Paul prays is that believers be enlightened about the greatness of God’s plan. In the most comprehensive of terms, the apostle asks that they be given understanding of the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. He prays for God to enlighten them about the magnificent truths of election, predestination, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom and insight, inheritance, and sealing and pledge of the Holy Spirit about which he has just been instructing them (vv. 3–14).

Illuminated Truth Moves the Believer Intellectually

· Often when God’s Spirit illumines some Scripture passage, the believer sees afresh the validity of the truth.

· He is moved to have a steadfast confidence, an inner assurance. He says to himself, “This is right; I must believe it!”

· An illuminated man is divinely persuaded that he has seen something from God and that what he has seen is right.

· He will boldly defy every assault of hell and will burn at the stake if necessary before he will deny the truth of what he has seen and knows to be true.

Illuminated Truth Moves the Believer Volitionally

When God’s Spirit illumines the mind with truth, the believer is shown the urgency and the responsibility of the truth.

· He cries, “This is compelling; I must do it!” He is energized and motivated. He immediately wishes to become a witness of these things.

· He has something to testify about—he has seen God!

· The prophet Isaiah, when he saw God, exclaimed, “Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:8). The apostle Paul, upon beholding the glory of God, asked, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).

This Is Revival!

This effect of illuminated truth upon the heart of a believer is the essence of revival. When the Holy Spirit reveals the glory of God to him, the believer’s response is always, “This is right; I must believe it! This is wonderful; I must praise it! This is compelling; I must do it!”

Illuminated Truth Moves the Believer Emotionally

An illuminated believer viewing the glory of God sees the beauty of the truth. He declares, “This is wonderful; I must praise it!” The Word becomes attractive to him, and he finds himself admiring it. It may even be breathtaking. There is a new loveliness and worthiness about the truth to him. He cherishes it and delights in its splendor.

· Those truths summarize God’s master plan for the redemption of mankind, His eternal plan to bring men back to Himself through His own Son, thereby making them His children.

· Until we comprehend who we truly are in Jesus Christ, it is impossible to live an obedient and fulfilling life.

· Only when we know who we really are can we live like who we are.

· Only when we come to understand how our lives are anchored in eternity can we have the right perspective and motivation for living in time.

· Only when we come to understand our heavenly citizenship can we live obedient and productive lives as godly citizens on earth.

It is God’s great plan that every believer one day “become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). That is the hope of His calling—the eternal destiny and glory of the believer fulfilled in the coming kingdom. The fullness of that hope will be experienced when we receive the supreme riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

It is truth too magnificent for words to describe, which is why even God’s own revelation requires the illumination of His Spirit in order for believers even to begin to understand the marvelous magnitude of the blessings of salvation that exist in the sphere of the saints.

Our being glorious children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ of all God possesses is the consummation and end of salvation promised from eternity past and held in hope until the future manifestation of Christ. There is nothing more to seek, nothing more to be given or received. We have it all now, and we will have it throughout eternity.

understanding the greatness of god’s power

Ephesians 1:19–20 (NKJV)

19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

Paul’s second request is for the Lord to give the Ephesian believers understanding of His great power that will bring them to their inheritance in glory. In verse 19 Paul uses four different Greek synonyms to emphasize the greatness of that power.

1. First is dunamis (power),from which we get dynamite and dynamo. This power is only for Christians, for those who believe.

a. Not only that, but it is all the power we are ever offered or could ever have. There could be no more, and it is foolish and presumptuous to ask for more.

b. When we are saved we receive all of God’s grace and all of His power, and that assures us of the realization of our eternal hope.

2. Second is energeia (working),the energizing force of the Spirit that empowers believers to live for the Lord.

3. Third is kratos (power-or strength), which may also be translated “dominion” (1 Tim. 6:16) or “power” (Heb. 2:14).

4. Fourth is ischus (might), which carries the idea of endowed power or ability. In all those ways the Holy Spirit empowers God’s children.

Paul did not pray for power to be given to believers. How could they have more than what they had? He prayed first of all that they be given a divine awareness of the power they possessed in Christ. Later in the letter (chaps. 4–6) he admonished them to employ that power in faithful living for their Lord.

· We need not pray for power to evangelize, to witness the gospel to others.

· We need not pray for power to endure suffering.

· Nor do we need to pray for power to do God’s will.

(PTR) The supernatural power… working… strength and might with which God supplies every believer and with which He will glorify every believer is that which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

understanding the greatness of god’s person

Ephesians 1:21–23 (NKJV)

21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Moving from Christ’s might to His majesty, Paul’s third request is for the Lord to give believers understanding of the greatness of His Person who secures and empowers them.

· Once when Timothy was intimidated by criticism from fellow Christians, he understandably became discouraged.

o Paul wrote to him, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:8–10).

o “Remember the greatness of the Person who lives within you,” Paul says. “He was raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand. He was born of the seed of David, as a man just like us. He identifies with us, understands us, and sympathizes with us.”

(AT&T) Every Christian should continually have Christ centered focus. When we look at Him, our physical problems, psychological problems, and even spiritual problems will not loom so all-important before us.

· We not only will be better able to see our problems as they really are, but will then, and only then, have the right motivation and power to work them out.

· It is sad that we read and hear so much about the peripheral things of the Christian life and so little about the Person who is the source of Christian life.

· How much happier and more productive we are when our primary attention is on His purity, greatness, holiness, power, and majesty. Paul calls the Corinthians to gaze intently on His glory with the clear vision provided in the New Covenant, and thus be made like Him by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:18).

In Closing (play Music)

The incomparable Christ is incomplete until the church, which is His body, is complete. Jesus Christ fills all in all, giving His fulness to believers. But in God’s wisdom and grace, believers, as the church, are also the fulness of Him.

John Calvin said, “This is the highest honor of the church that until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure incomplete. What consolation it is for us to learn that not until we are in His presence does He possess all His parts, nor does He wish to be regarded as complete.”

John MacArthur said, “The point of this great petition is that we might comprehend how secure we are in Christ and how unwavering and immutable is our hope of eternal inheritance. The power of glorification is invincible and is presently operating to bring us to glory.”[2]

Questions for reflection

1. Which Christians do you know who need you to pray for a deeper appreciation of the future hope they have in Christ?

2. Which Christians do you know who need you to pray for a deeper sense of God’s power at work in and through them?

3. Paul not only prays for his Christian friends—he encourages them by telling them what he’s praying for them. How will you do this with the people whom the two questions above have prompted you to pray for?[3]

Lets Pray

Our Father, as we listen to the music, we’re going to offer ourselves to you. We’re going to say, “Lord, I don’t have patience. I do think I could do things better.

o I don’t know your plan,

o I doubt your power,

o I and confess I do not know your Person the way you want me to.

Lord, I don’t appreciate the beauty in the world around me. I don’t know your power. Lord, I don’t realize that even my belief and even my doubts are evidences of your power.

O Lord, help me see your plan, power and your person everywhere so I won’t be scared anymore. Help me see the reality of my inheritance in Christ everywhere so I won’t be confused. Help me see your power everywhere so I will know that I’m safe and in your hands, because the powerful King is my loving heavenly Father.” We pray to you through Jesus, our Brother. In his name, amen.

[1] Barton, B. B., & Comfort, P. W. (1996). Ephesians(p. 30). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [2] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1986). Ephesians(pp. 37–49). Chicago: Moody Press. [3] Coekin, R. (2015). Ephesians for You. (C. Laferton, Ed.) (p. 41). The Good Book Company.