Ephesians 1

Intro

Paul invites us to see the world and Christ as they truly are through the lens of prayer.

This is the great thing about the Scriptures and about Ephesians, we get to see the world as it truly is.

Paul is showing us what things are really like.

Now I am from Wisconsin and I am about to proceed to tell you a story about a cow field. I did in fact grow up near a farmers field. Everyone did. And this particular field was in at the end of the backyard of my friends house. And we had a spot where we would sneak under it to get into the field and woods around it.

One time there was a group of us and we wanted to explore and I had a metal baseball bat for some reason. So in my infinite youthful wisdom I touched the bat to the fence to see what would happen. The next thing I remember was me on the ground in my friends backyard and the bat lying near me.

There are whole realms of power that just by looking at things as we see them, we miss. That fence with just a couple of wires could keep cows in and kids out. It looked innocent but the reality is that it packed a wallop.

We easily lope through life and miss the power and victory that Christ brings. That He still offers hope to our world, He still moves amongst His people. He still reconciles and works. But it can be easy to miss. Paul is bringing us a prayer that brings the reality of that truth right into our face.

This morning we are going to look what life really looks like. Paul prays in the book of Ephesians and he prays for us that we would see Christ in our lives, His hope, His power, His victory. That we wouldn’t rest until we, together, see the fulness of Christ in our lives.

We are called to see and trust Christ as the God within us and the God victorious.

See and Know Christ in us

Ephesians 1:15–18 ESV

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 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, 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,

Paul again, is effusive in this passage. He loves the church and is grateful for her. So he prays and gives thanks for the church. And he prays that the church would know Christ in all His fulness through the fulness of the church. It is a prayer to overflow in Christ.

But Paul is clear to whom He is praying and what for.

Paul asks for a spirit of wisdom and of revelation

there are two parts to this.

That we would have wisdom

this is what God provides for us to apply knowledge to life. So that we would have the resources to know

and of revelation

but wisdom is coupled with revelation which simply means something that we could not have known on our own. Christ became accessible to us because He revealed Himself to us. To have revelation is to be given information that you did not have. This is not about new revelation this is about complete dependance on God for knowledge. We are given what we couldn’t produce ourselves.

in our knowledge of Him

Wisdom and revelation to one end. To know Christ.

We need to know Christ in us because without Him it’s only us. And that hasn’t always worked great.

This leads us to the eyes of our heart being enlightened. We see the reality of Christ in our inner selves.

Where have you seen God provide wisdom and revelation in your personal growth of your knowledge of Him? How has God shown Himself to you in your growth as a Christian?

This is great news. The God of the universe dwells with His people.

And He has given us the capacity to know and see Him for who He is.

So as of right now, Paul is praying us through the self and into Christ.

later on in chapter 3 he will pray for us that our inner being will be strengthened so that Christ may dwell there.

Paul begins in the self

And that is good because that is where we begin. Honestly we have no other starting place.

“The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ.” Dane Ortlund Gentle and Lowly

And the amazing thing is that Christ starts there as well.

Look back through Ephesians 1 and point to places He is shown to be glorious and where He is shown to be accessible.

He has come to us to dwell in us.

Look at John 14:26-27

John 14:26–27 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

God begins where we begin. We need Christ who has come to us to be in us. We need the work of God not out there somewhere for us to find but in here, where we can know Him personally in our lives.

But the reality of Christ in us and starting with us is that He doesn’t leave us only there. Christ in us means we are given beyond ourselves to see and know and follow.

But he doesn’t stay there.

The issue with prayer is that we often begin and end with self. We look for Christ as Christ relates to us.

So we like this prayer, that WE would have wisdom and revelation, and that the eyes of OUR hearts would be enlightened.

Paul has no problem beginning in the self. That’s where we begin anyhow. We always begin with the self. We are severely motivated to do so.

But we aren’t left there. Paul moves us past that.

And prayer moves us past that.

“The war that rages in all our hearts is a war between the awe of God and the awe of self.” Paul David Tripp. Awe

I think that Paul is organizing something here. I think Paul understands something about the human condition. We begin with self.

When you are at the mall and you are looking for a Wetzel’s pretzels and you don’t know where it is, what do you do? Find the mall map. And you find two things. The wetzel’s pretzels and the you are here sign.

you find the pretzels by knowing where you are.

Likewise this is how we grow in Christ. We are called to follow Christ but in doing so we often have to find the you are here sign.

Paul allows us that luxury.

But he doesn’t let us stay. We often try to look for Christ as we see Him. But we have to find Him as He reveals Himself.

So we begin by seeing where we are and where Christ is but we are then moved into seeing Who Christ is.

The prayer to see him with a spirit of wisdom and revelation means that see and respond to Him based on who He is and how He has revealed Himself to us.

And we will see that as we progress through the prayer.

how is it sometimes difficult to follow God when He moves us beyond ourselves?

See and Know Christ in power

Ephesians 1:19–21 ESV

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 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.

let’s begin by looking at verse 19

look at the language that Paul uses

immeasurable

greatness

power

working

great might

We started with where we are but now we move to where Christ is. Prayer does that. We get to move past ourselves into the bigness and goodness and power of God.

One of the themes of Ephesians is that Christ is victorious. It shows us again and again the sufficiency of Christ over and above anything else. Is Christ enough to overthrow sin? injustice? Is He enough to be Lord in our relationships and in our lives?

What has Christ gained victory over?

Paul wants us to see the very power of God. We see that in verse 19 but also in 20 and 21 where we see His enthronement far above power and dominion, with everything else under his feet.

By the time we get here, we have left the inner self. Paul is reminding us of Christ’s complete victory over sin and death. And the fact that we have a foot in it means that we are included in that victory.

We are not just finding out that Christ is victorious. We are finding out that the victorious Christ is for us and in us.

There are a number of things we as humans are automatically drawn toward.

The superhero genre is one of them. Granted not everyone but as a culture we want to see someone victorious. We love an underdog story. Thats why captain america or even luke skywalker in starwars. Frodo in Lord of the Rings. We want to see someone triumph.

IN Ephesians we are brought to understand that Christ is triumphant, even when we don’t feel like we are.

When I was in middle school, one of my friends was getting picked on on the bus. And the kid who was picking on him got off on the same bus stop. We warded off the bully but he was older and bigger.

But eventually my friends older brother who was in high school found out his little brother was getting picked on. So one day we got off the bus and the same bullying continued.

And then, we heard a voice yell, “Rodney!” Which was the bullies name, and from a hiding spot in the bushes my friends brother jumped out and confronted the situation. It was the stuff of movies.

We just endured. We didn’t have a way out. But Matt, my friends brother, did. He came to the rescue and showed us the way to victory.

We are given victory through Christ’s victory. Over sin and death. Over injustice. We are given His hope. We are given His celebration

2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

So Christ is One who has come to us where we are but who is simultaneously triumphant in the heavens.

- What of Christs do you need this morning? He has offered us His victory and He is offering His triumph.

What does it look like in your life to be led in triumphal procession in Christ?

See and Know Christ in the church

Ephesians 1:22–23 ESV

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Paul concludes this prayer by stating, “do you want to truly experience this Christ?” Then the fulness of Him will be found in the body of Christ. The church.

Prayer is movement. We start with self but then we are taken back to the church. We can’t do the self in Christ or Christ in power without the church.

This isn’t just an addition of Paul praying for the church. He is making a statement that the fulness of Christ and the fulness of the individual comes through the fulness of the church.

We would prefer a fragmented Christianity. But if this prayer teaches us anything is that God Himself, the only one who does not need anything else from anyone, still approaches us and brings Himself near.

We don’t have the luxury to try and figure this out ourselves. We don’t have the luxury of seeing Christ’s power through us alone.

We are constantly moving toward fragmentation of self. And fragmentation of community.

Our belief is that if we have enough information then we can figure it out ourselves.

But here is the disconnect. At this very moment most of us have phones in our pockets with access to as much information as we could hold in ten lifetimes.

So let me ask you. Is it enough? Do you have enough to finally figure it out?

We have the self which ends up isolating. A form of fragmentation

We have forms of power. But the power that we wield is often used for breaking.

Consider this quote from former CIA analyst and author Martin Gurri.

The digital revolution has shattered that mirror, and now the public inhabits those broken pieces of glass. So the public isn’t one thing; it’s highly fragmented, and it’s basically mutually hostile. It’s mostly people yelling at each other and living in bubbles of one sort or another.

We need different forms of self and different forms of power.

So if information toward consumption to feed the self isn’t working and if the power we hold is fragmenting more than restoring, we need another way.

Why it is always easy to try and attempt to succeed at being a Christian on your own?

And the way that Christ offers is to see Christ in us, in His triumphal power, as the church.

We need one another.

The passage tells us that the fulness of Christ is seen through each other, together. Not distant but connected.

We have a God who starts where we are and then shows us who He is. But offers us to experience both of those together.

And that experience is found in relationship with each other.

We are not given another option

If you want to experience the fulness of Christ, we have to be in relationship with each other.

We can trust Christ for the triumph and hope we need. But the hitch is it has to be together.

In an increasingly fractured world we need a better together.

come to connection Sunday

Join a faith community

come to foundations class

come to next step.

Christ has come close. And He alone trustworthy as the God within us and the God victorious.

Where have you seen the fulness of Christ in the church body?

But the way we experience the reality and closeness of Christ is the closeness of the church.