Revelation of Hope

Caller ID

When I was a kids, we had Caller ID. My Mom would shout outside that it was time to come in, and we could recognize her voice, so we knew who was calling us. Caller ID.

But there was a dark period with phones where you had no idea who was calling. You had to pickup and answer it just to find out. And it could be your best friend... but it could also be someone trying to sell you a new long distance calling plan.

Your phone company knows who your favorite person is in your phonebook. And they know who is your least favorite. Somewhere in their data, they know who you answer right away... and who you let go to voicemail. Or just straight DECLINE the call.

So, let's say God is calling you, on your phone. What is the thought process that goes through your head. You see the Caller Id. Is it: sweet, this is probably going to be good, I'll answer that.

Or, this is probably bad news, this is the end of fun, this is my Mom calling, I have to stop having a good time.

What does your heart do when you hear God's call?

On to maturity

Last week we started looking at Paul's prayer for the churches in and around Ephesus, and he has heard of their reputation: their faith in Jesus and their love for all the saints. Knowing they have that foundation, then he prays that they would press on to maturity, to advanced things...

And we are going to go to there, but first, faith and love come first. If you are working on and wrestling with your faith in Jesus Christ, work on that first and you can check out. If you are working on loving, committing to love all God's people... work on that first. Then, on to maturity.

I am ready to exercise my faith in Jesus. I am just looking for ways to love God's people. On to maturity. And it looks like this:

Paul’s Prayer

Ephesians 1:15-23

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, 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 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.

One long prayer of thanksgiving for the people in the churches, one long sentence, and we are going to focus in on versus 17 and 18.

Wisdom and Revelation

Because he has heard of their faith and love, he prays for them, that God, the Father of Glory may give you the Spirit.

One translation issue you should be aware of, the original Greek is all capitals and direct articles are rare, so translators have to interpret whether this is The Spirit, as in the Spirit of God, or a spirit, like the human spirit. In this case, God is imparting knowledge of Himself, revelation and wisdom, so it makes sense that it should be His Spirit imparting that... but how does His Spirit communicate with us? His Spirit speaks directly to our spirit, and so the Spirit of wisdom and revelation creates in us a spirit (little s) of spirit and wisdom. Our spirit grows as He imparts His Spirit. So let's call this a medium sized 'S'.

That in which we are growing is the very knowledge of God. The words he uses here have a great history. Revelation we are familiar with, this unveiling, a revealing, it was hidden but "TADA" know you see, know you know. A pulling back of the curtain. We didn't know this about the person of God... know we do. But paired with that new seeing, that new knowledge, comes Wisdom.

Pastor Rod has talked about this knowledge-wisdom pairing before. Knowledge is a little nugget of information, a fact, something that is true. You know stuff. Wisdom is that knowledge then applied rightly to life. It is knowledge taken form, taken action. This is the sense in which the Spirit of wisdom, a common phrase in the Old Testament, is then used. The knowledge of God is such that it immediately takes action in our life. It takes form.

So Paul prays that God would minister through His Spirit to our spirit, unveiling and revealing things about Himself, and those things would take root and create right action and right living in our lives.

Having had the Eyes of your heart opened

Now, what does that actually look like? The sentence goes on. This is one that is easily missed in many of our English translations. English does not like long sentences and many translations, like the NIV, create a new sentence here in order to make the English read better. However, the sentence does not end, and what follows is an explanatory clause, giving further detail to this revelation of God. The ESV captures this: "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened..."

Somehow Paul is elaborating on this idea of God giving you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation. It is like you had eyeballs in your heart. The heart in Scripture is not merely the seat of emotions as we contrast it to the brain, it is the center of the self, of the will, of decision. So at the center of you, your conscious being, you had eyes, but they were blind. Then they were opened, and it describes something that has already happened, your eyes were opened. You have been enlightened. And these eyes of your heart are now enabled, they were open, now they might see... something new.

In fact, its three things:

The eyes of your heart:

may know what is the hope to which he has called you

what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe

You couldn't see those things before. Those things aren't seen with these eyes, they are seen with these eyes. Paul is, you recall, writing to those who have already put their faith in Jesus Christ, they already have shown themselves to be His disciples in their love for one another.

This testifies that the eyes of their hearts have been opened and so they can see.

See Hope

And speaking now to you who have placed your faith in Jesus Christ. To you who are His disciples. God has opened the eyes of your heart. And we will get to the other two, but this has been laid on me this week.

Open your eyes and see hope.

What is this hope? The hope to which you were called.

Now in the context of Ephesians 1, this word called brings us back up the chapter to everything we said about predestination and foreknowing and choosing us before the foundation of the world. We are called and that certainly means our eternal salvation. But just as the psalm that started the chapter covered past, present and future, both our calling and our hope covers past, present and future.

For the one who calls, who predestines, is him who "works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory."

So God has called you, God is calling you, God will call you to glory.

God has given you hope in Christ. God gives you hope now, for the present. And we have our ultimate hope, God's plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ.

Jesus is Calling

So we have a book, a devotional we read to the kids, and it's called "Jesus is Calling." Putting words in Jesus' mouth is a brave thing for the author to do, but I mostly like it. But that title, "Jesus is Calling."

Do you want to answer that call? Not will you answer that call, but what does your heart do when you hear God's call?

Do you feel guilt and shame? Like when someone calls and I was supposed to do something a week ago, and now I'm embarrassed to talk to them because I'm way behind.

Do you feel tired? Here comes more work? That's what I feel when my boss calls. Here comes another assignment!

Do you feel afraid? Intimidated? I'm not up to whatever God is going to ask me to do?

Here is the claim. As you get to know God better. As you get to know Him. You walk with Him, His Spirit reveals knowledge and wisdom to you. You get to know hope. Your reaction when God calls is hope. You get to "Know the hope of your calling."

This is a layered thing. You get to know your ultimate hope, that you can trust God ultimately because He has your ultimate future in His hand. You have life insurance with God. So you have hope beyond all things this world can offer, because you have hope in Him.

But on top of that, in your calling, you have hope in His plan for this moment. That things may not be easy, in fact He promises they won't be... but because there is faith, because there is love, because you know the One who has called you there is hope.

You have hope knowing that He is working all things for His purpose.

On top of that, you can have hope in your current circumstance. You know there is a plan, but you have your own ideas, your own desires about how things are going to turn out, don't you? That's what we pray for. This is where we get in trouble... because this is where we get disappointed.

That's okay. It doesn't really mean we shouldn't hope for things, even hope for things from God. It doesn't mean we shouldn't ask boldly for things from God. But we should draw a hard line between "knowing the hope to which He has called me" and "hoping for the result to which I called him.

I hope that God makes it good in this way.

But I know the hope that God is working it to His purpose to which He has called me.

And beyond that, I know the hope of

Because I know the One who has called me, there is hope.

You Need Hope

It's about time we had a definition hope.

Hope is the expectation that it's going to get better. Whatever it is. Something is going to happen... and it's going to be better.

You hope that your circumstance is going to get better in a certain way. Hope for that, pray for that, you have a Heavenly Father who loves you, and He wants to give you good things. But even if it doesn't get better in that way, know the One who has called. And know the hope of your calling.

Hear Jesus say "Follow me..." and know that it is going to get better. In your Ultimate salvation. In your present purpose in His plan. The pain is temporary, the better is forever.

A Community of Hope

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and he writes to a whole community. It is the whole community that is to hold on, that is to see the hope to which they are called. And that's important.

If you're in the midst of despair... you need hope... but you may be blinded in the moment. You may not feel the sure knowledge of the hope to which you are called. In pain and despair that just sounds like empty nonsense.

You don't have to force yourself to "know hope" all the time. When you are in despair, I'm going to know hope for you. And when I'm in pain, you can know hope for me.

He has called us together, and that's part of why "love for all the saints" must be a prerequisite. We can't do this stuff alone. The revelation of the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation takes place primarily in and among us, in our community, in our relationships. It happens in our private prayer closet, sure, but the weight of it is when God's people gather together.

We are a community of hope.

This made the early church unshakeable and unbeatable. It didn't matter that they were largely composed of the poor, of women and children, of slaves: they knew hope. It didn't matter when they were persecuted, they were a community of hope. It didn't matter when the most powerful empire in history bent itself towards their destruction.

They heard Jesus calling them. They checked their Caller Id. Jesus was calling, and they knew hope in His calling.

Imagine how frustrating this must be to someone who was trying to discourage them. To an Adversary.

Each has hope in their present circumstances. Start destroying their present circumstances. They still have hope that God is going to work your destruction for their good. Make their lives so miserable that they can't see God's plan... Go so far that you get some to despair. Well the rest are right there, seeing hope for one another, knowing for one another that it is going to be better. And even if you pull out all the stops and make every single one despair for their chances in this life, they simply lift their eyes from this life to the next, seeing their Ultimate hope of Resurrection and Eternal life in Jesus.

Every time the adversary speaks a word of despair, the disciple of Jesus hears Him calling "follow me" and they know the hope to which they are called. It is going to be better.

Jesus is calling you and Jesus is calling this church in to His more preferable future. It is going to be better.