Sermon Central
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Getting To Know Him 3 Series
Contributed by Dan Cormie on Nov 24, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Paul is praying that the Ephesian Christians will have spiritual eyes to see not only the hope that God has called them to but also the glorious inheritance that belongs to all who are in Christ
Dakota Community Church
November 21, 2010
Getting to Know Him - 3
15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
We stay out of legalism by getting to know Him better.
What do we need to know?
1. The hope to which we are called
18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…
2. The glorious inheritance
18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…
We want the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we might continually be coming to know God better.
We want the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened – spiritual illumination – so that we might know the hope he has called us to which is connected to the rich glorious inheritance that exists in the saints. In Christ we have this hope, this inheritance that is ours by being in the saints.
This is an inheritance that is ours by grace, by a promise – not by our behavior.
15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
This is not the kind of inheritance that is wrong to hope for.
“Dad sure is taking a lot of trips down south.”
“Don’t you think you should be saving up some of those pension cheques Dad – shouldn’t be blowing every cent should ya?”
Last week we saw that the hope he has called us to is for now in this life and for in the life to come.
The same is true of the inheritance.
11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here,[b] he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
We partake of it now. We have been declared righteous now. We have access to the throne room now. We are citizens of the kingdom of God now and we act on this planet as its ambassadors NOW!
