1. Introduction (1:15-18)
2. The first eye opening petition is that the church might know the grace of Christ. (18a)
3. The second eye opening petition is that the church might know the glory of Christ. (18b)
4. The third eye opening petition is that the church might know the greatness of Christ (19-23)
5. Conclusion
Prayer is one of the most wonderful gifts that God gives us. What an awesome privilege it is to boldly approach the throne of our Maker with our petitions. Often times, our prayer life isn’t what it ought to be. Many times we look to God as some sort of supernatural Santa Claus. Our prayers sound like Christmas lists. I want, I need, I gotta have. But I rejoice when I hear prayer requests that are concerned about the needs of others. That was the way Paul was. In almost every one of his letters to churches in the New Testament, Paul told the people he was praying for them. But how did he pray for them? Did he pray for their material well-being? No, he didn’t seem much concerned about that. What about their health and physical well being? No, that wasn’t his main concern either. If not those areas, what was his main concern about the people that he prayed for? We’ll see as we look at one of Paul’s prayers.
READ EPHESIANS 1:15-23
As Paul is writing to the churches in Ephesus, he lets them know he’s praying for them. These people are well known. In his travels, Paul has heard about their faith. He’s heard about their love. Other people were telling him about their faith in Jesus and their love for each other, and Paul thanked God for them. But not only did he thank God for them, he petitioned God for them as well. He petitioned God for wisdom and revelation. He asked that their eyes would be opened. That’s my prayer as well. It’s my prayer that each of us here would have our eyes opened so we can see the fullness of who Jesus Christ is. In order that we might see, we’re going to look into Paul’s prayer at three eye opening petitions for the church. The first eye opening petition is that the church might know the grace of Christ. Look with me at verse 18 for the first thing Paul prayed for:
READ EPHESIANS 1:18a
Like Paul, I pray that we might know the grace of Christ. If I were to ask what grace means, I would probably get a good Sunday school answer. Something like, “grace is getting God’s unmerited favor.” Or, “grace is getting what we don’t deserve and not getting what we do deserve.” Both of those are true. But grace is so much more. Grace is when, before the foundations of the world—God looked down into history—a history He hadn’t even created yet and saw you and me. He saw us dead in our trespasses and sins. He foreknew that, as Genesis 6:5 says, “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God knew that from before the foundations of the earth and He created us anyway. And He provided a way of redemption. And He called us to that redemption. That is grace. Grace is God taking a person who is dead and calling them to life in Him. Calling them to life through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. Paul prays that God will open the church’s eyes to the wonderful hope they have because God called them to salvation. The hope of His calling. Hope speaks of anticipation. It speaks of expectation. Paul is praying that they will realize all of the wonderful things they have to look forward to because God has called them and saved them. If we are saved today, why are we downcast? Why are we gloomy? How can we be pessimistic and negative? We have hope! Hope that nobody else can have apart from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I know we go through hard times. I know we have to endure suffering. I know we have emotional and physical burdens. One of the worst things we have to endure on this earth is the loss of a loved one. But Paul even talked about that as hope. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, he wrote: “"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” You see, even in our worst trials, we grieve. But we don’t grieve like those with no hope. Even in your worst times, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have the hope of His calling. If you’re saved, God has called you from death unto life through His Son Jesus Christ. That is the hope of His calling. You have it. But just like Paul did for the Ephesian churches, I pray that we can see that we have it. That’s the first petition. That the church might know the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ which is the hope of His calling. But not only does Paul pray that their eyes might be open to the grace of Christ, he prays they might be open to the glory of Christ. The second eye opening petition is that the church might know the glory of Christ. Look at the rest of verse 18:
READ EPHESIANS 1:18
I pray that we might know the glory of Christ. Back in 1949, a man named Jack Wurm was walking along a beach in California. Jack was out of work, broke and pretty much hopeless. Some people might have called him a loser or a bum. But as Jack was walking along the beach that day, he found a bottle with a note in it. Of course he was curious, so he pulled out the note and read it. It turned out it wasn’t a note after all. It was the last will and testament of Daisy Alexander. Daisy SINGER Alexander—the heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Here’s what it said: “To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen—share and share alike.” After it went through the courts, Jack inherited over 6 million dollars in cash and Singer stock. That was some kind of inheritance! Jack didn’t do anything to deserve it. He didn’t work for it, he didn’t earn it. By all accounts, he was a bum who didn’t deserve the time of day—much less an inheritance like that. But isn’t that just like us? Before Jesus saves us, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We’re spiritual bums. We don’t deserve anything except to be cast out of His presence. But He finds us and gives us an inheritance. An inheritance we couldn’t possibly earn. An inheritance that we could never deserve. So, what is that inheritance? You know, when Jack opened that bottle, he had no idea what the inheritance was. As he read the note, he had no idea it was worth 6 million dollars. Paul’s prayer is that we will know what our inheritance is. Our inheritance is the riches of the glory of Christ. I like how he put that. It’s like he stacks words upon words to try and get his point across. Our inheritance is Jesus Christ. But that’s not descriptive enough for Paul. He adds glory to it. So our inheritance is the glory of Jesus Christ. Wow—that’s magnificent! But even that’s not enough. He piles one more word to his description—riches. Our inheritance is the riches of the glory of Christ. See, he uses all those words, because our inheritance is really indescribable. Try describing a rainbow to a person who was born blind. Try describing the thrill of music, the sounds of birds singing or the tinkling of wind chimes in the breeze to a person who was born deaf. That’s like trying to explain our inheritance to us. Right before Judas betrayed Jesus. Just a handful of hours before He was led up Calvary’s hill to die for the sins of all mankind. Right before that happened, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed. John 17 records His prayer starting with verse 1: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Paul prayed that their eyes might be opened to their inheritance. Do we see heaven? Do we see the riches of the glory of Jesus Christ? Do we see our inheritance? Our inheritance which is the riches of His glory. The glory that Jesus prayed about before He spilt His blood for us. The glory of eternal life in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But not only did Paul pray their eyes would be opened to the grace of Christ and the glory of Christ, he prayed they would be opened to the greatness of Christ. The third eye opening petition is that the church might know the greatness of Christ.
READ EPHESIANS 1:19-23
I pray that we might know the greatness of Christ. Once again, Paul piles on words trying to describe the indescribable. He says Jesus has power. He has great power. He has exceedingly great power. And He directs that exceedingly great power toward those people who believe in Him. And He directs that exceedingly great power by the working of His mighty power. It’s like Paul tried to use every superlative he knew in one sentence. He said Jesus is really, super-duper, extra-extremely, hugely more powerful than anything I can think of. And when He saves us, He applies that power to our lives in a really, super-duper, extra-extremely, hugely powerful way. But if that’s where he left it, it would just sound like a really poorly constructed sentence. It would have about as much effect as when people today say something’s totally awesome. The word’s been used so overused on things that aren’t really awesome, that it’s lost its effect. But Paul goes on to explain the greatness of Jesus’ power. First, he describes the evidence of Jesus’ power as shown in His resurrection. Throughout history and even today, there are people who claim they can raise the dead. People will continue to make that claim, because when they fail, the stakes aren’t very high. The dead person’s still dead. No harm done. But no one is foolish enough to claim that they will raise themselves from the dead. If they do, medical science has a very technical term for them. They call them crazy. But God Himself raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That’s the kind of power Paul is talking about. The kind of power that will willingly lay down His life and take it up again three days later. The kind of power that emerged from the tomb that first Easter morning. The resurrection is the evidence of Jesus powerful greatness. Paul goes on to describe the position of Jesus’ powerful greatness. Right now, He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He is above everything and all things are under His feet. But we don’t see that right now do we? We see crime and violence and heartache and sickness and death. So how can we say that Jesus is far above all principality, and power, and might and dominion? That’s why Paul prays that we might see the greatness of Christ. It is so easy to get caught up in all the bad things that go on in the world and lose sight of the One who delivers us from them. But when we see the greatness of Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. When we see Him in His position far above all the rulers and powers of this world. When we see Him in His position far above evil and pain and sickness and death. When we see all those things under His feet, it gives us hope. And it gives us reason to praise. And it gives us a longing to be with Him forever in Heaven. In Heaven where there is no sickness or pain. Where there is no crime and violence. Where there is no heartache and death. The evidence of Jesus’ powerful greatness, the position of Jesus’ powerful greatness. Finally Paul describes the object of Jesus’ powerful greatness. All of this power. All of this might. All of this glory. It’s all directed in one place. His church. Jesus is head over all. And He is head over all to the church. Not just this church. But the church that is made up of all believers everywhere. The church is His body. It is His fullness. His fullness that fills up everything. There goes Paul again piling on words to try to explain things we can’t understand. But what we can understand is that Jesus Christ is the head of the church of all believers. When Jesus Christ saves you, He enters your life. At the same time, you enter His body as part of His church. You don’t become God. God doesn’t become you. But Christ now lives in you. And you now live in Christ. It is a mysterious union that we can’t fully explain. That’s why Paul prays for our eyes to be opened to the wonderful relationship we can have with Jesus Christ. That is my prayer for us this morning. My prayer is that we might know the grace of Christ. That we might know the glory of Christ. And that we might know the greatness of Christ. What do you know of Christ this morning? Do you just know about Him? Or do you know Him as your Lord and Savior? Is He the fullness that fills up everything in your life? Or is He just like some sort of baggage you drag around from place to place as you live your life the way you want to? Is He the One seated on the throne of your life? Is He in control? Or is He your spiritual Santa Claus? Your spiritual get out of jail free card? Jesus is Lord of all—there’s no denying that. But is He Lord of your life? Do you know His grace? Do you know His glory? Do you know His greatness?
