THANKING GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF FAITH
Ephesians 1:15-23
There is a terrible name that the world has put on the church, that accuses the church of being an entity that only cares only about its own financial position. Many believe that we are a selfish, money grabbing, judgmental people, with Rolls Royce driving, mansion living, diamond wearing preachers, who do not care about those who are financially challenged, but looks out for those who can solidify his financial base. Now I would be the first to say that in some churches this dark cloud does hover over them, but I can assure you that Salem is not one of them. Just the other day at church meeting we were made aware that one of the smaller ministries was interested in buying one of our vans, it was not in the best condition because it needed some work. The thing that made me glad was that the trustees voted to voted to give the van to the pastor and his ministry, rather than to sell them the van. This my brothers and sisters is one of the things that pleased my heart, especially when the people of faith invested in a smaller ministry, and by doing this it not only pleases me as the pastor, but I feel that it also pleased the Lord as well. You hear me say from time to time that “If we be a blessing, the Lord will make sure that we will always have a blessing to give” and from this act of kindness I promise you that the entire Salem Baptist family will benefit from it.
In this lesson we find the apostle Paul feeling as I do about the people of God. In fact we find him giving thanks to the Lord regularly in his prayers for their faith and their actions of love. I tell you nothing makes a church leader feel better than knowing that he is leading a people that not only have faith and love for the Lord, but they also love the people of the faith. So, Paul in his prayer is asking the Lord to give them the spirit of wisdom and the eyes of understanding through revelation knowledge.Now there are two prayers in found in this Ephesians: (1) he prays “that you might know,” 1:15–23; and (2) he prays “that you might be,” 3:13–21. The first prayer is for enlightenment, the second prayer is for enablement. Paul prays first that we might know what Christ has done for us; then he prays that we might live up to these wonderful blessings and put them to work in our daily lives.
So lets take a look at Paul’s prayer of enlightenment and discover the blessings that Paul through this prayer is asking of the Lord.
First of all he asked. . .
1. THAT GOD WILL GIVE THEM THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION KNOWLEDGE (vv.17)
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory; may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”
Paul, having written that the church is the body of Christ, and that God the Father planned it, God the Son paid for it, and God the Holy Spirit protects it, recognized that the Ephesians wouldn’t be able to understand all this unless the Spirit of God was their teacher and opened the Word of God to them.
Only the Holy Spirit of God can reveal the knowledge of God. Dr. Ironside tells a story of a man that move here from Ireland and live at his parents place. As a young preacher he would visit this man because he had been greatly used of God in teaching the Word. While Dr. Ironside would sit with him, he would open up the Scriptures in such an amazing way that Dr. Ironside one day asked him, "Where did you learn that?" "Well, "I didn’t get it by going to seminary because I never went to seminary. I never learned it by going to college because I didn’t go there either. No one particularly taught me. Rather I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There with my open Bible before me, I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul, and open the Word to my heart. He said that the Lord taught him more on his knees on that mud floor than he could have learned in all the seminaries and colleges of the world." And that is so true that we can learn to understand the word clearly by seeking the Lord’s guidance, than seeking letters of academia. So Paul prayed that they would have wisdom and the revelation knowledge of God.
Secondly, he prayed that. . .
2. THEY MIGHT KNOW THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING (V.18)
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
The N. L. T. says of this text, “I pray that your heart will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given those He called. His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.”
If we look at this text literally it reads, "the eyes of your heart being enlightened." It is not the eyes of your mind but the eyes of your heart that must understand. One can be very brilliant intellectually, but that is no guarantee that there will be an understanding of spiritual truth. Scripture puts more emphasis on the understanding of the heart than of the head. Paul writes in Romans 10:9&10, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” A preacher tells of a story about his minister of music who announced to the congregation that he could teach anyone to sing and the preacher informed the young man that he had a student because he could not sing, not one note. In fact he was glad that we are saved by grace and not by notes we sing. So they started the lessons and after a month the music directed admitted that he was wrong. And the pastor asked him was there any hope for him. The music director responded by telling him that there was one way for him to learn how to sing and that would be for him to be born with better genes. Now the preacher did not take that as a insult, but he used it as an illustration, because it is true that we cannot learn anything with our minds but we can learn through the spirit that is within our hearts. As far as spiritual knowledge is concerned, no person can understand it apart from the Spirit of God. This is what is told in 1Corinthians 2:9-10: "But as it is written, Eyes hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." My brothers and sisters we should let the Spirit of God teach us. We should spend time in the Scriptures. And when we come to a particular passage of Scripture, that you do not understand and you read it over and over again and still don’t understand what it is saying to you, then get down on your knees before the Lord and ask him for understanding. This is what I do. He teaches me, and I know He will teach you. That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is in the saints.
Finally, he prayed that. . .
3. THEY MIGHT KNOW HIS AWESOME POWER (v.19-23)
“And what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, 20. Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 21. Far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; 22. And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, 23. Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”
My brothers and sisters the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is available for our daily lives! Christ has already won the victory over sin, death, the world, and Satan. We as God’s people do not fight for victory, but we fight from victory. We should understand that Jesus has already obtained, the victory for us, and while we are in Him and He is in us and according to Ephesians 2:6 has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Him, we are more than conquerors. We are seated with Him in the heavenlies, where there is power, peace, and victory.
Paul concludes on a tremendously high note. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church. Someday everything is going to be under Him. The writer to the Hebrews makes it clear, "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him" (Heb. 2:8).
At the present time the only thing that is under Him is the true church. There are many organized groups who call themselves churches who are not listening to the Lord Jesus. These churches are paralyzed and cannot move because of their disobedience. Had you ever witnessed a person that has had brain damage either from a car accident on a fall. This year there was a football player for the Buffalo Bill who was covering a punt return and he, while tackling the ball carrier, somehow experience a terrible head injury. I thank God today, because the early prognosis was that he would never walk again or even have the activities of some of his bodily functions, but God, had other plans for this young man. But to get back to the story, he in an interview after his miracle, said that when it happened he said to himself “get up”, but he could not. He said that it was if his brain in his head was disconnected from the rest of his body, his body would not respond. I thought about that statement and realize that, that is the way some church people are, as if they, like this player had said of his head and body, was disconnected from one another. You see when you are disconnected from the Head who is Christ, you are disconnected and the body is powerless without the head. I hope you get that.
CONCLUSION
Well before I take my seat, I need you to know the simplest of illustration. One day Aunt Pearl had me and Junebug helping her catch dinner, which that night was chicken. This was the same instance when Junebug and I watched Aunt Pearl wring some chickens necks and we thought we could do it, and got a whipping because we without permission tried it and all we did was broke the chickens neck and left them in the yard dead. But we were helping her catch dinner, and as I think back I remember Aunt Pearl wringing those chicken necks and snapping its head from its body. Now when this happened, the headless chicken would run around the yard for a moment before kneeling over to die. The reason it died is because its head was separated from its body. Likewise when the body called the church is separated from the head called Christ, the church much like that chicken is just running without purpose before it dies. But when we are connected. The body would do as the Head says. If the Head says to pray, the body gets into position. If the Head says to forget not to assemble yourselves together, the body will come together in worship. If the Head says, make a joyful noise, the body will give Him the highest praise.
But we must learn to thank God for the people of God.
I thank God for Sis. Childress who makes sure that I have a clean handkerchief.
Thank you, for Sis. Smith for her words of encouragement.
Thank you for my wife, who stands with me in the ministry.
Thank you, for the Deacons, that work with me and not before me.
Thank you, for Deaconess Venable, who brings me fruit to keep me healthy.
Thank you Lord, for Salem Church that allows me to have family time without interrupting. Thank you Lord!
