Ephesians 1b - Paul’s Prayer for the Light to Go On - July 16, 2006
Good morning. Join me in turning to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. We have just begun going through this wonderful epistle of Paul the Apostle, written to Christians in the town of Ephesus, the capital city of Turkey or Asia Minor as it was known back them. Paul writes to those who have left idol worship -- as the town was the center of the worship of the goddess Diana or Artemis -- to those who have come to trust in Christ for salvation.
We mentioned last week that chapters 1-3 deal with doctrine, and chapters 4-6 deal with duty. 1-3 deal with who we are, and 4-6 with how we live. Ephesians has a lot to say about relationships, and chapters 1-3 talk about our relationship with God, and 4-6 with our relationships with each other.
Last week we looked at verses 1-4, in the Greek one single sentence, and we saw the key idea expressed in verse 3 - we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly realms. We mentioned that we live on a spiritual plane, and we look beyond just the blessings of health and money and family. We see that on a spiritual, supernatural level God has given us many blessings.
We saw that the Father chose us for salvation. The Father is the one who initiated our salvation and made it possible. And then He is also the one who made it come about, he predestined, He ordained beforehand that we would receive an “adoption”, the legal ceremony whereby a child received all rights to the father’s inheritance.
We saw that we also have blessings from Jesus Christ, God’s son. It is Christ who has redeemed us, offering us forgiveness by dying in our place on the cross. And it is also in Christ that we come to fully understand the will of the Father, whose desire is for everything in heaven and earth to be obedient to His Son, Jesus Christ.
We saw also that we have received blessings from the Holy Spirit, we has sealed us. The spirit identifies us as a Christian. Anyone who has not received the Holy Spirit is not a Christian. The spirit does not come as a “second blessing” but at the moment of salvation. The Holy Spirit is also our guarantee, our downpayment, our security that we WILL receive all that God has promised we will receive.
And because of all of these blessings, our response is to give praise to God. To load him down with our praises. I trust that you have been spending time this week giving praise to God for all that he has done for you. That is what we covered last week. Today we go on to the second half of chapter one. READ 1:15-23. PRAY.
As we saw last week, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. But knowledge alone puffs up, it builds pride in our lives. Instead, we need to DO something about it. It is not enough to know your blessings, but we must put them into action in our lives each day. James reminds us in 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. After considering all the blessings he has, Paul thinks about the Ephesian believers and what God has done in their lives, and he is moved to thankfulness and prayer. Paul has heard of their faith and their love - he saw results of their faith lived out in their lives, and this motivates him to pray for them.
Sometimes when we see little progress in an area, it can be hard to keep on praying. You pray for an unsaved boss, coworker, or family member, and they show no interest, so we end up making only a token prayer. But when we see someone who shows some interest, who is asking questions about the faith, who wants to know more, it makes us all excited. When we see God at work in our lives, it motivates us to pray all the harder. Paul has seen the faith and love of these Ephesians believers put into practice, and so he prays all the harder for them. Now let’s look at Paul’s prayer for them today. Because it is the same thing that we need to pray for ourselves today.
You’ve all seen optical illusions. We look at a picture, and over time we notice things we hadn’t seen at first glance. For example, look at this picture. What do you see? **show lady picture - an old lady or a young lady? How about this picture? **duck/rabbit What do you see, a duck or a rabbit?
Optical illusions are just that - illusions - things that deceive our sight, things that keep us from seeing clearly. And that is exactly what Paul prays for the believers. He doesn’t pray for them to GET anything new, because they have already received every spiritual blessing. We already have EVERYTHING we need. 2 Peter 1:3 reminds us His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, We don’t need to get anything else, but what we do need to do is to see what we already have.
Remember in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy seeks out the good witch, because she wants to go back home to Auntie Em. At the end of the story, the good witch comes and tells her that all along she had the answer in the ruby slippers she was already wearing. She just had to realize it and use the slippers.
God has given us everything we need for following him and living a godly life. We just need to understand that and use the resources he has put at our disposal. This morning’s message is not about us getting anything new, but about understanding what God has already given us.
And that is the key, knowledge, understanding. Paul gets very excited here in the end of chapter 1 as he prays for the believers and goes on into another of his long sentences. Verses 15 - 23 are all one sentence in the original language. Paul is praying for the believers, and his desire is that they KNOW what they have already been given. Look at the first thing. Paul prays for the believers . . .
1. To EXPERIENCE - verse 17 - I 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. Paul’s prayer is first that the believers may know God better. The word for “know” here is not the word for just an academic, intellectual knowledge. Rather it is the word for an experiential, relational, first-hand knowledge.
I could read a book on open surgery, and tell you step by step what to do to do a bypass operation. But until I had actually had first-hand experience in an operating room, I would never want to attempt to do bypass surgery on anyone. Book learning, academic knowledge is good. But experience goes a lot further. Experience teaches you what works and what doesn’t. Experience teaches you what you can rely on.
Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesian Christians would be given wisdom so they could KNOW God better, so they could know him on an experiential basis. Growth in knowing God is essential to growth in holiness. If you want to live for God, and become more like Christ in your daily life, it won’t just happen! You will need to DO something to make it happen. Unless something changes in your life, next year at this time, you will be pretty much the same person that you are right now. You’ll be struggling with the same issues. You’ll be falling into the same sinful patterns of behavior. You’ll be trying to get victory over the same spiritual strongholds in your life. Something needs to change.
And the key to that change is that we need to get to know our God better, experientially. We need to study God’s word. Because it is by reading and studying the word of God that God reveals himself to us. It is his love letter to us. We find out more about who he is and how much he loves us and how he wants us to live. We need to be intentional about prayer, not just asking for things, but having fellowship, a close relationship with God, sharing your heart and burdens and dreams with God and asking him to reveal his purpose and will to you. When God made Adam & Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden, he came down and walked with them in the garden, sharing close intimate relationship with them. God’s desire as we see looking through the whole panorama of Biblical history is that he desires a close relationship with us.
And that is Paul’s prayer. That we would experientially know God better. It’s something we never get finished doing. Paul spent three years in the desert in Arabia being personally taught by the resurrected Christ. And yet Paul’s desire for himself is expressed in Philippians 3 - I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. . . . I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, . . not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
As Christians, we continually grow in a deeper and deeper knowledge of our God. And when we think about what Paul prays for the Ephesians, these are the answers to some of the most basic attacks of Satan against us. One attack of Satan is to lie and tell us “You can’t know God.” People have bought into this lie for centuries, thinking that God was just an impersonal force, a great clockmaker who created the worlds and put everything into motion, but who was uninvolved in the lives of his creation. Thomas Jefferson believed this. Many others fall into believing this lie that they can’t really know God. We can just read about others who knew God.
The TRUTH is that we CAN know God, just as well or even better than any of the saints in the OT. Think of David, a man after God’s own heart - Enoch, who walked with God - Abraham, the friend of God. We have something that none of them had, the Holy Spirit indwelling us permanently. And through the spirit of God within us, we have fellowship with our God. The disciple John writes in 1 John 1:3 - And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Satan wants us to think that we can’t know God. The truth is we can know God, he wants to be known, he wants to reveal himself to us, and we need to grow deeper and deeper in love with him as a result of our experiencing him working first-hand in our lives.
What has God done for you lately? How have you experienced him at work in your lives. Take just a moment and think about that. What are you doing to KNOW him better. --PAUSE--
The second attack that Satan deceives us with is this: God doesn’t care about you! You’re not even a Christian! Satan gets us believing the lie that even if we could know God, God really wouldn’t want to have a relationship with us. He tempts us to think that even though we may have placed our faith in Christ, we have somehow sinned and lost our salvation. Now, this morning it may be TRUE that some of you are not Christians if you’ve have never personally committed your life to following God and trusting in him for forgiveness of sins. But for those of us who have made that decision of trusting Christ, we can be SURE of our salvation. That leads to the second thing that Paul prays for the Ephesians.
2. To Expect - Paul prays that we would know the HOPE to which we are called. Verse 18 - I 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. He prays that in our hearts - the center of our being - we would be enlightened. He prays that with our whole inward self, God would “turn the light on” for us. You know how it is when you’re struggling to figure out something, and then somehow something “clicks” and a “light goes on” and you understand the answer. It seems so simple and clear that you somehow wonder why you didn’t see that before.
A true story, one time a tractor trailer got stuck, it was going through the Holland Tunnel in New York City, and was too tall for the clearance. It crashed into the roof of the tunnel and wedged there. Tow trucks tried to pull it out, but to no avail. It was wedged tight. Policemen and engineers were gathered trying to figure out how to get this truck loose, when a young boy said, “Why don’t you let the air out of the tires.” They laughed at first, and then realized that if they let the air out of the tires, it would lower the truck, and then they were able to pull it out of the tunnel. A “light” went on, and then everything seemed so simple, so clear.
Paul prays we would have a “light” go on so we could truly know the hope we are called to. Hope in the bible is not just a wish, a blind desire. Rather HOPE is the confident expectation, the anticipation of what is coming based upon what we know to be true about our God. God has CALLED us, given us a secure salvation. This “calling” is not talking about our job, our profession, our calling in life. Rather this calling is the call to salvation. Romans 8 teaches those God has predestined to salvation, he also called, and justified, or made righteous in His sight.
Because God has called us and given us salvation, we HOPE - we confidently expect that God will bring about our complete salvation. At the moment of trusting Christ, we are saved from the PENALTY of our sins. Throughout our lives, as we trust Christ and obey him, we are increasingly saved from the POWER of our sins over us. And when Christ comes back for us, we will once and for all finally be freed from the PRESENCE of sin in our lives. I don’t believe in complete sanctification in this life, that we reach a point where we stop sinning. But I DO believe that one day we WILL come to a point where we are perfected when we are in the presence of our Lord and we are free from all sin itself in the beautiful home Christ said he was going to prepare for us. That is our hope, that we have been called, we have already received our salvation.
I believe that I already AM SAVED - I already have salvation. I don’t believe that one day in the future I will receive salvation, but that right now, even though I am still here in this sinful world, I ALREADY have been saved. John 5:24 says this - I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. It literally says that whoever believes - “has been passed” from death to life. It already happened. It took place at the moment I trusted Christ. I am secure in my salvation. The bible never speaks of “eternal security” but it does speak of “everlasting life.” And right now, I already have eternal life. I have already been passed from death to life.
Satan tries to tell us, You’re not saved, but Paul’s prayer, and our prayer, is that the light would go on and we would understand what is already true, that we are expectant, we have a confident hope of our calling.
Thirdly, Paul prays for us
3. To INHERIT - verse 18 again, I 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. Paul prays that we would understand how rich, how full, how complete is the inheritance that we receive.
Satan’s lie to us - It’s not worth following God. Satan tries to get us to think that HE can give us more than God. He tempts us with everything this world has to offer. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. He even tried it with Jesus. Jesus was in the desert, fasting for 40 days, physically weak, and Satan comes and tempts him. Luke 4 records the account: The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
Satan says to Jesus, there’s no need to go through with God’s plan - you don’t need to go to the cross. Just follow me and I can give you everything the world has to offer. But Jesus responded by using Scripture, scripture that he had memorized. It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
Satan tried this trick with Moses, but it didn’t work with him either. Hebrews 11 tells us of Moses He chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
Satan tries tempt us into sin and disobedience by getting our eyes fixed on all the “things” in this world. This week our dishwasher broke down. Our dehumidifier is constantly freezing up. Our furnace is leaking water in our basement. It would be easy to focus on money and all the things it could buy. But that is only a trick. 1 John reminds us The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever. We do not lived focused on the things of this earth, but we focus on the inheritance that we have been promised. We talked about that last week. Romans 8 tells us Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ - we are heirs together with Christ of an inheritance, as Peter tells us, that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice! Paul writes tot he believers at Corinth - No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.
Is it worth following God? Absolutely! We can’t even BEGIN to imagine the inheritance that God has prepared for us. And then the fourth thing that Paul prays - for the believers
4. For EMPOWERMENT - he prays for the believers to truly know the great power of God that is at their disposal. Look in verse 19 - and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Paul is so excited about the power of God here that he uses 4 different terms for power - and puts them all together in one phrasing. He is literally saying that he prays we would know the “exceeding greatness” of the “dynamite power” of his “energized working strength” that he has “prevailed manifestly” before us. It is such a great force that we can’t even begin to understand how great it is. The only illustration that Paul can give that remotely begins to help us understand it is how God displayed this power in Christ. All the miracles - blind men see, sick healed, lepers cured - all that was nothing. The power was truly seen when Christ, who died taking all of our sins upon himself, is raised from the dead, and placed above EVERY power in heaven or on earth. Above all kings and kingdoms, above angels and demons, above all spiritual forces, over all of time and eternity, only under the Father himself. That is the type of power that is available for us.
Paul has looked back from eternity past before creation and seen our calling to salvation, and he looks forward to the future and sees the inheritance that is ours. How do we get from our salvation to our inheritance? Only through the incomparably great power of God.
Satan tempts us to give in to despair. he tells us, “You can’t do it. You can’t live for God. You’ll fail. You’ll never be able to please God. You don’t have the ability or the strength.” But those are the lies of Satan.
The TRUTH that sets us FREE from the lies of Satan, is that we have a power in our God that is exceedingly, immeasurably great! There is no problem or obstacle we face that is beyond the power of God to overcome. He has shown the greatness of his power in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. And this power is available for us verse 21 tells us not only in the present age but also in the one to come. For TODAY and for all of ETERNITY to come, we rely not on our own strength, but on the invincible power of our God at work for us. Over in chapter 3, verse 20, Paul tells the Ephesians, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
So, Paul’s prayer, motivated by the good things he saw in the Ephesian believers is this:
•to experience a greater intimate relationship with God
•to anticipate with expectation the hope of our calling
•to know the riches of our inheritance, and
•to be empowered for life and ministry today and forevermore.
Concl: Now, the final thing I want us to consider today is this: we see Paul’s prayer, and we can say “Amen” - yes, that is what I want for my life - I don’t want to give in the the lies of Satan -
•that I can’t know God
•that God doesn’t care if I lose my salvation
•that it’s not worth following Christ
•that I don’t have the power to live for God
I want to believe the truth. But let’s remember this today: Paul is praying for the Ephesians. While I’m sure all these were his desire for himself, he prays these things for these other believers. Many times we focus on ourselves in our prayers. We pray for ourselves to have strength and hope and victory. But how much do we pray these things for others?
I would challenge you this week to pick one other person to pray for - someone not in your family, and get hold of God and pray for this believer to have victory in Christ this week. Pray specifically for the things Paul prays for in this chapter. You can even tell the person that you’ll be praying for them, and let them know you’ll be asking God to help them this week. Let’s not just be self-centered, but be other-centered and remember each other in prayer this week. Let’s pray together.
