Covenant College Chapel | Ephesians 1:15-23: No God Better

[Applause] water water good morning so you better hear from Colorado couple I I feel like I'm supposed to say thanks for bringing the snow but I'm from Colorado and I didn't bring well kind of from Colorado anyway so when I was in high school I spent nine three eleventh grade in just outside of Denver and when I woke up this morning I looked outside the window and had one of those sort of like temporal reality things where I really felt like a ninth grader again and it brought back this memory I had a dear friend Bill Lucas and Bill and I went to high school together and he lived down the street from me and we would hop over my back fence and then walk down the street to get the bus to go to school and when it would snow we used to get dropped off by the bus in my neighborhood and we'd act like we were walking away then we'd go back behind the bus and hold onto the bottom of the bus and like ride the bus there our neighborhood oh yeah we got to do things like that back but here so but here's the day that like I was actually thinking about this this morning so there was this one day where the bus dropped us dropped us off and we had ridden through the neighborhood and we let go like at the same spot because it's kind of where we let go and then we walked to our houses and one day bill didn't let go I let go and Bill just kept riding the bus and he went to a stop sign and then the stop sign you turn right and go down a hill and bill didn't even turn and look back or wave he just wrote it and you disappeared down the hill and I wondered will I ever see Bill again and I did the next morning anyway I hadn't thought about Bill Lucas for a long time so this morning I was praying for Bill Lucas so I pray that God is blessing builder because somewhere this morning we are going to be looking at a prayer of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter one over the course of last semester we looked at encountering Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and this semester we're gonna look at encountering Jesus Christ in the prayers of the Apostle Paul so we're gonna be sitting in Ephesians 1 so if you would we please pray with me our gracious Father please Lord to be gracious it's the one who speaks speaks your word and be gracious to those who hear I pray that you would open hearts and minds and that your Holy Spirit I would apply that which you have for us I'm here this morning lord please be with us and bless us by your spirit and in Christ's name Amen so way before we jump into the actual prayer just a little bit of context when Paul writes the letter to the Ephesians he's sitting in prison in Rome and he's gotten word of what's happening in the Ephesian Church it's been about eight years or so since he's been there and he's spent if you think back to Acts he's been almost three years in Ephesus teaching leading building up the church and the disciples in Jesus Christ it was one of the places where he did the most sort of concentrated teaching and he gets this word and he hears that in Ephesus the church is growing and believers are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and they're coming to know salvation through Jesus he hears that they're loving the other Christians that they're actually showing the marks of Jesus Christ in the way that they are loving one another so he pens there's just gorgeous beautiful letters so the beginning chapter one the first section is really Paul giving us a picture of salvation what these Christians have have come into as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and it's it's this picture from eternity past to eternity future it's a picture of what they've walked into and it's so it's Trinitarian it starts out with with Paul recounting the father's desire to choose us and to adopt us as sons and daughters talks about the sons of work of actually accomplishing that salvation through shedding his blood on the cross in our place paying a price that we could never pay for our sin the perfect sacrifice and then it talks about Paul talks about the work of the Spirit actually applying the work of Christ to our lives changing us giving us new hearts hearts of flesh there were once hearts of stone and the Spirit of God the actual Holy Spirit of God indwelling us as our hope as our sign as our mark for the redemption that is sure to come and then he begins to pray and here's what he prays he says for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people I've not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you and my prayers 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 so he's writing to the Ephesians he's writing to family he's writing to people who have come out of darkness into light he's writing to people who have experienced what he has he's writing to people who have gone from death to life and he says what I want for you above all other things is that you might know God better so I pray that the Lord that the father of glory will give you a spirit a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of Revelation because to know God better we need wisdom the Holy Spirit of God will give them wisdom and the kind of wisdom that God is praying that Paul is praying for is a godly wisdom it's a wisdom that gives us the ability to see as God sees to see the world to see creation to see people to see circumstances as they truly are a spiritual wisdom to see God's glorious hand and love in all things to see people who need grace and a love and who need Jesus to see snow and rejoice in its beauty to see reign and rejoice in the watering of the earth to see dogs and to marvel that God would give us these creatures who desire above all things simply to be with us and to be loved by us and to eat the potato chips that I drop on the floor but to see with spiritual eyes spirit given wisdom is the wisdom that sees the world as it truly is seeing good things for what they are good gifts from the hand of God but spiritual wisdom also helps us see hard things for what they are things that pain the loving father even more than they pain us spiritual wisdom is that wisdom that reminds us that hardship doesn't mean that the father doesn't love us spiritual wisdom is wisdom that helps us live in the paradigm where God allowed his son Jesus Christ to experience the worst evil the greatest injustice --is the worst suffering in all of history and to turn it to the greatest good in all of history the salvation of his people spiritual wisdom helps us to somehow understand and believe and hold on to the fact that while we don't know how God promises to work all things together for good for those who love God and are called to his purpose somehow all of this all of this everything that we experience everything that we feel everything that we go through go through the joys the sadnesses the tragedies that are unspeakable God will somehow turn those to the greatest glory for himself and it takes spiritual wisdom to see that it's the spirits wisdom that allows us to say that the Lord is my helper and I won't be afraid to know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus to know that even in the face of trial and suffering and tragedy he never ever leaves us and he will not forsake us so Paul wants us above all things to know God better and he knows it takes spiritual wisdom but he also knows that it takes spiritual revelation in order for us to know someone better that person must want to be known and must be willing to reveal himself and God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways he has to reveal himself to us and so he has in creation and the Spirit of revelation gives us eyes to see his glory and handiwork in his people the spirit the holy spirit of Revelation gives us eyes to see his image and his dignity in people ended in Jesus in whom the fullness of deity dwelt and bodily form here that in Jesus whom the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form and we see revealed in Scripture and the spirit allows us to see him as the king and Lord and Savior it's by the spirit of Revelation that the father introduced me to his son when I was a sophomore in college reading my dad's old Bible he'd had since he was a little boy the only Bible in our house reading Luke first and then Matthew Mark and John being introduced to Jesus Christ but that book that Bible right I had friends in college that would take Bible pages and tear them out and roll them into joints just as they're kind of sign of rebellion right but God through his spirit of wisdom and revelation saving grace to my life transforming my heart now I want to be really clear about what Paul is actually saying here when Paul is talking about this this personal knowledge he prays that you might know God better not know more about God right you hear the distinction there it's a very easy mistake to make it's one that I think plagues a lot of followers of Jesus Christ knowledge about is quite different than knowing and Paul is talking about knowing the father personally and intimately there's a fantastic example of this there was a great 20th century American philosopher by the name of Mortimer Adler you've probably seen some of his books around he wrote a book called how to read a book he was actually he was actually an expert on God he had written books like how to think about God a guide to the 20th century for the 20th century pagan truth in religion the angels and us and at 75 years old he decided to write his autobiography he figured he didn't have much time left that was a good point for him to do it so he writes it and it's called philosopher at large and intellectual autobiography but he wrote his autobiography a little bit too soon because when he was 82 years old he was in Mexico and he got violently ill and when he was in the hospital a Mexican pastor came and ministered to him he prayed for him talked to him shared hope in Christ and Mortimer Adler was so ill but the ministry of this pastor he had no idea who Mortimer Adler was he didn't know he's an expert on God but Mortimer Adler prayed the only prayer that he knew the Lord's Prayer and he says that when he prayed it he meant every single word and he came to saving faith in Jesus Christ he was born again he came to know God not just know about God and he said afterwards he said all my life I've been wrong about all of the most important things including the meaning of life and all along God was right the difference between knowing about and knowing it's it's relational it's personal knowledge it's intimacy so Paul wants them above all things to know God better and he continues to pray he says I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened because Paul knows that knowing the father will change your heart our hearts are alive by the quickening work of the Holy Spirit right turning what once was stoned to flesh but Paul prays then in a very deepest core of their beings that they will see with the divinely illuminated light that they'll actually see the world through the eyes of God himself and here's why he prays that they will see in order that they may know three things the hope to which he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe and notice he doesn't pray that they'll behave in certain ways the behavior will flow out of what they believe and what they know he wants them to know for these things to be woven into the very fabric of who they are as human beings and believers and followers of Jesus and the first thing that he wants them to know is know the hope that you're called to know the hope that you're called to now we may be tempted to immediately think of that which we hope for right but I think Paul is praying less about the things in which we are to hope and more about what kind of hope he prays that they will have the hope that we will have Paul wants us to know an intimate personal hope a sure confident unwavering unshakable hope Peter calls it a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead so it's not so much about the things that we're to hope in and hope for that's not what Paul's talking about here he's saying it's the type of Hope that I want you to have I want you to have a hope that you know that can't be shaken that no one could cast doubt on a hope again it's like woven into who you are personal knowledge I want you to know the hope into which he has called you and that is what Paul wants us to know a hope I hope that is sure and unshakable and it's sure an unshakable because it's guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead all right now just one quick word here about this intimate personal knowledge right we're going to talk about that relational personal knowing right it is not the heart over against the head and the mind it's rather the mind being transformed so that the heart may be set on fire does that make sense talking this personal knowing it's it's not setting these two at odds with the other it's the transformation of this so that this might be set on fire Richard Baxter an old Puritan he used to call it first light then heat and that's what he was talking about light heat and that is a good reminder for us as we follow Jesus you know the hope the type of hope you're to have and here's what your hope is to be in is I pray that you know the riches of the glorious inheritance in his holy people now there are themes of inheritance that course throughout the entire Bible beginning in Genesis chapter 3 when God clothes Adam and Eve as are cast out of the garden and looks forward to the day where we will be clothed in Jesus Christ receiving our inheritance as sons and daughters of the Father but the inheritance that Paul is referring to here is the glorious inheritance which is ours as adopted sons and daughters it's not land it's not riches it's not something that one will one day be gone it's not tangible it is nothing short of our promised eternal heritance inheritance Peter calls it an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade the inheritance is kept in heaven for you what he's talking about the inheritance this glorious inheritance is eternal life in resurrection bodies in the presence of the glorified Christ Himself where we see him as he truly is and where we will dwell forever the inheritance that he is talking about is the consummation of our salvation the summing up of all things in Christ and when we begin to talk about our eternal inheritance our eternal hope so often times I've wondered I'm I'm sure some of you have why doesn't scripture say more about it why don't we know more about what it's actually going to be like I think that there's only there maybe I think this is a fair answer I think that human words are incapable of describing the glory of what awaits us I think it is too great and it's too grand in the same way that there's no way man's eyes can look on God there's no way our finite minds can understand what actually awaits us the internal inheritance that Christ has gone to prepare for us Paul says I want you to know what awaits you the internal inheritance and the riches that come with it and the riches they're not tangible here but they're real right comfort a comfort that is divine and that we could never have without knowing what is coming right because as Christians we should have a better understanding of exactly how evil this world is and can be but we also know that the suffering of this present time it's not even worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed martyn lloyd-jones Martyn sorry Martyn lloyd-jones he said it is only men who have a complete view of life who really know how to live in this life and without an understanding of what's to come and the comfort that we have in what awaits us it's very very challenging to live in this life before us and then if there's any doubt in the grandeur of the or even awaits us right it's not a pie in the sky hope but it's something that is so beautiful and so glorious that we look to Jesus and scripture tells us that in Hebrews for the joy set before him he endured the cross and despised the shame of the cross how much greater is that which awaits us when our inheritance is actually the risen Christ Himself the glorified Lord and because it may seem daunting Paul prays that we'll know his incomparable incomparably great power for us as believers Paul prays that we may know and experience actually experience the mighty power of God if the supreme demonstration of his love is the cross then the resurrection is the supreme demonstration of his power and that power is at work in us resurrecting our dead hearts to new life dwelling within us to make the hope of Resurrection sure it's in us to persevere our hope and our faith the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us persevering us giving us faith the ability to believe the ability to persevere it's in us and it's for us to protect us from the devil not a protection from evil that removes us completely from it but instead Jesus tells us to expect that instead it's a promise of protection in and through it by the presence of the Holy Spirit in other words the power that dwells within us is able to persevere us and protect us that movie might hold on to the hope which we have in that which is coming in case we doubt how powerful that is scripture tells us Paul says that power it's the same as the mighty power that he exerted when he raised Jesus Christ from the dead and when when he seated him at the right hand of God above all things the same power that God the Father exerted in rising the son from the grave conquering sin and death actually dwells within us think about that there is nothing in this world that can separate us from that power and that love so Paul's prayer is that we will know God better and a fair question is why would he pray that above all other things it's because Paul met God face to face he met the Risen Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus he saw the resurrected Christ in his glory and he wants us to know him he wants us to know the hope that is sure he wants us to know what awaits us in salvation in Christ and he wants us to know that power which gave Paul the ability to look at wherever he was whatever was happening to him as glorifying God he wants us to know him because to know him is to love him when we know God better we love him better when we know the father we love the father and that is what he wants for us to fulfill the greatest command to love the Lord our God with all our hearts Souls minds and strengths amen amen let's pray Gloria's father our King and our Savior Lord please be gracious to us fallen and broken people who are so quick to wander so quick to stray I pray father that you would indeed give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation and help us Lord to see the world as you see it and to see it as it truly is I pray father that the hope which Paul speaks of is a hope that we have in our hearts hope that is woven into our beings I pray Lord that the glorious inheritance that awaits us would give us a comfort here and even a longing for that day when you return and lord I pray that we would know the power of your resurrection we would know the power that indwells us by your Holy Spirit that we might persevere despite ourselves lord please be with us bless us watch over us this day I pray in Christ's name Amen

Channel: Covenant College

Views: 241

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Covenant College, Presbyterian College, Christian University, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Macon, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham, Huntsville

Id: V1Axswj6sNM

Length: 24min 24sec (1464 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020