Right Living In A World Gone Wrong- Studies in Ephesians
Ephesians 1:15-23
William Randolph Hearst was a newspaper publisher who had millions of dollars, thousands of employees and a huge ego that sometimes created news in order to sell papers on a slow news days. He loved to indulge in any and every form of pleasure and self-gratification. He owned homes, yachts, businesses and estates all over the world. He also loved to collect treasures from all over the globe. One day, in reading one of his newspapers, he came across a story that described some illusive treasures that were being held in unknown locations. Hearst decided that HE must own them, and he sent one of his trusted aides off on a daring, around the world adventure to hunt down the missing treasures and convince the owners, by any means necessary that he must sell them.
After months of searching through the black markets of Europe and Asia, the agent came back to report great news - he had discovered that all of the items on the list were owned by the one individual – William Randolph Hearst! He had sent this poor man, and spent thousands of dollars seeking for treasures that he already owned! If he had just cataloged the items that he already owned, and then checked the log, he would have saved himself a lot of money and trouble.[i]
In the opening words of the letter Paul wrote to the church in the city of Ephesus, Paul has given a catalog of treasures that are the possession of every person who has believed on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He begins right away by identifying them as “saints.” Each of them, and every one of us who has believed on Jesus is a saint. We have been set apart by God for His eternal purposes. He follows that dramatic label with a long list of wonderful promises – that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, that God He has chosen us before the creation of the world (imagine that – God chose you before he created light and dark!) We read that God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight – God sees you, if you have believed in Christ, as sin-free - forgiven and holy before Him – isn’t that just amazing? Paul goes on to tell us that we have been adopted in to God’s family, that we have been redeemed and forgiven through Christ’s blood, that the riches of God’s grace have been lavished upon us, that we have been made aware of the mystery of his will, and that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit – who gives us a tiny hint of the fellowship that we will have with God one day by living within us while we are here on this earth.
It’s an amazing treasure! It’s almost too much to believe…in fact it is too much to believe! How many of us hear that list of God’s blessings and we get a little skeptical? Come on, I know that I do! Some days I want to just cry out, “Come on, Lord, how about lavishing some of those blessings on me today! I could really use them right about now!” It’s hard to believe that such treasures are ours now, let alone the amazing future that God promises us. As a result, many Christians live a life of faith, but it’s not a life of joy. It’s a life of belief, but is absent of abundance. As their pastor, Paul wants more for the people of Ephesus, and as your pastor, I want more for the people of Mayville.
That’s why, in his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul follows his great outline of God’s amazing blessings with a prayer – a very specific prayer for them. Let’s read verses 15-19 of Ephesians chapter 1:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in 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. 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, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. [ii]
Sometimes Paul’s writings can be a little long-winded. We have mentioned over the last few weeks that verses 3-14 were one long run-on sentence in the original Greek. The same is true of this prayer. When I read something like this, I need to read it over a few times in order to wrap my mind around the complete thought, and sometimes I have to actually get out a legal pad and diagram it. I did that with this prayer, and I want us to examine this prayer using that tool – I’ve given you a copy of the diagram in your programs this morning. So if you would like to take that out now, we can get started – It is my hope that this diagram will open up your understanding so that we can grasp the truth of Paul’s words. This is, after all, not only the prayer of a pastor for his congregation, but these words are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and as such they reflect the desire of God’s heart for His people.
To introduce this prayer, Paul says, “For this reason.” Paul’s prayer that is about to follow is based on the reality of what he has just shared with them – all those blessings we just recounted – that’s why I shared them with you for the third week in a row just a moment ago! Those blessings are the reality, and it is light of those facts that Paul prays this prayer!
Paul acknowledges first that they have faith in Jesus and love for each other; but he prays for them to have more than that. Faith in Christ is the starting point for the Christian life – Pauls prayer for the church at Ephesus, God’s desire for each of us, is that we move beyond belief – into a life of hope, joy and power.
His prayer takes two main directions. Thanksgiving and Intercession. First, he tells them that he has “not stopped giving thanks to God for them…” In many of his letters he refers to his ceaseless prayers. This is one such example. Paul was not only a faithful preacher and teacher – he was also a faithful pray-er. He prayed for the church at Ephesus to the point of “never stopping,” and “always remembering” them. He was both thankful for them, and interceded for them.
How thankful for the church are you? How often do you thank the Lord for the body of Christ – the church. I know it’s not perfect – after all, it’s filled with human beings, people who have skewed vision, deep wounds and individual agendas. But with all its flaws, the church is a the place where those flawed people can come and be real…I don’t claim to be a perfect pastor of a perfect church – but I can tell you that I am able to come with my imperfections, and in all sincerity love you and be loved by you.
Roy Smalley sent me a quote this week that spoke to this truth. It said,
How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.[iii]
When Scott Peck wrote those words, he was not talking about the church – his goal is to build secular communities with those values. But if any community on earth is capable of that type of association, it must be the church! We recognize our own unworthiness, we recognize and sympathize with the fallen and the failed. None of us deserves to be part of the family of God! But God has forgiven, accepted and adopted us, so we can forgive, accept and welcome others into our family! To have a place like that is a wonderful thing, and we must strive to make it a reality here at Gateway Community Church! Praise God for the church! Give thanks to God for your spiritual community!
Paul follows his prayer of thanksgiving with a prayer of intercession. He says, at the end of verse 16, and the beginning of 17, “Remembering you in my prayers, I keep asking…” He has two requests in his prayer for the church, which produce four results. First, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” (vs 17) Secondly, he prays, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” (vs 18)
The effectiveness of the church, and the blessings that Paul desires for them, are completely dependent upon the work of God in their midst. In this first request, we see Paul invoke all three persons of the God-head: God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” With our human understanding, there is no way we can grasp the things of God. We cannot hope to comprehend the workings and the thoughts of God on our own. The Holy Spirit opens our minds to comprehend, and reveals the truth of God to us. Paul further prays, “that the eyes of your heart would be opened.” I just love that phrase. Did you know that your heart has eyes?
Obviously, this is not speaking of your physical heart. We use the word heart all the time to describe our emotional center. “I love you with all my heart!” But in the Bible, the heart means even more than the emotions – it means the very center of who we are – our emotions, but also our mind and our will. I would imagine that you can think of people who had the eyes of their heart closed emotionally – they just don’t care about others. You probably have known people who have had their eyes closed intellectually – they won’t accept the truth no matter how much evidence you present to them – they are stubbornly going to stick to their conclusions – all facts to the contrary…
It is absolutely necessary that we be able to see with “the eyes of our hearts.” If we see only with our physical eyes, we will soon be overwhelmed by the events around us. Last Saturday the Gatekeepers men’s group saw a dramatic example of seeing with the eyes of the heart. We saw video interviews of two pastors – one from Baghdad, and one from Somalia. The African pastor was simply amazing. He stood in the burned out shell of what had been his church, and told of Muslims who had come and poured gasoline of himself and other members, herded them inside the building to burn it down. Several of his parishioners had been killed, he himself had been beaten, his church had been burned down.
But throughout the interview there was a smile on the face of that pastor. He literally glowed with joy and confidence! Why? How could he do that? He was under threat of death – he and his people were beaten, threatened and killed for their faith – how could he be smiling? Because he was seeing with the eyes of his heart. He had an eternal perspective on life. He knew that this is all going to burn one day anyway. He said he had actually challenged one of the attackers, “Go ahead and kill me, I have already died to this world already!”
Folks, when we begin to hear ourselves griping, complaining or worrying about this life, it’s because we are looking at our lives through the wrong eyes. We are looking at the material, the physical, the tangible – and that will soon derail our walk with God. We grumble about the person next to us at work, the price of putting gas in our three cars, the cost of heating our 4 bedroom homes, and the fast food that took 3 minutes instead of 2 and a half! Is it possible that we might not be seeing with the eyes of our hearts?
How was Paul able to write this letter, and so many others letters that speak of joy and thanksgiving, while sitting in a filthy Roman prison? He was looking through the eyes of his heart! He was able to put the things of this world in the proper perspective! Imagine if this church was filled with people who had the eyes of their heart enlightened! Try to think of what that would be like! It would be a church that would never have to worry about church growth! People would not be able to stay away from that church, and those people!
Paul’s two requests are connected to four desired results – all centered around knowledge. The first is found in verse 17, “so that you may know Him better.” This is the most important of all knowledge. Of course, we first know God in salvation – that’s where it must begin – do you know God? Have you met Him personally – asked Him to forgive and cleanse you and lead you? If not, that’s where it begins, but it goes on from there. Paul’s desire is that we know him better. “To know God is personally is salvation. To know Him increasingly is sanctification. To know Him perfectly is glorification.”[iv] We need to Him as our Father our Friend and our Guide and we get to know God better by knowing His word better.
The remaining results are found in verse 18: “that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.”
If you compare this list of the results with the list of the current reality that Paul describes in verses 3-14, you see lots of similarities. In the opening lines of this letter, Paul has described our amazing reality in Christ – but he realizes that we need God’s help to be able to see it. When I spent the last two weeks describing the amazing blessings and riches we have in Christ, I could see on some of your faces that skepticism that said, “Sure – where are those blessings in my life, Bob?! I don’t see ‘em!” It’s because we are looking through the wrong eyes.
Ø We look at the world instead of the hope of heaven.
Ø We look at our checkbook balance, our investment portfolio or our cash flow problems, instead of the riches of his inheritance.
Ø We look at our declining energy levels, our exhausting schedules and we are overwhelmed. We try to live life under our own power, rather than tapping into the “incomparably great power” that He has for us through the Holy Spirit living and working through us.
In the early years of the 19th Century, a young German boy named Heinrich Schleimann read Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey. While everyone knew of the great poems, no one believed they were based on anything real. But Heinrich believed that they were based on historic facts, and that the city of Troy really had existed in Greece. In 1873, after diligent study and hard work, he discovered the site of the ancient city, and became a famous and wealthy man because he had dared to believe an ancient record that others had read, but not trusted.
Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus, and this pastor’s prayer for Gateway Community Church, is that we will dare to believe the truth of God’s word, and that He would give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we would know Him better, and that the eyes of our hearts would be opened, so that we would know the hope of our calling, the riches of our His glorious inheritance, and His incomparably great power that He has for us. Will Paul’s prayer be answered in your life? And Mine? Will we, starting today, begin to know - by experience - God, His calling, His riches and His power in our lives? I pray, along with Paul, that we will.