That You May Know Him Better

Ephesians 1:15-23

Introduction

When Rosenort Fellowship began to talk about planting a church in Oak Bluff, I listened with interest and thought it was a great thing and so I have always wanted to come and visit and see what God is doing here. So I am glad to come and talk with you today.

Ephesians 1:15a seems an appropriate verse which expresses my feelings. It begins “ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” There are certain aspects of this verse that are true about me and how I think about you. I have heard about you and the faith you have. When the church was being planted and ever since then, I have prayed for you. It isn’t only the beginning of the prayer that strikes a chord with me, but also the content of the prayer Paul prays for the Ephesians. Paul had planted the church in Ephesus and knew the people there. He knew their faith and love and had heard that their faith and love were still active. Yet he continued to pray for them and desired that on the foundation of faith and love, they should continue to grow in their walk with God. That is also my desire for you. This morning, I would like to look at Ephesians 1:15-23 because it expresses my wish, my prayer for you.

God May Open Your Heart Eyes

Twice in this chapter, Paul mentions that he prays for the Ephesians. In verse 17 he says, “I keep asking…” and in verses 18 he says, “I pray…” I like the way he phrases his prayer in 1:18, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…”

There is a story in John 9 about a blind man who met Jesus. Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud and put it on his eyes. He told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash the mud off his eyes. When he did, he could suddenly see. The rest of the story tells of the encounters he had after he was able to see again, particularly with the Pharisees who were upset that Jesus had done this and did not want to believe what this implied about Jesus. The story is as much about the physical healing of a man born blind as it is about the blindness of those who could see physically and claimed to be able to see spiritually, but were really blind spiritually. In Ephesians, Paul prays not that they will have 20-20 vision with their physical eyes, but 20-20 vision with the eyes of their heart. He prays that the eyes of their heart will be open so that they will know God. What does it mean to know God?

How many of you know Milt Stegall? Of course most of us have heard of him, but how many of us really know him? For most of us the knowledge is pretty superficial. Some people know God only in this way - they have heard of him but they do not really know him. This prayer is a prayer to go beyond the superficial.

There is an excitement when a young man and woman first get to know each other. It is the joy of first acquaintance. When believers first come to the faith, they come to know God with the knowledge of first acquaintance. This prayer is a prayer to go beyond the knowledge of first acquaintance.

When a couple has been together for many years and have worked so that their relationship is a growing, loving relationship, we can say that they know each other well. Sometimes such couples say the same thing at the same time because their minds are so in tune with each other. It is this kind of knowledge of God which the writer desires for his readers and which we need. It is the knowledge of personal relationship. It is a real, deep and full knowledge. It is a dynamic and experiential knowledge. It is the knowledge of close friendship.

Do we know God in this way? Do we desire to know God in this way?

Paul’s prayer assumes that there is a gap in our lives. We have a desire to see God face to face – a desire which God himself has put within us, but as long as we are on this earth, we will not see God face to face. However, in Christ we have seen God and this prayer asks that we will see Him in our hearts and know Him more and more. How is this prayer answered?

My brothers brother-in-law is deaf and one day when we were visiting my brother, he was there. I would be totally unable to communicate with him because he can’t hear and I can’t sign. But my sister-in-law and my niece are very proficient at signing. Through them, I as a hearing person and he as a deaf person were able to communicate. What Paul prays for in Ephesians 1:17 is that God will give them the “Spirit of…revelation.” It is a prayer that the Holy Spirit will be the interpreter who will allow our hearts which are deaf to God to hear and know Him. The only way we will come to know God is if the Spirit of God does a work of illumination in our hearts.

The prayer also asks that God will give a “Spirit of wisdom.” Wisdom comes as we expose ourselves to the Word of God and as we experience God in relationship. As we walk with God, and apply his Word to our lives, He will make Himself known to us.

I love this prayer. I love the possibility of knowing God. I love the language which speaks of the eyes of our heart being opened. My prayer for you is that you will know Him better, that the eyes of your heart will be opened.

Knowing Him Better

But what are the specifics of that knowing? The next few verses mention three things. The prayer asks that they will know:

1. “the hope to which God has called them.”

2. “the glorious riches of his inheritance in his people.”

and

3. “his incomparably great power for those who believe.”

Hope 1:18

A while ago, I saw a special on TV about the actions of people who get lost in the bush. When they realize they are lost, they lose hope and they panic. As a result, their vision and focus is obscured. Some have been known to cross roads which would have gotten them out but they didn’t even see them. The loss of hope prevented them from healthy thinking and planning. People need hope. We sometimes lose sight of the hope we have. Knowing God is knowing that we have hope.

This is particularly important when difficulties and troubles strike. Sometimes, we have to go through life sustained by nothing but hope. For example, Abraham saw the fulfillment of hardly any of the promises which God had made to him. Hebrews 11:13 says that he and Isaac and Jacob all died without seeing the things they were promised. Yet they died in faith because they had a hope in God.

When we use the term "hope" we often use it in the sense of wish or possible expectation. Like, I hope the Bombers are going to win this afternoon. The Biblical use of the term "hope" is much stronger, especially when presented as it is in this text.

Biblical hope has three elements. There is the element of expectation by which we anticipate and expect that certain things will happen. There is the element of trust by which we believe, through faith, that these things will happen and there is the element of patient waiting by which we are aware that we may not receive the fulfillment of our expectations immediately, but only eventually.

This hope is rooted in the call of God, which in itself indicates that it is much more sure than merely a wish. God is the one who has called us to this hope as Ephesians 1:4 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

It comes to birth in us when we receive Christ by faith as it says in Ephesians 1:12-13, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."

This hope will climax on the day when we receive our inheritance which is assured in Ephesians 1:14, which says, "who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory."

To know God is to know that we have hope. It is a tremendous encouragement to have hope in a world which is full of fear and despair. When we wonder if our world will be destroyed by a natural disaster or if terrorists will strike or if we will get sick, we know that the future is not in the hands of random forces. As the song says, "I know who holds the future and I know who holds my hand."

Inheritance

The second thing the prayer asks is that we will know what is “the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints…”At first view, it seems that this simply repeats what was just said, namely that we would know what it is that we will inherit. But when we look at the wording of the text, it says something different. It does not say to know OUR inheritance, but HIS inheritance. Paul prays that the believers will understand what it is that God is going to inherit, and that is us. We, the people of God, the church, are God's inheritance.

I have sometimes thought about what I might inherit, but not very often thought that I, that we, are someone's inheritance, and not just anyone's, but God's!

Is God going to create for himself a shoddy and poor inheritance? The Bible talks about that inheritance as a beautiful bride, a glorious city. What kind of an inheritance is worthy of God? The text calls it a rich and glorious inheritance. Knowing something of what God is like, we know that it is a holy and pure inheritance. God is preparing such an inheritance for himself and we are that inheritance.

Do we really grasp the fact that we are God's holy and glorious inheritance?

What a wonder to know that this is how God thinks of us! What an exalted position this places us into! It helps us understand that God is much more involved in our life, much more concerned about us than we sometimes think. It encourages us to rest in Him, to obey Him, to love Him.

Having our eyes opened means that we understand that we are His inheritance. What kind of a difference will it make in the way we live every day when we come to have a clear knowledge that we are God's holy and glorious inheritance.

Power

Finally, Paul also prays that they will know the power of God available to them. "To know...his incomparably great power for us who believe."

At one time, I put some crushed rock on my driveway. I began by shoveling along the edges with a spade in order to remove the old shale from the driveway. That was better than trying to do it with my bare hands; my power was increased by what the spade could do. Then my neighbor came along with his front end loader and scrapped the rest of the driveway to clear off the old shale. This was much better than trying to do it all with a shovel. Again I increased my power by using the tractor. Later that afternoon, a tractor came with a large bucket. The whole four yard load of gravel, which I wanted put on the driveway, was in one bucket and with three sweeps along the driveway he had spread the crushed rock so that I had to do very little spreading with rake and shovel. Once again I increased my power by using an even more powerful tool. Each time I dwarfed the power I had with something more powerful.

The power of God dwarfs the greatest displays of energy among humans and angels. It speaks of “all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” There is a sense of fear in regards to the powers of the earth, but God's power is much greater.

The power of God has already been demonstrated. It is demonstrated in: Jesus’ resurrection (1:20); His enthronement (1:20); His absolute Lordship (1:21), His eternal lordship (1:21b), and His present sovereignty for the churches benefit (1:22,23).

When a prisoner faces his executioners, when a hold up victim looks into the barrel of a robber’s gun and when we hear of the attacks of terrorists, we realize that people have the power to kill. However, they do not have the power to make alive. Only God has the power to make alive. And he has demonstrated that power by raising Jesus from the dead. God's power is life giving power and that resurrection power is for us. God is the God of resurrection. He is the one who, as Ezekiel says, can make dry bones live again. He is the one who did make Christ rise from the dead.

God also has the power to set as ultimate authority the one He wants to rule. Having raised Him from the dead, God has placed Jesus Christ as sovereign Lord over all things. Christ's enthronement means that the world citizens have a new Lord.

Verse 21 goes on to describe that the risen and exulted Christ has authority far above everything. The totality of Christ’s power over everything else is emphasized by listing all other possibilities - rule, authority, power, dominion and every title that can be given. The authority and power of Jesus extends to all powers on earth - monetary power, political power and military power. His authority also extends to all powers in heaven - angels, demons and all possible powers. But as we read on, we also learn that His power is not only over this age, but also the age to come. All things are under His feet. He has absolute dominion and authority.

That is wonderful! Christ, the one who came to earth, who knows us and has lived with us, is Lord above all. But the truly interesting part of this passage is that, as verse 22 says, “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.” Did you catch that? Christ’s authority over all things is “for the church!” What are the implications of that amazing statement?

When we see the world in its present or in its past, what do we see as important? The world in which we live gives important place to nations. The running of nations, the interplay of one country with another, the G-8 summit, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Olympics in China - these are the things of consequence. These are the things that newspapers will record, that historians will write about.

But that is not God’s point of view. From God’s point of view, the thing that will be recorded for all eternity, the story that will be told in heaven is not the story of nations; it is the story of the church. John Piper said in a sermon, “The church of Jesus Christ is…more significant in world history than any other group, organization or nation. The United States of America compares to the church of Jesus Christ like a speck of dust compares to the sun. The drama of international relations compares to the mission of the church like a kindergarten riddle compares to Hamlet or King Lear. And all the pomp of May Day in Red Square and the pageantry of New Year's in Pasadena fade into a formless grey against the splendor of the bride of Christ.”

If we would only know His great power at work among us! What is possible since the Lord of all is at the head of our church? What power do we have since the power of the one who gives life is there for us? His power transforms us and enables us to live as agents of dynamic renewal in the context of unredeemed political, economic, social and cultural power. Instead of being anemic, we have energy. Instead of being weak we have power. Instead of being fearful, we have boldness.

To know God is to know the power of God available to us.

Conclusion

I was once on a canoe trip in northern Manitoba. We camped on an island near the north shore of Simonhouse Lake. There was no civilization for several miles and so when it got dark at night, it was dark. One evening, we lost something in the campfire area after dark and even though we used our flashlights to try to find it, we couldn't see very well and we couldn’t find it. The next morning, when the sun was shining, it was very easy to find because we could see everything well.

Spiritually, the same thing is true. The Bible speaks about those without Christ as being in darkness, unable to see the way things really are. As Christians, we have become children of the light. Despite that, we as believers are sometimes not fully aware of what is real. Living in the land of darkness, our eyes are not always fully opened to see the way things really are. We are influenced by the darkness. With shadows in front of our eyes, we sometimes live according to the darkness instead of according to the light.

My prayer for you is that God will open the eyes of your heart to know Him more. May you know the hope that is yours in Him, the glory of the fact that you are His inheritance and the power which is yours in Him!