Ephesians - Lesson 8

In Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 to 23, Paul moves into a series of statements in which he prays for the Ephesians. So we're moving from this doxology where he praises God for these spiritual blessings that we have as followers of Christ, as Jews and Gentiles in Christ, to now expressing prayer for these Ephesians. And Paul prays for them to basically understand the spiritual blessings that they've received in Christ.

He wants them to have spiritual insight and wisdom if you look at the way in which he prays. So he says in verse 15, he begins this prayer. So I'm identifying verses 15 through 23 in this way, because of the spiritual blessings that the Ephesians received in Christ, Paul prays for them.

In other words, the basis upon which he prays is God's work for them in Christ. So he begins in verse 15 by saying, for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Let me stop right there and we'll finish the rest of the verse in a moment.

But I want you to notice the reason for which he begins to pray. He prays because he heard about their faith in Jesus. As he says it here, the faith that you have in the Jesus Christ.

So one reason for which he's going to pray is they have a clear faith in Jesus. There's no question from Paul's perspective whether they have such faith. One reason why there's no question is because he states in the doxology that God chose them in Christ.

He predestined them in Christ and redeemed them in Christ. And they heard the gospel and they responded to it and believed it and they were sealed by the spirit. So it's a word of encouragement to us is that as Paul can be confident in the salvation of the Ephesians because of what God's done for them in Christ, we can also be confident in our own salvation because of what God has done for us in Christ.

So notice he says, I pray for you because I've heard of your faith in Jesus. But notice what else he says. He says he's also heard about their love for all of the saints.

So important. The SV says it this way, your love toward all the saints. One way in which in Paul's view, faith in Jesus is manifested is by means of loving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And in this particular case, Paul says that their love for one another is a reason for which he does not cease to give thanks for them in verse 16. So part of the prayer is to thank God for them. But part of the prayer is also going to be he's going to pray for them, but he's thankful that they have faith in Jesus and that they love the saints.

Let's think about love for a moment in Ephesians. Paul has already said that God chose us in love. And so notice how in 1-4, he links the word love with an action that God chose us in love.

And if you take the in love with chosen, then he chose us in love. But even if you take it with predestination, he's still showing love by choosing to do something on our behalf with respect to salvation. Likewise, I think when we think about love for one another, that love is fundamentally connected to a behavior and action that we have, as he says here, toward all the saints.

Of course, when we love someone, we feel certain emotions for them. I love my son. I love my my wife.

When I think about how much I love them, sometimes I'm moved in my affections in a way that I'm not moved when I talk about my love for homemade pizza or when I talk about my love for something that I enjoy. My love for my son or my wife moves my affections in ways that other kinds of things that I enjoy do not. But for the most part, it seems to me that when Paul thinks about love here and when he thinks about it in his theological framework, that it's connected to an action.

Romans 5, 8, for example, God demonstrated his own love toward us like this. While we were yet sinners, Christ died. God's love was demonstrated in Christ dying.

And for God so loved the world, John says in John 3, 16, that that he gave his son. So here Paul says, I thank God for you. And I remember you because of your of your faith in Jesus and your love toward all the saints.

So evidently, the the Ephesians showed their faith in Jesus by how they love these other saints, maybe pursuing love in the way that Paul talked about in the letter later, as he encourages them to walk with one another in humility and and patience, so on and so forth. And Paul expresses here he he is moved to thank God for them when he prays because of their love for all the saints. It's a very important statement here.

He doesn't say for some of the saints that are in this the Ephesian assembly, the the the saints in Ephesians could have been a circular letter to a variety of different churches in Ephesus. But the point that I'm making here with what he says is that he doesn't seem to indicate that their love discriminated against other believers, perhaps who may have annoyed them. But they had a love for all the saints.

It is true that sometimes all in the Bible does not mean all. Sometimes the word all means some. But I wonder here if, in fact, the term all does mean all in that they had a kind of love for believers that they showed even for those who may have been difficult to love.

And he thanks God for them in that regard. He says in verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you when I pray, remembering you in my prayers. Verse 16.

Now, I think Paul was a prayer warrior. He talks about praying without ceasing in his other letters and the Thessalonian correspondence. And I think by which he likely means that we should have a persistent prayer life as followers of Christ, whereby we are in a rhythm of prayer, in a in a persistent pattern of prayer as we live and move and have our being in the world.

It doesn't mean that we only pray every day, but it does mean we are persistent in prayer. And one thing he seems to do quite often when he prays is thanks God for those for whom he prays. In fact, he says in verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my my prayers.

One healthy thing to do, I think he instructs us here by way of application, one healthy thing to do as believers, as we pray for other believers, is to thank God for them, to thank God for their gifts and their love or their their patience, their kindness, to thank God for their their ministries. I think we should pray that way, perhaps for our enemies that manifest. We want God's favor to be shown upon them, even though they might not love us.

And, of course, we pray for God's divine justice to be poured out on them if they don't repent, namely our enemies. But the point I'm making is, is that we can pray God's favor upon our enemies in a way that is also maintaining a desire for God to do what is right on their behalf, to give them the judgment that they deserve if they don't repent. But for believers, we should pray that we would be thankful for them.

Thank God for them when we pray. Thank God for that brother or sister who prays for us, who's kind to us, who who loves us. I have in my life many brothers and sisters who pray for me regularly and have one faithful senior saint will always reach out to me and say, I'm praying for your preaching.

I'm praying for your teaching. I'm praying for your family as you travel. And it always encourages me when I see those comments in a in a message that I'm praying for you, my son in the faith.

And when I when I think about these kinds of believers who who pray for me, it should move me to thank God for them, to thank God for their persistent prayers for me and for my life. And Paul says he thanks God for them when he remembers them in his prayers. And notice in verse 16, he's he's thanking God for them when he prays.

But now I think in verse 17, down to verse verse 19, he's going to give us some content that is for what does he pray? So we know he thanks God for them in verse 15, but I don't think he's giving us the content of his prayers. He says, I do thank God for you when I pray. But then he's going to say, when I pray that here's the that for which he prays, he prays.

Notice verse 17, that the God, verse 17 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice he switches from the father of our Lord previously to now the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Let's think about that for a moment.

It seems to me that what Paul for which one thing for which Paul is praying is, is that the Ephesians would have spiritual insight, insight that comes from the spirit. He wants them to have an understanding of this mystery that God has been revealed. He wants them to understand what it means to to walk in light of this mystery, to walk in light of these spiritual blessings that God had given them in Christ.

That's why I think he uses that word there, revelation, to talk about a wisdom and a revelation in the knowledge about him. This is supported in verse 18, where he says, here's further what he's what he what he's asking the Lord to do. He wants God to open the eyes of their heart, verse 18, that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened.

Let's pause there for for a moment. I just want to say, wait a second, Paul, you just made the argument that God chose the Ephesians in Christ, that he predestined them for adoption, that he redeemed them through the blood of Jesus, that he sealed them by the spirit when they heard the gospel and believed. It seems to me, Paul, that the fact that they received these spiritual blessings in Christ demonstrates that they are enlightened, they have been awakened or illuminated with respect to God's calling, that the eyes of their hearts are awakened, that God has done something within them.

I think Paul would say, yes, that's true. But here's something very important that we need to understand, that Paul is praying that they would understand what they understand. He's praying that they would understand what God has done in their lives.

In fact, God has worked in their lives. God has given them spiritual insight. God has revealed to them the mystery of his will.

God has sealed them with the Holy Spirit. God has done great supernatural things for them by his own insight and wisdom. And now Paul is asking God to work in them so that they would understand what they understand, so that they would continue to be awakened to the reality of what God has done for them in Christ, that their eyes, yes, have been opened and he wants their eyes to continue to be open.

So he prays, verse 18, that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. Stop right there. So important.

This word calling that Paul uses, the hope of his calling in the Greek text, it's a noun that has a sort of verbal flavor to it. Calling has an action to it, like the word love. Love's a noun, but it's a verbal noun.

It's not an infinitive. To love would be an infinitive, a verbal noun in terms of the form. But there are nouns that have a verbal action to them.

And here we have such a word as the word calling. And it's notice the hope of his calling. He wants them to understand that God has called them.

The question for us is, to what has God called them? He has called them to live in a certain pattern of life. So let's think about calling for a moment. And I want to support what I just said with a couple of verses in Ephesians.

We talk about this in Christian circles and seminary circles about calling into the ministry. Like I tell people, I was called into the ministry when I was 19 years old, roughly a year or so after I gave my life to Jesus. I didn't understand what calling to the ministry meant.

I talked with my pastor. I sensed my affections were changing. I thought the Lord was calling me and my home church evaluated me, walked with me, helped confirm that calling so that they identified that, yes, the Lord was giving me the invitation and equipping me with some gifts that confirmed he was setting me apart for vocational Christian ministry.

And my church helped me to think about what that looks like and what that would mean. That's one way we talk about calling. We also think about calling in our context today as I called someone.

I picked up the phone and I called them to have a conversation. Or we might think of it in terms of an external invitation to do something. I called you to come to the dinner tonight or to go to the game with me tonight.

But that's not what Paul means by calling here. When he talks about calling here, I think it's linked with what he says about their hearts being enlightened. And more specifically, it's linked with what we might say an effectual calling.

This calling that Paul is talking about here is a calling from death to life. It's a calling that is linked to their inheritance. It's a calling that's linked to God's redemptive purposes.

It's a calling that transforms the human heart. You see that calling, I think, expressed without the word in a call in Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, where God is raising to life spiritually dead people. But if you jump ahead again to chapter four and you notice what Paul says in chapter four, when he uses both the verb to call and the same noun calling that Paul uses in chapter one, notice chapter four, verse one, again, he says, therefore, I exhort you, the prisoner in the Lord to walk in a worthy manner of the here's the noun of the calling.

And here's the verb of which you were called. So notice the passive nature of the verb. You were called.

That calling is not simply a calling that gave to us an invitation to follow Jesus. It's a calling that God gave to regenerate the heart to, as he says in chapter one, verse 18, to enlighten the eyes of our heart to, as he says in chapter two, he, he called us, that is he raised us from death to life. It's a, it's an effectual call.

It is a, a call that regenerates. It is a call that once it's given results in a response of faith to the one who is creating the call within the hearts of those who receive it. And so as a result of that calling to which you've been called for one, the expectation is, and one has the ability to walk with humility, with patience, with gentleness, enduring one another in love, to hasten to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

He goes on and says, because there's one body and one spirit, just as it is again, here's the verb, you were called into one hope of your calling. So notice he links the calling with a pattern of living in humility and love. And then with the hope as well that we have in Christ.

Remember, he talks about hope earlier in chapter one, regarding the Jews being the first to hope in Christ. And then he talks about in chapter one that he wants the Ephesians to understand what is the hope of their calling. That is the hope, the certainty of their calling in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

So Paul says in chapter one, in my reading that he wants them to verse 18, have their eyes enlightened so that they may know what is the hope to which he has called them. So that he would, that they would know what they know so that they would understand what they would understand the hope to which he has called them is a confident expectation that they will receive an inheritance. And Paul talks about hope in his letters.

He does not use the term hope to communicate uncertainty. I say this every single year around October. I hope the university of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team will win the national championship this year.

But there is a sense of uncertainty by the way I use that word hope, whereas in the Bible and particularly in Paul's writings and here hope carries with it this idea of certainty, confident expectation that what God has promised to do, he has done. In fact, that's the definition I think we have here because the hope of their calling is linked with the guarantee of the spirit back up in chapter one and the previous verse in verse 14, that the spirit is the down payment of our inheritance. And then one 13, you were sealed by the Holy spirit of promise.

So notice that the hope of the Ephesians calling is linked with certainty because it's anchored in God's redemptive work in Jesus. And the seal of that work is the spirit. So he wants them to understand, to know what is the hope to which they've been called, the certainty to which they've been called.

They've been called to this eternal inheritance, this eternal kingdom in Christ, Jesus, the, the Lord, but he continues in chapter four or excuse me, chapter one, verse 18 to express further what he's praying that they understand. He prays that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, that you would know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Another way to think about it is the glorious inheritance amongst the saints.

I think this is another way for Paul to emphasize that he is praying that they would understand these redemptive promises in Jesus, that they would understand the, the wealth of what God has done for them in Christ. If you look at the word riches there in verse 18, it's the same Greek word that Paul used earlier in Ephesians chapter one, when he was talking about the, the gift that was bestowed upon us in verse seven, when he says in verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, namely the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to here's the word, the riches or the wealth of his grace, the wealth of his gifts. So if you go back then to verse 18, it seems to me what Paul is praying for them is, is that they would understand the magnitude of that glorious gift, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

He wants them to understand the massive power, fullness of what God has done for them in Christ, that he has chosen them and what that means that he has predestined them and what that means that he's adopted them and what that means that he's redeemed them and what that means that he's provided the blood of Christ for them and what that means that he's predestined them to be the recipients of an inheritance and what that means that he has sealed them with the spirit and what that means and that he has the, the, uh, they have the certainty of their inheritance and what that, that means. He goes on and says that verse 19, he wants them to understand what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. Now you look at verse 19, it's emphasizing once again with these different things that he's saying about God's redemptive work in Christ that Paul basically wants them to understand that redemptive work, but he keeps piling on statements to explain that redemptive work, hope of a, of a calling glorious inheritance amongst the, the saints and the immeasurable greatness of the power toward us who believe.

Now notice this language here toward us who believe that particular preposition in the Greek text could also be translated in us who believe. Of course, there's another word that typically means in, in the Greek, in the, in terms of a preposition, but this particular work could also mean in us who believe. And here's a case where I think it might mean in us who believe because he links this phrase with another phrase that describes God's power and the strength of his might, which Paul says later he works in Christ.

So it seems to me that Paul is, is asking God to, in his prayer life, to help these Ephesians to understand the comprehensive immeasurable greatness of the supernatural redemptive power that he has manifested in those who believe. And they believe, notice at verse 19, in accordance to the working of his great might, the working of his great might in those who believe, of course, for those who believe, but God has worked in those who believe as well. He's praying that God would enlighten them.

He says later that God works in them, chapter two, that he raises them from the dead. He already said that God gave them the spirit. Every single redemptive work of God in Christ is something that God has worked in all who believe.

Now notice the word believe here. Faith is a very real personal experience, but notice that it's linked to God's work. He manifests immeasurable greatness to those who believed.

We heard the gospel and we believed it, he said in the previous verses, and he's working in us who believe and he's doing it according to the working of his great might. I'll pause there for a moment and say a few things about God's work before we get into verses 20 down to verse 23. While human beings are certainly included within the redemptive plan of God, that is, we are real agents in God's redemptive work.

We must believe. I just want to remind you again to see the emphasis that Paul makes on God's work. It is God's sovereign work, his desire, his will, his glory, his good pleasure, his power to manifest his redemptive purposes for his people.

Paul is giving God all of the glory. Have you noticed as we've worked through the letter thus far together, he's given human beings none of the glory independently of our sharing in glorifying God. That the glory that's received is received by God from us who believe for the praise of his glorious name.

Of course, we receive honor from God when we believe. The honor is eschatological eternal life and salvation. But my point is this, that Paul is making a very robust theocentric argument about God's redemptive plan, and he's placing the accent on God's supernatural power.

And now he's going to describe that power for us a bit. In verse 20, he's going to talk about the power that God displays when he works in us who believe. He displayed it when he raised his son Jesus from the dead.

So verse 20, he's now going to explain that power. So in verse 20, you see in the English translation there, if you're looking at the ESV, the word that also translate that word, that word which. And a question comes to what does the word which refer in the previous verses introduces us to a series of statements, I think that will explain God's power, his supernatural power back in verse 19.

So God is working in those who believe according to the supernatural power or the energy of the strength of his of his might. So the the the energy of the strength of his might, the strong energy of his might. So it seems to me, verse 20 is is is linked back with the word that or which to God's power or his strength, his sovereign power.

So his sovereign power, he worked in us in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead. OK, let me point out something to you that helps us understand the way I'm reading the verses. So here in verse 20, he makes reference to God working in Christ Jesus, having raised him from the dead that he he worked in Christ.

And he uses a typical preposition here to talk about God's work in Christ. And he talks about working to raise Jesus from the dead and back up in the previous verses while he uses a different preposition to talk about, in my view, God working in those who believe. The point that I want to make here is, is that Paul is talking about the power within Jesus is the same power that God displayed when he worked in us or showed his work toward us redemptively when we believe.

And so he says in verse 20 that he worked in Christ. Now, how did God work in Christ? He worked in Christ, having raised him from the dead. When we see the resurrection of Jesus, we see on display God's supernatural power.

The resurrection is a miracle that a man was hanged on a cross. He was basically lynched by his opposers and he was dead. And John's gospel shows us emphatically that he's dead as all the gospels.

But John especially has this scene in John's gospel where a spear was rammed in his side to prove, in my view, that John was both an eyewitness and that Jesus is in fact dead. When he when he dies, blood and water flow out of his side and he doesn't respond to the spear being pierced in his side because he's dead and they put him in the tomb and the tomb is sealed and he is dead. But God showed that his power triumphs over the power and the enemy of death.

Death saints is not our friend. First Corinthians 15, it is an enemy. And God defeated that enemy on Sunday morning when he raised Jesus from the dead.

And when he raised Jesus from the dead, he displayed his supernatural, immeasurable, abundant power that he displayed toward us and in us who believe. But it doesn't stop with the resurrection because after the resurrection, God also showed his power when he both raised him from the dead and then seated him at his right hand. Watch it in the heavenly places.

Let's count there for a moment. So I think here in verse 20, when he refers to God raising Jesus up and seating him at his right hand, I think this is language that comes from Psalm 110 verse 1. So if you turn to Psalm 110 verse 1, this is what we would call, I think, a psalm that is a messianic psalm. It's an important psalm, Psalm 110 verse 1. It's a psalm that pops up quite a bit in the New Testament.

And in Psalm 110 verse 1, you have the psalmist making these statements. He says, the Lord says to my Lord. So Yahweh says to Adonai.

And here's what Yahweh says to Adonai. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now as the psalm goes further, it emphasizes the rule and the reign of this what I call a messianic ruler who shares in Yahweh's divine identity, how he is reigning.

In verse 2, the Lord sends forth, Yahweh sends forth in verse 2 from Zion, your mighty scepter. Your refers to Adonai. The Lord, Yahweh says to Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool under your feet.

And the Lord, Yahweh, is saying to Adonai, in that verse, that you're going to rule, verse 2, in the midst of your enemies from Zion, that your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in your holy garments from the womb of the morning. The dew of your mouth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever after the order of Mechizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook, by the way, therefore he will lift up his head.

Well, I don't have time to expound every part of this psalm, but some points I want to highlight is this very fact that the psalm emphasizes that Adonai, who is at the Lord's right hand in an exalted position, reigning exalted with Yahweh at Yahweh's right hand, sovereign over his enemies, enemies beneath his feet, triumphantly reigning over them. He is given power by Yahweh to rule as he shares in Yahweh's divine identity. We see in Ephesians 1 that Paul is basically making this point about Jesus, that Jesus is the other Lord.

Adonai says to, or Yahweh says to Adonai that Jesus is that other Adonai to whom the psalmist is pointing. And he's reigning at God's right hand and God manifested his power in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in this triumphant place of victory. If you look at these extra biblical psalms, not the psalms in the Old Testament, but these psalms in extra biblical literature known as the Psalms of Solomon, you'll see that there are two psalms that we call psalms about the Messiah, Psalms of Solomon 17 and 18.

Now, again, these psalms are not canonical psalms in the Bible. These are part of a tradition known as the pseudepigrapha, false writings that are important nevertheless for understanding the Second Temple Jewish context in which the New Testament text was living and moving and having its being. And when you think about the Psalms of Solomon and what they say about the Messiah, they are asking the Lord Yahweh to send the Messiah who's also identified as the Lord, but who is distinct and separate from the Lord to whom they're praying.

And he is being petitioned by these psalms to send the Messiah to crush their enemies in the context of the psalms, those particular psalms. Many scholars believe that they were a response to an invasion of Rome by this general named Pompey, who around 63 BC entered into Judea and entered into the holy place as a symbol and a reminder of Judea's official subjection to Rome's rule over her as a people. And in response to that desolation, that abomination of desolation, that act of a Gentile going into a place where he ought not to go.

These Jews, according to some scholars, are praying that the Lord Yahweh would send the Lord Messiah to destroy the Gentiles is basically what they pray. And we see them ultimately in those psalms reflect reflecting also on Psalm 110 verse one as they offer that prayer. We see the prayer also in the gospel.

Psalm 110 verse one pop up as Jesus talks about the fact that David is a king, but the Messiah cannot be his son because he's his Lord. He's picking up on Psalm 110 verse one. And then you have Peter citing the psalm as well when he's preaching the famous Pentecostal sermon in Acts chapter two.

And he says that God raised him from the dead, this Jesus whom you crucified and has made him to be both Lord and Christ. Well, here in Ephesians chapter one, Paul, I think is applying Psalm 110 verse one to Jesus. And he's identifying Jesus as this this Lord who is seated at God's right hand.

And the reason why he's seated at God's right hand is because God is in agreement with who Jesus is. And he shows that agreement by means of raising him from the dead. And notice that he raises him from the dead, seating him at his right hand and giving him sovereign power in the heavenly places, the realm in which God reigns over everything, over these other anti-God powers.

So here's one point I want us to think about practically. And that is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that God displayed when he raised us from the dead spiritually. That God physically resurrected a dead man.

Think about this. A dead man resurrected. Who was beaten and lynched on a tree outside of the city and was placed in a sealed tomb.

Body was broken. Life had expired. And God breathed life into him.

He resurrected him from the dead. But the good news of the gospel also includes that God raises dead sinners from the dead and the power that he displayed in raising his son bodily from the dead. He displays by raising dead sinners from the dead as he's working in us who believe.

That's his point here is that we have living in us supernatural, verse 19, power and strength and might that God displayed in our lives. And he displays that power chiefly in the resurrection of Jesus, but also in our lives as well. So verse 20, he worked in Christ, having raised him from the dead, giving him sovereign power.