Sermon Transcript
Bible Reading
Ephesians 1:15-23
Good morning. Today's Bible reading is Ephesians chapter one, and we're looking at verses 15 to 23, and if you've got the Pew Bibles, that is on page 1,815.
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God's people, I've 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 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms.
Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
This is the word of the Lord.
What a fabulous passage of scripture, and what a great way for it to end, for the church.
Opening Prayer
Let's pray. Gracious Father, thank you that you have blessed us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that your call to us, your promise to us, is that we will see him in his glory. Praise you.
Thank you, Lord, as we consider that all you have done, all you have purposed, all you are and all you will be is for the church. Sometimes I think we feel like we run along behind, hoping we won't get missed or dropped or forgotten, but we're at the center of your purpose, this people, now.
So visit us, visit us by your spirit. Give us the wisdom and revelation, you promise, that changed we might go forth in your service, for Christ's sake. Amen.
Close Your Eyes and Think of Jesus
Yeah, Pew Bibles there, it's page 1815. As I said, it's a bit like a stone skimming across the top of the water, but there is depth there, and you'll be helped if you have it open, 1815.
Everywhere you look in the book of Ephesians, you are confronted by the cosmic Christ. I don't know, if I asked you to close your eyes and think of Jesus, I don't know where you would go.
Are you on a dusty road in Palestine somewhere with the disciples? Are you at the birth with the star and the wise men, or are you at the crucifixion, or is it a miracle Jesus?
Where are you? In a boat? When I ask you to think of Jesus, what do you think of?
What Paul wants you to think of when you think of Jesus is the cosmic Christ, the one who is over every rule, power, authority, dominion, here on earth and in heaven above. A picture that you can't quite take in, more than we could ask for or imagine. That's the Jesus that Paul is talking about this morning.
He is, to remind you, some of the language. Raised from the dead, seated at the Father's right hand in the heavenly realms.
We keep on hearing about heavenly realms in Ephesians. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come.
It's kind of a wow moment. Wow. And this language, the heavenly realms, the heavenly places just keeps on appearing.
Paul wants us to see Jesus in all his glory and all his power. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the Lord Jesus. That's what he wants.
And you'll know how significant that is if you've ever heard a word from the Lord. Does that ever happen to you?
Perhaps someone's come and said, I think I've got a word for you sister, or you've been reading the Bible and something's jumped off the page and smacked you in the forehead, or a word has come to mind just from nowhere.
And somehow or other it kind of makes sense of what's going on, or your life, or a circumstance, and bits just fall into place and you, you will know if you've ever heard a word from the Lord.
And it changes you. It's like that billiard ball thing. You know, one ball gets struck and off it goes in another direction. He's just launched.
And our Persian friends, many of them have seen a vision of the Lord Jesus. How do you reach someone in a closed Muslim culture? God's not put off. He just sends them a vision. They have a dream.
It's totally off script already. Forget it. There's a story about a guy who sees a vision of a man standing in front of a shop in Lahore in Pakistan. And he's not a Christian and he goes to the shop and looks for the man.
At the same time he was having that, the Bishop of Lahore is told to take a Bible to this shop by God. And he goes, weird, and does it anyway. And they arrive at the same time and lo and behold, the Bishop is the man he's looking for.
And he goes up to him and he says, I'm looking for you. That's news to the Bishop. And he says, well, I've been told to give you something. Gives him a Bible.
So there's no limit to God's creativity. And if that's ever happened to you, if you've ever been kind of smacked in the face by God, you won't forget it.
Okay. Open the eyes of our hearts. That's the prayer today, that we might see your glory. Jesus, ruler of heaven and earth.
An Open Secret in the Magic Capital
I'm aware that in the culture we live in, there are plenty of people who want you to follow them, who want you to vote for them, who want you to be like them, who don't want you to be like other things.
I know there's a lot of pressure in real life and on social media and movies and trying to form and shape you into the image of the culture. The Victorian government's been very diligent trying to do that to the whole community since COVID.
So there's pressure. I know that.
You'll be interested to learn, therefore, that when Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he writes to the church in the centre of the magic capital of the ancient world. And if you know Acts 19, Artemis or Diana was worshipped in Ephesus. That was where her temple was. And she's one of the key gods in the Roman pantheon.
And this generated a lot of money. There was spiritual tourism into Ephesus to see this temple. And they sold silver images of her. And that was a good luck thing or whatever that was about.
And when Paul brought Christianity to the city, there was a riot because people stopped buying the statues. No, no, no. So when Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, they're in the middle of the magic capital of the ancient world. There's pressure on them. Don't you worry about it.
And so when he talks about Jesus, it's the cosmic Christ. It's the ruler of heaven and earth. The one whose name is above every other name that he talks about. And he wants them to see that. Compared to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and his ascension into glory, his defeat of death, and his pouring out of the spirit, this other stuff looks sad. That's Paul's message.
And he talks about a mystery because another way that worship was a popular way of worshiping, particularly in the ancient world, but it's still the same today, the word occult. It means hidden. So in Paul's day, it was the mystery religion. You had to be indoctrinated into the religion and learn the mystery in order to get the benefit, whatever that was.
So here, Paul talks about God's mystery. So he's using the same language, the same concept. But rather than being a secret, God's mystery is an open secret. It's been revealed. And he talks about that in our passage as well. This is open to you. And here it is in verse 10. I'll read back.
Ephesians 1:9-10
And he made known to us the mystery, verse 9, of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. Here it is, to be put in effect when times will have reached their fulfillment. So we're looking forward to this. What is it? To bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Jesus Christ.
This is God's great plan. To bring everything in heaven and on earth together. How's that sound? In a fragmented and fractured world. How does that sound? To bring everything in heaven and on earth together. How is that going to happen? Under one head, one leader, even Jesus Christ.
This is God's master plan for the universe. And it is going to happen. Read the end of your Bible.
So he's done all that is required for that to happen. We are simply waiting for its fulfillment. As he said, when the times have reached their fulfillment. It's going to happen.
And you will know that there is then going to be a result. Because when that lordship of Jesus Christ over all things is declared, you're going to be with him or you're not. And that's how it goes.
So that's why the secret is open. And that's why Paul is telling the church in Ephesus, yes, to comfort and encourage them, but also to get them out there. This is a message that people need to know. God's plan and purpose for the world.
And the answer to the question, how may I be saved?
And I don't know about you, but if you've ever been a hole so deep, you can't see light at the top. You'll know what it means to cry out for God to save you.
And this is how you will be saved. All things will be brought together. All things will be completed. All things will be redeemed and restored under one head, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the answer.
So That You May Know Him Better
But not only has God planned and purposed the restoration of all things, it's also his plan that we should know him better.
And this is the two things I think we need to notice in the passage. One, that it's all for the church. Did you hear what I just said? It's all for the church. And that this great kind of articulation or demonstration of God and his son and his glory and greatness and so on, his rule, reign, authority and power, his gift of the spirit of wisdom and revelation is all so that we could know him better.
And so when I think of God's plan and purpose for the universe, I think, you know, the reconciling of all things, you know, the end of evil and, you know, that, you know, the dead will be raised. I'm thinking kind of on that level, you know, universes, a bit like what Chris was talking about last Sunday, big.
But God takes that hope, that great picture and brings it, Paul takes it and brings it right down to ground level and says that we may know him better. Verse 17, I keep asking, Paul keeps asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Why? So that you may know him better. So this also is his purpose, his great sort of universe encompassing purpose that the church, we, you and I might know him better.
So God's just not thinking about, you know, suns and planets. He's thinking about us. His purpose is that we might know him better.
And so this language, that the eyes of our hearts may be opened, that we may see him.
Ephesians 1:18-19
And I pray 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.
Hope, inheritance, power. That's what he wants you to know. That's who you are in his sight.
This is what he's provided for you, what he's prepared for you, what he has in store. You might know him better and know your hope, your inheritance and his power at work in your life.
Wisdom Looks Back, Revelation Looks Forward
We're in a series on the Holy Spirit and he talks about the spirit of wisdom and revelation and this is the unique work of the spirit that we're focusing on today, that we might know God better. And so because Paul has chosen to describe the Holy Spirit of God in this way, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, I just thought I'd ask those two questions. What's wisdom? What's revelation? And I think those two are very purposefully chosen.
I've made my pitch about Marguerite and her wisdom. Seems to me, people with grey hair, oh I'm one of them, have wisdom, apparently, sometimes.
Why is that? Why do we think that people with grey hair have wisdom? Because they've lived a lot, they've seen a lot, they've done things, they've made their mistakes, possibly learned a few lessons.
You see, wisdom looks back, doesn't it? Wisdom looks back at our former life with understanding. Spiritual wisdom is looking back at your former life with understanding and seeing how God has been at work.
I keep on putting off a little project God's tapping me on the shoulder about, all the ways Kev should be dead. There's just lots of them. There's accidents and bicycles going up in the air and there's getting poisoned in Pakistan, you name it. I should be dead lots of times.
How on earth I'm still here, I don't know. But I thought I should write that down. And so it's that thing about looking back at your previous life with understanding as to how God has been at work. Saved you from yourself, basically. He's done that lots of times.
But ways that he's opened doors for you. Can you see how that's spiritual wisdom? So I just don't know how to fix a carburettor because I broke down by the road one time and had to look. But I actually know who God is, I know, because of the way he's worked in my life.
I need to track that and I need to capture that lesson. Wisdom looks back at our former life with understanding at the way that God has been at work in our lives. That's wisdom because it reflects God.
The really important thing to hear the scriptures say at this point is that people who have wisdom are not defined by their past. And I don't know whether I'm talking to you this morning, but you will know if I am.
If you botched it, if you've made a big mistake, a great big stinky mistake, and you carry that around like a backpack with you every day, I'm a failure, I'm a flop, I'm a fraud. All the other things we tell ourselves, that's not wisdom.
And that's the way the world works, right? You get one shot at it, you blew it, never mind. It's graceless. But Jesus is full of grace and he welcomes you into his presence as you are.
So wisdom is not just looking back on your life and learning the lessons that are there. Wisdom is knowing that the past does not define you. Because that's what the resurrection is, isn't it? It's a death. And when you're dead, the past doesn't matter. And you're given a new life to live again.
So wisdom is not just learning the lessons from the past and identifying the way that God has been at work in your life. It's actually being free, we used that word earlier, didn't we? Free from the past, not defined by our mistakes or the mistakes of others that have shaped and formed us. That's freedom. That's worth singing about. That's wisdom.
There's a whole thread of wisdom literature in the Bible, right? That's a whole body of literature, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms, the Song of Songs, Job, whole books written to pass on wisdom, particularly the Proverbs.
People have even seen, and I think it's in Proverbs, wisdom personified. And it's like this, wisdom cries out in the streets, that's the language. And some have even thought that it's an early picture of Jesus, the Old Testament trying to capture this work of redemption that Jesus comes to do.
No, no, wisdom is knowing that you are free and knowing that how God has guided, protected and led you in your life in the past, because of course that is his MO, and he's going to keep on doing that into the future, right? Hearing his voice, learning his language, that's wisdom.
Revelation of course has to do with the future. And the great thing about being a believer in Jesus is that you are not only not defined by your past, but you are released into your future, okay?
So this is really good news. Revelation looks forward to see God's purposes working out in our lives and in our circumstances. It expects. It is full of hope.
The future is hidden to us, but it is not hidden to God, and he is active in your future, and he is leading you towards his purpose for you.
I don't know about you, but most often when God gets my attention, it's because I've got some kind of problem, and I don't know what to do about it, and I need some wisdom, and so I'm knocking on God's door, you know, hey, hey, you, I've got a decision to make.
Because we're looking into the future and we're uncertain. And so here is Paul talking about having the eyes of our hearts opened to see God in all his glory, the Lord Jesus on his throne in heaven, the Lord of heaven and earth.
What a beautiful expression it is to have the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you might know him better. And of course, when you know someone better, when you're close to someone, you become like them. You start to kind of rub off on one another.
When the Heart Sees
Friends, when the heart sees, everything else will follow along behind. When the heart sees, everything else will follow along behind.
Can you remember falling in love? I think puppies qualify, but I mean, falling in love, right? Can you remember that?
And can you remember how, like, your whole world just goes to mush, and you're just kind of swept along by this thing? Like it's like, I don't know what it's like, it's like being in love. When the heart is engaged, everything else follows along behind.
Or maybe you've been carried away by a passion, perhaps you're, you know, a keen, keen sports person or, you know, you're just, you know, red hot on, you know, history or writing novels or something. I don't know, knitting, crochet, whatever turns you on, and you just kind of go down into your hobby.
I've got friends with garages like that, you know. I'm sure some women think, you know, don't know where their husband is, because he's always in the garage tinkering on a car or something.
I have a friend who is an endocrinologist. He helps get people pregnant in IVF programs. It's a pretty high-tech lifestyle.
Do you know what he does when he comes home from work? He goes out into his garage and fiddles with his Land Rover. He says, when they bury me, they'll say he was a pretty good, you know, endocrinologist for a Land Rover mechanic, or just totally absorbed in his passion.
Sometimes that can happen to you, or maybe, maybe you've been struck by a vision. You know, our vision here is refreshing faith. And perhaps some vision has so captured you that everything else in your life kind of gets caught up in that.
Mother Teresa had that kind of vision for helping the dying in Calcutta and started the Sisters of Charities, a wonderful work, and it still continues. Just swept along.
Wilberforce had this dream to abolish slavery in the British Empire, you know, covered fully one quarter of the Earth's surface, and did it, okay, captured by a vision, empowered by this wonderful hope.
And we could say that if the reins on a horse turn its head, the rest of the horse will surely follow. So it is with us. Because once God gets hold of a person's heart, the transformation of the whole person has begun.
Open the eyes of our heart, right? Because when the heart is led in a particular direction, everything else will follow. I've told you about my very wise friend who said, you move towards the things you love.
Can you see why Paul is praying that God would open the eyes of our hearts, that we'd be captured by a splendor of the vision of the glory of Jesus Christ? Everything else falls in behind that.
This is God's desire for you, that he would open the eyes of your heart by his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that you would see his beauty, that you would see his glory and be enraptured, captured.
And he goes on to encourage us about the greatness of the hope that God has prepared for those who love him.
I'm reading from 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing, no, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But however, it is written, no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. And this God has revealed to us by his spirit.
And so the Holy Spirit becomes the reason that we can live in this uncertain and violent world and still have peace.
I don't know, do you guys watch the news? It's terrible out there. We should all just be quivering wrecks. And at the end of each service, we pray, don't we? The peace of God that passes all understanding. There's something greater, something over, something upholding that mess that gives us peace.
And we know that our future is secure because we've been given revelation. We know who we are in Christ. And what he has for us is greater than we could ask for or imagine. The Holy Spirit we learn is the mark, the seal, the deposit, the guarantee of that glorious inheritance.
It's just before our passage. Let me read it to you.
Ephesians 1:13-14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you are marked in him with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glorious grace.
Because friends, the power that is working in us is greater than the power that is at work in the world. It's his resurrection power. And it brings with it a cast iron guarantee that he will deliver. Here again, how he finishes this wonderful passage.
Ephesians 1:19-23
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 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
And if you can somehow or other begin to imagine the splendor of Christ in his glory, friends, that is your destination. You're going there too. For the church.
All he has undertaken, all he has accomplished, all he has given, all he has done for us, for you and for me, it's for the church, his bride. And so the encouragement in the series and perhaps particularly today is to receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation, not to be defined by your past, but to be released into the future that God has declared for you, that you might know him better and have the eyes of your heart opened to see his hope, his inheritance and his power poured out for you in the one he loves.
We are blessed indeed. Amen. Amen.
