Prayer
“Knowledge is Power-Does God Want Me?”
Ephesians 1:15-23
Jacob Miles*, August 6, 2006
*Not his real name. Name changed for security reasons
Ephesians 1:15-23, 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I 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. 18I 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, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far 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 one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Have you ever gone to a Job interview? You think it went well. You go home thinking- “I did pretty well.” You wait by the phone going over all your qualifications and then why if you were the Human Resources person why you would hire yourself. Then you look over your resume and then you think through the answers you gave, and you wait by the phone with a certain degree of satisfaction. Of course they will call. They are probably wondering if I’ll accept. They are probably wondering if they need to sweeten the offer.
They call- you got the Job.
You hang up the phone and sit in your favorite chair, and revel in the idea that they Wanted—You
They wanted the best, and they wanted you.
Months of work in looking for the right job had paid off.
Some day I will be sitting with my daughter Karilyn. My adopted daughter Karilyn and she will ask me the circumstances surrounding the years of her adoption. I can imagine her asking all sorts of questions, and at the heart of her questioning will be this controlling thought. Did you want me? And it might be after a particularly difficult time and behind that question is the question-Do you still want me? Are the words of love backed up by a want me heart?
Does God want you?
I believe it is the correlation to the sermon Pastor Nelson preached-Does God Like Me?
Does God’s word answer the two questions of God’s desire of me before I was and does he want me know that my full nature has been revealed?
Does He still want me, or will he one day just get tired of me-of us and dispose of us?
These are foundational questions that every thoughtful believer wrestles with.
I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. CS Lewis
Without a satisfactory answer to that question it is easy to experience a great degree of insecurity. With that fundamental question answered, a believer can experience security in their relationship with God, and that relationship will fuel their relationship with others.
Recently my two oldest children were baptized along with 18 other people. They are what we would call “recent Converts” or “new in the faith.” In India a person is a recent convert for the first five years of their faith confession. Having these two recent converts in my home makes we keenly aware that there are foundational truths that they need. For them to mature that must have their own knowledge of God and experience with God.
Into a similar context the apostle Paul writes. New converts needing to have a knowledge and experience with God.
Purpose of Ephesians-To Celebrate the wonders of what God has done for the believer in Christ, to heighten believers’ awareness of their identity in Christ, and to call Christians to embrace the duties that accompany their exalted status as believers in Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every Spiritual Blessing.” 1:3
This exuberant verse introduces the main theme of the first half of Ephesians: Every blessing of salvation is located in Christ.
Paul knows that the first step in creating this foundation for another person is to pray for them. In Ephesians Paul explains that God wants them, and then he prays for God to reveal his “want them” heart.
If you desire a guide as you pray for those that are new in the faith or those that are insecure in their faith then this Prayer in Ephesians 1 is the prayer to pray for them. It is a bold prayer. If you ever might feel you prayer is asking too much then look at all that is being asked for in this prayer.
It seems that Paul is over reaching in this prayer.
The first two verses 15 and 16 are the thanksgiving and the rest of the prayer is the intercession. It is on the intercession that we will be focusing.
Paul prays for the believer to experience God’s “want you” heart in three arenas. They are arenas more of time than space, and they are not in sequence in our text.
I. God---I mean God shows his “want you” heart in having a personal interest in you in eternity past. Before you were.
18I 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,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world
When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the lord was seeking me. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in all scriptural knowledge through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. Spurgeon the early years p. 164
The developed biblical idea of God’s calling is of God summoning men by His word, and laying hold on them by His power, to play a part in and enjoy the benefits of his gracious redemptive purposes. Elwell p. 185
Paul understands calling as the process by which God calls those, whom He has already elected and appointed, out of their bondage to this world, so that he may Justify and sanctify them. Collin brown p. 275
As Carol* and I have gone through the adoption process, we became aware of the issues specific to Chinese adoption. Many of the Chinese children are going outside the country, and I wondered why?
When I asked her how there could be a waiting list inside China while girls continued to be adopted internationally, she explained that the children adopted internationally had been passed over by domestic families in favor of more “attractive” children.
It is a common cultural tendency for Chinese couples to seek out children that will bring honor and respect to their family. Thus, children that display attractive physical features such as large round eyes, double eyelids, and round faces are considered desirable. One orphanage admitted that they had an “ugly” healthy baby girl available for adoption, having been passed over by many prospective families.
This demonstrates two different ways to choose a child for adoption. One is having seen them you choose them because of their physical qualities or –Having seen them you choose them because you merely want them. Not because of their beauty, but because of their being.
Now imagine God and His choosing. It was not because you were more beautiful, or more gifted. On the contrary, You were called based on God’s character.
Where did he find you?
In the morgue with all the others posessing hearts of stone. He alone was able to place in you a heart of flesh and give you life.
In this term calling is the idea of not just the choosing but the accompaning idea that he would redeem you. His calling is his delight in you. His delight to regenerate you- bring you back to life, to put a new heart in you.
Has God revealed to you how much he loved you before you were?
II. God’s “want you” heart is also demonstrated in the future.
…the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
In this passage we see a reversal of verses 13 and 14 there it says
Were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
It is here in verse 13 and 14 referring to our possession in the future-- Our consummated salvation.
Now when Paul prays he is referring to our being God’s possession, His inheritance.
He wants us, like he wanted the children of Israel as his inheritance.
God’s inheritance was linked with his people Israel.
Deut 4:20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
This is an issue of Identity.
The Letter is written to believers who were in need of inner strength, further knowledge of their salvation, greater appreciation of their identity as believers and as members of the church, increased concern for the church’s unity, and more consistent living in such areas as speech, sexuality, and household relationships. Andrew T. Lincoln
After the Golden calf and the potential destruction of his people by himself Moses says,
Deut 9:25 “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, destroy not your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. …29For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
He wants you. He wants us. He is anticipating the future with you.
As my mom resigned herself to her own mortality, near the end of her life. She asked each of us her children what of hers we wanted. My brother said he wanted her checkbook. I wanted her pill collection so I could start a pharmacy. My sister taking it seriously wanted my mom’s dishes. In the future she could use them and experience all the joyful memories that accompanied those things.
God wants you. You are his inheritance. What do you give a God who has made everything? He has already picked you. He is anticipating His eternity with you. In him is your identity. This idea of inheritance is much akin to the idea of our adoption by God. He wants you. He has linked himself with you and given you a new identity. In Ephesians that identity is called-In Christ or In Him. This is who you are. You are no longer in Adam, or the person that is the old man.
III. The Third area that I want to pray for my children and for those new in the faith is the Present. God has revealed most powerfully he wants us in the present.
He tangibly communicates his want of us when he exercises his power for us on our behalf in every righteous way.
19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far 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 one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church; 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Paul does not want these new believers to question God’s commitment to them in light of their present circumstances.
Paul uses 4 different words meaning power to show them His commitment to them.
19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ
The emphasis is not so much to highlight the distinctive of the power exerted on our behalf, but to illuminate the similarities of the power.
Now the attention changes in the passage. This Trinitarian prayer draws our attention towards Christ. Christ is the example of the power that God exerts on our behalf on a daily basis.
A. When we contemplate the power of the almighty, we often think of his display of power in creation as his ultimate power. Galaxies, nebulae, black holes, are among the more impressive displays of power. However, we are reminded here that the ultimate display of God’s power is the resurrection of Christ. Not that for an omnipotent God some act is more difficult than others, but here is the idea that one act displays his glory more than all others.
20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead
Every sermon in Acts has as its central theme the resurrection of Christ. There is no other controlling thought for the Christian than this activity on God’s behalf.
This is Aslan breaking the stone table.
The power God exerted over death is his ultimate display. It was not merely the death of Christ he was conquering. We could have then been just as excited about the raising of Lazarus. Christ being raised was God’s action not Christ’s. It was God’s conquering of death. The implication from other passages like I Corinthians 15 is that Christ is not the only one that was raised, but the first of many that will be raised. Death is finished.
“He has forced open the door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because he has done so. This is the beginning of the new creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has opened.” C.S. Lewis
For the believer this rearranges their living. The conquering of Death transforms our desires. As eternal beings, whose mortality is vanquished we can concentrate our attentions on the real life we have been given.
If a trans-temporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy. CS Lewis weight of glory
According to Paul, the immensity of this power is incalculable.
B. The Continuation of God’s power on our behalf is the present station and rule of Christ.
The ascended Christ is the picture of God exerting his power on our behalf. Currently Christ is interceding for us and his authority is complete.
Paul Continues this idea in Chapter 2: 5-7
5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far 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 one to come.
Not only in making us his future joy and possession
God wants us and has placed his power at our disposal
His resurrection power is ours. We will be raised.
His ascension power is ours. Christ is over all power we currently see. That power is being exerted on our behalf.
We are still here, yes; but because God views me as IN CHRIST and Christ is seated with the father in heaven, therefore, God views me there in principle. That is my destination and that is where I belong, because of Christ’s power and God’s great love for me.
Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ? For it must be true, as an old writer says, that he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only. CS Lewis
My American passport is worthless up there. I have a citizenship paper stamped “heaven”. Location- the right hand of God.
Christ is over all the spiritual forces that oppose us. The present darkness is under his authority now. Christ is working and exerting his power on our behalf.
C. The final aspect highlighted of God’s power being exerted on our behalf is Christ over the church.
22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church; 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
The power of God working through Christ on your behalf is currently being done through the church.
Fortunately the metaphor is that of a Body-The Church. And Christ is the Head. He is exercising his power on behalf of the Church. The Gospel-the resurrected Lord who will raise you, the ascended Lord who is working his power on your behalf is working his power for you through the church.
One of our chief evangelical blind spots has been to…proclaim individual salvation without moving on to the saved community; no one can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatized gospel. For Ephesians is the Gospel of the Church. John R. W. Stott
Here we see that Christ is head and he is also Sovereign. Not one thing happens inside or outside his church without it coming under his rule.
Is it a bit strange that this prayer ends here?
Wouldn’t you expect the opposite progression? As I look at this prayer, their personal aspect of Christ’s ministry is for Paul the highpoint. God who Calls us-Very Personal-He wants you.
God who sees you as his possession- Giving you and identity.
Is there anything more personal? You, again very personal, He wants you.
The God who demonstrates his want of you in the past and the future demonstrates it in the present. Our salvation was not merely a past event; it is not merely a ticket into heaven. Our salvation is founded on the power being exerted on our behalf today- here - now.
Christ is not in heaven waiting for the final trumpet. He is powerfully raised on our behalf, He is ascended on our behalf, and he is filling up his Church on our behalf. He is leading our church today on His behalf.
This too is very personal, very intentional. Christ is today in relationship with His people the church.
Our tendency is to minimize God’s plan at this point either through our actions or our words. In other words, we do not value the relationships he has built around us and in is –in the church. Through our actions when we don’t attend to the relationships he has placed us in—inside His church.
This prayer seems over reaching. It seems too much. It is, and to pray this for a new believer can transform their living.
Take a few moment and pray this for either yourself if you are a recent convert or for a recent convert you know.