Necessary Revelation
Text: Ephesians 1:15–23 ESV
Introduction
What do you do when things are going well?
It can seem like we get stuck in church discussions and sermons that are focused on how things aren’t going well. We are in war—a war against our own sin, against (as Paul puts it later in Ephesians 6:12) spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. As in any war, what gets the headlines are the challenges, the catastrophes, the warnings when danger appears imminent.
But, again, what do you do when things are going well? How do you celebrate and acknowledge what is going well and good in your life? I was surprised when I stopped and thought about this for a moment in my own life. When things are going well I, quite often, simply stop and rest. It’s almost as though I say, “Whew, finally, some good news. I can slow down, stop, and rest for a while.” What does every student want to do after finals? Not read a book—perhaps see a movie, rest, relax. That is exactly what I wanted to do every semester after my finals both in college and my graduate degree. After a good and productive day at work or being with our kids or friends, we can often just want to rest.
But there is another type of response we have when things are going well. Some of my kids are getting to the age where you really don’t do birthday parties anymore. What do you do with 14-year-old boys coming over to your house to celebrate a birthday party? Pin-the-tail on the donkey seems like it just won’t cut it. We have talked with them about how birthdays look for adults. Things like birthdays become an excuse to go and have a good time. “Yay! You lived another year, let’s go to a movie (or go camping, or go out to eat, or stay up all night playing games). We see this often when a friend gets engaged, when you get a job promotion, when someone finds out they are pregnant. We find out that things are good—there is exceedingly good news—and we want to bring others into our excitement and our joy!
This is exactly what we see in Paul’s life. From the moment he finds out that God did indeed send his Messiah—Jesus Christ—on that road to Damascus, we see a man whose life exemplifies someone trying to scream from the mountain tops the good news he has just heard and how good he views his life now. For years he crisscrosses the Mediterranean, western Asia, and southern Europe looking for ways to share about the goodness God has brought to his life. For example, when he arrives in Athens (Acts 17:16–34) he is looking for some way, some reason to share about Jesus and uses an unnamed idol.
Ephesians 1:1–14 Review
This was how Paul responded to finding out how good things were in his life in Ephesians 1:1–14. Specifically, Paul encouraged the Ephesians and others in the surrounding churches about the good news of what God had done for them in Jesus Christ (1:4, 6b, 7, 11). God has adopted them and us (1:5), redeemed us (1:7), and made us his portion—his inheritance—and sealed us with his Holy Spirit (1:11, 13b–14). All of these are beautiful pictures of the grace and peace of God to us in Jesus Christ (1:3). It is very good news.
What we find in our passage today is that Paul is writing to a people he believes already know this joy. Things are going well with them (spiritually speaking) because they know, love, and put their faith in Jesus Christ. And what does Paul do? In his joy at their good situation he 1) praises God and 2) points them back to the wonderful revelation of God in Jesus Christ. These may not be our first thoughts when things are going well, but I pray this morning that what we find here is exactly what we need in every situation, especially when we already have the “good news”—the very revelation of God in Jesus.
Revelation: The Ephesian’s Faith Revealed and Paul’s Reveling Response
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,” (Ephesians 1:15, ESV)
Paul has been saying all throughout Ephesians 1:1–14 that God is choosing people to be his portion, for their joy and his glory. And Paul—having lived extensively with the Ephesians—knows and has seen how they have accepted this wonderful good news and now are part of this good plan of God. He knows their faith, he has toiled with them in their growth together, and he has continued to hear of their life of living out this faith towards one another. This knowledge is what drives his particular response in our passage this morning:
“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,” (Ephesians 1:16, ESV)
“I do not cease to give thanks for you.” That first part sounds quite nice. Paul says, “I have heard you are a Christian, and I do not stop being thankful for you.” That is not often our experience. Rarely does someone find out that you or I are a Christian and all they want to do is be thankful—to go around and tell others how great and amazing it is that you and I are part of God’s people. In fact, we usually have the opposite experience. Finding out we are Christians sometimes brings up frustration in others because of their own struggling relationship with God. Sometimes it makes friends and family hold us to higher, and sometimes unfair, standards because of our claim to God’s goodness.
Unlike what we often experience, Paul is thankful, and he clarifies what he means by “giving thanks”. His thankfulness means he prays for the Ephesians. For Paul, here, the way he demonstrates his thankfulness is by making mention of them in his prayers to God. For most of us this is a moment where we realize that Paul is thinking very differently about life than many of us do. Paul sees the Ephesians, he lives with them, he knows they are putting their faith and hope in God through Jesus Christ, he sees them love the saints and believers around them, and he gives thanks to God. I’m guessing that would not usually be your first response.
But what else should Paul do?! As we talked about previously, the whole point of salvation is that we might find our joy in God and he might be glorified through his own wonderful deeds. Paul sees the Ephesians, and he sees rightly why they are acting the way they do—because God himself has worked in them.
Are you, Christians, excited that it works this way? Do you serve God in a way that he might get all the glory? Do you live in a way that when others see you, they don’t see someone standing in the spotlight but rather see along that beam of light to the amazing Son of righteousness who has illuminated your life in knowing Him? Are you happy if others don’t give you accolades, but rather marvel at the God who would save someone like you and get praise and glory because of His great work?
Revelation: The Right Response To and In Redemption
Paul continues on, and even if you were expecting him to give praise to God for the Ephesians because of what he just said in Ephesians 1:1–14, you likely wouldn’t have guessed the content of his prayer to God on their behalf. Paul says that he is thankful and remembers them in his prayers, praying this:
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” (Ephesians 1:17 ESV)
So, because he is excited that the Ephesians are found in Jesus, Paul prays that they may have his Spirit that embodies wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. And you should hear that and say, “Wait a minute. Isn’t that what Paul just told the Ephesians they needed in order to even believe and have faith in Jesus?” Doesn’t Ephesians 1:8–9 say that God lavished grace on us “in all wisdom and insight making known the mystery of his will…in Christ”? Is Paul really praying for the Ephesians to have the wisdom of knowledge of God about Jesus even though it seems they must already have that if they are saved? Is Paul worried they aren’t saved? Paul, that is weird. Why would the Ephesians, why would you and I, need what we already had to be saved?
Perhaps Paul is saying something different. So, we read on. He prays they might have the wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God and then explains what that means:
“having the eyes of your hearts enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,
according to the working of his great might.” (Ephesians 1:18–19 ESV)
Paul changes the picture here to the eyes of the heart being enlightened (or open). This is a picture you will hear me and others talk about often, and it comes from Deuteronomy 29:4, Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2 and Isaiah 42:19–20. Even though Israel had the presence of God with them, God had still left most of Israel without a heart that was soft or cared about his words. They had ears that were unable to hear what God was calling them to in his word. And they had eyes that were blind and not open to what God was doing and his real plan in Jesus Christ.
This is what Israel was waiting for—the day God would actually change them—their ears, their eyes, their hearts, their minds. This was exactly what the law couldn’t do and why God had to come to redeem his people in Jesus Christ, so they might have his Holy Spirit and be changed!
Paul says here in Ephesians 1:18 that this is no longer true of the Ephesians, and it is no longer true of you, Christians. God had opened their eyes, and he has opened your eyes. “Having the eyes of your heart enlightened.” He has opened your eyes in Jesus Christ. And now, what he is praying for the Ephesians and for me and you is largely identical to what Paul says we needed to have our eyes opened in the first place:
Paul said in Ephesians 1:12–13 that the Jews were the first to hope that this new relationship with God might actually be able to happen in Jesus Christ and the Gentiles were the next to “believe,” or have hope in this, as well. Here in 1:18 he is praying that the Ephesians would continue to know that hope.
Paul said in Ephesians 1:14 that part of our faith is in knowing that we are God’s portion, his inheritance, and here in 1:18 Paul is praying that the Ephesians (and you) would again know the riches of that inheritance that God has in his saints.
Paul started in Ephesians 1:3 by speaking of God’s amazing blessings to us in Jesus Christ—which is all about the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us—that Paul prays we and the Ephesians would know here in 1:19.
Paul’s thankfulness that comes when he thinks about the Ephesians’ faith and identity in Jesus doesn’t lead him to pray that they would have a new mystery revealed to them about God. He doesn’t pray for signs or wonders to encourage them. He doesn’t even pray for comfort or security or anything else. Instead, he prays that what God gave them to save them, that he would give them that same thing again and again and again.
Believe and Behold
You have heard this quote from me before, “Disciples are made, whether for the first time or the fiftieth time, through the gospel.” (1) This isn’t something we made up, it isn’t even something Jonathan Dodson made up. It is right here in Paul. We need to both believe and behold the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For many of us we have long forgotten how this works. At some point, someone taught you that 2+2=4. For most of you that was so long ago that you think this is a pretty silly example for a sermon analogy. That is because you forgot what it was like to see two birds sitting on a branch and see two more land next to them and—WHOA—lo and behold when you counted, there were actually four birds there! When you had two candies and your mom and dad gave you two more and there were now four candies and that was much better than two candies!
Someone somewhere taught you about complementary colors and how they work together for beauty. And then you saw it in God’s amazing creation: green frogs with red stripes and red eyes. A planter bed of red tulips accented against their green stems and leaves. A single, golden, yellow leaf floating to the ground against a stark blue autumn morning sky.
We are taught something, we believe it, and then we behold it in wonderment! What strengthens our belief and knowledge is to see the same thing over and over again—I can always get the correct change at the store because the math can always work, and a purple flower with yellow pistil and stamen are always amazing to look at!
Paul makes the same statement here in his flow and logic about faith. When Paul sees that the Ephesians have known and grasped the revelation about who Jesus is, that God has worked in their lives as Paul describes in Ephesians 1:1–14, he rightly turns in 1:15–16 and praises God in prayer because it was only by his work and his choosing of them that the Ephesians believe. But in Ephesians 1:17–19 Paul reminds us that what you and I need today is to see that same hope again and again, to know once more (and then once more again) how rich God’s inheritance in us is, and to remember over and over again the great power that he worked for us in Jesus Christ.
This is hard for us. We so often want something new. But Paul is right! This is what we need—and he demonstrates it for us with what he says in Ephesians 1:20–23:
[We need to remember the working of God’s great might] “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:20—23)
Paul is reminding us again of the good news of the gospel and that God did all of this in Christ. Our identity is in him, and because this is true, we need to continuously look to him and see what God has done in him. Look at what Paul says about Christ here:
God raised Jesus from the dead: Do you and I need one more catchy statement, one more pithy story from a preacher to help us not sin, or do you and I need to be moved to tears when we remember that it was our sin that placed Christ on the cross (1 Corinthians 15:3). The reality that Jesus left heaven to come to earth for the joy that God gave him in rescuing his people (Hebrews 12:2) should place us in awe of this God who loved us so much.
God seated Jesus at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all authority and power and dominion: When we are struggling against our sins, do we just need to buck-up more, try harder, give it another go, or do we need to see clearly this God—Jesus Christ—seated in power, over every sin, over every spirit at war with us, and know that he is interceding on our behalf?
God put all things under Jesus’s feet: When things are going bad in the world, in our jobs, with our friends and family, do we need to fret, or realize that all authority has been given to Jesus and all things are “under his feet,” in his control?
God gave Jesus as head to the church: When you wonder who you are, do you need to be puffed up more in your own importance, do you need to try harder to meet the bar or to project the image of the person who has it all together, or do you need to see clearly that God has placed Jesus as your head—the one who is your identity and the one who strengthens you?
This entire paragraph about Jesus at the end of this section is meant to point you and me, again, to what we have already known in Jesus Christ and to focus there once more. To look back to what God has done for you in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. To focus today on the amazing joy you have as one of God’s chosen people—his portion. To look ahead to the amazing grace of knowing, face-to-face, this Jesus reigning in power for you! Believe and behold your God.
Conclusion
Christian, things are going well for you. You have been chosen by God and are found in Jesus today. Come again, today, as Paul prays for the Ephesians and as I pray for you, to Jesus Christ. Not as though you need to be saved again, but because you need your belief strengthened every day, and you do that through the same ways you were saved. Find your identity in Jesus. Do not move on from the gospel as though there is something more to grasp that will move you to a higher plane in your faith with God. Let Christ permeate you as your identity. Make him everything you focus on at every moment. When you find faith in yourself and others, praise God! Be thankful to him and pray that he continues to bring you face-to-face with Jesus Christ again and again. Believe and behold him! Your salvation and your strength are found in Jesus Christ and your identity in him.
Benediction
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9 ESV)
(1) Jonathan K. Dodson and Matt Chandler, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, First edition. (Crossway,
2012), 35.