Read -Study Notes – Ephesians Chapter 1:11-17

Eph. 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
Eph. 1:12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

• Paul begins v.7 with “in Him”
  • Since we’re dropping into the middle of this passage, we have to glance back up the page to determine who the “Him” is in this case
    • Notice the final word at the end of v.6 is “the Beloved,” which clearly refers to the Son
    • The Son is the One beloved by the Father, therefore, “in Him” is a reference to Christ
    • That tells us that Paul is now moving on to explain Jesus’ role in securing our eternal future
  • Of course, any discussion of Christ’s work on our behalf must begin with His work in dying in our place on the cross to cleanse us from our sins
    • And that’s exactly where Paul starts
    • Paul says in Christ we have redemption through His blood
    • The Greek word Paul uses translated redemption is apolytrosis, which means to buy back a slave and set him free
    • We were slaves, but Jesus paid the ransom to set us free
• Redemption, or to be ransomed, is a common way the New Testament describes our salvation
  • Because in truth, we each began our life as slaves, in bondage to a master

Heb. 2:14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Heb. 2:15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

• Hebrews tells us every human being enters life a slave to sin and to sin’s penalty, eternal death
  • We live with that sentence hanging over our head because Adam chose to sin
  • Adam was humanity’s representative, and when he fell he cast humanity’s lot in with Satan’s
  • Spiritually-speaking, he traded innocence for slavery
• Hebrews says the devil became our master, controlling us through a fear of death
  • Imagine you were in a gang of thieves and murderers
  • You were guilty of many crimes and you knew that if you sought mercy from the police, you would be condemned for your crimes
  • The only friend you have is the gang leader
• But he’s no friend at all
  • He seeks only to cause more death, destruction and chaos
  • So he controls you through fear, knowing you can’t escape your circumstances since you’re a criminal just like him
  • You’re stuck…you’re a slave to the gang leader, living in fear of the law and without hope of a rescue
• Into those circumstances Christ stepped, and paid your ransom and set you free from the fear of death that allowed the enemy to enslave you
  • Paul says in v.7 that the price Christ paid for you was His blood
    • Since your crimes (i.e., your sin) deserved death, the only payment that Christ could make was a death
    • He couldn’t bargain the price lower, for the Father set the price in the Garden
    • He had to spill His lifeblood to pay the price for your sin
  • That payment bought you out of slavery permitting the Father to be just, as He forgave your sins on the cross
    • We know the Father chose us to be adopted as a child, but that decision by itself would have been unjust without a payment for sin
    • If you and your gang were arrested and taken to court for judgment of your crimes, a righteous judge couldn’t let you go free without just cause
    • The judge would need just cause for acquitting you
    • Similarly, the Father needs just cause to acquit you and bring you into the family of God
  • Paul says that in Christ was the One Who gave the Father just cause to forgive us of our crimes, our transgressions
    • Jesus’ ransom payment was an acceptable substitute for your debt

Rom. 5:15  But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
Rom. 5:16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

• Paul compares Christ’s act on the cross to Adam’s act in the Garden
  • Adam’s decision plunged many into sin and judgment
  • But Christ’s poured out His life as a gift, so by that gift of grace many can be ransomed
• So now we extend our understanding of the word grace in scripture
  • Last week we said that grace is not an offer of salvation but is the decision of the Father to include us in His plan of adoption
    • Grace is the finished work of God to save us while we were yet sinners and enemies of God
    • Before we knew we needed a Savior He had already chosen us for salvation
  • But now Paul says God’s grace (i.e., His unmerited favor toward us) goes even farther
    • God’s favor is evident in that He would put His own Son on the cross
    • It’s one thing to say God’s grace chose to grant us mercy and rescue us from our predicament
    • But it’s another thing to say that God’s choosing us required His Son die for us
    • God’s grace is the Father choosing us, and God’s grace is the Son dying for us
• But the grace of God in the Son doesn’t end there even
  • Paul says the grace of God in the Son is lavished upon us in yet another way
    • Remember, vs.3-14 is a single sentence in the Greek language, so we have to cut it into digestible pieces
    • Let’s cut the next piece from the middle of v.8 through to the middle of v.10
  • That section reads…

Eph. 1:8 …In all wisdom and insight
Eph. 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
Eph. 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times…

• Here we have the second way in which we receive grace in Jesus Christ
  • Jesus Christ is our source for all wisdom and insight
  • As you can probably tell, Paul is referring to Jesus Christ as the revealed word of God
  • God’s grace goes a step further in providing all spiritual wisdom to the believer through the Word
  • And the Lord’s grace brings us all spiritual insight, which is different than wisdom
• The wisdom God grants us through His word is spiritual truth, spiritual realities of who God is, Who we are and what the future holds
  • It’s knowledge we can know only if God chooses to reveal it to us
  • We’re talking about spiritual truth that lies outside the ability of human beings to discover on their own
  • No amount of searching, philosophizing, study or observation could ever discover God truly much less understand all that He has planned for Creation
• Notice in v.9 Paul says Christ makes known to us the mystery of His will
  • Truly, God’s will is a mystery to fallen mankind
  • As Paul says in 1 Corinthians

1Cor. 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1Cor. 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

• Since mankind can’t find spiritual wisdom, God must reveal Himself to us
  • Only by the kind intention, which the Father purposed to achieve in Christ, can we understand God
    • By His grace extended to believers, He gives us His word in His Son
    • Jesus Christ taught the disciples who then taught us
    • But even before that, Christ was speaking to men through the prophets
    • He is the Word, Who gives us an understanding of the Father
  • Notice also this understanding is only for the believer, as a matter of God’s grace
    • Those who aren’t chosen to receive grace do not receive the wisdom of God either
    • In fact, the ability to understand and appreciate the word of God is a sign of a person’s salvation

1Cor. 1:18  For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1Cor. 1:19  For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

• Paul says the word of God is utter foolishness to the unbeliever
  • It’s literally impossible for the unbeliever to grasp what the Bible says in spiritual terms
  • Certainly, an unbeliever can read the words and pick up a degree of understanding
  • They can understand the story of Noah or Abraham or even Jesus to a degree, in a human sense
  • In the same way they can read Moby Dick or Tom Sawyer
• But the spiritual meaning of the text lies beyond their grasp
  • They can’t see it for themselves no matter how long they search
  • And even if someone were to explain it to them, they will still reject it
  • This is exactly what happened when the Word Himself spoke scripture to the Pharisees who were not believing

John 5:38 “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
John 5:41 “I do not receive glory from men;
John 5:42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

• Only those who are being saved by God can recognize the word of God as the power of God in our lives
  • And we hear it because the Son has given us the grace to do so
    • In the Bible, believers are often called the sheep of God
    • And Christ is our Good Shepherd
    • Using this analogy, Jesus explained why the Pharisees couldn’t grasp the meaning of His words

John 10:24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.
John 10:26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.

• So understanding the word of God is something uniquely available for God’s sheep, those chosen of the Father for salvation
  • Which makes it all the more surprising how few believers take advantage of this grace made available in Christ
  • So many believers today and over the centuries have turned a blind eye to the scriptures
• Consider that these words we hold in our hands are the manifestation of the unmerited favor of a Holy God to His children
  • How much attention do these words deserve in our daily life?
  • Peter says:

2Pet. 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
2Pet. 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

• Peter says that everything that pertains to our life on earth and to our godliness is found in the true knowledge of Him Who called us
• Certainly, there are other sources of human knowledge, that is knowledge of the world we’ve constructed, of our history, science and the like
  • Peter isn’t denying those sources
  • He’s speaking of spiritual truths about life and pleasing God
  • For the believer, the word of God is sufficient to bring us to where God wants us to be
• And yet so few Christians are placing the proper priority on the pursuit of that wisdom
  • Even those who give some time to Bible study do so sporadically
  • And only when that pursuit is convenient
  • I’m a firm believer you can’t spend too much time in the word of God
• So I challenge you to up your game in this area of your life
  • God has extended His grace to you in the form of His word
  • Drink it in, take as much of it as you can get
  • As much as you value His grace in choosing you and in dying for you, then appreciate His grace in teaching you
  • Knowing that learning the word of God brings its own rewards
• Secondly, Paul says we have the grace of all insight from Christ
  • Insight refers to our appreciation of God’s will for our life
    • It refers to knowing what Christ is calling us to do, how He wants us to live to please Him
    • Insight builds on wisdom, of course
  • As we come to understand spiritual truth we will be in a better position to understand Christ’s will for us
    • When He asks us to sacrifice some pleasure in our life, the word of God explains why
    • When He calls us to endure persecution or trial, the word of God explain why it’s important to persevere
    • If you don’t study scripture, you can still hear from the Lord for that is grace by itself
    • But without the counsel of His word, you may not understand why you should listen and obey
• And just like spiritual wisdom, spiritual insight is a foreign notion to an unbeliever
  • Have you ever told a person you knew was an unbeliever that Jesus told you something or is leading you to do something?
    • Doesn’t that person give you the RCA Victor dog look? (Head tilted, eyebrow raised)
    • They wonder if you’re making it up, or maybe you’re a little too zealous about your religion
  • That’s another example of how the Lord distinguishes His children by His grace
    • He speaks to us by Christ and we hear Him
    • His voice won’t be audible necessarily, and we won’t always obey what we hear
    • But we do know what He says, as Jesus says

John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

• That’s insight, and it’s another outpouring of God’s grace
• In vs.8-9 Paul adds that having wisdom and insight are evidence that the Lord has lavished even more grace upon us
  • These things didn’t have to be a part of God’s plan in saving us
    • It’s easy to take them for granted, as if they were inevitable
    • But Paul says our opportunity to understand spiritual truth and to know God’s will in our life is grace upon grace
  • He could have just sent His Son and paid our ransom and left it at that
    • Eventually, we would have gone home to be with Christ
    • And in that moment we would have been given full spiritual wisdom and insight in a moment

1Cor. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

• But God’s grace to us is greater than that, it overflows, it abounds, it is lavished upon us
  • He wants to teach us about Himself by His word to help us understand His ways
  • Because the Lord knows the more we know Him, the more we will want to be like Him
  • So that as we live according to His word, he will lead us into godliness
  • And godliness will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness
• Finally, Paul say in v.10 that this grace is intended to be an administration suitable until the fullness of the times
  • The Greek word translated administration means under management
    • That is to say the grace of God in His word and in the revelation of His will are His appointed tools to manage us for a time
    • For as long as we live in these earthly bodies and await the riches of our inheritance, we live under management of God’s word
    • This administration will continue until the fullness or fulfillment of these times or until this age is closed
  • So God has extended grace upon grace to His adopted children
    • Even after He chose us and after His Son died for us, He gave us His word and the counsel of His will to manage our lives for this time
    • We’re managed until we receive new bodies and our heavenly inheritance
  • And Paul says the wisdom and insight of Christ are suitable until the age concludes
    • The word suitable doesn’t appear in the original Greek
    • A better way to phrase Paul’s meaning would be “for the purpose of managing until the age’s fulfillment”
• Today we studied two ways in which Jesus extends His grace to the believer
  • His death paid a ransom to free you from your slavery to sin and granted you forgiveness for your sins
    • And His word gives you a knowledge of the God Who saved you
    • His grace allows you to know God’s will for your life so that you may walk in a manner that pleases Him
  • There are yet two more ways in which God has poured out His grace to us in His Son
    • We’ll study those next week
    • Followed by the grace of God given in the word of the Third Person of the Godhead, the Spirit of God
    • As we said, it’s grace upon grace from God
  • One Bible scholar took time to count the many ways in which the Lord bestows His grace upon His children
    • He stopped counting at 33 ways
    • Certainly, 33 ways is a lot, but I don’t know if his count was accurate or complete
    • It wouldn’t surprise me if that count is actually infinite
    • And we’ve only begun to scratch the surface in knowing what God has done for us
• Are you taking advantage of all the grace God has extended to you?
  • Have you received Christ as Savior?
    • If so, have you taken His word to heart?
    • Do read it daily, study it intently, meditate on it earnestly and obey faithfully?
    • And do you consult His will prayerfully?
    • Do you seek His counsel? Do you slow down enough to give Him time to direct your steps? Are you sensitive to His leading?
  • Let’s make our goal be soaking in all the grace God has offered to His children, not wishing to miss any of itWe throw the word “grace” around frequently, and so we should

• • God’s undeserved favor for us is a miracle that makes all other blessings possible
    • Truly, we can’t talk about grace enough
    • Because we will never comprehend all that God’s grace has accomplished for us, not until we’re with Christ
    • So in the meantime, it’s good to spend time studying what the Bible says about His grace
  • The key to wrapping your head around God’s grace is to separate His grace on the cross in saving us from sin from the other blessings of His grace we’ve received
    • For example, last week we moved to studying Christ’s work on our behalf, and we found what we expected to find
      • That Christ’s part in God’s plan of grace centered on His sacrifice for our sin
      • His atonement ransomed us out of slavery and set us free to serve God without fear of death
  • But earlier in Chapter 1 of Ephesians we discovered that God’s grace began long before we were even born
    • The Father chose to save us even before our sin had been conceived, before the foundations of the earth
    • That’s a different form of God’s grace
• Then we saw how God’s grace in Christ move forward from there
  • The believer’s ability to understand the word of God is evidence of grace in our lives
    • God grants to His children the capacity to comprehend the wisdom of Christ found in the word of God
    • And by the grace of Christ, Christ directs our steps in life so we may live according to the counsel of His will
  • Both of these experiences are evidence of the grace of Christ in our lives, Paul said
    • If you’ve seen the arm bands that ask “What Would Jesus Do?”, then you need not wonder anymore
    • If you read His word and listen to His counsel, then you will know what Jesus would do
  • So the grace of Christ moves beyond saving us through His death to grant us the means to live a life that pleases Him
    • So today let’s continue forward looking at more of God’s work in bestowing grace upon God’s children
    • We pick up in the middle of Paul’s impossibly long sentence in vs.3-14
    • We’re at the end of v.10 as Paul is giving a new work of grace found in Christ
    • Let’s reread that verse and continue forward to v.12

Eph. 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him
Eph. 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
Eph. 1:12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

• We discussed the first part of v.10 last week, as you remember
  • We learned that the word of God is God’s grace to us in Christ for the purpose of God’s administration of our lives
    • The word administration can also be translated management or dispensation
    • So we could say that the Lord provided us with the Bible so He could dispense His grace into our daily lives
    • That by His word, He could manage us during the time we live in a sinful body in a fallen world
    • The enemy and the world and even our own flesh are trying to pull us away from God and against His will
    • But the word of God is the spiritual manager in our life to defend us against those enemies and guide us into righteousness
  • Paul goes to say that management carries the Church forward until the fullness or completion of this age
    • The word of God manages us for a time
    • Once we escape this earth and enter into the presence of Christ, we leave this sinful body behind
    • In the process, we will gain a complete understanding of God’s will and His Kingdom
    • At that point, we won’t need management in the same way, since our sin nature will be completely gone
    • We will always have the word of God, but we won’t be fighting against it in that future day
  • Of course, as I said last week, in order to gain the benefits of this administration, we must endeavor to read the word and obey what it says
    • Just like a human manager in our workplace, the word of God can only help us if we listen to what it says and commit to following its orders
    • Many believers fail to attend to the word of God
    • And many more fail to heed what they read
    • As James warns, we must be doers of the word, not merely hearers
• And so now we move into the next half of v.10 to see the next way in which Christ offers us His grace
  • Christ is at work to show us grace in summing up all things in Himself
    • To understand what Paul is saying, we need to take a closer look at the words he’s using
    • The Greek word for summing up is anakephalaioo, which means to bring together
  • Paul says Christ will ultimately bring together everything in God’s creation, both in heaven and on earth
    • This is another manifestation of God’s grace to us in Christ’s work
    • But what does it mean that Christ is bringing all things together
• First, we need to remember how all things became divided in a sense
  • When Adam sinned in the Garden, he brought about the consequences for sin, which the Lord explained to Adam beforehand

Gen. 2:16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
Gen. 2:17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

• The Lord told Adam that the consequence of eating the forbidden fruit would be death
  • Specifically, the Lord meant that Adam’s spirit would experience spiritual death, meaning his spirit would become separated from God
  • This was the moment that humanity’s nature became fallen and separated from fellowship in peace with God
• Moreover, when the Lord came to Adam in the Garden, the Lord responded to Adam’s sin with a second act of judgment: a curse

Gen. 3:17  Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
Gen. 3:18  “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
Gen. 3:19  By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

• Because of Adam’s sin, the Lord pronounced a curse upon the physical earth
  • A curse means to condemn to destruction
  • This curse impacted the planet and all that comes from it
  • Therefore the ground (i.e., the earth itself) and all that comes from it was doomed to undergo destruction
• When we look back at the Creation account in Genesis 1 & 2 we discover that plants, animals and the human body find their origins in the ground
  • Since these things come out of the ground, they too are cursed
  • Plants wither and die, animals kill one another or grow old and die
  • And of course, the human body dies eventually as well
  • One day, even the earth itself will be destroyed as the curse requires

2Pet. 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

• Meanwhile, the earth and all that it contains bears up under the weight of the curse
  • The entire creation is longing to be restored, to be brought back together with God
  • It’s as if nature itself recognizes that it’s in need of godly repair by the grace of Christ

Rom. 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Rom. 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
Rom. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
Rom. 8:21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

• So as a result of Adam’s disobedience to the word of God, the spirit of mankind and the physical creation fell under judgment, separation from God
  • We were cast into darkness and became enslaved to the enemy who had conspired to bring us down
    • But as we learned last week, the grace of God in Christ has freed us from slavery to that enemy
    • His blood on the cross purchased us back from the enemy and set us free from condemnation
    • So now by faith our spirit has been restored to the Father in peace, because His wrath against our sin was poured out on Christ instead
  • But Paul says God’s grace in Christ accomplishes even more for our sake by summing up or bringing together all things on earth and heaven
    • Now that we understand what was divided as a result of Adam’s sin, we can understand what Christ reconciles by His grace
    • First, He has reconciled us to the Father by giving us a new spirit by His grace
  • Furthermore, Christ will one day reunite the spirit of every believer with a new, glorified body, as Paul says

Phil. 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Phil. 3:21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

• The Bible calls this day the resurrection, the day we receive a glorified, sinless body in which we will live forever
• That day will be the summing up of our spirit with a new body
• Later in the Kingdom on earth, the Lord will return the animal kingdom to the way it once existed

Is. 65:17    “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
Is. 65:18   “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
Is. 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.

• According to Isaiah, the coming Kingdom will include animals just as our current world does
  • But in that coming day, the animal kingdom will be restored back to its original state before the curse
  • They will not hunt each other or harm mankind
  • By the grace of God in Christ, they will return to an existence of harmony and peace
• Even more, the Lord will by His grace reconcile the fallen earth to Himself by eliminating the burden of the curse
  • In Revelation 21-22 the Bible describes this future world

Rev. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

Rev. 22:3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
Rev. 22:4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

• John wrote that in this future world, there will no longer be a  curse
  • The curse John mentions is the same one God pronounced in the Garden after the Fall
  • The Creation is restored by Christ, brought back to its intended state by the grace of Christ
• How did Christ accomplish this work of grace for us?
  • The Bible says that as Christ hung on the cross, he took the curse upon Himself

Gal. 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” —
Gal. 3:14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

• Jesus was hung on a tree, referring to the wood of the cross
  • And in doing so, He took upon Himself the curse for all Creation
  • Having paid the price of the curse, Christ restores the earth from the effects of the curse
• Finally, there is yet one more way the Lord sums up everything by His grace
  • The Bible says Christ will put an end to sin through judgment
    • When we talk about sin, the concept of summing up means to bring sin to its proper end
    • Beginning with the author of sin, the devil himself, and the death that the devil produces
    • In a day to come, the Lord will sum up Satan

Rev. 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

1Cor. 15:25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
1Cor. 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

• The Lord has no plan to redeem Satan, since the Bible says that the Lord doesn’t give help to fallen angels (Hebrews 2:16)
• Instead, the Lord brings Satan together with the judgment He justly deserves
• So Christ sums up things on earth and in heaven by judging Satan
  • The enemy’s fall began in Heaven, according to Ezekiel 28, when Satan defiled the heavenly tabernacle with his rebellion
  • He was cast to the earth where he brought sin into the Garden according to Genesis 3
• Christ addressed both through His sacrifice on the cross
  • After His resurrection, Hebrews says Christ entered the Heavenly tabernacle where He spilled His own blood to cleanse it from Satan’s rebellion

Heb. 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
Heb. 9:12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

• In this way, Christ’s blood summed up (or reconciled) things in heaven
• And in a day to come Christ will do away with Satan entirely, thereby reconciling Satan to judgment
• Finally, Christ sums up those who belong to the enemy, those who die in unbelief

Rev. 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Rev. 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
Rev. 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Rev. 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

• After the Kingdom age, the Lord will serve as Judge at a trial of unbelieving humanity
  • Humanity’s sins will convict them before this holy court
  • And like their father, the devil, these will receive the just penalty for sin…eternal separation from God
• So this is what Paul means when he says that Christ’s grace toward us results in a summing up of all things on heaven and on earth
  • First, He brought us together with the Father
    • Then He brings our spirit together with a new body
    • Then He restores the animal kingdom to peace and harmony with man and with each other
    • Finally He restores all Creation with a new, peaceful planet freed from the burden of a curse yielding death, corruption and suffering
  • Likewise, Christ reconciles the guilty to their just end
    • The enemy is judged and sent away forever
    • And the unbeliever is justly condemned and sent from God’s presence forever

Rev. 21:7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
Rev. 21:8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

• These acts are also grace to you and I
• They result in the destructive power of sin being removed from us forever
• Then in vs. 11-12 Paul gives us one more way Christ’s grace is summing up things on earth
  • By Christ’s obedience to the Law and His death on the cross, Christ reconciled or summed up the Jews and the Gentiles
    • Notice in vs.11-12, Paul says “we” have also obtained our inheritance in Christ
    • I trust you remember our lesson on the Father’s choosing us for an eternal inheritance
    • And how that inheritance was made possible in Christ’s death
    • For we were chosen to be part of Christ’s Last Will and Testament so we may receive a part of His inheritance
  • But Paul’s use of the pronoun “we” in these verses is meaningful
    • He’s speaking of a group of which he was a part but which his readers in Ephesus were not
    • Notice how in vs.13-14 Paul switches to speaking of “you”
    • We’re going to study vs.13-14 next time
    • But for now it’s enough for us to notice the shift Paul makes
  • Paul is comparing the grace Christ poured out on Jews (we) in the past to the grace He grants to the largely Gentile Church (you)
    • Paul says the Jews were predestined by the Father to be God’s chosen people
    • By His promises to Abraham, the Lord granted the Jewish people a special inheritance in the Promised Land in the future Kingdom
• The creation of the Jewish people and the covenants given to them was a special manifestation of Christ’s grace
  • God promised His people they would have a Messiah
    • He promised them He would dwell among them
    • He promised them they would live forever in a special inheritance, the Promised Land
  • This outpouring of grace upon Israel separated that nation from the rest of humanity
    • They were called out to be special and distinct among all nations
    • Paul says later in this letter that Israel’s predestination as God’s people meant that Gentiles were strangers to these promises
    • Gentiles were outside the grace of God for a time, divided from the Jewish people
  • That’s why Paul says in v.12 that the Jewish people were the first to hope in Christ
    • They were hoping in Messiah long before any Gentiles knew what a Messiah was or why someone would need a Messiah
    • Therefore, the Old Testament Jewish saints were those predestined by God to be the first to give praise to the Lord’s glory
    • Christ’s grace made this possible
• Yet Christ has summed up this divide as well, having brought Jews and Gentiles together in the faith
  • John says in his Gospel that Jesus’ death would bring together all His children from across the earth

John 11:51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
John 11:52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

• The grace of Christ resulted in the divide between Jew and Gentile dissolving in the plan of salvation
• Now all could be saved according to God’s grace
• In that way, the Lord has summed up Jew and Gentile into one body in the Church
• This summing up has some interesting parallels
  • The Jewish people were promised a special inheritance where they would enjoy the presence of God tabernacling among them forever
    • This promised inheritance is fully realized in the Kingdom
    • Yet in the meantime, the Old Testament saint in Israel received a downpayment on that inheritance
    • They were permitted to live in Canaan and they had the blessing of the glory of God living in the tabernacle
    • These blessings were down payments on the full inheritance promised for the Kingdom
  • Likewise, we will learn next week that the Gentile believer in the Church also receives these blessings in a new and better way
    • God once again dwells among His children
    • And we receive a law written on our hearts and a promised inheritance
    • These blessings are down payments on our full inheritance to come in the Kingdom
  • So Christ’s grace sums up the experience of the Old Testament Jewish saint and the New Testament Gentile saint
    • We both were predestined to receive grace
    • We both received a downpayment now in the form of God dwelling among us and the promise of an inheritance in the Kingdom
    • Even now, we have both been brought together into one body in the Church
    • Christ, summing up everything in heaven and on earth
• Are you beginning to appreciate the magnitude of God’s grace to you in Christ?
  • Christ’s grace goes far beyond the cross
    • Yes, the cross is all-important in this discussion
    • But He has a plan of restoration and reconciliation that boggles the mind
  • He addresses your sinful spirit, your corrupt body, your fallen world and your needs into eternity
    • He has a plan to make all things new
    • And He has moved in your life to bring these things about for no reason except His unmerited favor toward you, a sinner
    • Truly His grace is amazing

• In this lesson we finally finish Paul’s 270 word sentence in Ephesians 1
  • From vs.3-14 Paul has been explaining the ways in which the believer is spiritually blessed as a result of God’s grace
    • This section is merely Paul’s introduction to the topic of grace
    • Yet he pours it on in this passage, running from point to point as if carried away by his amazement of all God is doing for us
  • We’ve been studying this passage according to the outline Paul provides
    • Paul begins by explaining the role of the Father in bestowing grace upon the believer
    • Then Paul moves to the role of the Second Person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ
    • And then finally, Paul ends explaining the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing us God’s grace
  • So far, we’ve studied the grace found in the Father and the grace given us through the Son
    • So today we move to work of the third Person, the Spirit of God, Who plays a distinct role in bringing us God’s unmerited favor
    • Last week I touched on the Spirit’s work as I explained the work of Christ summing up all things
    • I said Christ sums up (or brings together) the work of God among the Jewish people with His work within the Gentile Church
    • And the Spirit of God plays a part in that reconciliation
• Let’s go back into this passage, beginning in v.13, which starts Paul’s explanation of the Spirit’s work

Eph. 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Eph. 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

• In v.13 Paul describes a process of sorts
  • He is explaining how by God’s grace we moved out of unbelief and into the family of God
    • As I look at my English Bible, I see three steps in the process preceding in a certain order
    • The final step in this process is the sealing of the Holy Spirit, which is Paul’s main emphasis in this verse
  • But as we read v.13, we may find our English translation of the original Greek is misrepresenting what Paul is saying
    • I say that because the list of steps in v.13 is not sequential but rather simultaneous
    • These steps do not happen one at a time
    • They happen exactly at the same time
  • Notice how this verse begins with the phrase “In Him”
    • Remember, we learned what this phrase meant in an earlier week
    • We said the phrase “In Him” means someone who is in Christ, that is someone who is already saved
    • So every step in v.13 refers to someone who is “in Christ”
• Keeping that in mind, we then understand that the three steps described in v.13 are collectively one moment happening instantaneously
  • We simply cannot separate them, spiritually speaking
    • While we experience it in a linear fashion (i.e., one event followed by another)
    • Scripture says all three of the steps in v.13 happened to us because we were “in Christ”
  • So the process of salvation is not one but three steps all happening together in the same moment to place us in Christ
    • The first step is “after listening to the message of the truth”
    • The word “after” doesn’t appear in the original Greek language
    • And the Greek word for listen is akouo, which means to heed, to give attention to
    • And the word message is the Greek word logos, which means word
  • Notice Paul clarifies what word he’s talking about
    • He says this word of truth is the Gospel of our salvation
    • So clearly, Paul is referring to the testimony that Jesus is our Messiah
  • The Gospel message is a two-part truth
    • First, it declares that Jesus died on a cross as a payment for our sin to save us from God’s wrath
    • Secondly, it testifies that He rose from the dead to prove He is God and He has the power to grant us eternal life
    • That in a nutshell is the Gospel message that brings salvation
• So this phrase would be better translated “having heeded the word of truth”
  • Our transformation from death to life, from unsaved to saved, requires we heed the Gospel message found in the word of Christ
    • The Gospel message commands all people to repent of the sin of unbelief and turn to Christ in faith
    • Many people hear this message, in the sense that they encounter it
    • But not all give their attention to it, to heed it
  • We might ask ourselves, how many times did you hear the Gospel before you seriously gave attention to it?
    • Ironically, you probably have no idea how often you heard it, because you weren’t paying attention
    • You weren’t heeding it, so you were completely uninterested in what the word was saying
  • I can remember the day I first gave my attention to the Gospel message as I was sitting in a Bible-teaching church in my late 20s
    • I had spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in churches of one kind of another over the earlier years of my life
    • Had I ever been exposed to the Gospel message during that time?
    • I don’t remember hearing it, but perhaps I heard it yet simply wasn’t heeding it
• I’m sure you have been on the other side of this situation as a Christian witnessing to an unbeliever, perhaps in your family or workplace or school
  • You patiently explain the Gospel or perhaps just make mention of Christ hoping to see a response
    • And it’s as if the person is asleep or suddenly is deaf
    • I remember times I’ve begun to explain the Gospel when almost immediately something interrupts the moment
  • The person gets a phone call or another person joins our conversation and changes the topic
    • When that happens, the person has failed to heed the message
    • This reminds us of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 8 in the parable of the seeds

Luke 8:11  “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:12 “Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

• Jesus says that the enemy is working behind the scenes at all times to prevent the unbeliever from heeding the word
  • Notice Jesus says they have heard the word merely in the sense that the sound of the words hit their ears
  • Or the light from a page of text went into their eyeballs
  • Physically, the message was delivered but the enemy prevented those words from making an impact
  • So the person could not heed it
• But for the person who is in Christ, the Gospel message will always be heeded
  • The Lord was already working in the person’s heart to prepare them to heed the truth
    • He removes those barriers that earlier prevented them from heeding the message
    • For the person who is “in Christ” the enemy cannot steal away the seed
    • For the one who is “in Christ” the conversation will not be interrupted, the phone will not ring, the heart will not be hard
  • For that person, the Lord is already working to prepare eyes and ears and hearts to heed the word of the truth
    • For such a person, step 2 of v.13 will also happen
    • Paul says “having also believed”
    • The word for believe in Greek can also be translated “trusted”
    • So Paul says “we having also trusted in this message”
  • If we read the first part of this verse together with the second part, it sounds like this:
    • “You, having heeded the word of truth…and having also believed in that word…”
    • Once again, Paul isn’t describing a series of successive steps
    • He’s describing all the things that happened in a single moment for the one who is in Christ
    • For believers, the moment we truly heeded or heard the Gospel was the same moment we trusted what we heard
• To help you understand what Paul is saying, imagine a 5-year old child, Tommy, playing at the park playground
  • He’s surrounded by other children also playing in the park
    • Kids are riding the carousel, swinging from the monkey bars, playing in the sand, etc.
    • And around the edge of the playground sit all the mothers and fathers diligently watching over their children
  • Periodically, a parent yells out a child’s name, getting their attention to beckon them home or correct their behavior
    • Tommy’s ears hear those names being called, but the call never registers in his mind
    • He never looks up nor stops playing
    • He never heeds it
    • It’s as if he never heard it at all though he did hear it
  • So it is for the unbeliever when the call of the Gospel finds its way to the unbeliever’s ears
    • Their ears hear, but they do not heed
    • It’s as if they never heard it at all
    • The voice speaking can be very persuasive, even insistent
    • But like Tommy, the voice isn’t familiar and so it makes no impression
• Then suddenly Tommy’s father calls out his name
  • His father’s voice isn’t louder than the other parents, nor does he use fancy words
    • He simply says “Tommy, let’s go”
    • But this time when the sound waves hit Tommy’s ears, he heeds the voice
    • And more than heeding it, he trusts what it says
    • The two moments are inseparable for Tommy
  • And so it is for the one who is “in Christ”
    • When the Gospel comes calling, the person hears, heeds it and trusts in it – all in the same moment
    • The Lord prepares the heart to ensure that when His word comes it finds a receptive audience
    • Just as Jesus said, His sheep know His voice and follow
• Finally, Paul says the one who is in Christ will be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise
  • Now we’ve come to the first mention of the Holy Spirit, yet He’s been the One in view throughout this verse
    • The Spirit is the One bringing the word of God to the ears and hearts of those in Christ
    • He is the One giving us the ability to heed and trust in what we hear
    • He is the Servant working in the world to find a Bride for the Son and the word of God is His sword
  • Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians

1Cor. 2:6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
1Cor. 2:7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
1Cor. 2:8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

1Cor. 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
1Cor. 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1Cor. 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1Cor. 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
1Cor. 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

• Paul explains that the Gospel Paul shared is a mystery that the world didn’t embrace in its natural state
  • Why doesn’t the whole world embrace the message of grace and salvation?
    • Because the message is a spiritual mystery which has been prepared for the glory of His chosen children
    • We were predestined to receive it
    • Which is why we were given the Spirit of God so that we might understand the message as it came to us
  • Paul says the Spirit alone understands the thoughts of God
    • So Paul says we received the indwelling of the Spirit of God so that we can understand spiritual truths
    • The Spirit in us works like a supernatural translator revealing the truths of the Gospel message so we can receive it
  • It’s not that the Gospel message is so complicated
    • Paul says it’s foolishness to the unsaved world
    • They can understand the words, in the same way that Tommy could understand what the other parents were saying
    • But he didn’t heed those words nor trust in them because they were not familiar to him
    • That’s why Paul says that without the Spirit of God, a natural man (i.e., an unbeliever) cannot understand nor accept the things of God
• God gives us His Spirit so that when He speaks to us with His message of salvation, we will find it familiar and compelling
  • Before that moment, the message was a mystery which we ignored even when we heard it
    • Now we heed it, believe it
    • All because the Spirit in us confirms the truth of what we’re hearing, leading us to agree with it
  • Therefore, all the steps listed in Ephesians 1:13 must happen in one and the same moment, all done by the working of the Spirit in us
    • Because the Father chose us, the Spirit came to dwell with us to give us understanding of the message

2Th. 2:13  But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

• The Spirit delivered the word of salvation to our ears and gave our hearts the ability to heed it

Rom. 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

• And the Spirit lead us to confess our belief in what we heard

Gal. 4:6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

1Cor. 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

• So the Spirit’s role in the grace of God is not insignificant
  • When we think of God’s grace toward us, we usually think of the Father and the Son first
  • But the Spirit is the One who brought these saving truths to our hearts
• We could compare the Father to a factory making grace available to us
  • And the Son is like our credit card, purchasing that grace for us
  • Then the Spirit is like the UPS man delivering that grace to our hearts
  • You’ll never look at your UPS man the same way again
• What’s more, Paul says we were sealed by the Spirit of promise
  • The term “sealed” refers to the way legal contracts or agreements were secured shut by wax seals
    • Sealing protected the documents from alteration
    • It also signified that the document would be enforced by the magistrate
  • And what is God’s agreement with us, His promise to us in Christ?
    • That as Christ lived again, so shall we
    • That death will not be the end of us – He will raise us into a new body never to die again
  • How can you be sure you will be raised? How can you be sure that the Lord will keep His promise?
    • Because He has placed His Spirit in you and me, Paul says
    • If we have been sealed by the Spirit, it means God’s promise to us is unalterable and will be carried out by God’s power
    • We could say that the Spirit of promise has sealed the deal
• Most importantly, this assurance comes from God, who never changes His mind and cannot lie, scripture says
  • This is the surest promise that ever existed
    • God never goes back on His word, and this is true no matter what may happen to us or even what we may do or say
    • As Paul says

2Tim. 2:13  If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

• God cannot deny Himself in the sense that He cannot turn His back on His own Spirit
• President Kennedy once told a story about an Irishman on a journey through the countryside when he came upon a high wall blocking his way
  • The wall seemed too high to climb and the man thought of turning back
  • But instead, the man took off his cap and tossed it over the wall
  • And he thought to himself, now that my cap is on the other side, I have no choice but to find a way to follow after it
• In a sense, that’s how I think of the Spirit – as a pledge from the Lord
  • The Lord has thrown His cap over the wall, so to speak
  • He has committed His own Spirit to going the distance with us
  • We may have bad days, days that cause us even to question whether the Lord still loves us or even if we still love Him
  • But there is no turning back, not for Him and not for us
• But the grace of the Spirit goes even further, as Paul explains in v.14
  • The Spirit is a pledge toward our inheritance, he says
    • We’ve already looked at our inheritance in an earlier lesson
    • We learned then that our inheritance in the Kingdom will be a portion of Christ’s inheritance which He grants to each of God’s children
    • Our inheritance is a glorious thing awaiting each of us simply because we are fellow heirs
  • And the Spirit living in us is God’s pledge to us toward that future inheritance
    • The word pledge could be translated payment, as in a down payment
    • The Lord wants us looking forward to our inheritance with anticipation
    • He doesn’t want us distracted seeking the wealth that perishes
    • To give us a taste of how good things will be in the Kingdom, the Lord gives us a down payment on that coming inheritance
• Therefore, the Spirit of God comes into our life to bring us to faith, and then the Spirit remains even after as a guarantee toward our inheritance
  • Now for some of us, the Spirit of God living in us may not seem like a down payment on heavenly riches
    • Speaking as a guy, “If you can’t drive it, eat it, shoot it or date it, what good is it?”
    • But if that’s how you see the gift of the Holy Spirit, then you haven’t scratched the surface of what God has given you
    • And maybe that’s why you’re not very excited about what God has in store for you in the Kingdom
  • The gift of the Spirit working in us is nothing short of miraculous
    • He causes us to think, act and live in completely new and better ways
    • He equips us to serve others with strength and insight beyond anything we could do on our own
    • He gives us the power to pray with another, and see God respond
    • To share words of wisdom with someone hurting, and see them healed
    • To speak the truth of the Gospel and watch a new life enter into eternal life
  • Paul says that these little miracles the Spirit does in us day-to-day are merely a down payment of what God has in store for us in the Kingdom
    • Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians

1Cor. 2:9  but just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

• If God’s own Spirit living in us is just the beginning of what we will know in the Kingdom, can you imagine what more is coming?
• Actually, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that no you can’t imagine
  • The life God has planned for us in the Kingdom is so beyond our experience here, that we literally can’t imagine it
  • So that even the marvels done by the Spirit can’t fully prepare us for what marvels await us in the Kingdom
• Friends, that’s grace
  • God created humanity and placed Adam and Woman in a perfect Garden
    • But then Adam repudiated the Lord’s good work
    • He refused to trust in God’s word and he plunged God’s perfect Creation into ruin
  • God could have left it there…leaving humanity in its sin and judging us all rightly for that sin
    • But by grace He elected to save us and bring us into a new life with Him
    • By grace He sent His Son Who lived life without sin yet willingly took the penalty for our sin
  • And yet His grace just keeps on going
    • He reconciles all things, giving us a new body, a new Creation and a new world someday
    • Meanwhile, in His grace He gives us His word so we can know Him and follow His ways
    • By His grace He has pledged us future riches in a promised Kingdom
    • And all these things He delivers to us by His Spirit Who stays with us until all these things have been completed
• When you hear of God’s grace, I hope you’ll think back to Ephesians 1 remembering all the ways the Lord has blessed us with His grace

•  We’ve been in the weeds of Chapter 1 following along in Paul’s outline of grace
  • His outline took us through vs.3-14 as he explained the ways each Person of the Godhead has granted us favor
    • Father, Son and Holy Spirit worked together to bring a plan of salvation and glory to fruition in each our lives
    • We didn’t stumble upon the path to salvation
    • God prepared salvation for us, brought it to us, confirmed it in us and now He is living within us to guarantee the conclusion
  • Now as we move forward in Paul’s letter to believers in Ephesus, let’s remember why Paul launched into his conversation on grace
    • As we learned earlier, Paul is teaching to a church living in a city preoccupied with wealth, success, power, and pagan worship
    • So the temptations for believers to chase the world are everywhere
    • And so is the tendency to boast, to glorify self
    • For in this culture power, wealth and prestige were considered noble pursuits
  • But the pursuit of these things conflicts with a Christian’s duty
    • They distract us from our pursuit of Christ
    • They conflict with our witness and with our opportunities to build the Kingdom
    • And they compete with our pursuit of our inheritance in Heaven
  • That’s why Paul went to such effort to explain how far the Lord has already gone in bestowing grace upon each of us
    • God has secured our place in the Kingdom, He’s assured us of Heavenly riches far beyond what can be found here
    • And He’s done it for us not because we had achieved greatness, but because He showed us unmerited favor
    • Simply put, you don’t earn what God gives by grace, and you can’t lose what you didn’t deserve in the first place
• So Paul wants the believer in Ephesus to give greater appreciation to what they have received in Christ
  • In fact, every student of scripture, having reached v.14 of Ephesians 1, should fall to his or her knees in praise and thanks for God’s wisdom and mercy
    • God’s grace is an overwhelming, awe-inspiring truth for any believer who fully grasps it
    • In fact, notice how Paul ends the passage in v.14
  • He says God’s entire plan of grace for His Church is to the praise of His glory
    • The whole plan was designed to inspire praise from us
    • And that all our praise would be to His glory, not to our own nor anyone else’s
    • The plan of our redemption and our future glory in the Kingdom began and ended with His grace poured out on us
• And next Paul says he also thanks the Lord for His grace granted to Ephesus

Eph. 1:15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,
Eph. 1:16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
Eph. 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

• Paul didn’t just thank the Lord for the grace God had given him personally
  • Paul also thanked the Lord for His grace given to others, particularly Ephesus
    • In His prayers he specifically told the Lord thank you for bringing the church in Ephesus into existence
    • And he thanked the Lord for making Ephesus a loving church, a place that expressed love for all saints
  • Paul says he went a step further…he never ceased to give thanks to God for this miracle in such a pagan, lost place
    • He made specific mention of the believers in Ephesus regularly in his prayers
    • And not only Ephesus, but Paul testified he did the same for others as well
  • Paul said similar things to the churches in Rome, Colossae, Philippi, and Thessalonica
    • Think about that for a moment
    • How long do you think Paul’s prayer request list was?
    • How many prayer needs do we suppose Paul had personally?
  • Paul says elsewhere that he was often hungry, cold, beaten, opposed by the devil, and imprisoned
    • And then there were his ministry challenges
    • And the need to raise up leaders and to contend with opposition
    • His list must have been a mile long
  • And how many other people do we suppose sought Paul’s intercession on their own behalf?
    • Can you imagine the list he maintained for others
    • I bet it took Paul hours of prayer time to get through it all
    • And I expect Paul devoted the necessary time knowing how important that time was to his own relationship with Christ
• Nevertheless, how amazing that on top of all that Paul never ceased to include a thanks to the Lord for the believers the Lord allowed Paul to plant
  • He thanked the Lord for His grace to make Paul’s preaching fruitful
    • He gave God glory for the results
    • And he thanked the Lord for communities of loving, faithful believers
  • Do we think about prayer in this way? Do we think about thanking the Lord for His grace, both in our own life and the life of others?
    • When you think about it, that’s the most important thing we could thank God for
    • Because grace is the start of every good work of God
    • Thank Him for your church, for having extended His grace to this corner of the city
    • And for having brought together a loving community
  • Thankfulness in your prayers will translate into contentment in your life
    • Here again, this may have been missing in the church in Ephesus
    • Failing to recognize the magnitude of what they had already received in God’s grace left them seeking for the world’s rewards
    • And failing to thank the Lord for His grace resulted in a lack of contentment
• Notice Paul says in v.17 that he also prayed for the Lord to give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him
  • When Paul uses the word spirit in v.17, he means an attitude, not the Holy Spirit
    • The believers in Ephesus already possessed the Spirit as Paul said earlier in v.13
    • Paul is asking that the Lord open their eyes to understand the spiritual realities of their situation
    • They needed an attitude of wisdom
    • And they needed God to reveal spiritual truth to them so they could gain that attitude
  • This is the first indication in the letter that Paul knew that not all was right in this place
    • Despite their love for one another in the body, they were moving away from a reliance on Christ and His promises
    • They were departing from their first love, as Jesus later identifies
    • But at this point, Paul is still working to save the church body from that fate
  • But it’s important to notice that Paul didn’t start his counsel by focusing on their behaviors
    • Certainly, the church was engaged in some bad behaviors
    • Later in the letter Paul will call out some of the church’s bad practices
    • But Paul knew the church couldn’t put godliness into action if they didn’t understand what godliness requires
    • As our thinking goes, so goes our acting
  • What you understand about the Lord through His word will determine how you behave and whether you mature as a Christian
    • Bible study isn’t sufficient to ensure obedient living
    • Plenty of mature Christians still struggle with sin, as even Paul said of himself in Romans 7
    • But study of God’s word is absolutely necessary if we hope to have any opportunity to resist sin and walk in peace with Christ
• So Paul was praying for a revelation of knowledge from God
  • When Paul wrote this letter, very few works of New Testament scripture had yet to be written
    • So the church didn’t have the benefit of the whole counsel of God’s word
    • Certainly they had Old Testament scripture, but Paul knew the knowledge they needed had yet to be revealed in scripture
  • So Paul prayed for the Lord to reveal new truth to Ephesus, and in fact that revelation eventually came through Paul’s letters
    • But for us today, we wouldn’t pray for new revelation
    • We don’t need to make that our prayer, because we already have the full revelation of God in His word
    • Peter says that scripture has all that we need for life and for godliness
    • So when we seek help moving away from sin, we need not petition God for new revelations
    • We just open our Bibles
• Nevertheless, we should echo one part of Paul’s prayer
  • Paul asked the Lord to give Ephesus an attitude of wisdom
    • A spirit or attitude of wisdom is the key to sanctification
    • If a believer doesn’t value spiritual wisdom, then they have no hope to mature much less experience sanctified living
    • If your attitude is that Bible knowledge isn’t important or it’s only for the pastor, then you’re going nowhere fast, spiritually speaking
  • In reality, our entire walk with Christ is about knowing Him
    • Warren Wiersbe once wrote that to know God personally is salvation
    • To know Him increasingly is sanctification
    • To know Him is glorification
    • In the end, it’s about knowing Him
  • It seems Ephesus was a church that didn’t value spiritual wisdom
    • Perhaps they valued earthly wisdom
    • Perhaps it was about money, sex, power, achievement
    • Whatever got them excited, it wasn’t pursuit of spiritual wisdom
• Their eyes were blinded by the shiny objects of their culture, and it worried Paul, so his prayer continues in v.18