Let me begin by saying that that it’s an honor and a privilege for me to be back speaking to you this morning. For me it means that my first time around I didn’t spout off too much heresy so Steve gave me just a little more rope. Let’s see what happens shall we? Today’s text is Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15 so would you open your bibles up to that? If you don’t have your Bible you can find that on page 976 in the black covered Bible under the chair in front of you.
We’ve been working through the book of Ephesians. There is one of the thing that I greatly admire about the church in Ephesus, they were an “all in” kind of people. You see Paul in this letter is giving great encouragement as only a pastor can but also is giving them strong boundaries so that they could enjoy the fullness of God in Jesus Christ. One of the great analogies from our High School Alpha course is that a soccer game isn’t much fun unless there are boundaries and rules of play. Paul stresses the need for sound doctrine. Why? Because what we believe matters. Because what we believe affects how we live. We as a church this summer took time in a similar way to examine what it is we believe in the Stories sermon series. The result of this love for God’s ways in Ephesus was that the entire social economic climate of a major metropolitan city was changed as the gospel went out and lives were changed.
Would you pray with me? Lord we want to be a transformed and transforming people. We want to be the kind of people who take this message of the gospel out into a world hurting and broken, into our offices, into our homes, into our schools and see our city transformed. However father we can’t do it with out your help. We can’t make fire, we can’t make light, and we can’t transform hearts. However you call us to strike matches, flip light switches and to proclaim that “He who knew no sin became sin so that we might know the righteousness of God.” Open your word to us now we beg of you. Amen
As we look at this letter, and understand what Anthony spoke of last week, The God who blesses, we come to the end of the first chapter and read this “…because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…” One of the things we encourage young people to do at youth group is to always ask “What is the context of what we’re reading?” What is Paul talking about? What has he heard about his friends in Ephesus?
As we look back at the history of that church we see that the church springing up in Ephesus is living beyond its walls. The church there has been redeemed by Jesus and has taken that love out into the streets. It’s the fullness of what Christ talked about back in Luke 10 when a lawyer came to him and asked him that great question. “Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus wonderfully replies “What is written in the law?” The lawyer comes back and says “You must love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus replies “Do this and you will live.” It’s the idea that you cannot have your heart touched by the Redeemer, by Christ, and not feel compassion for those outside. Steve said a few weeks ago, “you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.” You can’t truly love those around you without sharing the Savior which you treasure most. The church in Ephesus got this as they were going out.
Let’s look at a tragically comical event where this goes horribly wrong. As Paul’s writing this to his dear friends in Ephesus he has to be remembering the events of when that church was first planted. There’s a great story in Acts 19 where the gospel was being proclaimed in Ephesus and God was healing the sick and doing miracles. What would it look like if those kinds of things started happening in our midst the same way they were happening there? Glory was being given to God who was pouring out his Spirit all over town. You have this life group of Priscilla and Aquila training up Apollos. The Spirit is softening hearts and allowing people to see Jesus through the scriptures. Then you have these seven Jewish brothers who were trying to cast out a demon of someone. They thought Paul was doing this neat trick so they tried it by using the name Jesus. They thought Paul knew some magic phrase.
The result is what happens when you go on mission with out the general commanding the troops. The demon says this great line “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize but who are you?” Friends I want the evil powers in Charleston to say “Jesus I know, and St. Andrew’s I recognize”; because we are making such an impact for Jesus’ kingdom.
Here’s what happens to the brothers: “And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that whey fled out of that house naked and wounded.” If you get into a fight have your clothes beaten off of you that’s all kinds of wounding. You’re going to need loads of Ananias prayer because that’s emotional wounding, spiritual wounding, public wounding etc. It’s not going well for you. Luke tells us in Acts that after this event reverence fell upon all in Ephesus and the Name of the Lord was extolled. In fact, it said that this had a ripple effect out into the city and “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
So you have this church, redeemed by Jesus, operating in power, making kingdom waves as they go out. Amazing right? As I read scripture this is what happens when people passionately pursue God. It’s the norm. Paul hears about their continual efforts and here’s what he writes to them…
“16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him…”
As Paul’s encouraging them, as he is praying for them, he’s also reminding them and us that there is this beautiful picture of the Trinity at work. God the Father of Jesus the Son gives us the Spirit who points us back to the knowledge of him. It works in this wonderful system of the Father sending the Spirit to awaken our dead cold hearts to the redemption of the Son who in turn points us back to the Father. We get to see all of this take place not with the eyes in our skull but with the eyes of our hearts. Has the Spirit shown you Jesus? Has He revealed to you your Father? Paul goes on describing what exactly he’s praying for his brothers and sisters…
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,
Here is where the rubber meets the road. Here’s where things go from theory to practice. If we are going to go out in Prayer and Power, if we are going out on mission to see his “kingdom come and will be done” then we need to have this concept of “hope” locked down. I can know that as a follower of Jesus I’m supposed to love God and love others. Yet what happens when God seems distant or when my love for others is rejected? What happens when the test comes back positive, or addiction raises it’s head once again? Hope can be a precious commodity that is fleeting for many, can’t it?
A fast food company ran a commercial recently where they filmed all these cute little kids opening empty kid meal boxes looking for the toy inside only to discover the box was empty. The announcer came on saying “you can’t see hope but money was donated to a charity for each meal.” That’s great, but for those of us who have to get out of bed in the morning dragging ourselves into one more battle at work, lacing up our boots one more time to make the marriage work. Let me offer you some encouragement, which I believe Paul is offering his friends in Ephesus: Cling to hope because it’s an important part of our faith. However you will not have cling to it forever. Paul to another church writes…
1 Cor 12:13 says…
13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Have you ever asked yourself why? Shouldn’t faith be the greatest? Right? After all we are saved by grace through faith. That’s a pretty big deal.
I’d answer this. Faith and hope are at best for me only going be around for 80 years at most. Because at that time when I step into eternity or Jesus comes back I won’t need faith because the object of my faith will be staring me in the face and I won’t need hope anymore because that which I had hoped for had come. That is the future. Today is different. Today I need faith Today I need hope.
The Ephesians needed to know the hope they have in Christ. I grew up water skiing on a river in Pennsylvania. If you’ve ever water skied you know that from the time that boat engine throttles up to the time you are standing up out of the water you are holding onto toe rope for dear life and it’s hard to hold onto. Think of hope as that toe rope. It lifts us up out of the mire life throws at us. However it won’t always be that hard to cling to.
So if you find hope a hard thing to grasp take comfort as the hymn writer wrote.. “This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.”
Paul prays clearly for us and his friends that.. 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,
Today, do you need to know the hope to which he has called you?
Paul goes on to show God’s power through his prayer.
I want you to pay close attention to three “what’s.” We’ve already covered the first what. Paul prayed that we might know what is the hope we’re called into. The second what is that we might know “What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”
When you see that word inheritance near the bottom of page 976 what comes to mind? For me it’s either to what I’m going to get when my distant rich uncle kicks the bucket. Or to what I’m going to leave to my daughter Abbie. When I talk to our leaders with Basic Impact, our youth group and to parents of teenagers I love to challenge them to think through the faith inheritance they are leaving their students. Paul here is talking about a different kind of inheritance. He’s talking about you and me as God’s glorious inheritance. As we are found in Christ we are of immeasurable worth to God. As I think about me being God’s inheritance, it shapes my identity. It reminds me that I’m not defined by my good or bad actions but what defines me is that I am his and nothing can change that.
In Christ we know that we have hope (“What” number 1) In Christ we are God’s inheritance (“What” number 2) and finally “What” number 3 is that In Christ we know God’s power as we are sent out. Paul writes that we might know “…what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might…” Not just any type of power. Paul will take the next few verses and ring a loud bell that it’s God’s power through Jesus Christ. Not through idols, not through good works or being a nice person, not through the stock market or a relationship or the power of positive thinking. It’s God’s power through Christ that we can stand on as we step one foot in front of another out into our world. It’s God’s power in Christ that fuels these little outposts of the kingdom here in Mt. Pleasant, up in Goose Creek, and down town.
Let’s land by saying that it’s not often we talk about the end of a church. However if our goal is to take Christ out into this world through power then I think we need to see how the church in Ephesus drops off the radar screen. Let’s turn to Revelation 2 it’s page 1028 in the Bible you have. In this section Jesus is addressing the church in Ephesus. He’s saying I know your works. Read with me… “2:2 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
Jesus is saying that you can go out, you can go on all kinds of mission, you can toil with patience, you can do all the good works you want, you even can call evil, evil. However where things go horribly off track, where like the brothers who were beaten naked in Acts 19, or like the times when we are hopeless, when we forget those three “whats” and try to do it on our own. We forget the Hope we have in Christ. We forget that we are God’s inheritance that he loves, and we forget that its God’s power working in us that pushes us down as disciples and out into our communities.
I wonder if you know who you are in Christ?
I wonder if you know the hope to which He’s called you?
I wonder if you’ve taken a hold of hope – real hope – hope that is with you, in you, in every circumstance?
I wonder where you need to know the power of God?
I wonder what it would look like for you to be an agent of hope in someone else’s life?
I wonder what it would look like if you were to take the gospel – to live the gospel – with your family? At your school? At your place of work?
I wonder if we need to learn to pray prayers so big only God can answer them?
Let’s stand to pray.
