Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord!

"OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART, LORD" Spring Valley Mennonite; November 8, 2020; Ephesians 1:15-19a In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote a political satire entitled "Gulliver's Travels." In the story we find a man named Gulliver passing through the land of the Lilliputians, a race of men who are tiny compared to Gulliver. To them, he is a giant. They find Gulliver stretched out on the ground, and approach him with great caution, wondering if he is dead, but find that he is only sleeping. While asleep, he is harmless, as well as defenseless, and they use this opportunity to bind him with multiple ropes. While the story was a satire on the political and religious happenings in 18th century England, the idea of a sleeping and thus impotent giant illustrates well the church as a whole and perhaps, many believers also. How many of us are asleep to the greatness of what has happened to us when we came to faith, and consequently are blind to the full potential of the Christian life? Is it possible that we are existing on crumbs when we could be dining at the finest of buffets? This morning our study in Ephesians is potentially a wake-up call to believers in Jesus Christ. It is a prayerful plea to God to open the eyes of our hearts to see Christ in His glorious fullness and the abundant life He has promised. John 10:10: "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly." Open your Bibles to Ephesians 1; we will begin in verse 15. (Read through verse 19a.) I. ALIVE BUT ASLEEP I draw the idea of sleep from verse 18, where Paul prays that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened-that they might see the light. It is if they are slumbering and their eyes are closed. They are alive to be sure, but less than effective because they are asleep. There is no doubt that they are alive, for he sees reasons to rejoice over: two areas stand out to him, their faith and their love. We remember that Paul had spent three years ministering in Ephesus during his second Missionary journey. Ephesus was both an economic and religious center from which the gospel quickly spread to the surrounding areas. Although many of the believers there in Ephesus were personally known to Paul, this letter, written 3-5 years after he left, was written to many of the church he knew only by reputation. The reports he had received was that they were people whose faith in the Lord Jesus was strong. In addition to their strong faith, they had something more: they had the reputation of loving one another. He compliments them for "your love for all the saints." Notice the little word "all." Francis Schaeffer wrote a book in 1970 about this type of love; the title was "The Mark of the Christian." Jesus gave a new commandment to us when He said that we are to "love one another." Some people are easy to love; some of us take a bit more effort. I was reminded this week that there were believers who supported candidates other than those I supported; I am commanded to love those people also. These people had love for all. It is easy to believe doctrine or facts. It is quite another matter to demonstrate our faith practically by loving one another, especially those who are a bit harder to love. Love truly is the mark of the Christian. I have to ask myself, "Could be said that I am primarily identified as a Christian by the love I show to all other believers? Paul was convinced of their spiritual vitality by their faith proven by love. Having heard of this, he assured them of his unceasing prayers. This passage is a prayer of thanks to God for them., but it also serves as a prayer of challenge. For even though the church was filled with faithful and loving believers, he knew few believers maximize their potential. That is why Paul wrote this letter: to help them fully understand and experience all the blessings and benefits of their relationship with God. They had made a great beginning, but they were in danger of settling for crumbs when they could be feasting. This is where the idea of "alive but asleep" comes into play: we believers, these in Ephesus over 1900 years ago, and we today, can easily become like slumbering giants: capable of so much, having so much innate strength, but using so little of that power. We can become complacent and self-satisfied, sluggishly lying around, perhaps even asleep and accomplishing only a fraction of what is possible. After a while we convince ourselves that this is all there is to the Christian life. Have you ever wondered if you are only scratching the surface of what God desires for you, just living on the outskirts of God's blessings and power? A common sight in most large third world cities like San Paulo or Mexico City are the shanty town settlements in which millions o people live in poverty. So many believers live in spiritual shanty towns, never venturing into the center of the city where the King resides. Paul saw the danger of many people settling for less than God's best, living in spiritual poverty. He is writing these words to whet our appetite for what is possible and ours because we are children of God. The Holy Spirit through Paul desires to: II. AWAKEN OUR SPIRITUAL SENSES The prayer of the great Apostle is that God will stir up our spiritual senses, creating a hunger to know God better. I mentioned last week that one unmistakable sign of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives is a desire for intimacy with God. Galatians 4:6 tells us that: "...because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father!'" Do you feel the Spirit tugging at your heart, motivating you to move closer to God? Paul prays that God would stir them up and give them a "spirit of wisdom and revelation" in the knowledge of Himself. This is a crucial step in moving toward God. There must be an inward desire. Psalm 42:1: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God." We need to understand that the "spirit" here in verse 17 is not the Holy Spirit. We don't need to pray that God would give us the Holy Spirit, as verse 13 tells us that all believers have already been sealed with the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:9 states, "...if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." The spirit spoken of here is our inner capacity by which we perceive, reflect, feel and desire. It is an inner bent or disposition in a particular direction; for example, we might say that someone "has a spirit of stubbornness, of that they have a spirit of cooperation" about them. We mean that we sense a particular disposition or attitude that they have. This prayer is for the development of a disposition, an inner spiritual capacity within us which constantly seeks to experientially know God's wisdom and what He thinks about things; that we would have an inner drive to learn and live in a wise and godly way, in accordance with the leading of the Word and the Spirit. H.A. Ironside, longtime Pastor of Moody Church, describes this desire of the Holy Spirit: "He who indwells you delights in His special work of opening up the things of Christ and revealing them to his saints. How does He do that? By giving insight into the truth already revealed in the Word of God." Wisdom is living life from God's perspective, a perspective found revealed in the Word. As this inner disposition to know and follow Christ in our spirit is expressed, the Holy Spirit delights in revealing an ever expanding knowledge of Christ and of our spiritual heritage, this knowledge being more than head knowledge, but life-changing heart knowledge. The word "knowledge" used here is actually "super-knowledge." We are enabled to see and enjoy precious things never seen before! Such knowledge has made its long journey from the head to the heart. The prayer continues, building precept upon precept: Paul prays that we would come to experience: III. A NEW WORLD OF HOPE, RICHES AND POWER Look again at verses 18 and 19 (read). Luke records the account of two disciples walking down the road to Emmaus. It was right after the crucifixion of Jesus, and they were downcast and depressed by the terrible things which had happened in Jerusalem. The Lord joins them, but they do not recognize Him. He walks along with them as a stranger. As He journeys with them, He begins to explain the Old Testament prophesies, explaining how the messiah had to die, but that He would be resurrected. Remember what they said afterward as they reflected on His words? "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" This "burning of heart" represents what happens when the eyes of our heart are opened. It has been described as, "The enlightenment, the inflaming of the heart, so that it becomes alive, and is deeply stirred and moved." This is what God desires for each of us: that God's truth becomes so real to you that it begins to burn in your heart and it captures our full attention so that we cannot but help to respond to it. Perhaps you can remember a time when Jesus completely captured and captivated your heart: is such a thing a rare experience or does it happen often? I believe God is telling us that it can be more than an occasional thing, but rather a way of life! Is this something you are longing to experience? In the last chapter of Ephesians, we learn of a great spiritual battle which rages around each of us. There are great and powerful spiritual forces in the unseen world which attempt to blind, darken, and harden believers to the truth of God. Since these are spiritual struggles, we can only fight them with spiritual weapons. Notice that prayer is the weapon of choice to loosen the grip of darkness and spiritual blindness. There are three distinct petitions in this prayer; Paul prays for three mind-expanding areas of enlightenment: 1. That we would know "the hope of His calling;" 2. (That we would know) "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints;" 3. (That we would know) "the surpassing greatness of His power toward those who believe..." The hope of our calling is that which we read in the words, "God...has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." The hope of His calling is that some day we will see Him face to face and will become like Him in holiness, free from all the constraints of sinful flesh. We have been called to be His blessed and adopted children, and that He will return to take us to the place He has prepared for us. I find the words of MacArthur to be compelling: "Until we comprehend who we truly are in Jesus Christ, it is impossible to live an obedient and fulfilling life. Only when we know who we really are can we live like who we are. Only when we come to understand how our lives are anchored in eternity can we have the right perspective and motivation for living in time. Only when we come to understand our heavenly citizenship can we live obedient and productive lives as godly citizens on earth."1 Paul also prayed that we would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. In verse 6 we read of the glory of His grace, now we see the riches of His glory. We now enjoy the riches of grace, and by-and-by we will enter into and enjoy the riches of His glory. This speaks not about the inheritance we will receive (which will be fabulous!) but that we are God's inheritance! We belong to God, for He paid for us. We are His property, and it is His delight to involve us in His great plan. And as we make ourselves available to be used by God, then He opens up vistas of fulfillment and enjoyment that we could never have imagined. I hope you have found this to be true in your life, that there is great joy in serving Jesus. Now realize that the enemy will tell you that serving God is dull, drab, and dreary; that it is a gray, unappealing and unattractive type of existence. Understand that if we listen to such voices very long, this claim becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Our old selfish nature takes joyful service and turns it into dreary duty. But that is not life as God intended it. The Christian life is to be an exciting adventure as we step out and take risks to do something new for God. So many people sit around waiting for God to lead them to do something significant; Listen, God has already equipped us, and given us every spiritual blessing. We have his Holy Spirit-our job is to step out and do whatever presents itself. God delights to involve us in the most exciting adventure possible: to be in the service of the King! A final element we will discover as the eyes of our heart is opened: Paul prays that we would begin to understand the "surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." This subject is large and important enough that I want to devote next Sunday's message to it, but I will say this: as we read on, we find it is resurrection power, most evident when found in a cemetery. Resurrection power is found only after a death occurs. I will expand on that theme next week. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord; I want to see Jesus in all His fullness. In Jesus alone is the joy and fulfillment and purpose and love and everything in life worth seeking. Bit it begins with a desire-a burning in the heart for God. It is yours for the asking; this is what Paul is praying for these believers. Are you ready to ask it for yourself? If not, why not? What is standing in your way? 1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1986). Ephesians (p. 46). Chicago: Moody Press. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2