True Power
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
We are continuing our series called Union this morning. We are working our way through the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians is this letter that the apostle Paul writes to a bunch of house churches that Paul started around the region of Ephesus around AD 50. Now, most of Paul letters are very specific. He’s writing to a very particular problem or issue going on in a very particular church setting. But Ephesians is different. It reads a lot like an essay, like a summary statement of Paul’s whole vision that Jesus gave him to announce the lordship and reign of Jesus even over the non-Jewish world, and that Jesus is now making this new covenant family that finds their identity only in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
That identity is what it’s all about—first, who we are in Christ, and then, how this works out into our lives. Sometimes we get this backward—what you do determines who you are, that your acceptance or your value is essentially boiled down to what you can contribute or have contributed to your family or friends or society. It is as if your usefulness to Jesus becomes the most important thing. But this is not our identity Church. Paul spends a huge chunk of his letter to the church debunking this way of thinking. What you do does not determine who you are. Rather, who Christ is, and what he has done, determines everything about you. He tells you everything you need to know about you in the way that he extends his love and mercy toward you, in the way that he gives up his life for yours.
We’re moving today into this prayer that Paul launches into for the churches, and its important for us to hear it today because he is going to get into the motivating factor for how, as Christians, our allegiance to Jesus shifts into other parts of our life.
Now, there is a lot of ground to cover here, and we honestly could dive down deep and take a good 4-5 weeks exploring it, but at that pace it would take about a year to finish this letter. And it’s a letter, friends. Sometimes the more we dissect something, the more we get away from its intent. Paul wrote this to be read in one sitting, to encourage his friends and family in Christ to know who they are, where they stand, and how to press forward with absolute contentment in Him.
PRAY
HOW SHOULD WE THEN PRAY?
HOW SHOULD WE THEN PRAY?
Ephesians 1:15–17 (CSB)
This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Paul just finished up this beautiful hymn about who they are in Christ, and now Paul here is praying for the church in Ephesus. But I want you to take a look at purpose of his prayer here.
What is Paul praying for here? Before we get into that, I want you to think about what you normally pray for.
Often, our prayer is often used as crisis management; we pray when something bad happens or when someone is hurt or sick or lacking. We take what is called “prayer requests”, where we present circumstances that are bad or difficult that we want to see changed. And if circumstances are good, we issue praises because things have changed to the point where prayers are no longer needed. Does this sound familiar to those of us who have been around church for a while?
Now, obviously there are different kinds of prayers and different opportunities for prayer, but I mention that because it seems to be when we are called to pray for another person, it often comes down to: what are your present circumstances, and how would you like them to be different? I’ll pray that they change to something more pleasant or comfortable or safe for you.
But look here. Paul does not pray for a change in circumstances. In fact, he says things are going well! The church is full of two things: faith in the Lord Jesus and a love for one another. Paul says, I’m hearing these stories about you guys. It sounds like you are devoted to nothing and no one except king Jesus. (Faith in the NT is about loyalty, allegiance. It’s not just about what you believe, but who you are clinging to for dear life.) And I hear that you are committed to act for the well-being of others ahead of your own. In other words, you guys are acting like Jesus! You are living in this society that has and worldview and culture that wants to control you and rule over you, but you are living as those those powers no longer have any effect over you. You are no longer slaves to your circumstances, but servants of Christ.
Now, does that sound like the Ephesians need prayer? It actually sounds like they are doing pretty well! And yet Paul says, this is why I never stop praying for you. For Paul, prayer is not just a request to change circumstances that we wish were different. Prayer is about the fire that burns within you for Jesus. And if times are tough and relationships are messy and you are broken down and feeling like God is nowhere to be found, the fire is going out, and you need more fuel. And if things are going great and your life is really clicking with your loyalty to Christ and your love for others, great! Let’s add some fuel to that fire and get it raging. For Paul, the fire always needs more fuel, and that’s what prayer is all about for him. It’s about looking over the landscape of your life and saying, how can we get more Jesus into it?
Paul then actually says what he prays for. It’s not circumstances. It’s for wisdom, God-given wisdom.
What is wisdom? I talk to my kids all the time about this. They aren’t very big fans of this conversation, because it usually happens anytime I see some fairly short-sighted plan of theirs about to take place. Wisdom as a parent is the ability to see the bigger picture; I have wider scope of understanding and can see things they can’t, not because I’m taller, but because I have lived longer and seen more and made more mistakes then they have. It’s about the bigger picture.
Wisdom in the Bible is the ability to see the active and all-powerful God present in our circumstances. So whatever is going on your life, you’ll see it as an opportunity to draw closer to Jesus and cling to him through it.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t pray for effective change in your life or in other’s lives. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pray for relief in Ukraine or for liberation or protection. All of these are good things AND things that God gives us space to ask for. But in the end, if your circumstances change for the better and Jesus does not take a greater hold on your life, which is the greater tragedy? So, in addition to praying for your circumstances, can I make a suggestion? Pray that through the pain and the hurt, through whatever’s going on, that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see God’s presence drawn near, so that you can understand God’s grace and love even more.
Still with me?
Here’s how this opening of our eyes is to go. Paul asks for three specific realizations for the Ephesian church, and these three things are things that I and the rest of our elders want to be praying for you about.
HOPE
HOPE
Ephesians 1:18 (CSB)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling...
First, we pray that you might Internalize the hope to which you have been called.
Christian life is about taking on a posture of hope. Hope is a conviction that my present circumstances do not get to determine the meaning of my life. As a follower of Jesus, I may have to be open to the fact that my life may be rough and the state of the world may be horrible, but I believe in a God who brings life out of death, who came among us to bear the result of the stupid things we have done on the cross, and to reverse that into life that can spread and bring life to more human beings who grab onto Jesus; we always see our present circumstances in light of our future hope.
WEALTH
WEALTH
Ephesians 1:18 (CSB)
...what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Second, we pray that you might wake up to the wealth of glorious inheritance. That you would know how deeply God values you as his own.
There’s some Bible language going on here that’s a bit strange to our modern ears. What Paul is getting here is about the benefits of being a part of the family of God. Paul is using words here like inheritance and calling and glory to point us back to a promise made way back in the Torah, and specifically the book of Deuteronomy. Check out these words to Israel from Deut 4:20 and Deut 7:6-7;
Deuteronomy 4:20 (CSB)
But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.
Deuteronomy 7:6–7 (CSB)
For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. “The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
God pulls the nation of Israel out of slavery, out from under the power and control of a powerful empire, and brings them under his rule. God calls them his inheritance, a treasured possession that bears the mark of heaven on earth. God chooses these people, not because they are special and not so they might exclude those who are not chosen; he chooses them so that they might share with the world how good their God-king is, so that other nations might be drawn toward him. That is the purpose of calling, to so enjoy the benefit of covenant relationship with YHWH that others see and come to know him and share in that wealth.
But here’s the big mic drop moment: the covenant family that God began with Israel has come to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and when you find yourself in Christ, you find yourself among the chosen ones, in this new covenant family; words that used to describe only ancient Israel now describe anyone who accept God’s love and cherishing toward them. Paul prays that we would wake up to the fact that we as his people are God’s own special treasured possession; you were chosen not because you are special, not because he loves you more than anyone else, but to be witnesses to God’s mercy and grace to the nations (just like Israel in OT, but now expanded to anyone who is in Christ).
POWER
POWER
Ephesians 1:19 (CSB)
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.
Third, we pray that you my have your eyes opened to this resource of power.
In our cultural setting, power is, effectivity, the ability to make things happen. We think of power as the ability or resources to do whatever you want. We speak of presidents and political figures as powerful because they pull levers and strings that we can’t to drive the direction of nations the way they want. We speak of athletes as powerful because they can use their physical tools to change the direction of games. We speak of wealthy figures as powerful because they have the resources to acquire the sort of environment they want (Mark Zuckerburg just created an entirely new universe with money!). We’ve come to know power as the authority to influence and shape culture into what makes us happy. In other words, power bends reality to our will, if we are fortunate enough to posses it.
Even in the history of Christianity, there have been these branches that have utilized this language of power to create “victory Christianity,” the power is is you to do seize your destiny, and be influencers in this world, and God wants to underwrite your dreams, etc.
But when Paul talks about power, he is talking about something very specific, very different from type of victory Christianity. He cuts off any misunderstanding by immediately clarifying what he means by power.
Ephesians 1:20–23 (CSB)
He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
It’s the same power that transformed the death of Jesus into resurrection life. God has, in Jesus, come among us as the one human being who is not compromised by sin, but lives as though God always intended us to. He lives on our behalf, he dies on our behalf, and he absorbs death into himself on the cross. And right here, we see what God’s power is all about. And it’s not power to do whatever God wants to do or command you to be a nice person or something. It’s the kind of power that gives up status and authority, that absorbs and takes the hit on behalf of others and allows the sin of others to crush him. But because his love and mercy for others is so strong, he has the power to reverse death into life, and that’s what resurrection is all about. Power is not about underwriting your dreams and making you wealthy and popular and successful. It’s the power to take the most tragic, sinful, selfish human beings, and through an encounter with Jesus, turn them into something that’s actually life-giving.
It’s the same power that seated Christ at the right hand of the Father, over the powers and authorities and dominions of this world. There are forces at work in this world (talk about this in weeks to come), exploiting the collective ignorance and impulses and humanity to ruin ourselves, and we think its a good idea. There is a power working behind the scenes that is collaborating to destroy humanity as we know it, and we are being pulled into to help. It’s not our fault, and yet it’s all our fault. But Jesus is now the king over everything. not just spiritual realities, but all realities. Not everyone recognizes this. But the church does! And so we are called to live, by the empowerment of the spirit, as a community defined by Jesus the king, defined by his ways and vision for us. We can resist the consumption of powers that promise value and dignity, because we have already discovered the true value of our humanity, and the stewardship of our resources is now influenced by the good ways of King Jesus and are used simply to express our faithful witness to the resurrection power of God.
And finally, it’s the same power that made Jesus the head of the church. Again there’s some Bible language here, but when Paul talks about fullness and filling, this is temple language here. The Old Testament has all of these accounts of how when Israel would settle down, they would set up a tent or a temple, and then this cloud would descend into the space and fill it with God’s glory, and it would signify that God is present with human, that everything God is would lead and determine the fate and future of that community. But even then, that didn’t mean Israel followed God’s lead. And so, in Jesus came, embodying the very presence of God and showed the world the true nature and character of God. He was like a temple, filled with God’s glory, walking around and eating food and loving people in their homes. And now, as the church, you are called the body of Christ. You are filled with the same presence. The Spirit that dwells in you is the same glory that filled the temple. You exist as a holy habitation for God, and now, wherever you go, you fill the world with the redemptive message of Jesus Christ.
WHAT NEXT?
WHAT NEXT?
So what we do with all of this? It’s simple really. We pray for one another. Not that our circumstances might become more palatable. Not that our reality would bend more toward our will. But rather that our eyes would be opened to the irrevocable hope and future we have, to the rich value we have just because God loves us and calls us his own, and the power we have experienced to reverse the curse of sin and to raise dead things to life.