Esphesians: The Call and Empowerment to Know God

Well, before the sermon, I want to take just a moment and speak to the tragic events of this week.

As you know, Charlie Kirk, who's a Christian political activist, was assassinated.

And then as well in Denver, yet another school shooting.

And it's just we as a church, we just want to come in agreement and to say uh this saddens us.

And this is tragic, and it is darkness, and it is evil.

And we as a people, we want to pray.

We want to pray for peace and unity in our country.

So let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we confess with sorrow the anger and the division and the strife that is in our country and in our society.

Would you please look with mercy upon our country in this time?

Would you grant your holy and life-giving spirit that you would move every human heart, that you would move the barriers which divide us, that those barriers may crumble, that suspicions disappear and hatred cease, that our divisions being healed, that we may live in justice and peace through Jesus.

Guide our leaders with wisdom, protect the innocent, strengthen the weary.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, that healed and renewed, we may walk together in justice, mercy, and mutual respect.

When we don't know where to turn or where to put our eyes, would you help us put our eyes on you?

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Well, this morning is our second week studying our way through the book of Ephesians.

If you remember from last week, the main point of Ephesians is this.

You can look to the screen.

The main point is what God has done for us in Christ and how we should live in light of it.

What God has done for us in Christ, how we should live in light of what Jesus has already done.

Let's read our passage, break it down, and make sense of it.

Ephesians 1, 15 through 19, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith.

So this is Paul in prison in Rome, and he's writing to this church that he knows about and he loves these people in Ephesus.

So he says, Because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might.

So point number one is this that we are called, we are to know God in mind and experience.

So an intelligent comprehension and a personal experience.

Let's start there in verse 19.

Immeasurable greatness of his power, that phrase.

I mean, I hear that sounds amazing.

Like, sign me up for that.

Ameasurable greatness of his power.

That sounds amazing, and yet I don't know about your life.

I'm guessing, I'll guess, it doesn't always feel like that.

I mean, in my life, it does not always feel like immeasurable greatness of his power.

Okay, I mean, my life doesn't always feel like that.

If this power is so great, why am I still impatient?

Or greedy or angry or resentful or petty or jealous or envious?

Like, why am I still concerned about what people think so much?

Why do I care?

Why do I care so much about Taylor Swift's engagement?

Like, so much.

Like, it's not natural the amount that I care and I have invested in this.

Are you up to date on it?

Six weeks ago, Travis asked her dad.

Two weeks ago, Travis asked Taylor to marry him.

This is amazing.

If if you're a Taylor fan, raise your hand.

Taylor, we've been, it's been a long journey for us, okay?

Some of you aren't Taylor fans, you don't know what we've been through.

It's been a lot of guys and a lot of breakups, a lot of breakup songs, and we just want her to be happy.

We've been wanting her to be happy for a long time, and we think we have it with Travis.

We just want her to have love finally.

So we think we have it in this power couple, right?

The alpha of music in the entire world and the alpha of football.

Now he's only worth 90 million, okay?

So, you know, 1.6 billion, Taylor, he's only worth 90.

Now, why do I know that?

Why do I know the jets that she owns?

Why do I think that I could handle it better than her?

I really do.

I really do think that.

I really do think secretly in my heart, underneath, I really do think I would handle all of that so much better than her.

I mean, I would let sick children ride on my jet to go get care.

I mean, I would do all sorts of generous things.

I mean, and there's just this part of me, there's this part of me, even though I know it's a facade, that I just keep secretly believing things that don't really deliver.

Oh, if I had that kind of power, like that influence, that success, that money, then I will be fulfilled, happy, satisfied, at peace.

So, why, if God's power is so great, immeasurably great, do I think this way?

I think perhaps verse 18 begins to give us a little bit of an answer.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

So Paul is writing to a group of Christians who are already Christians, and yet he wants their hearts to be enlightened.

So it doesn't feel like great power because of this.

We have been given sight, and yet we're still learning how to see.

Right?

This is the already, but not yet, of Christian faith.

You are already forgiven and fully righteous in Jesus and Jesus' work alone, nothing for you to add.

It's full, it's a gift.

You got it.

You already have it.

Already.

But not yet.

You're still learning.

I'm still learning what that means for me and my heart and my mind and my life.

So positionally, we're perfect and victorious, and yet practically, we're still slowly becoming this.

That's why Paul is saying, hey, I want your hearts to be enlightened.

See, we're still learning about this power that is immeasurably great.

It is powerful enough to deem you something that you are not, even while you're not that, and even while you're slowly going to become that.

Verse 14, the knowledge that Paul wants for us is more Hebrew than Greek, meaning this: Paul wants us to have a knowledge of experience matched with a knowledge of understanding.

That word know or knowledge that we have in there, the knowledge of Him, knowledge of God, means precise and correct knowledge, intelligent comprehension matched with a personal experience.

So Paul wants you to be a Presbyterian and a charismatic.

He wants you to be intelligent and doctrinal.

Steve Kirschhner with Jill Kirschhner, right?

If you're in our church, this is what he wants.

He wants you to be intelligent comprehension and open to the spirit.

Isn't that lovely?

If we can become that.

And maybe you lean one way and you need to, you're gonna go, okay, I'm gonna grow in the intelligent comprehension.

Or maybe you're like me and I'm like, I'm all intelligent comprehension.

You know what?

I need to grow and be open to the spirit a little bit.

Paul's saying, I want that kind of knowledge for you.

I started fly fishing 10 years ago, as you know, because I talk about it all the time.

The first time I went, I went with my friend Trent and my friend Kurt.

Here's a picture of Trent fishing.

Trent is a phenomenal fisherman.

We get to the Nanahala River in North Carolina, and I've got all my gear, I bought all my stuff, I got all my stuff.

I learned to cast a little bit, and so I get out there, we all split up, and I'm looking upriver at Trent and downriver at Kurt, and they're catching fish, and I am spending all my time tangled in the tree limb, tangled with myself.

I'm cussing words you don't want to know.

You might not even know them as you're a good Christian.

I'm nobody's around.

I am so angry.

I'm just so angry.

I can't even keep the fly in the water, and they're catching fish all day.

They catch like 20 fish each.

I catch one by accident when I'm like reeling in, didn't even mean to catch it, didn't even know I caught it.

That's the first time I went to the Nalehela River.

I had an experience there.

I had no knowledge, just an experience.

The next time we went and I said, Hey guys, can I just hang with y'all?

Like, can I fish near you?

Like, like I just want to watch you some.

I want to just kind of like sit behind you.

Can you tell me stuff?

And and I fished alongside Trent, and Trent explained to me, oh, well, the trout, you know, they don't want to be in fast water, they're in slow water, they like the seam, they like the tail, they like the pocket.

They explained the water column to me.

I mean, the intelligent comprehension.

So the first time I had an experience with the river, but no knowledge.

And then the second trip, I had knowledge.

This is what Paul wants for us: this kind of relationship with God.

Knowledge of experience with knowledge of understanding, correct knowledge with personal experience.

Paul prays for us in verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you, that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation of the knowledge of Him.

So that I that what we're gonna get, that intelligent comprehension of personal spirits, where does it come from?

God would give it to us.

Point number two is that knowing God is a response to God's grace, not a cause of God's grace.

When we look at verse 17 and 18, halfway through 17, may give you.

So it's given to you.

The spirit of wisdom, it's given to you.

Verse 18, your hearts are enlightened.

So it's gonna happen to you.

So the Holy Spirit is at work in you as a Christian, opening your heart, which means there's no pride for any growth that you have.

Only gratitude.

Which means there's no judgment to those that don't have growth.

There's only compassion towards.

Point number three is this our pursuit to know God is from the secure position that He knows us.

Last week we spent a lot of time talking about how He knows us, He pursues us.

That's verses 1 through 14 of Ephesians 1.

Our position with Him is sealed in Jesus' work alone.

He pursues us, He knows us, He holds us, He preserves us.

And then this passage goes from that rooting and foundation to verses 15, 23, not the other way around.

We live out knowing God out of that He already knows us.

God's grace to us, our secure pure position with Him, is by His pursuit of us.

It empowers us to want to know Him.

Which means there's no anxiety in your lack of knowing Him.

There's no scorekeeping in how you're doing today.

There's only a further remembering, deepening into His knowledge and pursuit of you.

I grew up on that song.

Do you remember this worship song?

I want to know.

Remember this song?

I want to hear your boy.

I want to know.

And I grew up singing that song, but for so many years there was an intensity to it.

I really meant it, but it came out of insecurity.

Like I need to know you, God, and I need to know more of you because that's how I'm gonna feel secure in you by my work.

Which is just totally forgetting Ephesians 1:1 through 14.

Ephesians 1:1–14

It's just rather rather than knowing in Jesus alone am I forgiven, and Jesus alone am I righteous, no matter how I feel today, I'm secure.

I can't cause God to love me more or cause Him to love me less.

What security we have in this.

And then you go to sing something like, I want to know you.

I want to hear you boy.

I want to know.

We can sing that in two incredibly different ways, can't we?

But that second way when we're remembering that Jesus really is enough.

I don't have to add my work.

Like his work is enough.

Like that song can become gratitude.

That song can can just be a a relieving pursuit of the one who already loves me.

Verses 18 and 19 show us what we're trying to know.

What are we trying to know?

I structured the verses for you.

This is word for word, the verses.

I just added in that one, two, and three.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know.

So what are we gonna know?

What are we trying to know?

Number one, what is the hope to which he called you?

What has he called you to?

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

What do we have in Jesus?

What is it we have in Christ?

And number three, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us?

Here's the key.

Paul is not praying that we go and earn the calling or earn the inheritance or earn the power.

Paul is saying you already have it.

Let's begin to learn more about it, be awakened to it already, but not yet.

I love that story in Luke 19 of Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is that tax collector, all the religious people would have thought Zacchaeus was impure, irreligious.

Zacchaeus hears that Jesus is coming through town, and Zacchaeus just wants to see him.

He's heard about this guy, this guy who loves people even when they're sinners.

He understands who he is.

And Zacchaeus says, I just want to see him.

So Zacchaeus goes and gets near, he climbs that tree.

Jesus is walking along, Luke 19, 5 through 7.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

Of which all the religious people were said, What is he doing?

Does he know who this guy is?

So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

And when they saw it, like the disciples and the religious people, they all grumbled, He has gone to be the guest of a man who's a sinner.

Jesus loved Zacchaeus exactly where he was at at that moment.

He loved Zacchaeus as he was, not as he should be.

And what we see happen to Zacchaeus is unbelievable transformation.

He goes from being a very greedy person to an incredibly generous person, and that doesn't come because he's trying to earn Jesus' love.

It comes because Jesus already loved him as he was, not as he should be.

Growth happens when we stop trying to earn something from God or prove something to God or find our value outside of God.

Growth happens when we realize the love and acceptance, the lavish identity that we have as children, sons, and daughters of God, and we already have it.

And growth happens when we begin to realize how deep and fulfilling that gift is.

Peter writes very similar themes in 1 Peter 1, 3 through 5.

Let's now Peter words, almost the same type things that our passage says.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

All right, gift, he caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, there's that word again, that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Back in 1677 in England, Sir Thomas Grosvenir, here's a picture of Sir Thomas.

He married Mary Davies.

That's not Mary Davies, says Sir Thomas.

I got confused at first.

The two of them, when they got married, they owned 500 acres just west of London.

Now, through the years, hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds of years, they just didn't sell off all the land.

They just began to lease it off.

Today, today, the family owns 300 acres of London.

They own 125 city blocks of London.

In 2016, the sixth Duke of Westminster, so all the way from Sir Thomas, the sixth Duke of Westminster, he passed away.

And he gave an inheritance of$9 billion to this guy right here, Hugh.

His name is Hugh.

And I'm sure Hugh is a lovely guy, 34 years old.

I'm sure he's well educated.

I'm sure he's very polite.

I'm sure he has all sorts of great attributes.

But do you know what Hugh did to receive$9 billion?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Hugh received that because he's in the family.

That's what an inheritance is.

I want us to close just marveling at the inheritance we have.

Silver and gold I do not have, but I have this to give to you.

On my Mac laptop, this is entitled, it's a document entitled In Christ List.

And if you've been around, you realize about every three to four months I mention this list.

Because this is our inheritance.

What is it that we've inherited?

What is it we're to know?

In Christ, we are always forgiven and always righteous.

In Christ, we have secure, forever acceptance and peace with God.

In Christ, we are never alone and have endless companionship.

In Christ, we are liberated from performancism to live by the Spirit and freedom and love.

In Christ, we are relieved of judgmentalism and empowered to live with love toward others.

In Christ, we are both deemed godly and becoming godly.

In Christ, we have a heavenly home prepared for us when our days on earth are over.

As we go to pray, let's receive the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians.

And I'll pray it for us.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we come before you.

Would you give us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Jesus that we would have intelligent comprehension and a personal experience with Jesus?

Would you give us the eyes of our hearts?

Would our eyes of our hearts be enlightened that we may know what is the hope to which Jesus has called us?

What are the riches of this inglorious, this glorious inheritance in the saints?

And what is the measurable greatness of Jesus' power toward us who believe according to the working of Jesus' great might we pray.

Amen.