Ephesians: The Church's Hope, Inheritance and Power (1:15-23)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca.

Heavenly Father, you have chosen a people for yourself.

And you have said that your people will be a crown of beauty in your hand and a royal diadem.

Father, we are your precious people.

Not because of what we have to offer, Lord, but because you have made it so.

So, Lord, please open the eyes of our hearts to what it means to be your precious people, to how good and glorious you are.

And it's through Jesus Christ our Lord that we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So the question we asked last week is the question, why bother with the church?

It's a question I mentioned that I stole pretty shamelessly from a wonderful little study, Why Bother with Church, by an excellent pastor and teacher named uh Sam Albury.

And I think it's a timely question, partly because from generation to generation we need to ask, what is the church?

And why is it that we ought to bother with the church and be about the church?

But it's a question I think that's especially timely for us.

In the midst of uh so many, shall we say, extracurricular options?

Maybe there's online, there's there's just a multiplicity of online and media available to us.

Some of the best Christian teaching in the world is not just found on our YouTube channel, but is found, you know, anywhere on these on Christian sites.

Why is it that we gather here at 14460 Simcoe Street?

And why is it that churches continue to gather where they're called?

And what does it mean to be about the church?

And first we have to ask, why bother with the church?

Well, it's something of this question that's on Paul's mind, the Apostle Paul's mind, as he writes the letter to the church in Ephesus.

This is meant to be a circular letter.

It's meant to be a letter that's passed around in Ephesus and to its surrounding areas.

We know that Paul has spent two years of his life ministering in Ephesus.

We saw that in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And he's trusted this church to his protege, Timothy, who's their pastor.

And now Paul writes this letter to the Ephesians from prison in Rome.

Last week we dipped our toes in this letter and we looked at the first 14 verses together.

We saw that Paul is turning to bless God for the spiritual blessings that the church has first received in Christ.

We, as the church, with the Ephesians, are chosen and redeemed and sealed in Christ.

We bother with the church because God has bothered with us and called us to be the church.

And now today we're going to have a look at this next section, this fabulous run-on sentence of Paul's, where he wants us, the church, to reckon with what it is that well, what it what treasures we have that we'd otherwise miss if it wasn't for the work of the Spirit in and through us.

Paul wants us to reckon with sort of a self-knowledge, a self-awareness of what it means to be the church.

That's true for the Ephesians he's writing to, but I think if we too are in Christ and we too are united by the same Holy Spirit, then we, New Song, have to reckon with these very same realities of what it means to be the church and the kind of self-knowledge it means to be the church.

This is Paul's prayer for the church.

And it's a wonderful window, I think, into Paul's prayer life.

And perhaps if we want to be praying for the church and praying for our church, and we want to follow Paul's example, we would do well to take heed of his lead right here in verses 15 to 23.

What is it that Paul prays for when he prays for the church?

He prays that the Spirit illumines, enlightens the hearts of these Christians.

One translation says, just floods with light.

It's like casting a spotlight and reveals what's already there at work in the church.

He prays that the spirit illumines hope, inheritance, and power found in the church.

Hope, inheritance, and power.

We see those in verses 18 and 19.

And because Paul is praying for the Spirit's help in revealing these things, being the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, I think we can conclude that without the Spirit's help, without the Spirit at work in and through us, we would not know these things to be true of ourselves.

We might be a fun little club that gets together on Sunday mornings, sure.

That's apart from the Spirit's work in us.

With the Spirit at work, increasing us in the love and knowledge of Christ our Lord, we reckon with the hope, inheritance, and power found right here in our midst.

So I think what Paul writes here answers the question of what is it that we're trying to do here?

And why is it that we should bother with the church?

I think it's because God, God's work we see, defines the church from start to finish.

So with the Ephesians, so too with us here at New Song.

And if we believe it's the same God at work in us as he was right here in this first century church, we too can know the hope, inheritance, and power of God right here in our midst.

So let's dive in.

The Spirit illumines hope, inheritance, and power.

So track with me here, because Paul's, it's like Paul is flooded with so many ideas at once, he just can't write as quickly as his brain is moving here.

So track with me through these verses.

Verses 15 and 16.

Paul says, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love towards the saints, which right off the bat, let's consider what it is that defines the Ephesian church or characterizes the Ephesian Church for Paul.

It's a vertical faith in Christ, that is, they've placed their trust in him as their Lord and Savior, and it's their love for one another.

It's their horizontal caring and compassion and agape towards each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

This has been reported to Paul.

And now, because that's the case, he says, I do not cease to give thanks for you.

Have you ever inspired to thanksgiving because of the faith and love that you see here at New Song?

We need to give thanks for one another in this way.

And Paul says he gives thanks for these Ephesians because of their faith and love.

And he says, He remembers you.

I do not give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

And now the rest of the passage is Paul unpacking his prayer life towards these Ephesians.

And here's the first thing he prays for.

He prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know.

In other words, he's praying that God the Father would illumine your hearts, church, as the church, to reckon with what he is doing in and through it, that you may know, is not just a sort of cerebral cognitive knowledge, a sort of propositional, okay, yeah, check that box, I get it.

God's sort of doing that thing.

It's it's a really personal term Paul is using, that you can personally grab onto and experience cognitively, yes, but in your own walk as a Christian, that you would know deeply this thing that the Spirit is doing.

And what is it that the Spirit's doing?

Well, first, he's praying that you would know what is the hope to which he has called you.

Have you ever gone to see a movie and discovered it's a very different movie you've gone to see than what you expected?

I had that happen to me once.

Um I went to go see this movie a couple of years ago called The Invention of Lying.

And it was a humorous premise where the entire world was nothing but honest and candid with one another.

Lying hadn't yet been invented.

And so there's so many humorous situations where, you know, there's just no filter and it's just completely out there.

And anyway, so the first act was was really quite humorous in that way until one character, played by Ricky Gervais, discovers how to tell an untruth.

And he's trying to reckon with this newly discovered like superpower of his.

He can say things that aren't true, and people believe him because everyone tells the truth.

So he can go to a bank and he can say, I'm here to make a million-dollar withdrawal.

And they say something like, Well, we don't see a million dollars in your account, sir.

And he goes, No, it should be there.

And then the teller goes, Oh, that's our mistake, then.

Here's your million-dollar withdrawal, and he walks away.

It's stuff like that.

It's quite humorous.

But act one, uh, and and and a sudden left turn in the rest of the movie, Ricky Gervais founds himself at uh the deathbed of his of his parent, who's quite desperate and is quite scared of what's coming next because, well, this she she doesn't know what to expect.

Is there just absolute nothingness?

I I don't know what what it is to uh I don't know what it is.

I have no hope, you know, for for what comes next.

And it's at this moment that Ricky Gervais, who's learned to tell these untruths, tells a fantasy tale about this wonderful place she's going to.

We can infer it's called heaven.

He tells us this wonderful fantasy about the wonderful people she's going to meet there and the wonderful things she's going to do.

And the rest of the movie becomes quite clear as a huge criticism of religion and Christianity in particular.

There's a lie in the middle of religious belief, and that lie is hope.

Hope is a lie that we tell ourselves, that we generate, so that we don't have to face the reality of death.

And it's not just pop culture that perpetuates this idea.

We can see this in, you know, profoundly influential thinkers like Freud.

Freud, who is just living proof that you can be stunningly brilliant and completely out to lunch at the same time.

But Freud famously wrote that religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual, wishful impulses, or you could also translate that intellectual desires.

What Freud is saying is what this movie is saying, is that religion in general, and perhaps Christianity in particular, is all about wishful thinking.

Right?

It's about generating positive vibes.

It's about telling ourselves, I hope so, I hope so, I hope so, against any and all evidence to the contrary.

I'm just irrationally committed to this hopeful idea, so to speak.

The question in front of us, I think the question we need to reckon with is, is this criticism true of Christian hope?

It might be true that some hope is sort of irrational and it has no grounds.

We just want to send positive vibes into the universe, so to speak.

But is that true of Christian hope?

I want to say it's not.

I want to say what Paul understands is truly hopeful, and what defines hope for a Christian is not that it's just baseless wishful thinking.

I really hope that this all works out, but actually that our hope, our expectation of the future, is grounded in God's accomplished work for us in Christ and what God has promised to finish for us at his coming again.

See, our hope is not baseless, it's not a fantasy we tell ourselves.

Our hope is receiving God's word like a gift and responding accordingly.

It's knowing that he has the power to accomplish what he's promised to do, so we have every reason to take him at his word.

In Romans chapter 8, Paul is talking about God's accomplished work in Christ, and he's talking about the life we live in the Spirit, as well as the promise we have of future glory, and Paul writes this.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

He says, For in this hope we were saved, not wishful thinking, but in God's accomplished work on our behalf.

Paul continues to say, Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one sees?

If we have hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

In other words, there's always an already not yet to Christian hope.

Christian hope always recognizes what God has done on our behalf, and it always looks forward to what God will do for us in Christ.

But that's way different than wishful thinking, friends, isn't it?

Christian hope is grounded in what God has done, and it is patient.

It is patient for him to finish the work that he's begun.

And that's why, apart from God, Paul will write in Ephesians chapter 2, we have no hope.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But the reverse of that is true.

In Christ, we have abundant hope.

This is what it means to that God has called us to hope.

Did you notice that in verse 18?

That you would know the hope to which he has called you?

Suddenly I'm in Galatians.

Why am I in Galatians?

That you would know the hope to which he has called you.

This is not a hope that we generate within ourselves.

I hope I can, I hope I can, I hope I can, just like that little tank engine, so to speak.

This is not something we whip ourselves up into.

This is a hope that God says, Hey Dave, hey Leslie, hey Rachel, I have hope for you in Christ.

Come over here and grab this for yourself.

And that's faith.

Faith just receives what God has given us and lays hold to it for ourselves.

God calls us to an objective hope outside ourselves, not just wishful thinking in our heads, but what God has done in history for us and for our salvation.

So, friends, the church is a people called and captured by this hope.

The hope of God's accomplished work in Christ.

We're called to this hope.

We're called to this hope each and every time we gather together to be renewed in it, to be reminded of what God has done for us and will do for us in Christ.

And that's why Paul will go on in chapter four to say, walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

Be humble, be gentle, be patient, be forgiving, be peaceful, walking in step with the Spirit.

Because, friends, if we have hope grounded in what God has done for us and what God will do for us, then we have every reason to trust Him in the meantime, to let our character reflect His.

So we pray, Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to know the hope you have called us to.

God has called us as a church to hope.

God has called us as a church to reckon with his glorious inheritance.

So, verse 16, Paul is praying for the church.

He's praying that the spirit of wisdom and revelation gives understanding, yes, of hope, and two, of the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

That's the last half of verse 18.

Paul has already talked about inheritance a little bit.

He's talked about it in chapter 1, verses 11 and 14.

He's talked about the inheritance that we enjoy as children of God in Christ.

We're not just those who God tolerates and puts up with and says, as long as you kind of stay in your room and stay out of my business, you know, we can have a working relationship.

No.

God invites us into his family and to the table.

And not just that, he says, you're going to enjoy the full inheritance rights it means to be the children of God.

For us, that means all the benefits of Christ.

And for us, that means a future in heaven with him.

We have a glorious inheritance as children of God in Christ.

And it's quite possible that right here in verse 18, Paul is talking about this, our inheritance in Christ.

That is a possible reading in the Greek.

But I would suggest this.

I'd suggest that based on a very properly translated possessive pronoun here, did you catch that?

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

The inheritance we're talking about here in verse 18 is not our inheritance in Christ, though we do have an abundant inheritance in Christ.

We're talking about God's inheritance.

God the Father stands to have an inheritance in Christ.

And what is his inheritance?

It's us.

It's his holy people, it's his church.

We are his glorious inheritance in the saints, those set apart in Christ to belong to him.

One commentator writes that this verse indicates how precious his people are to God.

They are, we are, you, church, are, so to speak, what he looks forward to enjoying forever.

Think about that.

As often as we look forward to heaven and spending eternity with God, God looks forward to that eternity too.

To spend it with us.

Because we are his treasured possession, his prized people.

That is his heart towards us in Christ.

He has laid his claim on us.

We belong to him.

Let that land on you for a second.

From time to time I'll flip open the prayer book to uh a section called the ordinal, and it's what's used at ordinations when we when the bishop ordains a deacon or a priest.

And uh there's one section of the ordinal called the exhortation, which always makes deacons becoming priests, you know, quake at the knees.

And it makes me quake at the knees.

And from time to time I'll whip this open and I'll be reminded of those words that Bishop Charlie spoke to me when I was ordained a priest.

Bishop Charlie said this Remember how great is the treasure committed to your charge.

They are the sheep of Christ, for whom he shed his blood.

The church and congregation whom you serve is his bride, his body.

In other words, don't take this lightly.

The church is God's glorious inheritance.

They are precious to him above all things.

I need to be reminded of that, because my ordination is not about me.

It's about the church, and it's about what God is doing in and through us, his body.

We get a glimpse of this in Isaiah 62 as well, where God is addressing his people Israel, and here we are, the church, a renewed Israel.

He says to Israel, in the midst of rebellion and sin, in the midst of exile, God says, You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

He goes on to say that no matter what hardships you have faced, the Lord delights in you.

And he goes on to say, as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.

So, friends, it's no accident that at the end of the story of Scripture we see a wedding.

Christ and his church.

We are his glorious inheritance, his prized possession.

This is how much he loves us.

That he sent his only son to die for us to redeem us and claim us for his own.

So if this is true, we can't be indifferent towards his church, can we?

Maybe it's true, maybe we've been hurt by the church, maybe we've seen the church at its absolute ugliest, when it's characterized by neither faith nor love, nor walked in a manner worthy of its calling.

The church is full of sinners who need to repent.

In such cases, God's heart breaks over his bride.

The church is his bride.

The church is his glorious inheritance.

And following after God's heart, it will inevitably lead us to his people, his inheritance, the saints.

The church is his glorious inheritance.

It is his prized possession and his well-loved flock.

And so when we come to church at Newsong on Sunday, believe it or not, we're looking at God's treasury.

We're looking at that which he treasured, that which he bought by his own blood.

We are the church, his glorious inheritance.

And so we walk accordingly.

Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to the riches of your glorious inheritance in the saints.

God's, or pardon me, Paul is praying for the church.

He's praying that they understand the hope to which they've been called, the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints.

And finally, Paul is praying that we, the church, understand the power.

Pardon me.

Verse 19.

He's praying, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe?

God is, or pardon me, Paul is praying that we understand the power at work in the church.

I have to confess, I use my car every day, and I know like next to nothing of what happens under the hood.

Like, I know that I like hit start and it rumbles and it starts up, but I'm I know embarrassingly little about how a car actually works.

And the fact that no one's responding to that makes me think I'm the only one.

And maybe I'm gonna get a bunch of people telling me how my car works after service.

I guess that's okay.

I did YouTube this once.

I decided I use my car every day.

It seems so ordinary to me, but there's clearly an extraordinary power happening under the hood based on the speeds I can go and probably shouldn't be going.

I need to understand a little bit of what's happening under the hood of this car.

And so I YouTube it and learned a little bit about the combustion engine.

And maybe the public school system just failed me in this way, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention that day, but I learned something about what it is that's happening.

This wonderful power at work.

And Paul's prayer here is that the church, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, would understand something of the power that's at work under its hood.

Right?

The church may seem ordinary.

We gather together Sunday for Sunday at 10 o'clock or whenever it is that churches gather.

But Paul wants the Spirit, prays that the Spirit shines light on God's power at work in our midst.

And God's power is at work in our midst.

The fact that there is a church tells us that God's power is at work in our midst.

God's power is his unlimited ability to accomplish his purpose.

When I think of God's power, I'm drawn to scenes like creation, God speaking everything into being.

Or I think about the Exodus story, God leading his people out of Egypt and cloud and fire and parting the seas, and all those things are true of God's power, but Paul points us to a very specific example and exercising of God's power.

He prays that you will understand what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, that is the church, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ.

Paul wants us to locate the power of God at work in our midst, in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's our Lord Jesus' power at work right here in us, the church.

What is it that God accomplished in Christ?

What is it that he's accomplishing in our midst?

Paul sees two things going on.

The work that, the power that God is working in and through Christ in the church.

He knows that this is a resurrection power.

Did you see that in the first half of verse 20?

He worked this power in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

There is a resurrection power, a life from death power at work right here at New Song.

Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, so writes Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

And because there is a resurrection power at work in the church, Paul writes, if I can write my read my notes, Paul writes that we are a life from death kind of community.

For the death of Christ, pardon me, for the death Christ died, he died to sin once for all.

But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you, plural church, must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

That's Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

When we gather together on Sunday, resurrection day, we gather to be those who are reminded that there is a life from death power at work in our midst, renewing us as Christians, renewing us together as his body in this place.

That's the power under our hood.

It's a resurrection power, it's an exalting power, an exaltation power.

Let's look at the last half of verse 20 and on to 23.

This is where we'll land the plane, so to speak.

He worked this power in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and two, seated him at the right hand, at his right hand, in the heavenly places.

Far above all, rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is to be named, not only in this age, but in the one to come.

This is the power that God worked when he raised Christ, not just from the dead, but raised him to his right hand, the place of highest authority that there is, where Christ reigns and rules over all things for all time, everywhere.

This is why traditionally this text is our Ascension Sunday text.

It reminds us of what Christ is doing right now, ruling at the Father's right hand on our behalf.

This is an exaltation power.

Everything has been put in subjection under Christ, and everything has been lifted high, or pardon me, everything has been filled by this head who is lifted high, who is Christ.

For above all rule and authority, power and dominion, writes Paul, and above every name that is to be named, he goes on in verse 22, and he put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

We saints are his body, filled with Christ, meant to be the presence of Christ in creation.

Just as Christ fills the church, the church is meant to fill creation with Christ's presence.

That's why Paul will write elsewhere, like 1 Corinthians 12, just as the body has one, uh, the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

He says that in one spirit we're all baptized into one body, and we're made to drink of the one spirit.

We find our union as those who are in Christ.

Think about that.

And we, New Song, are meant to be his body that fills Port Perry with his presence, just as we are filled with Christ.

And so God has equipped us with many various gifts to serve him and be about his business and the renewing work and creation that he's about in and through Christ, through us, his church.

We are made full and complete in Christ, and through Christ the church fills creation, and so too we fill even our community with the power and presence of Christ.

This is not our work, it's the work of God done in our midst.

So going to church seems so ordinary, doesn't it?

We gather together at 10 a.m.

It can.

But Paul wants us to understand, he wants to have the have our the eyes of our hearts enlightened such that we catch a glimpse of what God is doing, the kind of power that's at work under our hood, the hope and the inheritance and the power that God is working in and through the church.

This is an extraordinary thing to belong to his body.

So we pray, Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to your hope, to your inheritance, and to your power.

Saints, he's called you to hope.

He's called you to be his glorious inheritance and to live accordingly, and his resurrection and exalting powers and work in and through you.

Father, would you illumine the eyes of our hearts, now and always, to reckon with this work that you are doing in and through us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially.

Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us.

If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that.

May God bless you and keep you today and every day.