Ephesians 1 Part 10
Bible Study Time 5-29-05
Bible Study Time 5-29-05
In verse 15 of Ephesians, Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” This says so much about the Apostle Paul and the believers at Ephesus.
God wants us to look for opportunities to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but when we have the chance to lead someone to the Lord, it is so important for us to followup with that person. We need to pray for them, and we need to communicate with them so that we can encourage them in the things of the Lord.
We know that God is going to be working in their lives and doing miraculous things, but the devil is also going to be working. The devil tries to blind the eyes of unbelievers so that they can not see the gospel, but when the Holy Spirit breaks through the darkness to reveal the light of Jesus Christ, the devil steps up his attacks to keep the new believer from growing in the truth of Jesus Christ.
Paul had labored for about three years in Ephesus. He had seen God do miraculous things, both physically and spiritually, but it had been a long time since he had seen them face to face. However, he never stopped thinking about them. He never stopped praying for them. He never stopped trusting God for their spiritual welfare. But he was also acutely aware of the devil’s spiritual warfare.
He had seen the division and strife in Corinth, as well as overt immorality. In II Corinthians, Paul said in effect, “We have to be on guard lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
He had seen the judaizers come into the Galatian churches where the people were turning back to the Law of Moses. Paul told the Galatian believers:
Gal 3:1 (NKJ)
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?
Traveling was difficult in those days, so it probably had been a long while since Paul had heard from the Church in Ephesus, but when he got word that their faith in the Lord Jesus was strong and their love for all the saints was well known, his heart rejoiced.
I’m sure he was excited to write this letter to the Ephesians so that he could once again encourage them in their walk with the Lord. He said, “Since I heard this good report concerning your faith and your love, I have continued to thank God for you and pray for you without ceasing.”
What prayers did he offer on their behalf? First, he prayed that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.
Which God? The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which God? The God of glory.
These believers had come out of the corrupt pagan religions which taught the existence of many gods. Paul wanted to encourage the Ephesians in the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God of glory.
The nation of Israel, as a whole, thought they worshiped the true and the living God, but they did not, for they did not worship the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. They had rejected Jesus Christ as God’s Son and as their messiah.
When Jesus told the Pharisees, “You do the deeds of your father.” They said, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
Then Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.”
Paul not only emphasized that the one true God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ but that God is the God of glory. Paul wanted to reemphasize that we have every reason. We have every motivation to believe in Jesus Christ. He is our hope for future glory. Paul said:
Rom 8:18 (NKJ)
18 . . . I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The nation of Israel had the presence of God’s Shekinah glory dwelling with them in the wilderness. Today we have the glory of God dwelling within us, for our bodies serve as the temple of the Holy Spirit. However, someday we are going to leave behind our bodies of flesh, and we will be given a new and glorious body as we enter into the glory of heaven. This is our inheritance in Jesus Christ.
In I Corinthians, Chapter 2, Paul paraphrased the words of Isaiah and said:
1 Cor 2:9-10
9 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
From time to time in the scriptures we get a glimpse of the glory of God. As the angels announced the savior’s birth, the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and the shepherds were sore afraid.
When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were awakened from their sleep to see Jesus Christ in all of His glory.
Just before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed:
John 17:5 (NKJ)
5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Later, in that same prayer, the Lord said:
John 17:20-24 (NKJ)
24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He took a body of humiliation and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
And now in Ephesians 1, Paul reminds us that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of glory, and he prays that we who believe might know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
As Paul writes the Ephesian believers from a Roman prison, he is well aware of the fact that the nation of Israel has rejected Christ as her messiah. From the time of his conversion to Christ, Paul had expected Jesus Christ to return to earth very soon to gather and glorify His saints and establish His kingdom of glory upon the earth.
He had told the Corinthian believers that they should not take any matter to a secular court because they would be judging the world in the kingdom. He also told the men of that congregation that if they were single, they should not seek a wife because, as Paul put it, “The form of this world is passing away.”
But now all of that had been set aside, and one would think that Paul would have been in the depths of despair. But quite the opposite was true.
Well, why is that?
As we saw in Ephesians 1:8 and 9, God had revealed to Paul the mystery of His will. Paul could see that God knew all along that Israel would reject Christ. God knew they would reject the Father in the Old Testament. God knew they would reject the Son during Christ’s earthly ministry, and God knew they would reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit during the Acts period. None of this took God by surprise.
God’s plan from the beginning was that Israel would reject Christ and be set aside on a temporary basis, while God created a new body of believers composed of Jews and Gentiles alike. A new body of believers saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ. This was and is the mystery of God’s will which was revealed to the Apostle Paul.
When Paul heard of the faith of the Ephesians and of their love for the saints, he prayed without ceasing that the Holy Spirit would give to them wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. He prayed that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.
Paul certainly knew the blessing of joy and assurance that comes with understanding. Paul had always been very sincere, even when he was sincerely wrong. At one time, he sincerely thought that Jesus Christ was an imposter, but he was wrong. God had to shut his eyes in order to open them. When Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul was blinded by the light, but the eyes of his understanding were opened, and he called Jesus Lord. He said, “Lord, what would you have me to do?”
At one time, Paul sincerely thought that the Jews would acknowledge Christ as their promised messiah within a very short time, but he was wrong. He had said, “There is coming a time when all Israel will be saved.” But he did not know that it would be thousands of years in the future before Israel’s salvation would occur.
Paul had a lot of growing to do in terms of his understanding, but the beautiful thing about Paul is that he truly wanted to know everything that he could possibly learn about God’s plan and purpose. Paul was not just trying to fine tune his theology so that he could attract a large following of converts. He was truly seeking to know God’s will.
Jesus said, “If you seek you will find.” And Paul found what he was seeking. God revealed more truth and deeper truth to and through Paul than through any other apostle. God revealed to Paul the mystery of God’s will.
Paul was praying that the Ephesians would be able to experience for themselves the joy that comes with having the eyes of their understanding opened so that they could know the hope of God’s calling and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
Paul had been raised with an understanding of the promised Messiah. He had been raised with an understanding of the promised kingdom. His whole life had been dedicated to these two theological points. But when Paul saw that Israel’s kingdom had been set aside, and when he saw that Jesus was more than just Israel’s Messiah, he was overwhelmed. He was overjoyed. He knew that he could never express in words how marvelous, how wonderful, how glorious was the plan of God.
He just said to the Ephesians, “I pray that God will open your eyes to see the wonder of it all.”
Even still we today have to read between the lines. We have to read between the words. We have to read between the letters to get a glimpse of the glory of it all. It is truly too marvelous for words to fully express.
Paul essentially said, “I could never have guessed that the Messiah could be all that Jesus Christ is, but I am praying that your eyes will be opened to see what I have seen. It is through Christ that we see the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He accomplished in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.”
Is it possible for us today to grasp the full impact of these words? Well, we can, but only by the wisdom and revelation which is given by the Holy Spirit, for today Christ has not only been raised from the dead, but He has been seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Never, throughout all of eternity, will there ever be a name which carries more weight of authority than that of Jesus Christ. Which implies more might or more power than that of Jesus Christ. Never, throughout all of eternity, will there ever be a name which reveals more love or more grace than that of Jesus Christ. Even now God has put all things under Christ’s feet and has given Him to be Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
When Paul accepted Christ as his Savior, he had no idea the depth of wisdom and revelation that God was going to give to him, but whatever God had for him, Paul knew that he wanted it. Many times if you talk to people about the things of the Lord, they will say, “Well, you really need to talk to my preacher about that.” Or, “My church believes this or that.”
God has so much to reveal to us, but the truths of God’s word have to be applied individually. Our churches can only grow if we grow as individuals. God wants to deal with each one of us on a personal level. I don’t know about you, but I love the one on one attention I get from God.
All believers today are members of this church which is revealed in the book of Ephesians. We are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of our Church. Therefore, we can take every word written to the Ephesians and take as if it were written directly to us. God wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit so that we may know the hope of God’s calling for us, so that we may know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It has been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
God wants us to look for opportunities to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but when we have the chance to lead someone to the Lord, it is so important for us to followup with that person. We need to pray for them, and we need to communicate with them so that we can encourage them in the things of the Lord.
We know that God is going to be working in their lives and doing miraculous things, but the devil is also going to be working. The devil tries to blind the eyes of unbelievers so that they can not see the gospel, but when the Holy Spirit breaks through the darkness to reveal the light of Jesus Christ, the devil steps up his attacks to keep the new believer from growing in the truth of Jesus Christ.
Paul had labored for about three years in Ephesus. He had seen God do miraculous things, both physically and spiritually, but it had been a long time since he had seen them face to face. However, he never stopped thinking about them. He never stopped praying for them. He never stopped trusting God for their spiritual welfare. But he was also acutely aware of the devil’s spiritual warfare.
He had seen the division and strife in Corinth, as well as overt immorality. In II Corinthians, Paul said in effect, “We have to be on guard lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
He had seen the judaizers come into the Galatian churches where the people were turning back to the Law of Moses. Paul told the Galatian believers:
Gal 3:1 (NKJ)
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?
Traveling was difficult in those days, so it probably had been a long while since Paul had heard from the Church in Ephesus, but when he got word that their faith in the Lord Jesus was strong and their love for all the saints was well known, his heart rejoiced.
I’m sure he was excited to write this letter to the Ephesians so that he could once again encourage them in their walk with the Lord. He said, “Since I heard this good report concerning your faith and your love, I have continued to thank God for you and pray for you without ceasing.”
What prayers did he offer on their behalf? First, he prayed that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.
Which God? The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which God? The God of glory.
These believers had come out of the corrupt pagan religions which taught the existence of many gods. Paul wanted to encourage the Ephesians in the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God of glory.
The nation of Israel, as a whole, thought they worshiped the true and the living God, but they did not, for they did not worship the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. They had rejected Jesus Christ as God’s Son and as their messiah.
When Jesus told the Pharisees, “You do the deeds of your father.” They said, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
Then Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.”
Paul not only emphasized that the one true God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ but that God is the God of glory. Paul wanted to reemphasize that we have every reason. We have every motivation to believe in Jesus Christ. He is our hope for future glory. Paul said:
Rom 8:18 (NKJ)
18 . . . I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The nation of Israel had the presence of God’s Shekinah glory dwelling with them in the wilderness. Today we have the glory of God dwelling within us, for our bodies serve as the temple of the Holy Spirit. However, someday we are going to leave behind our bodies of flesh, and we will be given a new and glorious body as we enter into the glory of heaven. This is our inheritance in Jesus Christ.
In I Corinthians, Chapter 2, Paul paraphrased the words of Isaiah and said:
1 Cor 2:9-10
9 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
From time to time in the scriptures we get a glimpse of the glory of God. As the angels announced the savior’s birth, the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and the shepherds were sore afraid.
When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were awakened from their sleep to see Jesus Christ in all of His glory.
Just before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed:
John 17:5 (NKJ)
5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Later, in that same prayer, the Lord said:
John 17:20-24 (NKJ)
24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He took a body of humiliation and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
And now in Ephesians 1, Paul reminds us that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of glory, and he prays that we who believe might know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
As Paul writes the Ephesian believers from a Roman prison, he is well aware of the fact that the nation of Israel has rejected Christ as her messiah. From the time of his conversion to Christ, Paul had expected Jesus Christ to return to earth very soon to gather and glorify His saints and establish His kingdom of glory upon the earth.
He had told the Corinthian believers that they should not take any matter to a secular court because they would be judging the world in the kingdom. He also told the men of that congregation that if they were single, they should not seek a wife because, as Paul put it, “The form of this world is passing away.”
But now all of that had been set aside, and one would think that Paul would have been in the depths of despair. But quite the opposite was true.
Well, why is that?
As we saw in Ephesians 1:8 and 9, God had revealed to Paul the mystery of His will. Paul could see that God knew all along that Israel would reject Christ. God knew they would reject the Father in the Old Testament. God knew they would reject the Son during Christ’s earthly ministry, and God knew they would reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit during the Acts period. None of this took God by surprise.
God’s plan from the beginning was that Israel would reject Christ and be set aside on a temporary basis, while God created a new body of believers composed of Jews and Gentiles alike. A new body of believers saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ. This was and is the mystery of God’s will which was revealed to the Apostle Paul.
When Paul heard of the faith of the Ephesians and of their love for the saints, he prayed without ceasing that the Holy Spirit would give to them wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. He prayed that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.
Paul certainly knew the blessing of joy and assurance that comes with understanding. Paul had always been very sincere, even when he was sincerely wrong. At one time, he sincerely thought that Jesus Christ was an imposter, but he was wrong. God had to shut his eyes in order to open them. When Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul was blinded by the light, but the eyes of his understanding were opened, and he called Jesus Lord. He said, “Lord, what would you have me to do?”
At one time, Paul sincerely thought that the Jews would acknowledge Christ as their promised messiah within a very short time, but he was wrong. He had said, “There is coming a time when all Israel will be saved.” But he did not know that it would be thousands of years in the future before Israel’s salvation would occur.
Paul had a lot of growing to do in terms of his understanding, but the beautiful thing about Paul is that he truly wanted to know everything that he could possibly learn about God’s plan and purpose. Paul was not just trying to fine tune his theology so that he could attract a large following of converts. He was truly seeking to know God’s will.
Jesus said, “If you seek you will find.” And Paul found what he was seeking. God revealed more truth and deeper truth to and through Paul than through any other apostle. God revealed to Paul the mystery of God’s will.
Paul was praying that the Ephesians would be able to experience for themselves the joy that comes with having the eyes of their understanding opened so that they could know the hope of God’s calling and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
Paul had been raised with an understanding of the promised Messiah. He had been raised with an understanding of the promised kingdom. His whole life had been dedicated to these two theological points. But when Paul saw that Israel’s kingdom had been set aside, and when he saw that Jesus was more than just Israel’s Messiah, he was overwhelmed. He was overjoyed. He knew that he could never express in words how marvelous, how wonderful, how glorious was the plan of God.
He just said to the Ephesians, “I pray that God will open your eyes to see the wonder of it all.”
Even still we today have to read between the lines. We have to read between the words. We have to read between the letters to get a glimpse of the glory of it all. It is truly too marvelous for words to fully express.
Paul essentially said, “I could never have guessed that the Messiah could be all that Jesus Christ is, but I am praying that your eyes will be opened to see what I have seen. It is through Christ that we see the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He accomplished in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.”
Is it possible for us today to grasp the full impact of these words? Well, we can, but only by the wisdom and revelation which is given by the Holy Spirit, for today Christ has not only been raised from the dead, but He has been seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Never, throughout all of eternity, will there ever be a name which carries more weight of authority than that of Jesus Christ. Which implies more might or more power than that of Jesus Christ. Never, throughout all of eternity, will there ever be a name which reveals more love or more grace than that of Jesus Christ. Even now God has put all things under Christ’s feet and has given Him to be Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
When Paul accepted Christ as his Savior, he had no idea the depth of wisdom and revelation that God was going to give to him, but whatever God had for him, Paul knew that he wanted it. Many times if you talk to people about the things of the Lord, they will say, “Well, you really need to talk to my preacher about that.” Or, “My church believes this or that.”
God has so much to reveal to us, but the truths of God’s word have to be applied individually. Our churches can only grow if we grow as individuals. God wants to deal with each one of us on a personal level. I don’t know about you, but I love the one on one attention I get from God.
All believers today are members of this church which is revealed in the book of Ephesians. We are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of our Church. Therefore, we can take every word written to the Ephesians and take as if it were written directly to us. God wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit so that we may know the hope of God’s calling for us, so that we may know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It has been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/
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