Ephesians 1:15-23
Date: October 6th, 2024
Speaker: Sam Crites
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23
Exegetical Outline
MIT: Paul frequently prays that the Ephesians would be enlightened to understand the inheritance of the Gospel, the relationship between Christ and the Church.
15-16: Paul makes it a habit to pray for the Ephesians because they believe in Jesus and they love the other saints.
17-23: Paul prays that we would be spiritually enlightened to the in inheritance of Christ, the connection between the Gospel and the Church.
17-18a: Paul prays that they would know the hope to which they have been called.
18b: Paul prays that they would know the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
19-23: Paul prays that they would know the immeasurable greatness of his power toward those that believe, namely, the Church.
19: Paul prays that we would know God’s power.
20-22a: The same power that used when he raised Christ from the dead and gave him all authority.
22b-23: The same power that established Christ as the gift of the Church when God made him the head over it to fill it with his glory and majesty.
Homiletical Outline
MIS: Union with Christ in the Church is the ultimate end of the Gospel.
The Father gives the Spirit to reveal the greater work of the Son.
The Father gives the Son to unite heaven and earth in the Church.
Introduction:
When I became a parent, I did not know what I was doing. In some ways, I am fairly confident that I still do not know what I am doing. This is a shocking admission for me personally this morning, because when Molly and I first became parents, I was totally confident that I knew what we needed to do. Changing diapers, dealing with sick kids, discipline when we got to that point…I had a plan for it all.
Part of the reason for my confidence was good old fashioned hubris, but the other part was the fact that I grew up with lots of siblings and cousins, and between the two of us, Molly and I had decades of babysitting experience. At the starting line, it seemed that the goal of parenting was clear. Keep the kids alive, teach them about Jesus, and get them to the point where they were successful adults that could give me some grandkids.
The longer it has gone, the less confident I am in my abilities as a father. Not because of a lack of experience, but because I see more today than I saw then. The complexity of life and the complexity of raising five individual people that all have their own personalities, preferences, and struggles makes it feel sometimes like we are barely making it. Said differently, the job is just simply more complex than I originally thought, not only in the day to day, but also in the end to which we are working. Each child is a different kind of vessel. They cannot be piloted the same way, so getting to the end is more challenging than I originally assumed.
This is true of the Gospel as well. When I first became a Christian, I thought the Gospel was about me. God loved me. He had a plan for my life. And he sent his Son for me to save me from the consequences of my sin. My understanding of the gospel was inherently individualistic. Furthermore, this is how I was taught. I was taught to be certain to have my own personal quiet time, to cultivate my own personal prayer life, and to find my own niche within the Church where I could serve.
Now, all of those are good things. No single one of those disciplines is bad in any way. If I sat down with any of my members, I would encourage them to do all of those things. But collectively, what I was being taught was that my salvation and my sanctification was about me. It was private. I had my relationship with Jesus and I wanted everyone else to as well, but mine was on me there’s was on them.
This is an extremely reasonable way to understand your relationship with Jesus, because it is every single persons personal experience. You had a personal encounter with the Gospel. You had to personally trust in Jesus to save you from the consequences of your sin. You needed to cultivate personal spiritual discipline in order to begin to follow Christ. In essence, your personal experience dominates your perception of the world. This was true for me when I became a father and it is true for every baby Christian when they accept Christ.
Paul has been attempting to explain to the Ephesians that work of salvation is infinitely larger than their experience allows them to perceive. For the last five weeks, we have been having our perspective on salvation broadened. It is like Paul walked us up onto the top of a mountain and showed us the work of the Father from a bird’s eye view. We have been considering the breadth and depth of God’s grace from eternity past to eternity future.
This is not only true of the work of salvation, as we have seen God elect, predestine, forgive sins through redemption, give us a future inheritance, and seal us with his Spirit. It is also true of the ultimate goal of salvation. What is the ultimate goal of salvation?
Let’s read Ephesians 1:15-23 and find out:
Ephesians 1:15-23
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 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, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The answer to the question, what is the ultimate goal of salvation is answered by the main idea of our sermon. The main idea of our sermon is this: Union with Christ in the Church is the ultimate end of salvation.
This is the greater purpose that Paul wants the Ephesians to see. He prays for it. Which is really interesting when you stop and think about it. Why don’t they already understand this. Aren’t they Christians? They do not immediately understand this deeper truth of the Gospel because it is not immediately apparent. The moment you accept Christ, it is not immediately clear that unity with the Son through his spiritual body, the Church, is the end to which you have been saved. In fact, I think Paul is arguing it cannot be discerned at all. Otherwise, he would not need to pray for these brothers and sisters to be given the gift of understanding.
So, Paul prays to the Father for help and we see the Father doing two things. Paul asks the Father to make clear, by the Spirit, (1) what he has already done (2) in the Son. So what is Paul asking the Father to do through the Spirit. This is the first point of our sermon. Paul is asking the Father to give the Spirit in order to enlighten the hearts of his people to understand the greater work of the Son. He is asking the Father to give the Spirit to reveal what he has already given to the Church in Christ. This means that the ultimate end of the Gospel is not immediately apparent to those that have been saved. What you have experienced does not dictate reality, God’s word dictates reality. Therefore, we need the Spirit to illuminate our eyes to the hope we have in Christ, to the riches he has invested in the Church, and to the power he has demonstrated in Christ. There is more to the Gospel than merely escaping the consequences of sin and it is the Spirit that must make us see the greater truths of what the Father has revealed to us in Christ.
So what is this greater purpose to the gospel that is fulfilled in Christ? What is the Father’s ultimate plan for the Son? This is the second point of our sermon. The Father gave the Son to unite heaven and earth in the Church. The Church is the physical (earth) and spiritual (heaven) institution that unites all things in Christ. This is what Paul told us in verse 10 of Chapter 1, and it is what we see taking place in verse 23. Christ came so that the Father could demonstrate his power in the Son, and ultimately, so that we would be united to him as the fullness of him who fills all in all.
This is the great and mysterious end of the Gospel, the Church. Not just the universal Church, but each and every local church that is faithful to the gospel. The gospel finds its ultimate expression the one that is God, with us. This takes place in the local Church. What we are doing here is far greater and meaningful than we understand, and I am hoping, along with Paul, that the Spirit will illumine our eyes to this truth this morning. Union with Christ in the church is the ultimate end of the Gospel.
The Father gives us the Spirit to reveal the greater work of the Son.
The greater truths of the Gospel are not immediately apparent. Everything that can be known about following Jesus is not known the moment you put your faith in him. There is more to see and understand about who God is and what he has done for us. What is essential for salvation is understanding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save you from the consequences of your sin, but what is essential for sanctification will take lifelong journey of exploration and discovery.
In our sermon text, Paul does not pray for their salvation. There is no doubt that the Ephesians are born again. This is why Paul begins verse 15 and 16 the way that he does. Look at verses 15 and 16 with me:
Ephesians 1:15-16
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
These Ephesians understand the elementary things of the Gospel. They are Christians. God has already saved them, and their reputation as Christians makes Paul rejoice. He is not praying they would be saved, he is praying that the Father would build on the foundation of the gospel in their lives and teach them the deeper things of the faith. The things that are not immediately apparent at salvation.
I don’t know about you, but I want to know what that is. I want to move on past the elementary things of the faith and understand the deeper teachings of God’s word. So far as it relates to the Ephesians, we will see what that deeper truth is in our second point, but to get there, we must first understand what is required for the journey. If the second half of our text is the journey, we must first understand the vehicle that is going to get us there, namely the Holy Spirit. The first point of our sermon is this: the Father gives us the Spirit to reveal the greater work of the Son.
Let’s reread Ephesians 1:16b-21:
Ephesians 1:16b-21
remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 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, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
We are going to see the Father give two things in our sermon text. The first one is seen here as Paul prays for the Ephesians that the Father will give them the Holy Spirit to reveal knowledge about himself, particularly, three things; he wants the Spirit to reveal the hope to which he has called them, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe.
So let’s take them one at a time. The Father must give the Spirit to reveal the hope to which he has called us. Not the danger he saved us from, but the hope he is pointing us to. The danger of the wrath of God against sin is easy to understand. I am a sinner. The all-powerful, all-knowing God that is everywhere at all times is my enemy because I have sinned and continued to sin against him. I need a rescuer. I need someone to save me from the consequences of my sin. That is easy to understand. Hope is not.
What is the hope to which the Father has called us? Turn with me to 1 Peter 5:10-11. Peter gives us a clue to answer our question. Look at verse 10 of 1 Peter 5.
1 Peter 5:10-11
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Notice two things about the call. First, the call is defined in verse 10, “the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” The hope of the call is that in the future, through Christ, we will be united to the Father. He did not just save you from sin, he saved you to a great hope of union with him. We need the Spirit to reveal that, because I cannot even begin to comprehend what that means or what that would be like. The glory of the Father is a reality that boggles my mind. Based off this verse, it will at least mean that every loss in our life will be restored, every doubt will be confirmed, all our weaknesses will be made into strength, and all of the estrangement caused by sin will end in our being established with the Father. It means at least that, but what it truly means is beyond the ability of humans to imagine without the supernatural help of the Spirit.
The second thing we learn about the call is that we have to wait for it, and in waiting, we will suffer. Peter says, “after you have suffered a little while.” Another reason that we need the Spirit’s help to reveal the hope of the call is because we will get distracted by the sufferings of this life.
Pain has a unique way of capturing our attention. If you have ever watched someone cut their finger, what is the first thing they do? Their eyes shoot to the wound to look at it and see how bad it is. Pain draws our eyes down to this earth, and hope requires us to look at the horizon. We need the Spirit to lift our eyes to heaven, away from the temporary pains of this life to help us consider the hope to which the Father has called us.
The second thing the Spirit must reveal is the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. The value of these riches are not immediately apparent because it requires that the Spirit reveal their worth. Turn back to Ephesians and look at Ephesians 2:19-22, and let’s ask the question, what riches has the Father invested in the saints?
Ephesians 2:19-22
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
The Father has invested his very own self into his people, and the value of that investment is not immediately apparent. Not because the value of God is not immediately apparent, but because we are not adequately prepared to enjoy him.
Notice the work of the Spirit in this passage. He is the builder, the joiner, the architect and engineer of the house; he is taking the unshaped, living stones that are you and me and he is shaping and cutting them into the blocks that will build us into the temple of God.
Finally, we need the Spirit to reveal to us the power of the Father that is at work in all those that put their trust in Jesus. The Father is working in his people with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and not just raised him from the dead, but raised Christ to the highest authority in all of Creation. He sat Christ at his right hand and gave him as Lord over all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named for all time in all ages.
Now the magnitude of that elevation will be seen in the second point of our sermon, so I am going to attempt to avoid considering what that means for Christ and his people, but for the moment, I just want to ask the question, why do we need the Spirit to reveal that to us?
We need the Spirit’s help to understand the power of God at work in his people because we simply don’t feel that powerful. If the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and made him authoritative over all earthly and spiritual powers is at work in us, why do we want? Why are taken advantage of? Why do we suffer on this earth? It doesn’t seem like we are that powerful.
Paul asks the same question in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. He says:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The power of God is counterintuitive. Sure God could have come in with guns blazing to rescue his people and wipe out the enemy, but that would not demonstrate his power sufficiently. We expect power to be demonstrated in overwhelming strength, anyone can do that, but exercising power through weakness demonstrates true power. And so, the Spirit must help us to see that enduring through suffering and accepting our weakness is the means by which the Father exercises his strength in us.
All of this is pointing towards a greater reality. The enlightening work of the Spirit to reveal the hope of our calling, the riches that the Father has invested in his people, and the immeasurable power that he works in us in spite of our weakness all points to something greater that is being revealed. The work of the Son on the cross has greater implications for our lives than merely saving us from the consequences of sin.
When we experienced salvation, it was such a massive event in our lives and we were so young in the faith that all we could understand was the joy of freedom. Like a calf let out of a stall after a long winter, we didn’t care where we were headed we just bolted out of captivity, leaping for joy as we sprinted into freedom.
The Father gives the Son to unite heaven and earth in the Church.
But there is more to learn. The work of Christ was finished on the cross but it’s impact on our lives was not. Remember I told you, the Father was going to give two things in this passage. The first was the Spirit to enlighten our eyes to the second gift. In these last two verses, we are going to see that the Father gives the Son to unite heaven and earth in the Church. Let’s look at verses 22-23.
Ephesians 1:22-23
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
All of chapter one has been leading to these two verses. Our five week study of the work of the Father to save us from the consequences of our sin, the revelatory work of the Holy Spirit to help us understand the deeper truths of the Gospel, all of it has been leading to these two verses. The goal of the Father in redeeming a people was not merely to save them from the consequences of sin, but to unite them to himself in the Church.
Now that is a big statement that requires me to prove it to you. Look up a couple verses at verses 9 and 10.
Ephesians 1:9-10
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
God’s secret plan all along was to unite heaven and earth in Christ. He was planning to fix the rift caused by sin and mend the separation between God and men.
How has he accomplished that? By the working of his great might when he raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is the means by which God has elevated Christ to the place of ultimate authority. The eternal Son took on himself a human nature, he lived the life we could not, he died the death we deserved and the Father lifted him out of the grave and seated him in the heavenly places because he deserved it. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, not because he sinned but because he was willing to submit to his Father and stand in the place of sinners. He redeemed us and accomplished the plan of the Father from eternity past.
His reward for that is a kingdom and a people that is above every kingdom and every people that has ever lived. He is above all.
But God did not stop there. He not only elevated Christ, but he gave Christ as a gift. Who received that gift? The church. In his glory, he has been given to the Church, which is his body. The ultimate end of the resurrection is that Christ was raised from the dead to be the head of the Church and we were born again to be his members. This is what membership in the local church is, not some card or attendance sheet that checks to see who is here and who isn’t, we are the members of his body, united to the king of Glory in the Person of the Son. United to the ultimate authority of the cosmos like my heart is united to my body. Intimately intertwined with the ruler of the universe.
This is the ultimate end of the Gospel. You were not merely saved from the consequences of your sin, for certain you were, but you were also saved for union with the Father through the body of the Son. We are the fullness of Christ dwells in us. He fills us with the love and splendor. If you have put your trust in Jesus alone to save you from the consequences of your sin, the Father gave you Christ, not only as the payment for you sins, but as the resurrected and glorified Son to be the head of a community that you are now a part of. Membership in the Church is what it means to be united to Christ as one of his followers.
Understanding this is reality so incredibly important. It is so prone to misunderstanding. As we were discussing the sermon this week at App Grid, Preston and I were racking our brains for an illustration that would help us all wrap our arms around this cosmic reality. And after we struggled for a long time, it hit me. God has already given us the perfect illustration. Turn with me to Ephesians 5:25-32:
Ephesians 5:25-32
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
The relationship between Christ and the Church is not an illustration of marriage. Marriage is an illustration of Christ and the Church. The Father gave the Son as head of the Church and united his members to the Son in the same way that a husband is given to his wife.
That relationship is not like the dominion he exercises over the authorities in the world. The kings of the earth do not have a choice whether or not they will submit to Christ. The Father gives Christ to the world as a dominating and conquering king, but he gives Christ to the Church like a bridegroom prepared for a bride.
And the Son, loves his bride. He cares for and nourishes her. He prepares her by the power of his Spirit to be washed and made clean. Ready for the day when she will truly be united to him in the new heavens and the new earth. The power exercised by the Son with world is the dominance of a conqueror, but that same power with his bride is meek and gentle, lowly and kind.
This is the great end of the Gospel. This is the great truth that Paul is hoping the Ephesians will be able to see as the Spirit continues to work in them to enlighten their eyes to the workings of the Father. The Father gave the Spirit to reveal the gift he gave in the Son, because in the Son, the Father is uniting heaven and earth to himself.
Conclusion
As we conclude, I want to zoom out and think about what Paul has demonstrated for us in Chapter 1. One major theme running throughout the letter to the Ephesians is discipleship. We will see this in great detail in Chapter 4 as we get to what I think might possibly be the most important passage in all the Bible for understanding what it means to make disciples, but we can also see it here.
Paul has been modeling for us what it means to disciple. He feels a responsibility for the Ephesians. As an apostle of Jesus Christ and as an older brother in the faith, he has a duty to teach and encourage these younger Christians in the truths about the Gospel that they need to understand in order to grow in spiritual maturity. Like we said in our introduction, experience does not define reality, God does.
Therefore, Paul spends chapter 1 doing two things. First, he teaches them what their experience could not. He teaches them the deeper truths of salvation, namely, that salvation is a work of the Father alone. From eternity past to eternity future, the Father has chosen and planned for the redemption of the Son so that he could unite his people to himself in future glory. Baby Christians cannot guess or discern these things. They must be taught.
Second, after Paul teaches, he prays that they will understand. That the Holy Spirit himself will illuminate the eyes of their heart to the truth of what he has been saying.
This is a model for us. We need to feel the duty and responsibility for the younger Christians in our church. By God’s grace, we have been seeing people come to saving faith because of the ministry of our church. Who is discipling those baby Christians? Who feels the duty and responsibility to pursue them and help them like we see Paul doing in this book? Who is praying for them that they will understand what they are learning?
Discipling is not complicated. It is challenging but it is not complicated. All it takes is purposefully doing spiritual good to someone else. Teach, pray, engage, explain. Let us be a church that follows Paul’s example and presses on to the deeper things of the faith.
Let’s pray.