07 Ephesians 1:18-23 A Pastor's Prayer Part 2

Title: “A Pastor’s Prayer” Part 2

Text: Ephesians 1:18-23

FCF: We often struggle to recognize our need of God to know Him and our relationship to Him.

Prop: Because knowing God intimately leads us to recognize our need of Him, we must seek the Spirit for wisdom and revelation.



Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Ephesians chapter 1. In a moment we’ll read from the Legacy Standard Bible starting in verse 15. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer.



Last week Paul began his third sentence in the book. He brings the conversation to a much more personal level by expressing his prayer for the Ephesian church. He thanks God every time He remembers them in prayer because of what God has done for them and what God is continuing to do for them. And his prayer is one we might expect of any pastor worth his office. That they would, through the Spirit, know Him accurately and intimately.



Today, Paul will reveal what the purpose or result of knowing God accurately will produce in their lives. By extension, we will see what an accurate and intimate knowledge of God will mean for us, and how we might come to such knowledge.



Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the Word of God as it is read.



Invocation:

Omnipotent Father, You dwell in unapproachable light. You are hidden from our eyes. Though the light of nature and reason can show us some of who You are, ultimately, we cannot know You accurately and intimately without You revealing Yourself to us. In this place, we are humbled. So Father we plead with You, through Your Spirit, make Yourself known to us today. Help us to know You accurately and intimately. Convince us of our relationship to You and all that that entails, so that we might be what You have purposed us to be. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.



Transition:

[Slide 2] “When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him.” C.S. Lewis



“God hath in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you.” Thomas Brooks



[Slide 3] “Our theology is never right till in our hearts we invest God with infinite power and perfections.” William Plumer



“Our love of God will always be according to our knowledge of Him and His perfections.” Thomas Wilson



Let these thoughts pour over us as we seek the Lord to reveal Himself to us this morning.



I.) Knowing God intimately leads us to recognize what is our hope, our value, and our strength, so we must seek the Lord for His Spirit of wisdom and revelation. (18-19)

a. [Slide 4] 18 - so that you

i. Verse 18 actually opens with the phrase after this, but for clarity the LSB has brought forward the prepositional phrase here to help us understand that it connects to the previous thought from verse 17.

ii. Paul seeks God to send His Spirit of wisdom and revelation to the Ephesian church to accurately and intimately know the Father.

iii. What follows then will be the purpose of knowing God accurately. For what reason does Paul desire the Ephesian church to know God accurately and intimately?

iv. But before Paul goes into that reason, he has a little aside. A parenthetical doctrinal thought that is quite important.

b. [Slide 5] —the eyes of your heart having been enlightened—

i. The word enlightened is a perfect passive participle. The struggle in this context is knowing what verb the participle is modifying.

ii. This is why some translations render this “that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened” referring back to the verb “give” in verse 17.

iii. However, to make the participle modify the verb “give” typically translators alter the form of the participle to something other than perfect passive. This seems to be an oversight.

iv. By its nature a perfect passive participle expresses an action that was completed with continuing results and it is something that was done TO them and not something that they did.

v. It is much more likely that this participle modifies the next verb in the sentence.

vi. Therefore, we need to translate this as the translators of the LSB and several others do, “The eyes of your heart having been enlightened.”

vii. Notice also that Paul does not speak of the group here, he speaks of each individual in the group. He is talking about the eyes of their heart (singular) having been enlightened. Paul is certainly concerned about the corporate nature of God’s redemption plan, but once again we cannot ignore the individual side either. It is both/and, not either/or.

viii. The enlightening of the eyes of each of their hearts is something that is necessary before Paul could expect the result of the Ephesians knowing God accurately and intimately. And perhaps even before the action of God giving them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

ix. But Paul is sure that the Ephesians’ eyes of each of their hearts have been enlightened.

x. So, what is the result of knowing God intimately and accurately?

c. [Slide 6] will know what is

i. “Will know” is being treated as a noun here. It is actually the object of the preposition “so that”.

ii. And knowledge here is a different word than the one used previously of “full knowledge” of God.

iii. This word for knowledge in the Greek speaks not to intimate or relational knowledge, but to raw possession of information about something. It is to become aware or cognizant of a fact or facts.

iv. So what facts will they become aware of or cognizant of since they hearts have been enlightened and they know God intimately and accurately?

v. The first of these is…

d. [Slide 7] the hope of His calling,

i. Hope here is an object upon which expectations are centered or grounded.

ii. Hope is further defined here with the words “of His Calling.” This defines for us an internal characteristic of the hope.

iii. In other words, the thing that produces the hope we must recognize is the call of God.

iv. Call here is an authoritative summons. It is the command to participate or take part in something. And typically, in the New Testament, that is the gospel call.

v. Since it is the call of God the Father, and it is one that produces hope, we must assume Paul intends here the internal call, not the external call.

vi. It is not the potential hope of the gospel call which goes out to all men. It is the particular and individual hope of God’s inward call for us to believe and hope in Christ.

vii. Our intimate and accurate knowledge of God the Father will lead us to recognize the truth of the hope produced by God calling each of us to Himself.

viii. But we must also recognize…

e. [Slide 8] what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

i. It is important to note that the words “what are” are not in the Greek. Paul sees these three truths as a package, not three separate items.

ii. Knowing God intimately and accurately must lead to us recognizing the truth of the riches. Of the wealth.

iii. But Paul refines those riches with two phrases. The difficulty is knowing exactly how they stack together.

iv. Some commentators say “the glorious riches of His inheritance” others say “the riches of His glorious inheritance”.

v. I tend to favor the latter but really either gets the idea across.

vi. But now we must deal with the last two phrases here.

vii. Of His inheritance in the saints.

viii. As was mentioned earlier in verse 11, God claims those whom He has predestined and chosen in Christ as His own inheritance or possession. Although whose inheritance it is in that verse is somewhat debated, here it is much less so. This is not the inheritance that God gives to the saints… rather this is God’s inheritance which is located IN the saints.

ix. Meaning that the riches of God’s glorious inheritance, is in those whom He has predestined, chosen, redeemed, forgiven, sealed and guaranteed.

x. And so, our intimate and accurate knowledge of God the Father will lead us to recognize the truth of the wealth of God’s glorious inheritance in … us.

xi. And finally, the third thing we will know from an accurate and intimate knowledge of God the Father is…

f. [Slide 9] 19 - and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of His strength,

i. Surpassing means to exceed or to do something to an even greater degree. And Greatness means extreme greatness of size or extent or magnitude.

ii. Super abundance. Extreme Greatness. Or we might even say, perfect greatness. It could not get greater. It is infinite.

iii. [Slide 10] Of His power.

1. Paul uses 4 Greek words in this verse that all generally mean, power.

a. There is a possibility that by doing so he is just trying to emphasize that God’s power is limitless and perfect. God is omnipotent, a teaching which is ubiquitous throughout the Old and New Testaments.

b. God possesses all power. So much so that God never grows in power, God never struggles to accomplish something He sets out to accomplish.

c. God’s power, like all His attributes, is synonymous with His essence. So much so that God is called “The Power” which Jesus said He will sit at the right hand of.

2. But there is also a possibility that Paul intends something within the nuanced meanings of these words individually.

a. Assuming this, the first word is the word from which we get our word dynamite.

b. The Greek word is the least nuanced of them all simply meaning power which seems to stress the capability or ability.

c. The next word is translated “working” here. As the translation indicates this is God’s power put into effect. It is a power that does something. Implying that God possess power whether or not He uses it.

d. The next word translated “might” here refers to His governing power or His sovereign dominion. This word for power is never used of any human being in the NT, and is only once used for a being other than God or Jesus. Only in Hebrews is it said that Christ nullifies the one who holds the sovereign dominion over death” And in that case it cannot be absolute since Christ nullifies it. Meaning that when it speaks of God, it is absolute sovereign dominion.

e. The last word translated “strength” here refers to God’s inherent or latent power which is His essence.

f. Were we then to plug in all the nuanced meanings we could render this “and what is His infinite ability toward us who believe according to His effective sovereign inherent power.

iv. [Slide 11] But let’s work on the other words so we can get the whole picture.

v. Toward us who believe

1. Who believe is a participle being used as a direct object. In that we can render this, simply, believers.

2. Toward is a preposition of direction or benefit.

3. God’s power is flowing toward or for believers. The idea is that God is giving believers power to be and do things. Enabling power we might say.

vi. According to

1. This is another preposition of reference.

2. From where does God’s enabling power come?

vii. [Slide 12] Putting it all together we might translate it like this.

viii. “and what is His infinite enabling power for believers which flows from His effective, sovereign, inherent power.”

ix. Since the eyes of each of their hearts have been enlightened, the accurate and intimate knowledge of the Father will also cause them to recognize the truth that God has infinite enabling power for believers which flows from His effective, sovereign, inherent power.

g. [Slide 13] Summary of the Point: As we saw last week, Paul prays that God would give the Holy Spirit to the Ephesian church in such a way that the Spirit illuminates and reveals accurate and intimate knowledge of the Father to them. Here Paul reveals the purpose for that. What is the purpose of them knowing God accurately and intimately? It is so they would see the truth of some things. That their hope is produced by God’s calling them to repentance and faith. That God’s rich and glorious inheritance is in them, His saints. And that God’s enabling, inherent, infinite, sovereign, effective power is for believers. As a prayer offered by the apostle for them, asking the question, what are they to do with this is quite perplexing. We might be tempted to say – simply recognizing these facts is enough. But we can’t recognize these truths until our hearts are enlightened. And recognizing these truths is a result of knowing God intimately and accurately. Ok, so we must know God intimately and accurately, but that is something Paul says must be accomplished by the Spirit’s wisdom and revelation. So, what is the application? We must seek the Lord to give us wisdom and to reveal Himself through His Spirit to us so we can know Him accurately and intimately to recognize these truths.



Transition:

[Slide 14 (blank)] But Paul isn’t quite done discussing God’s power toward us. What is that power capable of? Is that power just for each of us individually or is there a bigger purpose? What will that power ultimately do in us and in the world?



II.) Knowing God intimately leads us to recognize what is our place in His cosmic redemption plan, so we must seek the Lord for His Spirit of wisdom and revelation. (20-23)

a. [Slide 15] 20 - which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

i. Paul now wants to connect God’s enabling, inherent, infinite, sovereign, effective power to other events in His redemption plan.

ii. What is this power capable of? Well, this is the same power which He worked in Christ by raising Him from the dead.

iii. God the Father, Son, and Spirit are all participants in the raising of the Son from the dead.

iv. But if Jesus were merely a man, He could never raise Himself from the dead.

v. But it is not just the raising of Christ from the dead in which this power is demonstrated, but also in God seating Him at His right hand, which is a position of favor, honor, and equality.

vi. This is an important point because later Paul will talk about how we are raised and seated with Christ in heavenly places… but he omits the words “at His right hand”.

vii. While we may be united to Christ and receive the covenant blessings through Him as our human representative, we do not inherit the divine privileges of being seated at the right hand of God.

viii. This then is an allusion back to the prophesy in Daniel 7 about the Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days and being seated next to Him.

ix. By doing so the Ancient of Days is recognizing that this man is equal to Him.

x. Such a prophesy is perplexing indeed, until Jesus the Messiah steps on the scene and claims to be that Son of Man.

xi. This also alludes to Psalm 110 where the Lord of David’s Lord is given a place of honor. Even before Jesus’ incarnation Rabbinical schools had already started understanding both Daniel 7 and this psalm to be messianic in nature.

xii. God’s enabling, infinite, inherent, sovereign, effective power saw to it that Christ was raised from the dead and then seated above every other man, that the man Christ Jesus would reign equal to the Father in glory forever.

xiii. In fact, Paul will go on here to describe Christ’s position.

b. [Slide 16] 21 - far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

i. We’ve already discussed how the book of Ephesians possesses cosmic language in this masterful redemption plan God has made.

ii. The words rule, authority, power, and dominion seem to cover the gamut of the created order.

iii. It would be a foolish endeavor I think to try to assign what each sphere is referring to, but I think we are safe to conclude that Paul means that every realm, every sphere, every level of the created universe will be put under Christ.

iv. Not even just in a collective sense, but even in an individual sense. Every name… will be under His name.

1. Writing to Ephesus, a place of great occult worship of demons and spiritual entities, there would be a belief that to know the name of an entity is to possess power over that entity. So as to invoke their power.

2. Here Paul prays that God’s power has put Jesus above every entity with a name.

3. There is no name you can invoke that is higher than Jesus Christ.

v. And not just in the present age or time period, but in the age to come – which the scriptures describe as… never-ending.

vi. God’s enabling, infinite, inherent, sovereign, effective power has not only raised Christ from the dead, but has seated Him as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and ruler of all creation, now and forevermore.

vii. Isn’t that beautiful?

viii. No wonder Paul desires the Ephesians to know God accurately and intimately so they can recognize this truth. It is huge!

ix. And guess what… He isn’t done!

c. [Slide 17] 22 - And HE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET,

i. Paul quotes from Psalm 8 here.

ii. Not only did God’s power raise Christ from the dead. Not only did He seat Him at His right hand above every other authority, but He subjugated everything under Him.

iii. In fact, in seating Christ with Him, The Father forced everything to be subdued under His feet.

iv. We should see this, as the New Testament portrays it, as already and not yet. Is Christ in this place now? Yes. Will He be in this place to a perfect degree when His Kingdom is consummated? Yes.

v. One way or another, every creature in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, will confess that Christ is Lord. And that confession is not merely a forced statement on the lips. No. Everyone will have to submit to Christ’s ruling authority.

vi. There will come a day when no one will be permitted to rebel or resist His rule ever again.

d. [Slide 18] and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

i. This second phrase here is just one of the most earth-shattering mind-blowing things that God could say to us in His word.

ii. Jesus is the head, the king, the dominion holder over ALL THINGS. That much has been established quite clearly.

iii. God uses His power to raise Christ and seat Him as King over all.

iv. But God’s power also gave Jesus to the church.

v. He is ours.

vi. He is our groom, our brother, our friend, and our King.

vii. And what are we?

e. [Slide 19] 23 - which is His body,

i. We are His bride. We are the reward of His Suffering. We are the heritage, the inheritance, the posterity of His Father.

ii. We are His body.

iii. It is difficult to know whether or not the image of a head and a body is meant to be connected.

1. Headship can mean source. As a body cannot exist without the head, the head is the source of life for the body.

2. And since Christ is head over all things and all things are put in subjugation under His feet, the church being His body implies that all things are put under us as well. We will reign with Christ.

3. However, headship in general also communicates authority which is clearly implied in the previous context that Christ is the head OVER everything.

4. Therefore, I don’t think it is Paul’s intention to say Christ is the head and the church the body in an anatomical metaphor. As if Christ is a member of His own body.

5. Instead, I think we should look for a different meaning.

iv. Later in Ephesians 5, Paul will speak to husbands and their role with reference to their wives.

1. There he makes the case that no man hates his own body. We care for our own body. In a similar way the man is to care for his wife as Christ cares for His bride.

2. Paul talks about this as though being nourished by Christ and becoming one flesh with Christ are a mystery concerning the relationship of Christ to His church.

3. There He says that Christ gives Himself up for her, sanctifies her, cleanses her, so that he can present to himself a church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle, but being holy and blameless.

4. In 1 Corinthians Paul speaks of the husband as the “head” of his wife. There he also clearly implies authority and not source.

v. Therefore, I conclude that being called here “the body of Christ” is another way to be called His bride. Certainly, we are many members of that body – but we are His body nonetheless.

vi. But a body, a bride, for what purpose? To what end? What is our place in all this?

f. [Slide 20] the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

i. This is, by far, the most difficult phrase in all of the book of Ephesians to understand.

ii. There is absolutely no consensus among my 38 commentaries on the book of Ephesians as to what this phrase means.

iii. One scholar has said that this clause contains, “an unsolved enigma” and that in it “the writer intends to say something very important, but precisely what that is cannot be determined with any degree of certainty.” (Mitton)

iv. Another commentator recognizes the intended beauty of the phrase. In Greek there is alliteration with the words “fullness, fills, all, and all,” each beginning with the Greek letter pi which has the “P” sound. There is also a cadence to the words, almost as if this was poetry. And yet… the commentator laments that the beauty is marred by its mystery.

v. There are no less than 7 different interpretations of this phrase.

vi. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with all of them. I’m just going to tell you what I think.

vii. Paul began this praying that God would reveal Himself to the Ephesians so they would know Him accurately and intimately, and since their hearts have been enlightened, they would recognize the truths that God’s calling is their hope, that they are infinitely valuable to God because they are His glorious inheritance, and that God is actively giving to them His enabling, infinite, inherent, sovereign, effective power.

viii. This power, he reminds them, is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in a position of preeminence and supremacy over all of creation.

ix. This power gave this head of all things to them, His bride. Why?

x. So, He might do what a husbands should do for their wives. Care for them as his own body.

xi. Care for us how?

xii. By perfecting us completely as He will bring all things to perfect completion.

xiii. What is our place in this cosmic redemption plan of God?

xiv. Christ is doing an ongoing completing and perfecting work in us and that is part of His plan to complete and perfect all of creation.

xv. This is testament to the power of God, that in Christ, all things will be made perfect and whole again. And we are the living proof of that future surety.

g. [Slide 21] Summary of the Point: Before, Paul communicated how intimate and accurate knowledge of God produces a recognition in us of God being the source of our hope, our value, and our power. And as he expands on the power of God toward us, he shows us what God’s power has done, what it will do, and what it is doing now. God’s power has raised Christ from the dead and seated Him above everything in creation. It has given Christ to His church who is His body. And His power now, through Christ, is perfecting us, just as it will through Christ one day perfect all of creation. This reveals to us the truth of God’s purpose for His church. Once again, how do we come to recognize these truths? We must seek the Holy Spirit to reveal to us an accurate and intimate knowledge of God.



Conclusion:

So, what have we learned today CBC that refines our beliefs and alters our lifestyles?



Basics of Faith and Practice:

[Slide 22] Assuming the eyes of your heart have been enlightened, knowing God intimately and accurately will lead to a recognition of the truth of God giving us our hope, our value, our power, and our purpose. Everything we are as His people, is brought to bear upon our minds when we know Him intimately and accurately. So how do we get that knowledge? Paul made it clear in last week’s sermon. It is by the revelation and wisdom of the Spirit of God. He must reveal God accurately and intimately to us. This means that our application cannot be full of lots of behavior modification. Rather it must be full of prayer. We must seek the Spirit to reveal God to us accurately and intimately. And the Spirit does this through the Word of God. Through personal study, the preaching of the Word, and by iron sharpening iron where we teach one another on what the Scriptures reveal about our God. And we come to accurate and intimate knowledge of our God by overt statements from the Word of God and by good and necessary inferences from the Word of God. This is how the Spirit of God gives wisdom and reveals who God is to us.



So let us apply this text to our lives today. What must we think and do because of it?



1.) [Slide 23] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that accurate and intimate knowledge of God comes only when God reveals Himself to us.

a. Does God reveal Himself to men who are not believers?

b. We have to confess that this is true. Although it is limited.

c. In Romans 1:19-20 we see that God does indeed reveal Himself to unbelieving men so they can observe His divine attributes and His eternal power. Men can arrive at an understanding of God by merely observing what God has created.

d. This has been called the light of nature or the light of reason.

e. But could a brilliant man, without God’s special revelation, arrive at these truths of our hope, value, power, and purpose in God? No.

f. There are two pieces of information that lead us to this conclusion in the text this morning.

g. First, that Paul has prayed that the Spirit would give wisdom and revelation to the Ephesians in the full knowledge of God. That Paul seeks God for this is evidence enough that this kind of knowledge is inaccessible to us unless God chooses to reveal it to us.

h. Second, Paul predicates their arrival at the results of intimate and accurate knowledge of God upon the fact that God has enlightened the eyes of each of their hearts.

i. Not only must God reveal Himself through His Spirit, but God must change something about us in order for us to come to this knowledge and its subsequent understandings.

j. Unlike Gnosticism, where secret knowledge is attainable by devotion and the work of men, Biblical Christianity teaches that God alone reveals Himself because man cannot attain that knowledge without God’s intervention.

k. Intimate and accurate knowledge of God is only given to someone whose eyes of their heart have been enlightened and who the Spirit gives wisdom and revelation.

2.) [Slide 24] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that The Holy Spirit reveals The Father to us primarily through The Word.

a. This is, admittedly, not found in this text, but through other passages of scripture such as Romans 10, 2 Timothy 3, 1 Corinthians 2, and Titus 3, we see that God’s Spirit reveals who God is and what God has willed for us, through the Word of God.

b. As the writer of Hebrews attests, Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of revelation to men and if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.

c. Jesus is so much the revelation of God to men that He is called the Word in John’s gospel. And our New Testament Scriptures are a record of all that Jesus taught and revealed to His apostles.

d. As we put all this together, we come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit’s primary means of revealing an intimate and accurate knowledge of God is through His Word.

e. Full and deep knowledge of God comes by overt statements in the scripture and also by good and necessary inferences concerning God’s nature.

f. God is love. We know this because the bible clearly tells us. When we look at God we see what real love is. He is essentially love.

g. But nowhere does the bible speak of God being one in essence and three in persons. Furthermore, the word Trinity does not exist in the text of scripture.

h. No where does the bible speak of Jesus having two unmixed natures united in one person. Nor do the scriptures use the words hypostatic union.

i. Nevertheless, the early church fathers arrived at these conclusions about the Godhead and the God-Man nature of Christ. Furthermore, they arrived at these good and necessary inferences so strongly that they word the creeds in such a way that if anyone denies such teachings, they are not genuine followers of Jesus Christ.

j. God uses His Spirit to give wisdom and revelation to us not just in overt statements from the scripture but by knitting together all that He has said to form good and necessary conclusions about Him. When we do we can recognize our hope, our value, our power, and our purpose.

3.) [Slide 25] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don’t naturally do or aren’t currently doing?” We must seek the Lord to give by His Spirit accurate and intimate knowledge of God.

a. I have heard preachers and teachers advise Christians to begin their bible study with prayer. They advise to do so as if this was a conversation with God. We pray to Him and read His Word as He speaks to us.

b. I think that is great advice. But I’d like to fortify it a bit.

c. We need to pray, seeking the Lord to reveal Himself to us in His Word, in order to humble ourselves before a SPIRITUAL book that is SPIRITUALLY understood.

d. I fear that many Christians come to the Word of God endeavoring by their own understanding to arrive at the truths of the Word of God.

e. But Proverbs 3:5-6 warns not to lean on your own understanding. Instead, we are told to trust in Yahweh and in all our ways acknowledge or recognize Him… and then He will direct our paths.

f. Acknowledgement and recognition and trust speaks to living our life in absolute dependance on God.

g. And if intimate and accurate knowledge of God comes to us through God’s Spirit, it is especially important to us when we read the words of Scripture to be trusting in and acknowledging God’s prerogative to direct and guide us.

h. We must approach the Word of God, whether we are reading, studying, or hearing it preached, with utmost humility, recognizing that God must reveal Himself to us through His Word. It is not something we can presume to be available to us simply because we are humans or even because we are believers.

i. Paul asks the Spirit to reveal these things… to humans he is convinced are believers.

j. Every time you go to read the Word of God, study it, hear it preached, you should enter into it humbly, asking the Father to use His Spirit to reveal its meaning to you.

k. We must humble ourselves and confess that we are unable to know God without God making Himself known. So let us seek, beg, plead with God to show Himself to us. Especially when we go to His Word, but even in all areas of life. Let us not lean on our own understanding.

4.) Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm what is the hope, value, power, and purpose of believers.

a. Oh what an amazing text of scripture this is.

b. Paul says that if we know God intimately and accurately, we will come to recognize certain truths about our need of Him.

c. First, that His calling is our hope. He has called us to Himself and to holiness. Without His call, we would still be in our sin. Praise God for calling us!

d. Second, that our value is extravagant in that God has claimed us as His inheritance. Some preachers today conclude that we must be very valuable because God sent His most prized possession to save us. But this flips everything upside down. We were not valuable enough to come and save. But as God claims us through the redemption of Christ’s atonement as His own possession, then our value becomes extravagant.

e. Third, that His power is toward believers. The same power that raised Christ and established Him over all things, is working in us.

f. Finally, that He has a purpose for us in His cosmic redemption plan. That purpose is to be filled with Christ as Christ fills all of creation. We are being completed as Christ completes all creation. We are His and He is making the Kingdoms of this world, His Kingdom. We are the people of His Kingdom.

g. Knowing God intimately and accurately helps us to arrive at these things and many more.

h. Praise the Lord for all He has done, who He is making us to be, and what He will do.

5.) [Slide 27] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” Take a look at chapter 1 and see all that God has done, is doing, and will do for His elect.

a. For time’s sake, we won’t spend long here.

b. But just look at what we’ve seen!

c. Do you not feel comforted? Yes, the world is filled with devils. Yes, the world remains unconvinced that Jesus has won. Yes, the Kingdom is not done spreading yet.

d. But do you doubt it will? You shouldn’t.

e. God is still on plan A. There is no plan B. All will happen as He has willed it to happen.

6.) [Slide 28] Evangelism: “What about this text points us to Jesus Christ, the gospel, and how we are restored?” Will you continue to despise such a God?

a. Romans 2:4 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

b. Look what God has done! Look what God is doing! Look at what God will do! For His People!

c. My friends, if you are here today and you have not believed on Jesus Christ. If you have not repented of your sin and put all your hope in Jesus’s person and work to save you…

d. Will you continue to think so lightly of the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and patience?

e. Do you not know that it is His kindness that leads you to turn from your sin and believe on His Son?

f. Repent and believe on Jesus.



[Slide 29 (End)] Let me close with a prayer by the Reformer Martin Bucer.



Lord God, Heavenly Father, because You have created us to be thoughtful creatures, people who learn and do good, so strengthen Your Holy Spirit within me to always learn and do good, and thereby sanctify and magnify Your name and serve my neighbors for their salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.



Benediction:

Now may He who has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,



Fill you will all knowledge so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.



Until we meet again, Grace and peace to you.