Transcript

Thank you, ladies. What a blessing.

Ephesians 1. What a book of the Bible. What glories and wonders. All the Bible is wonderful, Ephesians though is just a very, very, very special book for this church and where we are today is just so perfectly fitting. I don’t know if I’ll stay in Ephesians or not but I can’t get away from it. It’s so perfectly fitting for where we are going into a new small group year because Paul is going to talk about prayer and how he prays for the Ephesian church and here is an outline that you must, you must follow in your prayers, well, for your husband, your wife, your kids, your home, your church in general, but specifically for your small group. If you’re in leadership, absolutely specifically but anybody. For your small group, I want you to grab hold of what Paul is saying here and I’ve often talked about how some passages are pregnant with meaning but, man, Ephesians from just chapter 1 is just rich, rich, rich and his prayer flows out of that. You can’t just pull this prayer out from the context of the glories and the wonders of salvation that he has been unfolding down to this point. So we’ll interpret it, of course, in the flow of the context.

Let’s look at it there beginning in verse 15 of Ephesians 1. “For this reason I too,” now he’s pointing back for the reasons he has already enunciated in verses 1 through 14. “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers,” now here’s specifically what he’s saying in his prayers, verse 17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.” Now we get to verses 20 through 23 and he’s going to elaborate on this power which he has. Verse 20, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 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. And He put all things in subjection 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.” So I call this praying in truth or how you ought to be praying for your small group, and I challenge you, lovingly challenge you and I’m not thinking about the amount of prayer, you see, we don’t believe God answers because we repeated something or prayed so long, God answers when we mean it so deeply; when we were convinced what we’re praying is true in his will and we mean it genuinely. Sometimes a five minute prayer is better than a five hour prayer. Now, there are times for waiting long before the Lord and perhaps we all could use a little reproof there but don’t think the amount of prayer, it’s the amount of genuineness in your heart about the truth you’re praying.

Now we first of all see here, and here’s the outline, and I’ll review it all in a moment but I would ask all of you in any way in leadership in small groups, try to jot this down as we go. First of all, he prays concerning the high purpose of glorifying God. He prays concerning the high purpose of glorifying God. He ends verse 14 with the phrase, “to the praise of His glory.” Then he says, “For this reason I too,” then he talks about thanksgiving in prayer. So when he gives us the phrase in verse 15, “For this reason,” he’s connecting back to the thing he’s been unfolding in verses 1 through 14.

Well, what has he been so wondrously unfolding in verses 1 through 14? Verse 6, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Then we see verse 12, “to the praise of His glory.” Then we see it in verse 14, “to the praise of His glory.” Paul is deeply convicted about the glory of God; that God being made much of, God being shown and revealed for the power, the beauty and the wisdom that he has and God has chosen to most illustrate and manifest all this power and wisdom in beauty that he has through the saving of lost souls in the building of his churches. That’s what Paul is all about so he’s saying in effect because of the flow of the context, “I’m praying that God would be glorified.” What a thing to pray for your small group this year, “O God, work in this small group that you will be made much of. O God, work in this church and work in my small group so that people would be caused to say God is doing this work and God is changing these hearts and, God, you get the glory.” When we put our purpose statement together in what, approaching 29 or so years ago I guess now because it was in incubation even before I became the senior pastor, we thought the first phrase is just absolutely settled, there is no debate: the purpose of Grace Life Church is to glorify God by obediently making and equipping disciples of Christ in the Shoals and throughout the world by the power of the Spirit. Pray that with a genuineness. Pray it every week. Pray it every day. “God, may this class glorify you.”

Now, God does not allow us to pray that kind of general prayer and then we decide how it’s going to happen. You know, it’s just been amusing through the years in the ministry how many gimmicky, faddish, outlandish, worldly, fleshly things people do to “glorify God.” No, he’s told you how to glorify him and that’s what Paul is unfolding here. We want God to be glorified in the way he wants to be glorified doing the work only he can do and the way he does it to show forth that he is this all-powerful, beautiful, and all-wise God. So pray with that high element of, “God, you must be glorified this year in this small group and doing the things in the way you want to do them so that you get the glory.” Now, number 2, II, the second part: he’s praying with thanksgiving for the work of God in their souls. Praying with thanksgiving. You’ve already been in your class one time this new fall and already if you’ll think about it, you’ll say, “Yes, that guy and that guy and that lady and that lady, I saw the work of God in their hearts. I heard something of their testimony. I heard something of how God has brought them to humility and brought them to repentance in ways. I’ve heard how God has shown them truth and they love the truth.” You have so much already from your own small group today to go to God and say, “God, thank you for working in the souls of men. Thank you for working in the hearts of these ladies.”

Now, you see, you’re doing two things here: not only is it right to pray that but by praying that, it conditions you to get your heart thinking on, get your heart centered on God doing work in men and not just us doing stuff for each other. That’s very important and, you see, the glory of God takes care of that too because what you can perform, look, listen, are you listening to me? You can build a fantastic, growing, electric, exciting, small group and never have the presence of God or the power of the Spirit in your class. I don’t know how to say this other than to say it. I don’t mean it haughtily but do you know how many people in effect God had to get rid of out of this church who were great small group leaders if you went by the “success” of their small group? Do you know why? They weren’t plugged in for the glory of God. They were using their human skills but by the same means, they probably would be a good Little League coach or a good whatever. But you want to pray, “No, God, we want you to do the work your way and I want to be an instrument in your hands so at the end of the day it’s not what we have done, it’s what you have done.” So naturally flowing out of that is, “We are thankful that you’ve done that work in men and women’s hearts in this small group that no man can do. Brother Jeff can’t cause this to happen. Brother David can’t cause this to happen with his brilliant structure and organizational skills in small groups. Brother Matt can’t. Brother Steve can’t do it. Nobody can do this, God, you had to cause these ladies to cherish Jesus Christ and I thank you for it.”

Have you found in your small group the same thing that I have found as a senior pastor? When people love and cherish Christ, they’re just super-easy to get along with unless you’re not in love with Jesus. That could be a problem. But if you love Jesus and people start loving Jesus, have you noticed in your small group as I have noticed pastoring this church – now, by the way, it hasn’t always been this way, but have you noticed that 1,001 things that churches fuss and squabble and have disputes over just don’t matter when people love Jesus? Because when you really love Jesus and you treasure him, the first thing you think about and mostly what you think about is, “Woe is me! Why would he save me anyway?” You’re not concerned about other stuff because you can’t get over how good he’s been to you. Now if we start violating cardinal foundational doctrine, somebody needs to pitch a fit but all the other stuff that don’t matter just don’t matter. Boy, I’ll never get through this outline tonight.

Verse 16, Paul says, “I do not cease giving thanks for you.” Paul says, “As I intercede for you, I just keep thanking God because I see God has done this work in your hearts. It’s a deep delight to my soul.”

He said, “I have heard,” verse 16 or is it verse 17? Let’s see, no, verse 15, I’m sorry. “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you.” Colossians 1:4-6 has the same basic sentiment as Paul writes to the church at Colossae. He says, “since I heard of your faith in Christ and the love which you have for all the saints,” and he goes on and on about how “you are constantly bearing fruit and you’re increasing.” Paul said, “It just warms my heart. I’m so thankful for that.”

So one thing I’d like to point out as a side note and that is this: that faith always has evident observable fruit. Faith always has evident observable fruit. Now, the fruit may come under two bold categories. If you have true saving faith, the fruit will likely could be organized under these two bold categories. 1. A love and a confidence and a trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That’s got to come out if you’ve got true faith. That’s just, you see that in a person who has true saving faith obviously. But, secondly, a love for the saints. A deep love for the saints. You have this love and gratitude for Jesus as your Savior, you have this humility and yieldedness to Jesus as your Lord, and you have this growing love for your brothers and sisters in your church family. Now, you love all people and you love all Christians but he’s writing to a local church family here and that’s the context you’ve got to interpret this in. You can’t develop a deep cherishing love for every Christian in Muscle Shoals. Now, you can love them as you can but you can develop that for the folks in your small group and that’s why we have the biblical principle of small groups. So it’s a small group, so you can learn each other, know each other, develop some transparency and some bonding and really exercise the kind of Christian love which shows the world, “God has changed us.” Now, trust me, you can’t put on Christian love in the power of your flesh to show the world Jesus. You don’t put it on, you just let it through. He’s got to put it in there and it flows out to others.

Charles Hodge, the great Presbyterian theologian said, “There are two leading graces of Christian character: faith and love. Faith in Jesus and love for the brethren.” And that’s what Paul points out here, he’s talking about how Jesus Christ, “Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” and then he says in the last part of verse 15, “and your love for all the saints.” Two foundation stones of true saving faith. If you’re one of those and I just don’t know that we have any, I don’t know of anyone, but if you’re one of those and you just come to church because you were raised in church, it’s the right thing to do, it helped me raise my kids with good morals and there’s not something in you that says, “I love these people!” then you need to test your heart to see if you have saving faith. This isn’t just a moral society to help each other do better and have better families, this is about him and loving him and because he’s changed us, we love each other because he loves us.

Well, that’s two parts of the prayer: praying with an intentionality about. “God be glorified”; praying with thanksgiving, “God, you’ve changed these people’s hearts and I’m grateful to you for that.” You know, I know you’re not a pastor but you’re an extension of your pastor as you shepherd under my shepherding in your small groups which is a beautiful biblical way to organize the church. I don’t know how other people do it. Well, I do know how other people do it, they don’t do it. I mean, the overwhelming majority of churches today have gone to a Sunday morning entertainment hour. Body life and caring for the flock and loving each other and taking the time and effort and sweat equity to really love and know and build relationships and care for each other is out because that’s too hard. But it’s not a church, it’s just an event. Body life, to have the kind of body life that God in his grace has allowed us to build through the years where upwards to 95% of our Sunday morning attendance is also in small groups takes a lot, a lot, a lot of very intentional hard work but you guys can say that amen there. It is worth it.

Number 3, the third part is: praying for them to have an intimate true knowledge of Christ. An intimate true knowledge of Christ. He begins talking about the specific things he’s interceding for them about and he says in verse 17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” It means the true knowledge of him. We’ll amplify that in just a moment but, first of all that he said, “I want you to have a spirit of wisdom.” Let me ask you this question: who has more wisdom, the one who has studied the teachings of a wise man or one who knows intimately and fellowships regularly with the wise man? You know the answer to that. And years ago when a man went to like a graduate school, it wasn’t, “Where did you go to school?” it was, “Who have you studied under?” There is somebody you’ve gotten to know. You’ve studied with them and talked with them. You’ve heard their lectures. You’ve gone back and forth Q & A with that wise man. Well, that’s what Paul is saying, “I want you to grow in wisdom by being with the all-wise one, Jesus Christ.”

So many Christians today want to go to heaven ignorantly. Their theme song is, “I need no other argument, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. And I don’t know anything else.” Well, I don’t know that they’re really Christians. Maybe they are but that’s a pitiful way to live your Christian life when Paul says, “I want you to have wisdom about the true knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

Think with me for a moment: remember when we went back through Ephesians years and years ago? Think how much we learned about Jesus. We went through Hebrews, what 5, 5 ½ years. Think how much we learned about Jesus. Went through Hosea two to three years. Just think how much we learned about Jesus. We went through the Gospel of Luke for 30 years, I don’t know, many years. Think about how…look folks, I studied all this stuff and to the moment I quit preaching in the Gospel of Luke I was learning more things about Christ. That’s what he’s saying, “I want you to keep growing and knowing the great wisdom of God in his great plan for you through Jesus Christ.” That’s a great thing for you to pray for your class this year. “Lord, I pray that you will give my people in my class a knowledge, a true knowledge of Jesus.”

You know, there are too many who have been in the church 40 and 50 years but they have a mere head knowledge. It may be sound, what they have in their head may be sound doctrine but it’s empty doctrine. John 17:3, Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It’s not that we need to know more about God, we need to know God. That’s what he’s talking about here.

In verse 17, he adds, he amplifies on this as he says, “that God may give to you a spirit of wisdom,” and then he goes further, “and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Now that phrase, “and in revelation,” is not talking about like the book of Revelation or a future event, he’s talking about, “Know that knowledge that God gives you by the Spirit that leads you to spontaneously love and worship him more.” He says, “I want you to keep on this pilgrimage of learning the wisdom of God through his Son Jesus Christ and all that he’s done for you and I want to pray that the Holy Spirit will keep unfolding to you, revealing to you, making known to you what only the Spirit of God can reveal to a man’s heart and that is the glorious wondrous truths of Christ.” I want my small group by next June when we disband, to know more of Christ because the Spirit of God somehow used our sharing, our teaching, our accountability, our interaction, that we know Jesus better than we did when we started. Not just head knowledge. Doggone, if you want just head knowledge, we’ll put a video screen up and have some seminary professor just lecture. But we know Christianity is not that. It takes the Holy Spirit and that’s what he means by revelation here, the Spirit of God would keep revealing and unfolding Christ to you.

Jesus said it’s the Spirit that will guide you into all truth. Jesus said in John 15:26, “The Spirit will bear witness of Me.” Then when he says in verse 17, again, he says, “I want to give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him,” the Greek literally says, “in the true knowledge of Him.” Now, the reason it says “in the true knowledge of Him,” he’s saying, “I want you to have an accurate, a true experiential knowledge, not like the Judaizers have,” which was the false legalistic group of the day who were taking the laws of Judaism and adding Jesus to it. Have you ever noticed even in our day, every group, every philosophy, every religion wants to add Jesus on somewhere? Nobody just really wants to throw Jesus out. They just want to morph him into the kind of image that will fit their philosophy. Well, I’m sorry, he’s not buying it. He stands alone. Whatever else you know about Jesus, maybe you should begin with this truth and that is this: the onlyness of Jesus. He’s the only God in human form. He’s the only Savior from sin. He’s the only King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s the only one of truth. He is all and all of all.

Paul says, “I want you to know him like that. I don’t want you to know these legalists who come into our churches.” And they were having…I mean, we’re talking about first century Christianity and they’re just bombarded with false teaching that calls itself Christianity. You thought that just happened in the last 50-100 years in America, didn’t you? You just thought that started happening when Joel Osteen started his television program. No, there have been false teachers way before Joel Osteen. He’s one of them but there have been false teachers way before Joel Osteen who would just take Jesus and kind of add him into their pop psychology. Or the Gnostics and the Gnostics of this day were these mystics who felt like they had super-elite wisdom and everybody needed to learn under them, and they wanted Jesus but it was their version of Jesus. So that’s why he’s saying in this church among a secularist, well, for their day secularist, it means they weren’t Jewish, but anyway, a contemporary and even cultured and uppity group, the Ephesian people were, and he said, “No, I want you to know Jesus, truly Jesus by the Spirit of God enabling you to grasp the great wisdom of God in his plan of salvation through Jesus and by the Spirit of God continually unfolding to you in your understanding who he is.” That’s why after you’ve been in the ministry as long as I have, I am not one tiny iota bothered by a billionaire, a multi-millionaire or a person with six PhD’s that sits under my preaching and says, “I’m not interested. I just don’t care.” Because if the Spirit of God doesn’t unfold it, you’re not going to get it. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I’m going to do all I can to be communicating and be clear every way I can but at the end of the day, I am lashed to utter dependency on the Spirit of God to make Christ known. That’s a great place to be because it utterly humbles you and it utterly glorifies God when he does put people in that baptistry who say, “God has changed me.”

Well, continuing on, the fourth part of this prayer: praying that we would grasp the hope of his calling and praying that we would grasp the hope of the calling is like another aspect of this multi-faceted diamond of Jesus in the plan of salvation that he wants us just to keep marveling over and wondering over. 1 Peter 1:3 speaks of us having this living hope. Aren’t you glad we don’t have a dead hope? Think of how many people who are following people today and they’re dead. Just graveyard dead.

“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that he is living, No matter what men may say. I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer. And just the time I need him, He’s always near.

He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and he talks with me Along life’s narrow way. He lives. He lives. Salvation to impart! You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.”

Something has happened to me bigger than the intellect. Now listen, understand: intellect is involved in Christianity. Christianity is a teaching religion. You must know the truth but it’s bigger than just that. It’s the power that transforms the heart so he says, “I want you to grasp,” that’s the fourth part of this prayer: grasp the hope of your calling. In other words, God has called us not just to something, God has called us for something. So when God calls you to salvation, hope means there’s this reality of what he’s going to accomplish with you and do for you and involve you in, that’s wonderful beyond compare and I want you to begin to taste that. I want you to begin to grasp that. I want you to get the hope of his calling of you.

He’s in effect saying, “I want you to know the hope of his calling so that you will increasingly grow to reject the false hope of this world.” Surely to goodness, Donald Trump is not your hope. He is a nutcase and I’m going to have to vote for him. Figure that one out. Surely to goodness your hope is not Hillary Clinton. Here’s my point: all these people are exposed for the weak things they are and the fallible creatures they are, if not corrupt and out-and-out evil that they are, and aren’t you glad we can begin by the Spirit’s enabling through the word of God to begin to grasp that he called us for something much much greater than any hope this world might hold out for us?

You see, Paul is praying that these Ephesians and us, and you ought to be praying for your small group that this gets us, that this hope grabs our hearts and won’t let us go. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy things in the world, of course we enjoy these things, but in back of those things, is this glorious resting trust in the wonders of what God’s done for us in Jesus Christ and has planned for us. You see, what you’re experiencing right now is you’re just seeing through a glass dimly right now. You’re just barely touching what he’s called you to get in on. And pray that for your class, pray your class will realize we’re just in kindergarten in this whole thing of what God wants to do in us, through us and for us through his Son Jesus Christ.

He amplifies this very notion when he continues on in verse 18, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling,” and here it is in amplification, another level even, if you will, “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Now what does that mean, “the riches of His glory of his inheritance in the saints”? You see, God glories in the completion of salvation and the manifest result of the salvation he’s wrought through his children. You understand, he wrought a salvation and he plays it out in you. He performed the work of redemption, centered it in the cross, finished the atoning work on the cross, was buried in the grave for our sins, rose to prove forth our finished justification, ascends into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high where he faithfully ever intercedes for us. His blood pleading better than any religious work, any rite, any ritual, any formality, anything anybody might do for you. He has wrought all of this out to the end that he might inherit you.

You are his inheritance. Now, in a sense, he’s bought and paid for you but the Bible also pictures a familial scene that God the Father picked you and gave you to Jesus as his own inheritance. You say, “Well, he’s not inheriting much.” Oh, yes he is. Do you know why? He’s going to clothe you in his righteousness. You’re going to be something. You’re going to be something. He’s going to present you before him holy and blameless. You’re going to have the holiness and the righteousness of Jesus. You are going to be a treasure beyond comprehension and Jesus is going to say, “Father, what an inheritance you’ve given me.” Pray that your class will begin to grasp that, all that he called us to enjoy and get in on. You see, you’re not his inheritance as you are, you’re inheritance as to what you will become.

We are his trophies. We are his treasure. We are his glory because of what he accomplishes in and through us wretched worthless sinners and it deeply pleases God to save us and show forth the glories of his grace to save us. You know, I’m a grandfather now and a grandfather, a grandparent, glories when he begins to see the virtues and the character that is passed down and being manifest now in the life of his grandchildren. Likewise, Jesus Christ is passing on as a vicarious free gift the glories the wonders and the goodnesses and the righteousness and the holiness of his very being. He has given that to us and we will have it for all eternity and he greatly greatly glories in that. Paul says, “I’m praying that you’ll start getting that.” Aren’t these good prayers?

Now, here’s what Satan wants to do: he wants you to pray so much about your test coming up and your treatment coming up and your disease you’ve got and pray for that, by the way, but don’t forget the main prayers because even if that disease kills you and you go to heaven, you still get to be his inheritance. Now that’s better than all the diseases in the world put together could make things bad for you. So be balanced, sure we care if somebody is hurting. Of course we do. I certainly do and I know you do but let’s don’t forget the main stuff and what a rich banquet table of prayer emphasis Paul has spread for us here.

Number 5 in our prayer: praying that we would grasp the immeasurable power of God that he is working in us. The immeasurable power of God that he is working in us. Again, this so overlap and intertwine. But verse 19, “and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” In other words, the same power he’s given to Christ, he has exercised toward us in saving us. We have been resurrected from spiritual death by the power of God that he put in Jesus Christ. The same power that raised Jesus and gives him all rule and authority, we’ll look at that in just a moment, is used to raise us from the dead spiritually. Salvation is not moral reformation. It does change your morals but that’s not what it is. Salvation is the power of God giving you a new heart to see yourself in truth and call yourself a wretched worthless sinner and to see Christ as the only hope and the only Lord and Savior from your sin problem. Salvation is a work of God in which his almighty power is wonderfully displayed. This is an omnipotent power the eternal God gives us through his Son Jesus Christ. No base created power can raise the dead. No base created power can raise the spiritually dead. Only Christ’s power can do that.

In verse 20 and from this point, he gets into some glorious things here amplifying on, “Look at how powerful he is,” and the reason Paul is saying all this in verses 20 through 23 is because he says, “I want you to understand he who possesses all of this,” now listen to me, “has administered all of this on your behalf to make you a child of God.”

Okay, what is all of this? How is he going to illustrate this greatness of power that is in Jesus Christ? Well, verse 20, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” I’m going to tell you, I don’t know anybody else who has come from the dead and is seated with God the Father in heavenly places. That takes enormous power to do such a thing. I mean, man had done all to Christ that man can do. Man falsely accused him. Man mocked and ridiculed him. Man had him beaten with rods. Man whipped his back with a cat-o-nine tails. Man crushed a crown of thorns upon his brow. Man nailed him to a rugged pole and suspended him between heaven and earth. Man stabbed him in the side with a spear. Then he yielded up his spirit and he died. Lovingly some devoted disciples took his body down and placed him in a tomb. Rome set a stone at the entrance and the Emperor’s seal was set upon the stone and all the power of Rome sealed that tomb. Man had had his say with Jesus. Man had had his way with Jesus but then God the Father says, “I’ll have my say now and I’m going to have my way.” And on the third day, God raised his precious Son from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high in heavenly places and is seated above all others in the heavens and on the earth and here he is honored and all in heaven rush to fulfill his will. There is no higher seat in the universe than the seat at God’s right hand. All of this illustrates the power of God but to this end, get that power of God that you might grasp. That power has been released to save you, keep you and make you God’s child. You see, you thought you were reading this just to marvel over Jesus. Well, that’s true but the context requires you to marvel over Jesus to the end that you realize all this he has that he might in his sovereign choice save you and keep you as his own inheritance forever and ever and ever.

Now verse 21, he continues on, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.” Created spirit beings have enormous power but all this is beneath Jesus Christ. Satan and demons have amazing power, you shouldn’t mess with them, but they are completely submitted to Jesus Christ.

The last part of verse 21, rule and authority is the spirit realm, Satan and demons. Now following onward in verse 21, “and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Whether it’s kings or pharaohs or monarchs or rulers or popes or dictators, they all have titles and they all have names and they all are inferior to the power of Jesus Christ. No power of this age or in the age to come can challenge him. For now he stays his hand, withholding his power. This is the church age. It’s the age of grace. But in due time at the time set, established from the foundation of the world, he will indeed return from heaven with eyes like a flame of fire, a tongue as sharp as a twoedged sword, and then he will execute absolute justice against all sin and sinners and all will be subject to this judgment. Princes and peasants, king and commoners, rulers and laborers are all under the authority and the power of Jesus Christ.

Why is Paul writing this? Yes, that we might marvel over Jesus but that you might grasp a little bit more what kind of power was used by God to secure your salvation for eternity. Pray that your small group will begin to grasp what power God has just in love chosen to put in play toward our salvation. You talk about security of the believer. That’s pretty secure, isn’t it? The only way you can lose your salvation if somebody can outpower Jesus. It’s not going to happen.

Verse 22, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church.” For the unsaved and evil kings and kingdoms of this world, the feet they gladly pierced are going to be placed on their necks. The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and all will be placed under his feet. By the way, that’s what we’ve been praying for, the model prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” They pierced his feet and these feet, according to the prophet, will trample the winepress of the fierce wrath of God. What power he exudes. The world will get his feet of judgment but the church gets his heart of grace.

Now, the church here in verse 22 when it says “He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,” now the church is not that vast system of organized religion that we see with all their pomp and ritual and ceremony whether it’s the Roman church or the Eastern Orthodox church or various Protestant denominations, this vast conglomeration is not “the church,” that’s what you would call Christendom. No, the church is made up of individuals who are found in all parts of Christendom. The true church are those that Paul has already been written about in Ephesians 1:1 through 14. The churches are those who are chosen in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 1:4. They are predestined, Ephesians 1:5. They are adopted as sons, Ephesians 1:5. They are redeemed by his blood, Ephesians 1:7. They are forgiven of their transgressions, Ephesians 1:7. Those who have heard the Gospel believed, Ephesians 1:13. They are those who are sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13. They are those who walk in faith with a special love for other believers, Ephesians 1:15. You see, the church is not limited by race, creed, color, class, time or space. It’s universal, mystical and it is invincible. The head of the church, that is the head of these called out ones, is Jesus Christ and this is why we have dignity and this is why we have our destiny because he is this all-powerful head who has released his power to the end of saving us.

Now, when it says he is the head of the church, think on that for just a moment. I’m almost done. As our head, this speaks of an intimate union. As our head, this speaks of our dependence upon him. As our head, this means he’s our source of life. He’s our supreme ruler. As our head, he is ever-present with us. As our head, he is always sympathizing with us. As our head, he is always loving us just as a man loves his own flesh, the Bible says in Ephesians 5:23 and 29.

Then in verse 23, he closes by saying, “which is His body.” Now the church is his body, that’s what he’s saying in verse 23, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” He fills all in all. All will be summed up in him. He pervades all things. It’s a statement beyond our comprehension that the day is coming when Jesus Christ will appear and everything that ever was or ever will be or is will be culminated under him and in him and whatever does not fit him is banished forever. He’s the end-all of all. He is truly it. As he told the Jews as they were marveling over being the descendants of Abraham, he said, “You think it’s something to be a blood descendant of Abraham,” he said, “before Abraham was, I am.” What a statement.

Our head, the source of our life is both inexhaustible and immortal and all will be brought to him and united in him and be used for him and his bride, his church, that’s us, we will fill and complete him. Now, did you hear that? We will fill and complete him. Notice how it’s worded in verse 23, “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” So God by his own ordained sovereign purposes has caused his Son Jesus Christ to not be completed – now listen to me – until every one of his sheep get home to be with him, glorified with him in heaven. There is a yearning in Jesus, as a figure of speech here, there is a yearning in Jesus as you sit here tonight for his children to be glorified with him and he will make sure by his omnipotence, his unlimited power, that every single sheep of his gets home. His power we’ll see. Do you know why? Listen to me: not because every sheep is so precious. They are but because if he misses just one, he’s not filled to the full. Are you with me? Because every one of his elected, chosen, predestined, called sheep is necessary for him to be completed as he wants to be complete. You see, you can’t lose your salvation because he’s going to be completed.

Are you hearing me, folks? Are you just going to go home and sleep now? Are you just going to go home and turn on the stupid television now? Knowing that he has ordained to save you, get you to him, glorified, not losing a one over all these generations because he’s decided, “I need every one of them.” Is that not a good word? “I’ve chosen to bring every one of them to the end that my predetermined conclusion that I will be fully complete will not be complete unless they’re here with me.” I’m going to tell you what you can do, you can go home, you can put your head on the pillow and if you know you’ve believed on Jesus Christ, you can know that you know that you know that you know you’re going to make it to heaven. Can any man write this stuff? No way in the world a human being 2,000 years ago sat down and said, “I think I’ll just write about some religious stuff and impress the people.” God had to have done this. This is God’s book.

You see, we hold the most cherished and special place in his universal realm. We are his body. We are his bride. No wonder he picked the word “bride,” because on that wedding day is there anything that consumes the heart, soul and mind of the groom other than the bride? Of course not. Of course not. He is consumed with us and just as that groom is fully a human being but he’s not complete until he has his bride and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in a sense, in a figure of speech, yearns in heaven for his bride and I’m telling you by the power he has, he will get his bride. Every single one that is to be saved to be his bride will make it there for his name, for his glory, for his dignity, to make much of him. He has determined that he cannot be considered filled or completed until we are with him there in heaven. Just as a head is incomplete without a body and a groom is incomplete without a bride, that means we are secure.

Context, context, context is prayer. The prayer here is that he’s praying that these Ephesians grasp, hold to and glory a little more in the power of all God is doing to save them. Now, did you guys jot down those prayers so that you can kind of jog your memory? I commit to you that I’m going to purpose to pray those things for us as a church but I want you to really pray them for one another as a class.

Let’s pray together.