‘THAT YOU MAY KNOW’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 18, 2022 under 2022 |
Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message; September 18, 2022 from Ephesians 1:15-18a
Theme: A spiritual understanding of our blessings in Christ is a worthy thing to pray for.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Have you ever learned something that you didn’t know before … and then discovered that the knowledge opened up all kinds of other things to you that you didn’t know were available to you? It’s a hard experience to define. But I had something like it happen to me just a few months ago. It may seem like a small thing; but I’ve really been enjoying the results … and it illustrates what I mean.
As you know, I enjoy playing guitar. For most of my life, I had admired the sound and style of certain rhythm-and-blues artists. I tried for years to imitate a particular sound I had heard from them; but found that I just couldn’t achieve it. I knew that I must be doing something wrong; but I didn’t know what it was. And after all those years of trying, I’d pretty much given up ever figuring it out.
But I just happened to have watched a video recently of one of those guitar players that I’d been trying to imitate. And in this video, he talked about how—early on—someone had shown him a particular way of tuning the guitar. It’s a different kind of tuning than the standard tuning. It’s actually something very old; something that classic, old-time blues players frequently used. And once this particular guitarist had learned it, he said it turned the guitar into an almost completely different kind of instrument for him. And the great thing is that, in this video, he demonstrated how to tune the guitar in this unique way; and also demonstrated some of the ways that he’d learn to use it. He revealed the secret that I’d been trying to figure out for years.
Well; after watching this video, I took a particular guitar and changed it to this special tuning. And suddenly a whole bunch of guitar riffs that I’d been trying unsuccessfully to play for most of my guitar-playing years came to life. I realized that many of the guitar players that I had been admiring and trying to imitate were using this special technique. They knew it; but I didn’t. And once I had been given the knowledge, it all became easy! And now—lately—I’ll just hear some guitar piece on the radio only once, and think to myself, “I know now how he did that.” Then, I’ll run home, pick up the guitar that I have set to this particular tuning, and play it instantly and almost exactly. I sure wish I’d been given the secret to this mysterious tuning sooner. I even shared this secret with some of my other guitar-playing friends.
It’s amazing how, once you’ve learned something that you didn’t know before, the knowledge opens up a whole lot of other things to you that you didn’t know you had available to you—if you will just use it.
* * * * * * * * * *
Well; I thought of that principle when it comes to this morning’s passage. It presents that principle to us—but in the most marvelous way possible. In this passage, the apostle Paul prayed for his readers to be given the spiritual knowledge—the spiritual insight from God—of their eternal riches in Christ. Without that knowledge, they wouldn’t know what they already had. But once they got the knowledge—and once it had been allowed to sink deeply into their hearts—then all of the rich blessings and provisions that were already theirs in Christ would become available to them to put to use in daily living.
We’ve been studying together lately from Ephesians 1. In verses 3-14, the apostle Paul had just gotten through describing the rich spiritual blessings that were theirs through a relationship by faith with Jesus Christ. He was excited to tell them about what God has given them in Christ. And in verses 15-23, he went on to write;
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may 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 exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:15-23).
Do you see the rich blessings that Paul said were theirs? The hope of God’s calling? The riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in them? The greatness of the power that is at work in them?—the very power, in fact, that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the Father’s right hand? These things are already available to the believer. But unless he or she knows about them—and has been given by God the spiritual understanding to truly grasp them and take them to heart—then they can’t make use of them in their daily lives as they should. And so, Paul prays that they will “know” them.
In the weeks to come, I’d like for us to dig in a bit deeper into what these rich spiritual treasures are that are ours in Christ. But for today, I’d just like to focus only upon Paul’s prayer that his readers would be given the spiritual understanding of them and know them.
It’s hard to express sufficiently, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, just how important this is to us today. A spiritual understanding of our blessings in Christ is very much a worthy thing to pray for. It makes all the difference in our being able to live a victorious life in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; this touches on something that’s very important to our Christian life—but that’s not given enough attention. And that is that it’s our duty to grow in the knowledge of our faith.
There are some folks that I’ve talked to that honestly don’t care about that. They’ve told me so. They’ve said that they weren’t interested in the deep matters of the faith; and that they don’t really want to learn about such things. One of them once told me that all he cared about is that he’ll go to heaven; and that he wasn’t really interested in knowing any more about it than that.
But for someone to think that way is to have a very distorted view of the Christian faith—and it may even be an expression of the fact that they don’t even really have a saving faith in the first place. It’s the intention of God our Father that we grow in our understanding of our faith in His Son. And it should be a natural and spiritually healthy thing for us to want to know more.
Take the writer of the Book of Hebrews. He was writing to a group of Jewish Christians that were suffering for their faith. Because of the hardships they were under, they were being tempted to draw back from Christ. And part of the problem was that they weren’t going forward in growth in their understanding of the faith. He wanted to teach them some things they needed to know; but He couldn’t because—as he said—they’d become ‘dull of hearing’. He told them;
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits (Hebrews 5:12-6:3).
The apostle Paul once wrote a similar thing to the Christians in Corinth. He told them;
Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature (1 Corinthians 14:20).
It’s just not a natural or healthy condition of the genuine Christian life for us to stay stagnant in our knowledge. It’s the normal state of things that, in Christ, we are continually growing in our understanding. We must grow in our knowledge. And in fact, the things that we deal with in the faith are the greatest subjects of knowledge that there could possibly be. Most of us work hard to grow in some lesser area of knowledge. But no amount of learning on any other subject—no academic degree from even the highest and most respected centers of learning in the world—could ever be as valuable and life-changing as knowing about the eternal blessings that are ours in Christ as they are presented to us in God’s word.
So then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s get it settled in our hearts that we absolutely must grow in our spiritual understanding and spiritual knowledge. It is something that is very much worth following Paul’s example in this passage and praying for.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; what do we learn about this very desirable growth in knowledge? The first thing that we see is that it’s not for everyone. As Paul’s words show us …
1. IT’S ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN.
Look at what Paul said in verses 15-16. He wrote to these believers and said, “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you …”
Notice that he began by saying, “Therefore I also …” He had just gotten through talking in verses 3-14 about all the marvelous things that every member of the Trinity does for us in our salvation. He talked about the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit—all of them involved in saving us through the redemption that is in Jesus. And now, as a whole-hearted advocate of that great work, Paul includes himself. He says, “Therefore I also …” What he does, then, is thank God for his brothers and sisters who were the recipients of these great things in Christ; and he prays specifically for their growth in these things.
And notice carefully what was the motivation for his thanks and prayers. It was because of what he ‘heard’. He said, “after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints …” And it was those two things that assured him that it was good and right to pray for these believers, that they would grow in their knowledge.
To say that he had “heard of” their faith in the Lord Jesus meant that he knew that they had consciously and intentionally placed their faith in the cross of Jesus as their Savior and Lord. They had made a sincere ‘profession’ of faith in Him. But there was more than just the profession of faith alone. There was also the transformation of life that gave evidence of it. He went on to say that he also heard of their love for all their fellow believers. The reality of their faith was demonstrated in their sincere love for one another. Jesus said that we would be known as His disciples by our love; and by their love for one another, they had proven themselves to truly be born again.
Now; this is important; because the spiritual understanding and knowledge that we’re talking about is only available to those who have believed on Jesus, who have genuinely experienced new life in Him—to those who have truly been born again, and who have demonstrated the clear evidence of the life-transforming power of Christ. To be given knowledge and understanding of the rich blessings of Christ is not for anyone else but those who are in a relationship with God through faith in Him.
Jesus Himself taught us something very important about this. Back in Matthew 13, the Lord was teaching large crowds of people in parables. And the apostles were confused by this. They asked why it was that He so often taught the people in these seemingly-confusing parables. And He told them;
“Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it (Matthew 13:11-17).
It is only to those who truly “have” Christ—to those who have genuinely entered into a saving relationship with Him by faith in His cross, and who are born again—that “more” about Christ will be given. So; do you want to grow in your knowledge of the rich spiritual blessings that are found in Christ? Then make absolutely sure that you are in a relationship with Him first, and that you truly “have” Him. He only gives these deep truths to those who are genuinely His own by faith.
* * * * * * * * * *
A second thing that we should know about this very desirable growth in knowledge is that …
2. IT’S A GIFT THAT IS ONLY AVAILABLE BY GOD’S GRACE.
Look at what Paul goes on to say in verses 16-18. He told these truly born-again believers that he gave God thanks for them; “making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened …”
There are some remarkable things that Paul says in this. First of all, notice that he calls God “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory”. In saying this, he makes it clear that this spiritual knowledge only comes by asking God; who is specifically the God of our Lord Jesus. And more; He is “the Father of glory”—that is, the one who is the source of and giver of all the glory that is to be had in Christ. The knowledge of that glory can come from no one else but Him—and He is the right Person to go to and to ask for it.
Second, Paul said that he prayed that God would give his fellow believers “the spirit” (that is, the prevailing attitude and inward disposition) “of wisdom and revelation”. “Wisdom” is that quality by which we know the right things to do and the best ways to do them. But such wisdom doesn’t come from within ourselves. It isn’t mere ‘human’ wisdom that Paul was talking about. Paul also prays that we will have the spirit of “revelation”—that is a prevailing attitude and inward disposition that is guided by the revealed word of God. It’s God’s revealed word—that revelation that only He gives; the Bible—that gives us the content for true spiritual wisdom.
And third, notice that Paul prayed this assuming that ‘the eyes of their understanding’ had been ‘enlightened’. Actually, in the original language, he says ‘the eyes’ of their ‘heart’. Obviously, hearts don’t literally have eyes. But when he speaks of their ‘heart’, what he’s talking about is their inward rational self—the very seat of their intellect. He was praying with the assumption that, by God’s gracious work in their lives, those fellow believers had been born again, and now had the old blinders of sin removed, and were therefore now made capable of seeing and perceiving—in their innermost being—the truths of the things that are theirs in Christ.
And do you notice, dear brothers and sisters, that—in each statement Paul made—it is God Himself who gives this knowledge as a gracious gift? It is not something that human intellect can grasp in its own power. It’s not something that the human mind can learn or discover on its own.
The apostle Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 2. The Corinthians were thinking too highly of human philosophy and the human ability to grasp truth. In verses 1-11, Paul told them;
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-11).
So; here’s a second thing we need to remember about this spiritual wisdom that is so worthy of praying for. It doesn’t come by human effort. It only comes as a gracious gift of God to us. That’s why we ought to earnestly ask Him for it; and that He would help us grow in it. And that’s also why—in asking for it—we need to keep on faithfully reading our Bibles!
* * * * * * * * * *
And a third thing that we should know about this desirable growth in knowledge is that …
3. IT’S SO THAT WE MIGHT KNOW OUR BLESSINGS IN CHRIST IN EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE.
Paul said, in verse 18, that it’s “that you may know …” And ‘know’ what? He goes on to tell us, “that you may 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 exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe …”
It was Paul’s earnest desire that his brothers and sisters know these things—with a deep, experiential, life-impacting kind of knowledge. It’s like something that he prayed for them later in this letter … in Ephesians 3:14-21;
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:14-21).
Dear brothers and sisters; there’s no greater knowledge that we can grow in than the knowledge of the love of Jesus for us, and of the rich blessings God has given us in Him. Such knowledge is truly life-transforming. We ought to earnestly pray that God would give this knowledge to us—and that we would grow in it.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; back to my guitar-playing. When I learned this new guitar method, it opened up a whole lot of things to me that I didn’t know were available to me … musically speaking. But I also had to practice. I had to put this knowledge to use in order to become skillful in using it.
And the same is true with our knowledge of the rich blessings God has given us in Christ. It’s not enough that we simply know about these things. For that knowledge to grow in us as God wants it to, we need to put it to practical use in the daily matters of everyday living.
As we learn these great truths, may God help us to put them to practical use—in how we experience hope in daily living, in how we rejoice in the glory of our future, and in how we endure victoriously in hard times and trials—and all so that increasingly, Jesus Christ may be glorified in us.
AE
