Ephesians Series: For His Glory and Fame, Life As Church

 Getting To Know Him (Part II)

 Ephesians 1:15-23

Introduction—“One Hundred B’rakhot”[i]

I thought since we’re into trying new things here at Zion , that we’d learn a little Hebrew this morning!  So will you to repeat after me…

Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu melek ha-olam. (Repeat twice)

Baruch, which means “blessed” or “praise”, atah “you” and then Adonai.  The Jews were so worried about blaspheming God’s name, YHWH, that they never spoke it, but said the name Adonai or “Master” instead.  “Blessed are you, O Lord, our Master, for ever and ever.”  Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu melek ha-olam.

If you were to look through the Bible you’d come across phrases like “Blessed are you, O Lord”, or “Praise to you, O Lord” many times.  For example, when King David stood before the vast assembly of his people in 1 Chronicles, he began his prayer saying, “Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel …” (1 Chronicles 29:10). 

This is a practice of Moses, Elijah, all the great prophets, of Mary, Deborah, Hannah and of all the great Jewish women.  All of them focus on the character of God—blessed are you, mighty are you, holy and just are you—and then, because this is what God is like, they trust that everything else in life will ultimately fall into place.

The plural of Baruch—the first word in the Hebrew sentence we learned—is B’rakhot.  Jews try to say at least 100 B’rakhot a day—“blessed are you O LORD”.  “Can you imagine what it would be like if you tried at least 100 times a day to say sentences like these: ‘Blessed are you, O LORD our God, King of the universe, that you have created men and women with intelligent minds who have invented alarm clocks so that I woke up on time this morning’; ‘Blessed are you O LORD our God, King of the universe, that you have caused the sun to shine and the rain to fall so that the fruits of the harvest could be made into this breakfast cereal”?  How might this change our attitudes?

What the Jews sought—and still seek—to accomplish by saying 100 B’rakhot a day was to find Joy in every aspect of life because their sense that God is behind it all.”[ii]  You see Jews—then and now—live acutely aware that God is the center of everything.  As such, they strive to know him and point to his character every chance they get.  How would it change the way we live if we lived to acknowledge God’s character every moment of our day?  How would it serve to spread God’s fame in the world if we pointed to him in all things, at all times?  How would the way we live as church change if we lived to declare God’s supremacy?

Paul devotes the entire first half of Ephesians to laying the    proper groundwork for life.  The point of Ephesians, tells of our very existence as church, to “live your whole life to honor the name of Jesus—to give him a good reputation and spread his fame.”[iii] 

The Big Idea

This morning I want us to spend some more time on verses 15-23   of chapter one because there’s more for us than we were able       to  digest in one sitting. Last week we lingered on the three truths that Paul prayed the Ephesian church     would know: the hope of His calling, the delight God takes in inheriting us, and God’s incomparably great power—three truths that Paul prayed God would reveal to us so that we might know him better… 

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the HOPE to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe…

Paul is saying to his Ephesian readers, “I’m praying that God, through his Holy Spirit, will reveal more and more and more about who He is, so that you can know him better, deeper, truer, and therefore live better, deeper and truer for his glory in the world.  Here then, again, is the Big Idea that the message hangs on today:

God is to be known by His people so he can be known in the world.

Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation

Paul says, “I pray God gives you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so you can know him better.”  What’s the point?  God wants to reveal himself to us.

But does God want us just to have head knowledge of him?  I don’t think so.  Last week I told you about my friend, Andy, and how we know each other.  Knowing Andy as well as I do affects the way I live my life.  Since Andy is such a good friend to me, that means he’s a big part of my life.  Because he’s such a big part of my life, things I do reflect my knowledge of him.  For example, I know what some of Andy’s fears and insecurities are, so I know how to encourage him and speak truth into his life.  I know that he really likes a good cup of coffee and good story, so when we’re together, we have coffee and tell stories.  You get the picture.  My knowledge of Andy doesn’t just stay up here in my head.  It actually impacts the way I live life.  

On an infinitely grander scale, the same is true of God.  Our knowledge of God needs to direct our lives; it must guide the way we live as church.  You see, Paul wants us to know God better so that we can live better.  We live according to what we believe to be true.  Therefore if we commit to knowing God truly, we will live in a more godly way.  The opposite is also true: if we believe things about God that aren’t true, then we’ll live our lives that way.

Knowing God is a vast and awesome prospect.  Truthfully, we can’t know him completely.  However, we do have an example of the way God wants us to live in Jesus.

Jesus Christ—The Fullness of the Church

Did you know that we are under Jesus’ authority?  Did you know that we are his body?  It’s true.  It says so right here, turn to verse 19: 

“(Paul wants us to know God’s) incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:19-23, emphasis and parenthesis added). 

What does this mean?  I’d be foolish to suggest I understand all that this means—that we are under Jesus’ rule and authority and that we, as the church, are his body—but the more I learn about who Jesus is, the more he allows me to understand the implications.  Think of it this way: Every one of us has in common the need for oxygen.  Without oxygen, we’d die.  I can’t say, “I don’t need oxygen, I’m going to breathe carbon dioxide instead.”  You can’t say to me, “You guys can take your weird oxygen and breathe it all you like, just don’t force it on me, I’m going to enjoy hydrogen gas over there.”  The fact is that for 100% of humanity, oxygen is the only healthy, life sustaining gas we can breathe.  Would you say that oxygen sort of rules us?

As far as I’ve journeyed as a Christian, I’ve come to understand that, though I try to inhale many other noxious gasses, Jesus is the only air suitable to sustain my life.  In a nutshell, that’s what Paul declares:  “Jesus is the authority over all life—both now and forevermore—he rules all humanity and has established the church to be his body so that the world may know that he is king.”

With that in mind, you can see why it is incorrect to say, “Let’s go to church.”  Instead we need to say, “we are church”.  We are, as our text says, the body of Jesus Christ—the church.  Church is who we are.  Out of that identity, we have our purpose: to live our whole lives to give God a good reputation and spread his fame.

Thinking Well

So, since we are under the rule and authority of Jesus, and we represent his body for his glory and fame in the world, he cares how his church behaves.  We don’t operate independently, though sometimes we try.  We are the body of Jesus Christ, following Christ.  Therefore we need to know him more.  Therefore, as Paul prays, we need to be…

…A Community that Thinks Right

Opinions

We live in a society that has largely stopped thinking.  The complexity of life combined with vast information sources, have made us lazy thinkers.  When Paul prays, in verse 18, that we might know God better, he’s making a plea for intellectual growth so that we might gain wisdom and therefore live better. 

This isn’t a call for us all to become intellectuals, or a suggestion that life’s problems are solved by intellectual feats. But as Christians we must always grow in our knowledge of God through his word so that we can live right in the world.  Accumulating large amounts of information does not necessarily mean we’ll be wise.  There’s an endless supply of useless information out there.  Wisdom, however, is practical knowledge for right living.  “That’s why the church must first be a community of thinkers—not thinking separate from action, but thinking as a basis for action.”[iv]

Jesus modeled this when tempted by Satan.  Each of the temptations, if taken at worldly face value, seemed reasonable, logical even.  Jesus was hungry, Satan tempted with food; Jesus was sent to be king, Satan offered him power. 

Worldly thinking says, take the deal, feed yourself, and get the power you deserve!  But each time he was tempted by Satan, Jesus responded with biblical truth: “Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God”, “Don’t put your God to the test”, and when he was offered power if he only bowed and worshipped Satan, Jesus replied, “It is written, worship God only!”

Each of those responses came from the Hebrew Scriptures.  Jesus modeled clear wisdom: practical thinking for living well.  Brothers and sisters, our minds must be working to know more of God and God’s ways.  If the Bible isn’t what shapes our thinking, then we’re not going to live well.

I want to speak very practically for a moment.  Many of us shop at Christian bookstores, and attend Christian conferences—I’ve been to two in the last two weeks.  I want to say that not everything in a Christian book store, or taught at a Christian conference is biblical.  Often popular Christian books promote either sentimentalism or sensationalism.  Neither is helpful in building good thinkers.   

You know that I’m impatient and that when I hear something new I immediately want to try it out.  Conferences—especially Christian ones—always bring that out in me.  But Christian conferences can be full of trendy stuff that is more reflective of what the world says is good, than what the Bible teaches is good.  Now please, don’t misunderstand me.  We are right to attend conferences that help us to do things like worship better.  What I mean is that we have to process well the information we glean.  We must be committed to asking, “Is this biblical, does this point us to the character of God?” or “where is that written in scripture?”

Illustration: Marva Dawn at High School Convocation

Author and theologian, Marva Dawn, once attended a high school convocation ceremony where she was asked by a student to comment on a moral issue.  She writes, “After I had carefully described some of the moral dimensions on the subject, she turned away saying, ‘I just wanted to know your opinion.’”

“That was not my opinion”, she responded.  “If I had given you my opinion, I would have said the opposite.  But I am under the authority of God’s Word, and I can’t escape the scriptural moral directives as the larger Church has discerned them.”

She goes on to say, “it would be easier to excuse all behaviors and let everyone choose whatever they want—but do we really love others if we allow them to rebel against God’s design for his human creation?”[v]

Being a community that thinks means that sometimes our personal opinions, and what is new and trendy, take a backseat to God’s design.

So how can we become a better thinking community? 

Don’t forget, we’re talking about getting to know God more, truly.  Developing as thinkers will help us do that.  So how can we become a better thinking community?

·        Pray, as Paul prayed, that the Holy Spirit reveal God’s truth to us.

·        Be part of a Bible study group—there are endless benefits to learning God’s word in community.  (Testing ideas) 

·        Don’t just take my word for it!  Nothing improves my preaching, and thus your hearing of God’s word better than well-considered criticism.  My door is open and I welcome you to point out mistakes. 

·        Young people, as you consider life after high school, consider taking at least one or two theology courses.  Universities and colleges, though worthy, will not shape your worldview in a biblical way.  If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars on an education, please, spend some if it building a theological base for your thinking.

·        Turn off the TV!  

·        Ask yourself honestly, “What shapes my thinking and forms my opinions?”  (TV, the Internet, gossip and rumor, the newspaper)

·        Create silent places.

My grandfather used to say that when you point your finger at someone, there’s three pointing back at you.  I think it’s a principal to live by, and so I don’t mean to say these things as someone who has figured all these out and practices them.  I mean to say; we’re in this together.  You are my community and I am yours, and together we need to be better thinkers.

Conclusion

I want to close by praying for us as the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian church…(Let’s pray)

Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu melek ha-olam.  Blessed are you, O LORD, our Master, forever and ever.  You are the King, the only King.  Thank you, your majesty, for creating us to bring glory to you and spread your fame in the world.  Thank you for the undeserved honor and privilege of being your Children.  Thank you for sending your son, our LORD Jesus, who is the air we breathe.  Please through your Holy Spirit, grant us wisdom and reveal yourself to us so that we might know you better.  Blessed are you, O LORD, our Master, forever and ever. Amen.   

Notes

(c) Shaun Dyer

Zion Baptist Church

Edmonton, Alberta