Knowing the God of Glory

God wants his people to know and understand Him – In the book of Jeremiah, we understand that our boasting resides not in our own ability – our boasting is not in our accomplishments – or what we have accrued for ourselves. But if there is any boasting in anything whatsoever, let the heart of our boasting be this:

Jeremiah 9:24 “But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

This is Paul’s primary point in the opening letter to the Christians at Ephesus. He had just declared the eternal plan of God for believers in Christ – and he laid this out in 11 verses, beginning with verse 3. If we were to break that down, it would look something like this:

• God’s blessings are heavenly blessings (v.3)
• God has chosen us to be holy and blameless (v.4)
• God has adopted us as his sons and daughters (vv.5-6)
• God has redeemed us – forgiven our sins (v.7)
• God has given us wisdom and understanding (v.8)
• God has revealed the mystery of his will to us (vv.9-10)
• God has given us an inheritance, chosen us (vv. 11-13)
• God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit (v.14)

These are just some of the spiritual blessings that a we are given because we are in Him and He in us. To put it simply – to be in Christ means to believe in God's Son, after which that person is now dressed in the righteousness of His Son, acceptable and worthy to be blessed with all the dressings of heaven itself.

After Paul reminds these believers of their spiritual blessings in the Beloved, he introduces the believers of God’s eternal plan for them – which begins with knowing the God of Glory. That is to say…

I. Be thankful for God’s salvation

Paul had previously shared the great blessings of God which was theirs when they first came to know God (cf. Eph. 1:3-14). Now he wanted them to grow in these blessings, the blessings of knowing God and experiencing the power of God.

In other words – I already have this blessed assurance that Jesus is mine, oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Don’t just arrest your attention on what you know you already have.

Now, grow in the blessing of knowing your God such that you experience the power of God in your life – be thankful for God’s salvation…

Through faith in Christ (v. 15)

And don’t ever let it grow dim! Paul was writing to a church whom he didn’t know yet – yet their faith in Christ was so loud that it reached the ears of the Apostle, such that he wrote…

Verses 15“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”

In other words, Paul is referring to the same saving faith they had when they first became Christians to which they are now living in. Most of you may already know this, but on certain days of the week, I serve at the Hartford Hub.

At one point, the surrounding community were not aware of our faith outreach. But in time, they became more and more aware that Christians were roaming around their neighborhood, particularly at the Hartford Hub.

Well, it didn’t take long for them to hear about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – the Northend community is aware of our faith in Christ. Even more, Lafayette is aware of what Faith believes in. But the end of spear lies in the One believed in – Jesus Christ!

But that wasn’t the end of the story – not only was Paul keenly aware of their faith in the Lord which was among them, but their faith was made evident by their love for the saints…

Producing love for the saints (v.16)

Paul was also made aware that these believers were ministering to the saints of God, an outpouring of the Love of God for his people!

In fact, we cannot love the Lord Jesus without loving those whom he loves.

1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”

It was this fact - their strong testimony of faith and love that so stirred Paul to write to the Ephesians that the Christian life is not idle by any means – The person has to grow, otherwise he slips backward.

So what does Paul do? The very thing we ought to do – he prays for them – and it’s his prayer that sets the stage for God’s people to know Him more comprehensively – more experientially than what they already know currently.

Verse 16 “do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”

In other words, I am aware your faith – and I am aware of your love for the saints. True salvation produces a genuine love for God’s people. So if we want grow in the blessings already given to us by our God – we need to pray that we would

II. Grow in the knowledge of God

Asking the Lord for wisdom and understanding (v.17a)

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.” (stop)

I want you to give you to points to hang your thoughts on with what Paul has in mind for believers are to pray for

• We are to pray for a spirit of wisdom. Paul does not have in mind the Holy Spirit, since we already possess Him at salvation (Rom. 8:9). He’s also not talking about our human spirit, which every person already possesses at conception (1 Cor. 2:11).

The context doesn’t even support those at all.

Well then – what in the world does Paul have in mind? He has in mind a person’s disposition – a person’s attitude.

Allow me to illustrate what I mean – Have you saw a person who’s just in a good mood. People take notice of that and say, ‘well, that person is in high spirits today!’

Or you may say that that person has a free spirit – that person is generally known as a person who acts outside of normal social rules. That sometimes could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the context.

But again, we’re talking about is that person’s general disposition or attitude.

When Jesus was preaching his sermon on the mount he said, “blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3) – what is he referring to? He’s referring to a person’s disposition who rightly understands that he is spiritually bankrupt before a holy God – he is poor in spirit.

He understands that there is “nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross I cling.” He understands his spiritual disposition. Everyone in this room who has come to the foot of the Cross has come to that kind of disposition, you see?

So Paul prayed for God’s people at Ephesus to have that kind of spirit.

• A spirit that reaches out in grasp after wisdom (Eph. 1:8)

• A spirit that hungers and thirst after wisdom

• A spirit that seeks and seeks after wisdom

Wisdom refers to seeing and knowing the truth, and what to do with the truth that he sees in the Word of God. This person becomes so in tune with the Word of God that he is grasps the great truths of life and is able to tell others about the problems of life and death – God and man – time and eternity – good and evil – the deep things of God and of the universe.

That is how we ought to pray – “Lord, give to me a spirit that seeks after you all the days of my life.”

This wisdom is found only in the Person of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in divine Scripture and nowhere else. And his promise only to those who search after him with all their heart. For in him is hidden all the treasures of wisdom

The next thing Paul prays for is a spirit of

• A prayer for “revelation in knowledge of God.” Paul doesn’t have in mind revelation in the sense of, say – the book of revelation – whereby the Apostle John received from God a divine unfolding of truths to which we were given the book of Revelation or the rest of Scripture – the context doesn’t suggest that that is what Paul has in mind – it’s not that kind of divine revelation.

Paul connects “the wisdom of the revelation in the knowledge of Him.” In other words, we are to continually pray for God to help us to understand who he is so that we are capable of serving Him in the right way.

To put it simply: we are to have a right theology proper – this refers to our study of God as he is revealed in the Scriptures. The great need for believers is to grow in our knowledge of God.

The God we are to know is clearly identified.

He is not the God of our own minds and thoughts. He is not a God we conceive in our minds apart from Scripture – that would be lead to the worship of false gods.

Idolatry does not begin with the sculptor’s hammer – it begins with the mind.^[1]

He is not a God who can be worshipped in a self-styled manner – meaning “I’ll worship God however I want to worship Him.” We saw what happened with Nadab and Abihu.

The God we are to know is the God of Jesus Christ: That is, the God whom Jesus Christ worshipped when he was a man; the God whom Jesus came to reveal to men. There is no other God – not a true and living God. If we are to really know God, we must come to know the God whom Christ worshipped and revealed.

The God we are to know is the Father of glory, that is, the only true and living God, the supreme majesty and sovereign Lord of the Universe – the One who is sovereign over all not some localized false-deity.

The God we are to know is so expansive that His very being and presence reaches out beyond the stars and embraces all that is or ever will be the One who declares that He has “set his glory above the heavens” (Ps. 8:1).

We are to press on and to pray to know and grow in our understanding of the God who is – to see him and know him personally and intimately as we search the Scriptures to get a glimpse of Him in the Person of Jesus Christ.

John 17:3 “Jesus said, this is life eternal, they might know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

So God wants his people to grow in the knowledge of Him because he is our Savior. He wants us to grow in wisdom and understanding with wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him as he has revealed himself in the Scriptures.

But it doesn’t end there – Paul prayed, as we are to as well, to…

To know God’s calling (v.18a)

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.”

In other words, we are to pray that we would know God better than we already know him now.

We are to pray to know God’s divine truths in Scripture better than what we already know it now.

We are to pray to know God’s divine truths of the series we have been going through far more than what we already know them now, those divine truths of our calling revealed in verses 3-14.

We are to pray that the Word of Christ would “richly dwell within us.”

The truths of God are so deep and profound that it takes prayer for us to come to an understanding of things divine. And just how long are we to pray for such things?

Answer: For the entirety of our lives. We are to know

To know God’s inheritance (v.18b)

Verse 18b “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

God views us as his inheritance! We are given to the Son as an inheritance of the redemption of the purchased possession. We bring him glory and we reveal what God is like to others in our lives and in our speech.

We’ve said in previous sermons that we receive an inheritance in Christ, which is heaven along with the many divine blessings associated it

When we come to know God we truly learn who we are - the glorious position God has given us: he has made us his very own possession and inheritance.

John MacArthur “We have been made an inheritance.” What does that mean? Whose inheritance are we? We are Christ’s inheritance. He purchased us at the cross. He inherits us. We are His offspring, to use the language of Isaiah 53. We are Christ’s inheritance. The Father has given us, as we saw in John 6 and John 17, to the Son as love gifts. The reason we are redeemed is that we might be the Son’s inheritance, that we might be His bride that the Father gives Him out of eternal love. We are His inheritance. The Father expresses His love to the Son by giving the Son a redeemed humanity who will love Him and serve Him and honor Him and praise Him forever and ever and ever. And it also gives the ultimate compliment by making them in some way reflect His very image.” (“The Believers Glorious Inheritance”)

A believer comes to know and experience the enormous power of God – and it’s all because of praying to understand who God is.

To know God’s power (vv. 19)

Verse 19 “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.”

When a believer really knows God, he experiences power. Note how God’s power is described

1. It is exceeding (huperballon): surpassing, unlimited, immeasurable, beyond imagination.

1. It is great (megathos): mighty, explosive, beyond measure. This is the word from which we get the English word megathon. Which measures atomic explosives. Imagine the great explosive power of God!

The thing to note is that God's power is to us-ward; that is, God takes his power and extends it, presents it, makes it available to the believer. How do we know this? Because of what God did for Christ. What God did for Christ he will do for us. God's power is demonstrated by what he did for Christ.

If men ever needed anything they need the power of God in their lives. If men have ever been gripped by evil and shame bitterness and hate, lust and immorality, cursing and anger, robbery and assault, murder and war, selfishness and greed, division and strife, disappointment and emptiness, boredom and purposelessness, it is today.

Men desperately need the power of God to help them in their daily lives and to right the wrongs of society.

The glorious news is that God offers his power to men – if only they will turn to his Son, Jesus Christ.

He promises his power to all believers to live a holy life before Him. Note that this passage is a continuation of the prayer of Paul he's praying that the Ephesian believers might know God personally and intimately, for God gives his power to those who truly come to know Him. Coming to know God is the key to receiving the power of God.

III. Marvel at the power of Christ

His resurrection (v. 20)

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.”

Imagine the enormous power needed to raise a person from the dead God wrought such power when he raised Jesus Christ.

This is not to say we have resurrection power, but it to say that God has given to us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead – the power to live a holy life that is pleasing to Him. It is the same power that will one day raise us from the dead.^[2]

The point is this: when God raised Jesus Christ he demonstrated that The power to raise Christ shows that God has the power to conquer all the trials and temptations of life.

When God exercised the power to raise Christ, he conquered the most powerful trial that faces man – death. And in conquering death, God demonstrated that he has the power to conquer any trial or temptation of man no matter what it is. It’s that power we are to pray to have in our lives and Paul expounds on this by describing the wonderous power of Christ in our lives (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10; 1 John 2:6)

His authority (v. 21)

Verse 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.”

Believers are to experience the power of God - the same power that exalted Jesus Christ above all creatures, both in this world and in the next world.

Being seated at the right hand of God simply means having the highest seat of honor and authority in the universe.

What God did was exalt Jesus Christ to the rule and reign over all authority, the matter how great or powerful. Christ has been exalted above “all principality, and power, and might, and dominion. ”

And to make sure nothing is excluded – Jesus Christ has been exalted above every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that world which is to come” (v. 21).

All things are placed in subjection under him (Philippians 2:9-10; Hebrews 1:9; 1 Peter 3:22)

His body (vv. 22-23)

Verse 22-23 “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Believers are to experience the power of God – power that made Jesus Christ the head of the church. Jesus Christ paid the supreme Christ to start and build the church: he died for it.

The church is called the body of Christ – we are the called out ones. Christ came to bring the dream implanted peace and reconciliation to a world of lost men, men who were alienated from God and from one another. Now the body, the church, must carry out the dream and plan. The message of peace, in the power of Christ, must be taken to men by the church.

The point is this: if God had the power to create the church and to make Christ the head of the church, then he has the power to make the body function and work for Christ. God has the power to get us busy for the Lord – the power to help us in our witnessing - the power to stir us to proclaim the message of reconciliation and to minister to the desperate needs of the world lost and reeling under the weight of sin, darkness, starvation, disease, and suffering.^[3]

The church completes all for Christ. The church is the instrument through which the fullness of Christ fills all in all – everything. Jesus Christ is working throughout the world and in human history to bring about God's eternal plan for the world. He is working and fitting everything into its proper place bit by bit, and he is doing it through the church. The church is the instrument of God for bringing his will about on earth.

Again, the point is that God has the power to use the church and its believers to workout His eternal plan for the world. Just think – the church is the body upon the earth that God is using to work out human history!

[1] John MacArthur Worship: The Ultimate Priority, 23.

[2] See Acts 2:23-24, 3:14-15, 10:39-41; Romans 1:4, 8:9, 11; 2 Cor. 4:11

[3] Acts 1:8; Romans 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27-28; Eph. 1:23, 4:11-12; Col. 1:24, 2:19; 2 Tim. 1:7