Ephesians 20-22

On Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks, for our families, our health, our multiple possessions, and the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Most Americans will be thankful for those things, although we are deeply conscious that many in our society have far fewer of those things to be thankful for than we do. As Christians we know that every good and perfect gift comes from God so we will not only approach Thanksgiving with thankful hearts, but we will do so knowing the One to whom all thanks belongs. This Thanksgiving we should be sure add to our thank-you list some of the spiritual blessings that are ours because we are Christians. We should certainly add the blessings that are ours because of our relationship with God. We are richly blessed and therefore should give thanks because God has promised never to leave us but to walk with us each day. We are richly blessed and therefore should give thanks because He has promised us His strength and peace in all situations. We are richly blessed and therefore should give thanks for God’s promise to supply our every need. 

Ephesians 1:18-22 lists four things in relationship to the resurrection of Jesus that we should give thanks for. Read verses. 

Paul detailed 4 things God’s power did, each of which gives us something to add to our thanksgiving list. First, God’s power raised Jesus from the dead (verse 20a).  Second, it enables Jesus to sit at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all competitors (verses 20b, 21).  Third, it will enable Jesus to put all things under His feet (verse 22a). And fourth, it made Jesus the head over all things for the church, which is His body (verses 22b, 23). Because each of them has tremendous implications for us today, each is worthy of being added to our thanksgiving list.

First, God’s power raised Jesus from the dead (verse 20a). We should be thankful that Jesus was raised from the dead since a dead God is no real God and a dead God cannot fulfill any of the promises He has made to us.

As Christians because the power of God raised Jesus from the dead we have so much more to thank God for than the fact that He is alive. Paul expanded on the implications of the resurrection of Jesus for believers in I Corinthians 15 where he wrote about the resurrection and how it assured believers of so much. Paul wrote that the resurrection of Jesus is God’s assurance that our sins can be forgiven, and we can spend eternity with Him. Read I Corinthians 15:13 and then verse 17-19. This Thanksgiving we can give thanks for the reality that our faith is not in vain, that what we believe is true and, therefore, can be trusted.

There is more. Not only does the resurrection give us an assurance that our faith is not in vain, the resurrection of Jesus also means that you and I can give thanks for the reality that those who knew Jesus as Savior and are not with us this year because they have passed on, are alive with Jesus. Read I Corinthians 15:20-22.  

We live in scary times when over a quarter of a million people have died of a virus that has taken a year to begin to get under control. People are dying but as Christians we can give thanks that we do not need to fear death because we have a God who is powerful enough to raise the dead to everlasting life.

Second, Paul said that the power of God enabled Jesus to sit at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all competitors (verses 20b, 21). The imagery Paul used here can too easily be missed by us because we are not steeped in the culture of the early church, but it is a marvelous picture of the present position of Jesus. In ancient times a king reserved the seating around his throne for special individuals and the most treasured spot was at the king’s right hand. That individual occupied a position that was probably comparable to our Vice President, Chief of Staff and Secretary of State all wrapped up together.

The early church emphasized that Jesus was our High Priest and that He was seated at God’s right hand. No Levitical priest ever sat because his work was never done but on the Cross Jesus declared “It is finished” meaning that everything He came to do was complete. Redemption was fully provided for and available to all who would accept it. With His work completed He can now sit.

Knowing that salvation is fully provided for and freely available to all who believe is reason to give thanks. 

By itself that is cause for praise but that is only a part of the blessing seen in the picture of Jesus at God’s right hand. The fuller reason to give thanks is seen in what He is doing there for us. Hebrews 7:25 declares that Jesus is at the right hand of God so He can intercede for us. That means that Jesus is representing us to the Father. Jesus is there as our representative to declare that our sin has been covered by His sacrifice on the Cross.

As Christians we should continually thank God that we have an advocate at the throne interceding for us so that God’s blessings can continue to flow to us. Because Jesus is continually interceding for us, we can know with certainty that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

Athird thing to thank God for this Thanksgiving is that the power of God will enable Jesus to put all things under His feet (verse 22a). People are constantly bemoaning the fact that everything seems to be falling apart. People wonder if crime and terrorism will ever stop. The world wants to know if we will ever have any real peace. Paul reminded us that history is going somewhere and that somewhere is the return of Jesus and the everlasting peace He will ultimately bring. We should be thankful because we know we are on the winning side.

Read Romans 14:11 on a promised day that is coming. Read Philippians 2:9-11. Where the implications of everyone bowing before a victorious Jesus is explained further. 

This Thanksgiving we can rejoice in the knowledge that history is going somewhere, evil will be judged, and that righteousness will be rewarded. As Christians we can be thankful that ultimately God holds the scales of justice. We win.

Finally, Paul told the Christians in Ephesus that God’s power was such that He made Jesus the head over all things for the church, which is his body (verses 22b, 23). What makes the church special? Obviously, the people who gather are an important part of it but in the end, what is special about a church is the presence of our Lord in it. We are His church, and His presence brings the peace and joy that are a part of who we are and what makes our fellowship so important.

Thanksgiving ought not to be a once a year event, although setting aside a special day serves as a reminder to think through all we have for which to give thanks to God is important. We have so much to thank God for in our families, our health, our possessions, and freedoms. But we also have multiple spiritual blessings to thank God for. We have the awareness that our God lives so not only is the fulfillment of every promise possible, but we too shall live forever with Him. We have the awareness that Jesus sits at the right hand of our Father interceding for us to assure that God can continually bless us with the things we really need. We have the awareness that we truly are on the winning side and that the day will come when our Savior will return to set up His righteous kingdom. And we have the awareness that we are His church and when we gather in His name, He is with us and that makes our worship so special.

This Thanksgiving we need to add our many spiritual blessings to the list of things for which we give thanks. 

Ephesians 1:19-23

Last week we began looking at some of the things that Paul asked his “glorious Father” in heaven to provide for the Christians in Ephesus. We noted that those are the things we need to ask God to provide for us and our families. Read Ephesians 1:18-20 to see what Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would experience in deeper and more intimate or personal way. Note that he wanted them to knowthreethings, “the HOPE to which he has called you,” “the RICHES of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” and the “POWER” that was available to them as believers.

Paul first prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would know the HOPE to which they had been called. Biblical hope is not wishful desiring but a looking forward with confidence to that which God has promised but has not yet been provided. For Christians, the ideas of faith and hope are inseparably intertwined so that where there is faith there is hope or confidence in the God who is glorious and therefore able to provide for us. Read Hebrews 11:1.  

Hope is always future. We don’t hope for what we have. For the Christian, that future hope that is ours is tied “to that which he has called you.”  There is a little saying that says, “Life without Jesus is a hopeless end, but life with Jesus is an endless hope.” 

Collectively we have been called to a fellowship of believers. The early Christians did not call themselves a church but rather an “ecclesia” or “called out” group. We are called to be His separated group that we call the church today.

Individually, in the short-term, the Bible speaks of various things we can have hope or assurance of, including our relationship with God. Read I Peter 2:9.  

Once we have accepted the call to the leave darkness and become a child of God, we always enjoy the hope or assurance of the presence of God with us. Read Psalm 46:1 Jeremiah 29:11. 

One long-term hope (or assurance as we would say today) is that we have been called us to spend eternity with our Lord. Read Titus 1:2. Christians think about the persecuted church and fellow Christians who are willing to suffer, even die for their faith because they know that that which awaits them is so much better. Read Romans 8:18. 

As Christians we have a hope for the future that includes not only spending eternity with God, but doing so with new glorified bodies, in the presence of our Savior and with those loved ones who have preceded us in death or will join us later. Heaven, however, is more than just existing forever. It is existing forever with God in an incredible place that we cannot even begin to imagine. Read Psalm 16:10-11andRomans 8:29. We have been called to a glorious future that is overshadowed by “eternal pleasures.”  

By itself, our hope should encourage us beyond measure, but Paul went on to write that he was praying that we would recognize “the RICHES of his glorious inheritance.” Some ancient texts translate this as our being God’s “glorious inheritance.” That is an idea that we do not think about often enough. We are God’s treasure. He created us in His image, so He could have a special relationship with us. When that possibility was lost because of sin, He paid an incredible price to purchase us back. It is to imagine that we are valuable to Him but think about it this way. I have children and generally they look upon me as one who is there for them and willing to help them whenever there is a need. I doubt that they think often enough of how valuable they are to me. They are worth more to me than anything I own. In the same way we are of infinite value to God and because of that He will do whatever He can for us.

There are other ancient texts that translate this to declare that we are rich in Jesus. Read what Paul wrote a little later in this letter, in 2:7 and in 3:8. Read Philippians 4:19. The challenge we all face as Christians is to discover just how rich we really are and then to claim those riches for our daily living.

The phrase, “the boundless riches of Christ” that Paul spoke of in Ephesians 3:8 is literally riches that cannot be fully understood because they are without limit. Picture this. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, with perhaps a little extra for special things. It is estimated that Bill Gates earns as much as $10 million a day. Try to imagine getting up in the morning and having an additional $10 million in your checking account. I can’t even picture that kind of wealth. If Paul were with us today, he would say something like, “That’s nothing, imagine waking up to a whole new awareness of the riches you have in Jesus.” Read Lamentations 3:22-23. 

As an added note, while Bill Gates can talk of material riches God talks of spiritual riches. Jesus spoke, as a part of His Sermon on the Mount, of the difference and urged His followers, according to Matthew 6:18-19, not to store up earthly treasure that can be lost but to store up treasures in heaven because that is treasure that can never be taken away. We are rich in Jesus with the things that are truly lasting and matter in both time and eternity.

Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would be conscious of the hope or assurances they have in Jesus. Then he prayed that they might realize just how rich they are in Jesus. Finally, Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would know the “POWER” that was available to them. Paul said that the incomparable power of God is available for us who believe. Whenever we think of God’s power, we think of God’s power to create or the power of Jesus to perform miracles.  Read in verse 20 what Paul used to describe the power of God. Read Philippians 3:10.  

In verses 20-22 Paul detailed 4 things God’s power did. First it raised Jesus from the dead (verse 20a).  Second, it enabled him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all competitors (verses 20b, 21).  Third, it enabled Him to put all things under His feet (verse 22a). And fourth, it made Jesus the head over all things for the church, which is his body (verses 22b, 23). Each of them has implications for us today.

The purpose of Paul writing about the power of God’s power was to remind us that that same power is available to Christians. That power is a saving power that enables us to be forgiven of our sins and to be adopted into the family of God. It is also a power that enables us to live as God desires us to live. Read what Paul later said about that power in 3:30. 

As Christians we have the assurance that every promise God made to us will become a reality and that assurance is what Paul called the “hope of our calling.” As Christians “we are incredibly rich” with spiritual riches that provide for us for both time and eternity. And as Christians we have available to us unbelievable power needed to live each day as He would have us live. 

All of that combines to gives us reason to rejoice and seek to make each a reality in our daily lives. 

MANBECK’S ZION EVANGELICAL

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Worshiping the Lord in Spirit and Truth

November 8, 2020

A Year in Ephesians

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site:  www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome and opportunities to Worship and Serve

Greet one another in the Name of Jesus          

Call to Worship – Psalm 103:1-4

* Opening Chorus #107                    Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

* Invocation

* Hymn #21                                   O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

First Scripture:  Psalm 25:1-10

Praise Chorus #91                                             In Moments Like These

Persecuted Church:  DVD Central African Republic

* Prayer Hymn #581            ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (marked)

**Pastoral Prayer

Offering of Tithes and Gifts to the Lord/plates in the back 

Shoebox Moment

Special Music – Ladies Chorus

Scripture:  Ephesians 1:17-19

Sermon:

* Hymn of response #526                                               The Solid Rock

*Benediction

* Recessional Response #235        Take the Name of Jesus (1^st verse)  

Leave to Serve

  *Please Stand                                                **Please kneel (if able)

“God didn’t remove the Red Sea, He parted it.  

God doesn’t always remove your problems, but 

He will make a way through.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

TODAY:

• Building Fund offering  
• Brief Official Board meeting                                           10:00 A.M.

WEDNESDAY:

• Bible Study/Abraham (Genesis 19)                                 7:00 P.M.

NEXT SUNDAY:

• Shoe Boxes are due
• Stewards Meeting                                                            10:00 A.M.

LOOKING AHEAD:  

• November 26 – Thanksgiving
• November 28 – Newsletter
• November 29 – Special Offering/Thank offering for the

                                  International Churches  

Statistics:  November 1, 2020

                                  Attendance:  Worship Service – 38

                                                                  Bible Study – 12                                                

                                                                       Offering – $1,517.00

• Our Daily Bread for December-February are available.
• If you didn’t get a copy of “The Voice of the Martyrs” magazine last week you can still pick one up
• Pick-up shoeboxes if needed
• Don’t forget to turn in hymn request slips.
• Shoe Boxes are due at church on November 15.  The Church will cover the cost of shipping.

Wednesday, November 11 is Veterans Day.  

A thank you to all who served or are serving in the military.

PRAYER CONCERNS

• Florence (Al/moved to regular floor/needs all kinds of therapy/question of home or nursing home)
• Lois (Bettys husband Gene, going to rehab)
• Judy (kids today and world events/fear)
• Jon R. (Mrs. Powell/lives in Ohio/cancer)
• Ron Bachert (by-pass surgery)
• Cosmo Hardenstine (continued growth)
• Hannah Bossler (Type 1 diabetes/kidneys becoming compromised)
• Pray for our service men and women
• Those battling cancer:

Grace, 5 year old with leukemia

Pastor Lloyd Yeager (prostate cancer)               Bob Kramer

Mike Sis Sagusky Jake Wolfe           Rick Fidler

Cindy Segal (liver cancer) Carol Shira (last stages of cancer)

Bill (Deb another round of radiation)                     Tim McMillen

• Military:  Keith Gillespie       Lois’s grandson, Kolby – Air Force

Ashley Somers, Navy     Caleb Reiter

• Nursing home/Assisted living residents

               Grace Kimmel   Nancy Wildsmith          

  Edgar Bennett Fritz Lehr (Town Centre)

PRAISE: 

• Carol Lengle (doing very well)

• Week Day Church School/CEF Good News Clubs in person/video)
• Joe Toy (Street ministry in Philadelphia)
• Jamie and Anita Farr (Wycliffe in Florida)
• Robert and Bettina Schaeffer (L.I.F.E. Ministries in New York City)
• Wagner’s & Stoltzfus’s (Rift Valley Academy in Africa)

Ephesians 1:17-19

Read Ephesians 1:17-19.  

Notice Paul described the God he was approaching in prayer as “the glorious Father.” Nothing will encourage us more when we pray than remembering the nature of the one to whom we are speaking. Here Paul remembered that the God he was asking to bless the Ephesian Christians was a “glorious Father.” God has both the resources and ability to do anything. If He desired to bless His people, He could do it. Remembering that, when we present our requests to God enables us to have confidence that He is able to answer us.

Paul noted that the God he was approaching was also their “Father.” In verse 4 of this chapter Paul said God was going to adopt us into His family, making God “our Father who is in heaven.”. Because God is our “Father” we can go before Him with the confidence that He will welcome us and will be anxious to answer. We are His children.

Paul requested his “Glorious Father” to give to the Christians in Ephesus “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” When Paul was asking God to enable the Christians in Ephesus to “know him better” he was praying that the Christians who knew Jesus as Savior would get to know Him in a deeper and more personal way. 

When we talk about knowing God better, we can be referring to a greater intellectual knowledge that comes through the study of Scripture. That should always be a goal of believers. Here, however, Paul had a different “knowing” in mind when he prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would know God better. The word Paul used for knowing is related to the Hebrew word used in Genesis 4:1. Read that verse. Paul was praying that the Christians would know God in a more personal way, in a more intimate way. 

Paul’s prayer request for the Christians in Ephesus was also his personal prayer for himself. Read Philippians 3:10. 

Paul went on in his prayer for the Ephesian Christians and asked that the “glorious Father” would give them “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” and that “the eyes of their heart may be enlightened.”

Paul did not pray that they would receive the Holy Spirit but that the Spirit who is within would enable them to know God better. 

One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus known to us in a deeper, more real way as He reveals more of God to us. The truth is that we cannot know God apart from His revelation. To an extent God has revealed Himself in His creation so the heavens declare His glory but in a deeper sense we can only really know God through His self-revelation in the Bible. Read I Corinthians 2:9-11. We have been given the Holy Spirit who alone can make known the things of God to us. He will do that primarily through Scripture, which is why every Christian should make the study of the Bible a priority.

Paul went on to write that he was praying that the Spirit would open “the eyes of our heart so it may be enlightened.” Paul was not suggesting our hearts have eyes but was using an image that combined the idea and seeing with that of seeing with the full self. With our eyes we see things and when we talk about our heart, we are talking about that part of us that enables both feeling and commitment. The imagery of eyes is one used in God’s Word to describe our seeing truth so we can respond positively to it. Read Matthew 6:22-23.  

Scripture stresses the importance of seeing the things of God. Read Psalm 119:18. Scripture stresses the importance of a commitment to what we see in God’s Word. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he used the imagery of the eyes to describe the importance of understanding the things of God. Read II Corinthians 4:18.  

Often, we say to someone, “Did you see that?” God wants to say to us “Did you see the spiritual truths that can enrich your life?” 

What specifically did Paul want the Christians in Ephesus to see? Read Ephesians 1:18-19. Paul wanted the Christians to knowthreethings. He wanted them to know “the HOPE to which he has called you,” “the RICHES of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” and the “POWER” that was available to them as believers.

First Paul wants us to know more deeply the hope to which we have been called. Keep in mind that when the Bible speaks of our hope it is not talking about a wishful desire. Biblical hope is a certainty we have because of the promise of God. It is “hope” only in that it has not yet occurred, but we look forward to it with certainty because of our confidence in the one who promised it. Read Psalm 25:3-5.

The phrase “to which he has called you” is intended to challenge Christians to look beyond the present to the ultimate victory that is ours. Our ultimate hope to which God has called us is eternity with Him. Read Romans 5:2.  

We live in very uncertain days as has been demonstrated over the past 10 months as we have been impacted by the Coronavirus. In the midst of that uncertainty, as Christians we have the assurance that God is in complete control, that He will care for us as He has promised, and ultimately Jesus is coming again to set up His perfect kingdom. That is our hope, our confidence so we remember that ultimately this world is not our home, but our citizenship is in heaven. 

The Christians in Ephesus were living in scary times. The society in which they lived was hostile toward them. They faced a very uncertain future. If that sounds like today, well it is and the answer we have is the same as that which Paul gave to them, we have “HOPE to which he has called you.” Hope is a precious thing to have. 

By itself, that hope should encourage us beyond measure, but Paul went on to write that he was praying that they would recognize “the RICHES of his glorious inheritance.” 

We are so rich in Jesus. A little later in this letter, in 2:7, Paul wrote, “in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Still later in this letter, in 3:8, Paul wrote about the privilege he felt in being called “to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.” There can be no doubt that we are truly rich because of the redemption God has provided for us in Jesus. We are children of God and therefore unbelievably rich in the things that matter. Read Philippians 4:19.  The challenge we all face as Christians is to discover just how rich we really are and then to claim those riches for our daily living.

Finally, Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would know the “POWER” that was available to them. Paul said that the incomparable power of God is available for us who believe. Whenever I think of God’s power I think first in terms of creation. I cannot begin to imagine the power of a God who spoke and stars appear, who spoke and the earth took shape, who spoke and the land and oceans are divided. Then I think of the power of Jesus who said “rise up and walk” to a hopeless cripple and he walked again. I think of the power of Jesus who touched a blind man and eyes that had never seen could suddenly see everything. I think of Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus and telling him, after being dead for 4 days and having started to decay, to come forth alive. That, to me, is power beyond imagination. But when Paul wanted to describe the power of God, he wrote about the power God demonstrated when, according to verse 20, “He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” In Philippians 3:10 Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection.” 

Think about Paul’s prayer. He prayed that the Christians in Ephesus, and by extension each of us, might know in a deeper, more intimate way the only true hope we have for both time and eternity. He prayed we might know in a deeper and more intimate way the incredible riches that are available to us because we belong to the family of God. And he prayed that we might know in a deeper and more intimate way the power of God available to us because we belong to God.

Is that the prayer we have for ourselves and our family? Are we willing to do what is necessary to gain that deeper and more intimate knowledge?