Delighting in the Knowledge of God, Eph 1:15-21
By Jay Wegter
INTRODUCTION:
It has been said that a swine has never seen a star. That is no doubt true; but it is not because their vision is vastly inferior to ours—it is because they have no interest in stars. A swine has never seen a star because pigs were not created to be worshippers. Mankind is created to worship. Therefore man is endlessly curious —he maps, explores, adores, investigates, composes, cheers, and interprets. Man was created to be an enthusiastic spectator of God’s excellence. You might say that inside of us is a little ‘radar’ turning—always looking for beauty, excellence, and nobility.
God has created us to find happiness in Himself—by pursuing God as our object of desire. But that God-given yearning was perverted by the Fall. Romans one tells us that since the entrance of sin we continue to worship; but, that the object of our worship has changed from God to the creature and the creation. Every unregenerate person is subservient to created things because of the inescapable fact that we serve what we worship (Rom 1:25). Only by the gracious miracle of regeneration is a person delivered and restored to become a true worshipper of God (Jn 4:23-24).
Our text (Eph 1:15-23) is about finding your source of excellence in God. When Paul wrote Ephesians one, he was opening up the topic of transformed seeing. Paul is not a rank moralist. No, he always anchors Christian duty in heavenly realities. In his epistles he sends us to the heavenlies—which deal with our matchless position in Christ—in order to instill in us transformed seeing. Paul knows that transformed seeing produces transformed living (thrust of Ephesians).
In both of Paul’s prayers in the book of Ephesians he is praying for supernatural sight and comprehension on behalf of believers. Transformed living includes a lifestyle of worship in which we function increasingly as a living sacrifice. That means that our faculties of thought, speech, and affection are devoted to Christ and focused on things above (Col 3:1-3).
Now as to this topic of delight in God, it ought to be self-evident that we cannot have love and fond affection for what we do not know personally. And we cannot know personally what we have not beheld or perceived. Therefore our exhortation throughout this message will be stir yourselves to improve your spiritual sight. You were created to be a worshipper—therefore you cannot, NOT worship! Your heart refuses to live as a dry desert with no object of desire. This helps us understand why idolatry is a perversion of true worship. Being a worshipper is our creational identity, which is why you are always on the lookout for what is worthy and excellent. You are always pursuing your object of desire because happiness is the byproduct of pursuing one’s object of desire. (Which is why happiness evades the idolater.)
Our hearts know well our object of desire. Christ refers to one’s object of desire as a man’s ‘treasure’. Every man is always reviewing his treasure; adding to his treasure; speaking of his treasure. No wonder Puritan John Howe referred to delight in God as: “the top, middle, and foundation of true religion.” Jonathan Edwards offers a similar observation, “True religion consists primarily in the affections.” And John Piper makes his entry on the topic, “Delight in God will take you from duty to desire – it will make you holy, and it will enable you to love others supernaturally.”
I recall a story about the Scottish divine, Thomas Chalmers. He was a faithful expositor of the Word of God; but after five years of ministry he was distraught that his congregation was so cold and passion-less for spiritual things. Chalmers took a summer sabbatical. During times of extended prayer he asked the Lord to give the answer as to why the church members were stagnant.
The Scottish pastor was hit with a life-changing impression: “Thomas, you are preaching to the mind, the will, and the conscience; but not to the affections!” Well he returned to his parish and penned his most famous sermon, “The Expulsive Power of a new Affection.” In that sermon Chalmers unfolded the biblical truth that idols of lust won’t budge unless they are displaced by a higher affection. His message was not lost on his hearers, or upon his fellow pastors. His emphasis on the role of the affections in true religion began a new chapter of lasting fruitful ministry.
What Chalmers and other divines have discovered was that the clearer your view of who God is toward you in Christ; the more strength you will have against sin and the greater motive to release and smash your idols. Nothing is a more powerful an influence in your life than to know you are beloved of God and to feel that in your whole soul.
Lest we forget, delighting in God is a Scriptural imperative (Ps 37:4). And, I don’t believe I’m going out on a limb this evening to say that delighting in God is a felt experience. When the Scriptures speak of exulting in God, terms are utilized such as taste, pant after, thirst, pleasure and enjoyment. Romans 5:5 describes the love of God being shed abroad, or poured out, in the heart of the believer. But this delight in God is not the result of passivity on our part. Maurice Roberts (Thought of God), says that if we do not stir ourselves to have fresh encounters with God, a chill will come over the soul and our hearts will go in search of other lovers. If your heart is not warmed at the hearth of delight in God, it will seek to warm itself at the hearth of the world. Delight in God is not an option – we were created for it; it unites the heart and keeps us from a formal, impersonal, outward approach to religion). Our active response to Gospel love drives every proper motive in your Christian life. This is the Pauline model of sanctification typified in Ephesians—out of position comes practice—high position, lowly walk.
Our delighting in God theme from Ephesians centers upon the truth that God is known by means of the way in which He saves us—by His sovereign grace and mercy communicated to us in Christ. The chief object of our meditation is our relationship with God as it is settled in Christ.
“Our theology is that of a crucified God, who is “Lamb” and “Husband” to us forever – who, in His infinite purity said to us in our filthiness, “Live! Live!” He saw the mystery of iniquity in my heart and still betrothed me and adopted me” (Howell Harris). (See Ezek 16:4-6, though speaking of Judah’s origin, this the most graphic metaphor for salvation imaginable; a baby abandoned to exposure.)
Salvation imparts a relationship which is to control our lives—our purpose is to press on to know the Lord in worship, and devotion by means of an ongoing consideration His saving work towards us. We are going to gaze upon the Lord through three “portholes,” or access points found in our text: the hope of His calling, His inheritance in the saints, and His power toward us who believe.
Vs. 15-16 – “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. . .”
Paul is thanking God for His intervening grace in the life of the Ephesians. The content of Paul’s prayer is an extension of the praise he has offered for God’s matchless sovereign grace catalogued in vv. 3-14.
Key to our message this evening is WHAT Paul is praying for; AND, for WHOM he is praying; folks who are already believers. His prayer is that the Ephesians’ knowledge of God would continue to grow dramatically. As you grow in the knowledge of God, you are transformed by degrees – the better you know Him, the more you become like Christ; the more you progress toward maturity.
Vs. 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.”
Paul’s intercession concerns the outworking, or continuance of what God has accomplished in the lives of these believers. Grace introduced us to a saving relationship with the Lord – it’s our blessed privilege to keep
growing in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet 3:18). That is God’s will for you.
As Paul models, you are to begin by approaching God in prayer and asking Him to give you a spirit of
wisdom and revelation in order to know Him
better. Have you ever prayed that for your own spiritual growth? (“Lord I want to know you better . . . “) When you pray this prayer, it is an admission of your dependence upon the Holy Spirit in order to know God. He is the source of a spirit of wisdom and revelation that allows us to know God better.
The Spirit of God reveals more of the Lord, and His ways to us. He reveals truths so wonderful that they cannot be comprehended by natural reasoning alone. Unaided cognition won’t apprehend them – they must be illuminated and revealed by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God. It is His task, His ministry to unfold them through the Word to us (see 1 Cor 2:9-16). He is our gracious Guide to show us the things freely given to us (1 Cor 2:12).
He continually gives light; His ministry is to illuminate spiritual truth, possessions. He gives us understanding that captivates our affections. He convinces us of the truth, reality, preciousness, desirability of divine things. He reveals them so that they captivate your affections MORE than temporal things.
A spirit of ‘wisdom and revelation’ is vital because there is nothing more important than knowing God. Your relationship with Him is the one thing you will take with you at death, the one thing you will bring to glory.
V. 18 – “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.” The prayer for wisdom and revelation is a prayer for the insight needed to grasp certain truths that are revealed by the Spirit. “Eyes of the heart” is a fitting metaphor to describe your religious affections. The Spirit reveals, but we must have certain
faculties enlightened
in order to receive and grasp what He reveals. The heart of the saved man sees what the five senses cannot see.
What is it that Paul wants us to see with spiritual sight? There are three things in Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians which Paul casts as
three questions
. The FIRST truth to be revealed in order to know God better comes from the question,
“what is the hope of His calling?” (v. 18).
The HOPE of one’s calling is that aspect of salvation for which we are waiting – what we are looking forward to in the future. That hope refers to life in the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God (Rom 5:2; Eph 5:27; Col 3:4).
PROBLEM: Our generation seldom reflects upon eternity. This is why you need urgent help from God in order to be able to
know the hope to which you have been called.
Only then will you be able to navigate the darkended world with eternity’s values before your spiritual eyes.
Redemption has a result or outcome; a consummation for which the godly hope. Your right-relatedness to the Trinity through Christ has a very clearly defined goal; it is ultimate conformity to Christ (what you are ‘saved unto’ and not merely ‘saved from’). Our election before the foundation of the world is aimed at this goal – “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (1:4). (Called to conformity to Christ.)
All history is moving towards this event in which the glorified sons of God will be presented publicly to the rational universe (holy angels). The entire creation is poised for this event (Rom 8:18-25). (The public presentation of the glorified saints is synchronized with making new heavens and earth.)
The goal of redemption is not adequately described simply as deliverance from sin, death, and sorrow. The consummation of redemption will be the enjoyment of God in Christ communicating Himself to us forever. It is eternal love attending you: it is Christ given to be your life, light, and blessedness without cessation. And it is the redeemed enjoying God and pleasing God perfectly.
In glory, the Church will be a spotless reflection the character of the Godhead – God’s communicable attributes will have reached maturity in her – she will be as much like God as a finite creature can possible be. Relations within the society of the redeemed will reflect the excellence of relations within the Trinity (perfect love, honor, deference, goodness, humility, wisdom, truthfulness) (EX. Greg Koukl on the Kingdom of God as an immutable family, The Story of Reality).
Now all of this is to fulfill God’s vision (dream if you will) – for He has never desisted from the goal He announced originally to make man in His image and likeness. What is His dream? It is to have an eternal temple to dwell in. Not a temple made of inanimate things, but a temple of living stones. That is how God describes you, the redeemed; the saints – as living stones that are growing together, being fitted together, being built up into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit; a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (Eph 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:5).
(EX. Heaven is not an eternal vacation – it is an eternal vocation for that will be the source of our bliss. Randy Alcorn observes in his book, The Treasure Principle, “heaven will be a place of rest and relief from the burdens of sin and suffering; but it will also be a place of great learning, activity, artistic expression, exploration, discovery, camaraderie, and service,” p. 36.)
At the consummation the ages, the aim of redemptive history shall be realized (as announced by an angel) – “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among
men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them. . .” (Rev 21:3).
There’s an old Chinese proverb, “fish and guests smell after three days.” If we are careful about who stays in your home for an extended period of time – how much do you think God cares about who His eternal human companions will be?
(APPL. This should give us some insight into our tests and trials; for they keep surfacing where our affections lie. God is wise to test us – testing exposes our loyalties—exposes what we delight in, exposes our highest object of desire. Affliction shows us what we really love; it detaches us from the love of the world, and anchors our hope more securely to God as our true ‘home.’)
When Puritan Richard Baxter went house to house, visiting church members, he always asked his parishioners this question, “Do you see all of life as preparation for the next life?” (Puritan Thomas Watson adds to that, “if not, heaven is not your final destination.”)
Do you see how meditating upon the hope of your calling deepens your delight in knowing God? It melts our heart and keeps us tender toward God. What a powerful influence in your life to know for certain that your hope is nearer than when you believed. (EX. as one poet said, “the barrier between time and eternity is paper thin.”)
The SECOND truth to be revealed in order to better know God is, “what are
the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints?” (v. 18b).
We know from Ephesians 5, and numerous other texts, that the saints are a gift from the Father to the Son (see Jn 6 & 17). (In essence the Father selected out a “Bride” for His Son – the redeemed make up this celestial Bride of Christ; His inheritance.)
Here’s where we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation; our slumbering spiritual eyes must be opened to take in this glorious spiritual light. We need to know who we are and what our destiny is (to be able to fix our minds upon things above).
We get so hung up basing our intrinsic worth on temporal things that we are unable to reason spiritually -- the issue is not net worth in the world, but our identity in Christ! (Our culture says you are your physical body, your car, house, job, possessions, earthly accomplishments, likes, followers, and net worth.)
Paul prays that his readers would grasp the riches of God’s inheritance in the saints. EX. God’s inheritance is not the holy angels, nor is it the nearly infinite rainbow of beautiful galaxies, it is a company of redeemed sinners who are conformed to their Savior and Head; the society of the redeemed that make up God’s eternal companions. This will not grip you so as to captivate and ravish your heart unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. (So ask – “Father, grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You!”)
We who make up the company of the redeemed are Christ’s inheritance; His Bride – that the Lord Jesus Christ might be the First-born among many brethren (Rom 8:29).
Not only do we form Christ’s inheritance; the riches of God in Christ comprise our inheritance (including the physical creation! Abraham, a type of every believer lived in tents his whole life even though he was heir of the world (Rom 4:13). Yes, the meek shall inherit the earth (Mt 5:5).
My friends the cosmos exists for God to showcase the two greatest gifts ever given: Christ given for sinners, and the Church given to Christ. Do you see the ‘mutuality’ in these two matchless gifts? Heaven is about mutuality – I am my Beloved’s and He is mine (Song of Songs 6:3). We are Christ’s inheritance and He is our inheritance. Mutual ownership will take our joy over the top. (EX. -- C. S. Lewis offered the following contrast; compared to the Lord dwelling with the redeemed in glory, the most ideal romance among mortals is like a glass of milk mixed with water (it’s insipid by comparison).
Mutuality means that we give ourselves to God and He to us in a covenant of co-ownership – As Spurgeon said, “I’ll be able to say on that day, God on yonder throne is mine!” This is where God is taking us – glory is moving closer and closer to us (this must animate our affections!).
To be in glory is to be in God’s presence; it is to behold God. The pure pleasure involved in beholding God has begun in the saints (2 Cor 3:18). But for the present in our
beholding
we see
in a mirror dimly –
then it will be
face to face.
“And it will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us” (Is 25:9).
And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bondservants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads (Rev 22:3-4). (“They shall see His face,” let that sink in a moment).
The experience of seeing God was described by the Reformers as “The beatific vision.” To beatify is to bring a person to a state of exalted joy above anything possible on earth. It means the vision that makes us blessed, or happy. To look at God will change us and make us like Him: “We shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is (1 Jn 3:2).
The
beatific vision,
which will bring us endless exalted joy, will be our
beholding of Christ in His glory (this is what our Lord prayed for in
John 17:24 –
that the saints would
behold His glory.
)
The sight of Christ glorified will ravish our souls (2 Thess 1:10). We will never cease to marvel at the sight of God looking out at us through eyes of flesh – our amazement will never cease as we behold our glorified Savior with the marks of our atonement on His glorified body. The slain Lamb is the center of heaven; the Light of heaven (Rev 21:22-23, 22:5). (EX. The invalid Puritan, Isaac Ambrose, said, God’s desire is to converse with us after our form.)
This vision of God will be the consummation of our knowing God and will give us full delight and joy for all eternity: “In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:11).
Though you behold in a mirror dimly now (1 Cor 13:12), you are being fitted to behold face to face. In order to behold face to face, you must be a partaker of God’s holiness so that you can look upon Him without fear, shame and without covering your face.
Your eternal vocation will involve beholding – it will be your source of ravishment and bliss. (APPL. Beholding now produces delight in the knowledge of God. Is beholding so as to delight in the Lord a part of your vocation now? If so, then you are experiencing the answer to the prayer in our text. The more the eyes of your heart can ‘see’ your eternal inheritance; the more you will treasure the Lord and trample upon the world’s temptations. ‘Spiritual victory is spiritual sight’.)
Vv. 19-20 -- The THIRD truth to be revealed in order to know God is,
“what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe?” (v. 19-20 ff.)
Paul puts our focus on the power of God exerted when Christ was raised from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the vindication of Christ. It is the destruction of sin; it is the conquest of death. It is the guarantee of our justification. It is the proof positive and pledge of your eternal glory.
Beloved, the resurrection of Christ is the cause of your new birth. God can make a sinner into a new creature by means of the new birth BECAUSE Christ has dealt decisively with sin, guilt, and spiritual deadness by means of the cross and the empty tomb.
In verses (19-20 ff.) “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 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” The Apostle tells us something amazing about our new birth. “The same superhuman power was needed to make us believe, as was needed and exerted to raise Christ from the dead (vs. 20)” JFB.
Think of it – the same magnitude of power necessary to raise Christ from the dead was also exerted by God when He reached down and saved you!
This is tied to your knowledge of the Lord; it must sink in deeply; it must be perceived by the “eyes of your heart” -- that a miracle of Almighty God was necessary to produce spiritual life and saving faith in you (spiritually, before the new birth, you and I were as dead as stinking Lazarus in his tomb).
What a deep mystery, for our sakes, the only begotten Son of God lay in a dark stone tomb for three days as a human corpse. Then He was raised with power (Rom 1:4) and seated above all authority.
After His death on the cross, He went from a human corpse—to Ruler of the universe. He did all this to resurrect His eternal Bride, the Church (her death had to become His death). He had to span the chasm that lay between dust and glory; He had to span the chasm that lay between death and the throne of heaven so that we could go from dying to glorified. He had to span the gap between depravity and burning holiness so that we could go from rebels to worshippers.
By the sacrifice of Himself, Christ has dealt decisively with everything that separates us from God, and He has dealt decisively with everything that disqualifies us from eternal life and blessedness. By the wounds of Christ, God was conquering all of His enemies and ours. (EX. every wound of His a ‘mouth’.)
God’s attributes were not on display all at once until the work of Christ. Understanding this fact is an important access point to your growth in the knowledge of God. Here’s why—consider that God has literally harnessed His attributes and put them to work in your salvation.
Think of it – if you know Christ as Savior, then right now God is exercising His infinite love, wisdom, and power (which are all resident in Christ) in order to bring you to glory. He is exerting His attributes for your sanctification and
eternal welfare and glory (Phil 2:12-13).
(APPL. This is so important to our topic – God wants you to grow in the knowledge of Him by seeing His attributes at work, literally put to work in order to save you—making Himself known by, how, and why He saves. To see this by wisdom and revelation is to take delight in the knowledge of God.)
(EX. Jerry Feller water purification plant.) HOW God saves is the primary revealer of the Godhead; God’s unsearchable riches are put on display in Christ. HOW God is taking the Church from dust to glory—through the Son, reveals who God is (Eph 3:8-10).
(APPL. God wants you to know Him better and better -- as you take delight in all that He is toward you in Christ, your knowledge of God will grow. As you dwell upon Him as the God of all grace who is exercising His mighty attributes on your behalf, you will take delight in knowing God.)
Vv. 21-23 – “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.”
Paul declares the power of Christ over everything for the sake of the church. Christ is the wisdom and power of God; He holds
His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King
in order to bring you (His elect) all the way home to God (to finish ‘building His church).
The living, ruling Christ pervaded the consciousness of the early church. They exhibited a fearless trust that nothing could stand in the way of their inheriting of the promises; for their Mediatorial King orders all things from His sovereign throne (Phil 3:20-21).
There is endless delight in knowing who God is toward you in Christ. It is
always Christ’s perfect suitability to answer in Himself our brokenness and ruin by sin. It is always Christ who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption
- 1 Cor 1:30 ).
CONCLUSION:
The three access points which lead to a growing knowledge of God: hope, inheritance, and power are just a few among many in Scripture. Do you long to love God in response to His love to you? Do you desire to return to that place you once enjoyed of wonder, awe, adoration, and overflowing gratitude?
Then search out your own access points to delight in God from Scripture; hunt for them as you would priceless treasure. Stir yourself to take hold of God in prayer – guard your quiet times with Him. Make it your passion to grow in your knowledge of God. Rouse yourself to draw near to God and you will find that your devotions will go from duty to desire and delight.
God wants you to learn to pray personally for spiritual understanding; it’s God’s way of furthering disclosures of Himself. The benefits are so great; to have a proper estimate of your riches in Christ; to have a well-founded hope of salvation is the support and stability for the soul. A full Christ-centered assurance in which you know God, and know that you are beloved of God is the most powerful influence for holiness that you can have.
Added Application: Delight in the knowledge of God, that is delight in who God is toward the believer in Christ is a powerful fortress against sin. This delight forms a perimeter around the heart to guard it from yielding to temptation. The joy of the Lord is truly your strength (Neh 8:10).
Added Application: Delight in the God of all grace keeps us humble. For, Paul warns us that if we neglect the truth of our utter dependence upon God’s electing grace, we will tend to boast in ourselves and be ‘puffed up on behalf of one against the other’ (1 Cor 4:6). Putting that principle in modern vernacular, if you are controlled by defending your intrinsic worth, by seeking to differentiate yourself from others—you will generate the fruits of the flesh (and with that a tendency toward a party spirit, ‘tribalism’, etc.). What is the answer? Drill down deep in God’s grace, God in Christ is the only ultimate ‘differentiator’. For the Word says, “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if indeed you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7).