Ephesians 1:17-18
Paul’s Kind of Praying (Part 2)
Introduction:
The heartbeat of the Christian faith is understanding who God is and what He is like.
I spoke with someone this past week who is an agnostic. An agnostic is someone who may believe there is a God but they don’t believe we can know for sure, and we certainly can’t know Him if He exists. He is too far away, or, too hidden, or too uninterested in this world to be involved and known. God, whatever he is like, is out of our reach, and, the agnostic is not convinced that God has made any effort to reach us and show what he is like.
To an agnostic we live in a world where we’re given enough evidence to believe that there is some kind God, but, we’re not given enough evidence to really know that God. It’s like a giant cosmic tease. I can’t help but think of the cynicism that would come from agnosticism. This God, in the agnostic’s mind, can make the world and make us but it doesn’t really want to have anything to do with us. It’s almost like such a view of God would naturally lead to feeling rejected by God. Why wouldn’t God come and show Himself? Why does He set everything in motion only to just go far away and keep His distance?
If an agnostic is true to his system of belief it has got to lead to spiritual despair. I would suggest he should feel despair as bad as the atheist who believes there is no God. The reason is that the agnostic should believe that the whole setup of life is really a cosmic tease. God sets us up and then steps back to leave us in the dark about Himself. And in doing so the questions of life go unanswered, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What happens after I die?” “Is there meaning to any of this? Does life even matter?” What’s more, God leaves a longing in our hearts to know him but the longing is never satisfied because God refuses to show Himself – according to the agnostic. The agnostic always says “well God hasn’t given evidence of who He is so how can we know Him?”
That’s the conclusion of an agnostic – “we cannot know if He is there, and, if he is there we cannot know Him”.
The hope of an agnostic is Jesus Christ. The God who is really there has in fact revealed Himself. And He has done so satisfactorily. He has done so in such a way to genuinely satisfy the intellect of the sincere seeker who wants to honestly examine the evidence.
God has made the knowledge of who He is available to us. But you know, the question is: do we care? Do we want it? Sometimes it seems that there is this weird apathy in Christians when it comes to the knowledge of God. On the one hand the agnostic is convinced that God has not shown Himself but he seems interested in learning if he were convinced. On the other hand, Christians are the opposite. Christians are convinced God has revealed Himself but are not interested in learning about what He has revealed.
They may not believe like the agnostic but man they live like him. Paul says in Titus 1:16, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.” They live like the knowledge of God is unavailable. We may criticize the agnostic for not believing but my how the agnostic could criticize so many Christians for not being interested in what they say they believe. If an agnostic came and checked out our church would he say, “Man you guys must have found God look at your zeal to know Him!”? Or would he come in and say, “Man, if you really do have the knowledge of God He must not be all that interesting. You guys have no interest in Him!”? I hope the love for God and the zeal for God at EFC would make any honest agnostic reconsider his belief that God cannot be known.
We as Christians have the knowledge of God in our hands. God has revealed Himself and we have the drink that agnostics are thirsty for. Are we thirsty for it ourselves? We as Christians look at the agnostic and say “You can know God!” Jeremiah 9:24 God says, “but let him who boatst boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.” Jesus said in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
This is where Paul’s praying is going to in this passage. Paul prays in this passage that the Ephesians would be growing in their knowing of the things of God. Just look with me at verses 17-18 and notice the words related to knowledge: “wisdom” “revelation” “know” “eyes of your heart” “enlightened” “know”. Paul is not giving commands for action. There are not instructions for what the believers should be doing in regards to social interaction. He is however giving an example of what believers should be doing in that he is praying for the ongoing and increasing understanding we have of God as believers.
This is not only the core of what he prays here, but, it is also what he prays for in chapter 3. Turn to chapter 3 (read verses 16 – 19). Notice the words “grasp” (v18) and “know” (v19). Christians should comprehend these truths of the faith to grow in the faith.
Let’s look closer at the word “Know” in verse 17. It’s the word “epignosis.” It is different than another more common word for knowledge “gnosis”. Epignosis is a stronger, fuller, and more complete knowledge. We use the phrase, “jack of all trades master of none”. This means that someone has some knowledge of many things. That someone may have gnosis about all things, but, they don’t have epignosis about all things.
I remember one time my mechanic said that the problem with my transmission was beyond his abilities. He just didn’t know enough to be able to fix the problem. So he recommended me to someone he knew who specialized in transmissions. This guy knew more about transmissions. He was an expert. If there was anything to know about transmissions, hey, this guy would know it. He had epignosis. He had a masterful, in-depth, working knowledge of transmissions. We might say simply, “He knows transmissions.” That is the way Paul prays the Ephesians would know God. That is the way God wants us to know Him. To have an expert, in-depth, working knowledge of Him.
Now notice I said “working knowledge”. You see the mechanic doesn’t just have expert knowledge of transmissions for the sake of knowing. His expert knowledge, or epignosis, is also a working knowledge. When you know something this way, you know how to interact with the thing you know. I wouldn’t know what to do with a broken transmission because I don’t know. I’d probably take the battery out and put it in the trunk and say I hope it works now! Not this guy. He knows what to do. Having epignosis, expert knowledge, causes the proper interaction with the thing you have knowledge of.
This is why Paul prays for the Ephesians to know God better! The better someone knows God the better one properly interacts with God. Paul desired for them to know so that the quality of their relationship with God would be better.
Notice that phrase in verse 18, “Eyes of your heart”. Obviously Paul isn’t saying the heart has physical eyes like in our heads. He is talking about the ability of our inner man to perceive and understand spiritual truth. He wants our hearts to comprehend God’s truths. He wants us to see and know with our hearts. It’s significant that Paul prays that God would enlighten the eyes of the believers when we realize that it is Satan who works to blind men. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan blinds men to keep them from seeing God, but, God illuminates men’s eyes so that they would be seeing of Him.
Do we see Him? I remember those 3D stereogram pictures that had some design all over them. You had to stare at them and then the sailboat, or, the dog, or whatever would stand out in the picture. I could never see the object in those pictures. I just stared but couldn’t see. People would walk up, “Hey it’s a sail-boat”. Then 3rd grader with coke bottles for glasses would walk up and say – “Yeah, I see it, a sailboat.” Then, with an inferiority complex I’d stare harder..and stare, and stare. I couldn’t see it.
Paul wants the picture of who God is to come into view more clearly. He wants us to come up to the picture of God’s Word and to look into it and say “Aha! I see Him! I see Him! That is Him!”
Let it be said of us, “If anyone knows God – it is those Christians!”
I want to point out 4 quick things about the importance of knowing God better.
The Holy Spirit is needed (v17 and 1 Cor 2:14)
In order for a man to understand with his heart the truths that God reveals he is in need of the Holy Spirit. Notice verse 17 where he says, “may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation”. The best way to understand that is that God through the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts brings us to understand and have wisdom from the revelation of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2:14, “…………..”
Prayer is Needed to Know
Secondly, Prayer is Needed to Know. In order to know the way that Paul is talking about here, the church needs to be praying together for God to grant it. Why point this out? Because of the simple fact that the wisdom and understanding and knowing that was going to come to the Ephesians was because of praying like Paul’s. I would make this point: your capacity to know is dependant on someone else praying for you. We as EFC are either ignorant or wise by our failure or our faithfulness to pray for one another’s wisdom. That alone is motivation enough for prayer meetings.
Knowing is Key to Spiritual Growth
Thirdly, knowing is KEY to spiritual growth. We mentioned last week that there was a progression in this whole passage. In verse 13 they heard the word of salvation, then they believed the word of salvation. In verse 14 it says that because of that they received the seal, the Holy Spirit living in them. In verse 15 they were demonstrating faith and love. In verse 17 Paul now is praying that these believers would “know God better”. Then he prays they would know the Hope they were called to in verse 18. Then in verse 19 that the believers would know God’s power. I think that is a progression of Christian conviction. It is the marks of a maturing faith.
Notice these aren’t all at once. They are a progression. And notice the focus is on the believers seeing these things with the eyes of their hearts. Did you know that babies don’t see very good when they’re born? It takes about 6-8 months for their eyesight to fully develop. They have about a 20/200 vision. In the first month the baby’s eyes start working together in tandem. At 2 months they can distinguish colors. At 4 months they start to have depth perception. At 6-8 months they can track objects and are starting to develop object permanence. The interesting thing about this is that the eyes work fine, but it’s the brain that is developing in its ability to process depth, color, tracking, etc – not the eyes. Furthermore, the baby’s ability to hear is fully developed by the time they’re 1 month old.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, Paul’s desire is that Christians grow in what they see of God. Christians have much to develop in their spiritual eyesight. And from our “new-birth” we have ears that work perfectly fine, and eyes that work fine, so we can take in tis new knowledge of God given to us. And as we take in that knowledge our own minds and hearts are developing along the way so that we can begin to increase in our abilities and functions as children of God. The more we learn, the more we interact with our new Father in heaven. The more we interact with Him the right way. Knowing is key to spiritual growth.
Knowing requires others praying for you to know. Think about this: our capacity to know is dependent on us specifically praying for each other to know. We are ignorant or wise by our faithfulness or our failure as a group to pray for one another. I need you praying for me to grow wise, and you need each other.
Paul’s Kind of Praying (Part 2)
Introduction:
The heartbeat of the Christian faith is understanding who God is and what He is like.
I spoke with someone this past week who is an agnostic. An agnostic is someone who may believe there is a God but they don’t believe we can know for sure, and we certainly can’t know Him if He exists. He is too far away, or, too hidden, or too uninterested in this world to be involved and known. God, whatever he is like, is out of our reach, and, the agnostic is not convinced that God has made any effort to reach us and show what he is like.
To an agnostic we live in a world where we’re given enough evidence to believe that there is some kind God, but, we’re not given enough evidence to really know that God. It’s like a giant cosmic tease. I can’t help but think of the cynicism that would come from agnosticism. This God, in the agnostic’s mind, can make the world and make us but it doesn’t really want to have anything to do with us. It’s almost like such a view of God would naturally lead to feeling rejected by God. Why wouldn’t God come and show Himself? Why does He set everything in motion only to just go far away and keep His distance?
If an agnostic is true to his system of belief it has got to lead to spiritual despair. I would suggest he should feel despair as bad as the atheist who believes there is no God. The reason is that the agnostic should believe that the whole setup of life is really a cosmic tease. God sets us up and then steps back to leave us in the dark about Himself. And in doing so the questions of life go unanswered, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What happens after I die?” “Is there meaning to any of this? Does life even matter?” What’s more, God leaves a longing in our hearts to know him but the longing is never satisfied because God refuses to show Himself – according to the agnostic. The agnostic always says “well God hasn’t given evidence of who He is so how can we know Him?”
That’s the conclusion of an agnostic – “we cannot know if He is there, and, if he is there we cannot know Him”.
The hope of an agnostic is Jesus Christ. The God who is really there has in fact revealed Himself. And He has done so satisfactorily. He has done so in such a way to genuinely satisfy the intellect of the sincere seeker who wants to honestly examine the evidence.
God has made the knowledge of who He is available to us. But you know, the question is: do we care? Do we want it? Sometimes it seems that there is this weird apathy in Christians when it comes to the knowledge of God. On the one hand the agnostic is convinced that God has not shown Himself but he seems interested in learning if he were convinced. On the other hand, Christians are the opposite. Christians are convinced God has revealed Himself but are not interested in learning about what He has revealed.
They may not believe like the agnostic but man they live like him. Paul says in Titus 1:16, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.” They live like the knowledge of God is unavailable. We may criticize the agnostic for not believing but my how the agnostic could criticize so many Christians for not being interested in what they say they believe. If an agnostic came and checked out our church would he say, “Man you guys must have found God look at your zeal to know Him!”? Or would he come in and say, “Man, if you really do have the knowledge of God He must not be all that interesting. You guys have no interest in Him!”? I hope the love for God and the zeal for God at EFC would make any honest agnostic reconsider his belief that God cannot be known.
We as Christians have the knowledge of God in our hands. God has revealed Himself and we have the drink that agnostics are thirsty for. Are we thirsty for it ourselves? We as Christians look at the agnostic and say “You can know God!” Jeremiah 9:24 God says, “but let him who boatst boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.” Jesus said in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
This is where Paul’s praying is going to in this passage. Paul prays in this passage that the Ephesians would be growing in their knowing of the things of God. Just look with me at verses 17-18 and notice the words related to knowledge: “wisdom” “revelation” “know” “eyes of your heart” “enlightened” “know”. Paul is not giving commands for action. There are not instructions for what the believers should be doing in regards to social interaction. He is however giving an example of what believers should be doing in that he is praying for the ongoing and increasing understanding we have of God as believers.
This is not only the core of what he prays here, but, it is also what he prays for in chapter 3. Turn to chapter 3 (read verses 16 – 19). Notice the words “grasp” (v18) and “know” (v19). Christians should comprehend these truths of the faith to grow in the faith.
Let’s look closer at the word “Know” in verse 17. It’s the word “epignosis.” It is different than another more common word for knowledge “gnosis”. Epignosis is a stronger, fuller, and more complete knowledge. We use the phrase, “jack of all trades master of none”. This means that someone has some knowledge of many things. That someone may have gnosis about all things, but, they don’t have epignosis about all things.
I remember one time my mechanic said that the problem with my transmission was beyond his abilities. He just didn’t know enough to be able to fix the problem. So he recommended me to someone he knew who specialized in transmissions. This guy knew more about transmissions. He was an expert. If there was anything to know about transmissions, hey, this guy would know it. He had epignosis. He had a masterful, in-depth, working knowledge of transmissions. We might say simply, “He knows transmissions.” That is the way Paul prays the Ephesians would know God. That is the way God wants us to know Him. To have an expert, in-depth, working knowledge of Him.
Now notice I said “working knowledge”. You see the mechanic doesn’t just have expert knowledge of transmissions for the sake of knowing. His expert knowledge, or epignosis, is also a working knowledge. When you know something this way, you know how to interact with the thing you know. I wouldn’t know what to do with a broken transmission because I don’t know. I’d probably take the battery out and put it in the trunk and say I hope it works now! Not this guy. He knows what to do. Having epignosis, expert knowledge, causes the proper interaction with the thing you have knowledge of.
This is why Paul prays for the Ephesians to know God better! The better someone knows God the better one properly interacts with God. Paul desired for them to know so that the quality of their relationship with God would be better.
Notice that phrase in verse 18, “Eyes of your heart”. Obviously Paul isn’t saying the heart has physical eyes like in our heads. He is talking about the ability of our inner man to perceive and understand spiritual truth. He wants our hearts to comprehend God’s truths. He wants us to see and know with our hearts. It’s significant that Paul prays that God would enlighten the eyes of the believers when we realize that it is Satan who works to blind men. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan blinds men to keep them from seeing God, but, God illuminates men’s eyes so that they would be seeing of Him.
Do we see Him? I remember those 3D stereogram pictures that had some design all over them. You had to stare at them and then the sailboat, or, the dog, or whatever would stand out in the picture. I could never see the object in those pictures. I just stared but couldn’t see. People would walk up, “Hey it’s a sail-boat”. Then 3rd grader with coke bottles for glasses would walk up and say – “Yeah, I see it, a sailboat.” Then, with an inferiority complex I’d stare harder..and stare, and stare. I couldn’t see it.
Paul wants the picture of who God is to come into view more clearly. He wants us to come up to the picture of God’s Word and to look into it and say “Aha! I see Him! I see Him! That is Him!”
Let it be said of us, “If anyone knows God – it is those Christians!”
I want to point out 4 quick things about the importance of knowing God better.
The Holy Spirit is needed (v17 and 1 Cor 2:14)
In order for a man to understand with his heart the truths that God reveals he is in need of the Holy Spirit. Notice verse 17 where he says, “may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation”. The best way to understand that is that God through the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts brings us to understand and have wisdom from the revelation of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2:14, “…………..”
Prayer is Needed to Know
Secondly, Prayer is Needed to Know. In order to know the way that Paul is talking about here, the church needs to be praying together for God to grant it. Why point this out? Because of the simple fact that the wisdom and understanding and knowing that was going to come to the Ephesians was because of praying like Paul’s. I would make this point: your capacity to know is dependant on someone else praying for you. We as EFC are either ignorant or wise by our failure or our faithfulness to pray for one another’s wisdom. That alone is motivation enough for prayer meetings.
Knowing is Key to Spiritual Growth
Thirdly, knowing is KEY to spiritual growth. We mentioned last week that there was a progression in this whole passage. In verse 13 they heard the word of salvation, then they believed the word of salvation. In verse 14 it says that because of that they received the seal, the Holy Spirit living in them. In verse 15 they were demonstrating faith and love. In verse 17 Paul now is praying that these believers would “know God better”. Then he prays they would know the Hope they were called to in verse 18. Then in verse 19 that the believers would know God’s power. I think that is a progression of Christian conviction. It is the marks of a maturing faith.
Notice these aren’t all at once. They are a progression. And notice the focus is on the believers seeing these things with the eyes of their hearts. Did you know that babies don’t see very good when they’re born? It takes about 6-8 months for their eyesight to fully develop. They have about a 20/200 vision. In the first month the baby’s eyes start working together in tandem. At 2 months they can distinguish colors. At 4 months they start to have depth perception. At 6-8 months they can track objects and are starting to develop object permanence. The interesting thing about this is that the eyes work fine, but it’s the brain that is developing in its ability to process depth, color, tracking, etc – not the eyes. Furthermore, the baby’s ability to hear is fully developed by the time they’re 1 month old.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, Paul’s desire is that Christians grow in what they see of God. Christians have much to develop in their spiritual eyesight. And from our “new-birth” we have ears that work perfectly fine, and eyes that work fine, so we can take in tis new knowledge of God given to us. And as we take in that knowledge our own minds and hearts are developing along the way so that we can begin to increase in our abilities and functions as children of God. The more we learn, the more we interact with our new Father in heaven. The more we interact with Him the right way. Knowing is key to spiritual growth.
Knowing requires others praying for you to know. Think about this: our capacity to know is dependent on us specifically praying for each other to know. We are ignorant or wise by our faithfulness or our failure as a group to pray for one another. I need you praying for me to grow wise, and you need each other.
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