ASHBURNHAM SESSION 2b - PHILIP MOUNSTEPHEN
Ashburnham Session 2b : Revelation & Power
Ephesians 1: 15-23
Let me start by asking you a question: what do you most want for the people around you? It's not that easy a question to answer is it? I wouldn't blame you if you have to stop and think for a few minutes. I wouldn't blame you, because it's not something we tend to ask ourselves.
But Paul had no doubt about what he wanted for the Christians in Ephesus, and he makes it abundantly clear in this wonderful prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23, which we're going to look at now.
If you want one word to characterise this prayer, I would choose the word passionate. Paul is passionate in his praying, in his hopes and desires for the Ephesian Christians. This prayer springs out of a real excitement, a real passion, about the story of God, and the Ephesian Church's involvement in it. And that this passion is expressed in a prayer suggests the Ephesians involvement in the story isn't a completely done deal. I don't mean by that their place in it isn't secure. What I do mean is that by praying for them – and by praying this prayer for them – Paul signals his desire, his passion that this story be told with ever more clarity and with ever more power in their lives. His excitement about what God has already done for them, drives him on with renewed passion to ask God to give them yet more. "God's done all this and for this reason I ask him to do more."
There's a holy restless passion about Paul. He's never content. He doesn't pray for this Church because God hasn't been at work in their lives – clearly he has – look at vv 15 – he pray for them precisely because God has been at work amongst them, and still is. I have a friend who never tires of saying, 'God's got more.' And he's right. God's got more for his church. If there's a holy restless passion in Paul, it's only because God himself has a wholly restless passion for his people, for his church, for us, that we should discover more and more of the riches he has for us.
But before we look in details at what those riches are, we need to look at another of Paul's passions, that isn't stated in so many words in this prayer, but which underlines it, and is a key motivation for it. Not only does Paul have a passion for the gospel, he also has a passion for people. Indeed you can't have a real passion for the gospel unless you have a passion, a real heartfelt concern for people, because the gospel is for people. I once found myself running a training event at which found myself saying that sounded slightly heretical, but which I think is profoundly true. I said, if you care about the gospel more that the people you're sharing it with, then you're not being true to the gospel – because of course the gospel is about God's love for people. . And Paul the Apostle who God has sent to these Ephesian Christians has a real heart for them, he has a passion for them, he loves them. He doesn't need to say it, it shines out from what he writes. These are not people he occasionally gets round to on his prayer list out of a sense of duty but little else. These are people he cares for passionately, and prays for continually. He cares deeply about their spiritual health and welfare - and so he prays for them.. I once heard prayer described as 'holding people up to God with love in your heart'. And that's surely what Paul is doing here. The passion in his prayer springs not only from his passion for the gospel, but also from his passion for people.
So now let's move on to what Paul actually asks for. Taken all together, the various requests in his prayer amount to a passionate vision and that's my third point: (x2). Indeed there are really two passionate visions here, and we'll look at them in turn. The first vision is of what he wants for the Ephesians in vv 17 -19a. Indeed you could say that his vision for the Ephesians is that they should have vision themselves: vv 17 & 18a [ ]. Note again the work of the Trinity in v. 17 [ ]. And note what the Trinity is to do: Father, Son and Holy Spirit will take the spiritual blinkers off the Ephesians, 1. to give them wisdom - real understanding of spiritual things; 2. to give them revelation - real understanding of God himself; 3. to give them knowledge - not just knowledge about God, but knowing him personally; 4 to give them light, so that spiritual things become clear to them. And the particular three spiritual things he wants them to see clearly he lists at the end of v. 18 and the start of v. 19 [ ]. What he wants them to grasp are 1. the glorious hope that lies before them, 2. the wonderful blessing that await them, and 3. the mighty power which is even now at work amongst them - the mighty power which is nothing less that the power which raised Jesus from the dead. That's the passionate vision Paul has for the Ephesians, a vision he wants them to share. Spiritual tunnel vision is to be replaced with this wonderful wide-screen, glorious Technicolor panorama of the blessings of God for his people, his church.
But that as I said is only the first part of this passionate vision. If the focus in the first part of the vision is on the Ephesian Church the focus in the second part is on the Lord of the Church, on Jesus Christ and here we're looking at vv. 19b - 23. Here is Paul's passionate vision of Jesus [ ]. It is a passionate, a glorious vision - but what's it got to do with the Church in Ephesus? What we mustn't think here is that in his passion and excitement Paul gets carried away, and forgets his passionate vision of the Church in favour of a passionate vision of Jesus. He's not running off at a tangent. Christ has been raised from the dead, and by virtue of that fact he now reigns above every other power and authority in the universe. And - here's the amazing thing – he does this, v. 22 for his church: he rules over everything for his church, for us, for the church which, v. 23, is nothing less than his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way. You see the one thing you can't do here is separate Christ from his church. The Church is the bride of Christ and what God has brought together let no-one put asunder. It's not just that they belong together – it's that they're almost indistinguishable, the two have become one: the church is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way.
Well let's pause for a moment with that breathtaking thought, and just let it sink in. No wonder Paul is passionate. No wonder Paul is passionate about the Church. You see you can't really separate the passions in this prayer – his passion for the Lord, for his Church, for it's people and for the story that brought them into being. They belong together, they are intimately intertwined. And in the end we have to stop the process of analysing this passionate prayer. We simply have to own it's passion and pray it ourselves. We need that same restless passion that wants more that we find in Paul, and which has its roots in the restless passion of God.
Ask your average person in the street for the defining characteristics of the church and they're unlikely to talk about the church as a place of passion. But they should be. It should be one of the prime internal dynamics of the church that we looked at yesterday. It's my prayer for you this w/e that you will recapture your passion, your excitement about being the people of God, and your love for the God who makes you his people.
This world desperately needs passionate churches. And this world desperately needs passionate churches for one simple reason – because it's in the demonstration of our passion that the passionate love of Jesus is revealed in us and through us [x2]. If frankly we don't care all that much, then however much we may claim to be the body of Christ then nothing of Jesus will be seen in us. If we're indifferent, then he'll be invisibe. But if we reflect and demonstrate his passion, then he will be seen and found and known in us. And that's what the world desperately needs – to meet Jesus in his Church. This world desperately needs us to recapture our passion, that it may meet Jesus in his Church. And that means that this world desperately needs this prayer to be answered in us.
Let's pray it together now.
Ephesians 1: 15-23
Let me start by asking you a question: what do you most want for the people around you? It's not that easy a question to answer is it? I wouldn't blame you if you have to stop and think for a few minutes. I wouldn't blame you, because it's not something we tend to ask ourselves.
But Paul had no doubt about what he wanted for the Christians in Ephesus, and he makes it abundantly clear in this wonderful prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23, which we're going to look at now.
If you want one word to characterise this prayer, I would choose the word passionate. Paul is passionate in his praying, in his hopes and desires for the Ephesian Christians. This prayer springs out of a real excitement, a real passion, about the story of God, and the Ephesian Church's involvement in it. And that this passion is expressed in a prayer suggests the Ephesians involvement in the story isn't a completely done deal. I don't mean by that their place in it isn't secure. What I do mean is that by praying for them – and by praying this prayer for them – Paul signals his desire, his passion that this story be told with ever more clarity and with ever more power in their lives. His excitement about what God has already done for them, drives him on with renewed passion to ask God to give them yet more. "God's done all this and for this reason I ask him to do more."
There's a holy restless passion about Paul. He's never content. He doesn't pray for this Church because God hasn't been at work in their lives – clearly he has – look at vv 15 – he pray for them precisely because God has been at work amongst them, and still is. I have a friend who never tires of saying, 'God's got more.' And he's right. God's got more for his church. If there's a holy restless passion in Paul, it's only because God himself has a wholly restless passion for his people, for his church, for us, that we should discover more and more of the riches he has for us.
But before we look in details at what those riches are, we need to look at another of Paul's passions, that isn't stated in so many words in this prayer, but which underlines it, and is a key motivation for it. Not only does Paul have a passion for the gospel, he also has a passion for people. Indeed you can't have a real passion for the gospel unless you have a passion, a real heartfelt concern for people, because the gospel is for people. I once found myself running a training event at which found myself saying that sounded slightly heretical, but which I think is profoundly true. I said, if you care about the gospel more that the people you're sharing it with, then you're not being true to the gospel – because of course the gospel is about God's love for people. . And Paul the Apostle who God has sent to these Ephesian Christians has a real heart for them, he has a passion for them, he loves them. He doesn't need to say it, it shines out from what he writes. These are not people he occasionally gets round to on his prayer list out of a sense of duty but little else. These are people he cares for passionately, and prays for continually. He cares deeply about their spiritual health and welfare - and so he prays for them.. I once heard prayer described as 'holding people up to God with love in your heart'. And that's surely what Paul is doing here. The passion in his prayer springs not only from his passion for the gospel, but also from his passion for people.
So now let's move on to what Paul actually asks for. Taken all together, the various requests in his prayer amount to a passionate vision and that's my third point: (x2). Indeed there are really two passionate visions here, and we'll look at them in turn. The first vision is of what he wants for the Ephesians in vv 17 -19a. Indeed you could say that his vision for the Ephesians is that they should have vision themselves: vv 17 & 18a [ ]. Note again the work of the Trinity in v. 17 [ ]. And note what the Trinity is to do: Father, Son and Holy Spirit will take the spiritual blinkers off the Ephesians, 1. to give them wisdom - real understanding of spiritual things; 2. to give them revelation - real understanding of God himself; 3. to give them knowledge - not just knowledge about God, but knowing him personally; 4 to give them light, so that spiritual things become clear to them. And the particular three spiritual things he wants them to see clearly he lists at the end of v. 18 and the start of v. 19 [ ]. What he wants them to grasp are 1. the glorious hope that lies before them, 2. the wonderful blessing that await them, and 3. the mighty power which is even now at work amongst them - the mighty power which is nothing less that the power which raised Jesus from the dead. That's the passionate vision Paul has for the Ephesians, a vision he wants them to share. Spiritual tunnel vision is to be replaced with this wonderful wide-screen, glorious Technicolor panorama of the blessings of God for his people, his church.
But that as I said is only the first part of this passionate vision. If the focus in the first part of the vision is on the Ephesian Church the focus in the second part is on the Lord of the Church, on Jesus Christ and here we're looking at vv. 19b - 23. Here is Paul's passionate vision of Jesus [ ]. It is a passionate, a glorious vision - but what's it got to do with the Church in Ephesus? What we mustn't think here is that in his passion and excitement Paul gets carried away, and forgets his passionate vision of the Church in favour of a passionate vision of Jesus. He's not running off at a tangent. Christ has been raised from the dead, and by virtue of that fact he now reigns above every other power and authority in the universe. And - here's the amazing thing – he does this, v. 22 for his church: he rules over everything for his church, for us, for the church which, v. 23, is nothing less than his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way. You see the one thing you can't do here is separate Christ from his church. The Church is the bride of Christ and what God has brought together let no-one put asunder. It's not just that they belong together – it's that they're almost indistinguishable, the two have become one: the church is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way.
Well let's pause for a moment with that breathtaking thought, and just let it sink in. No wonder Paul is passionate. No wonder Paul is passionate about the Church. You see you can't really separate the passions in this prayer – his passion for the Lord, for his Church, for it's people and for the story that brought them into being. They belong together, they are intimately intertwined. And in the end we have to stop the process of analysing this passionate prayer. We simply have to own it's passion and pray it ourselves. We need that same restless passion that wants more that we find in Paul, and which has its roots in the restless passion of God.
Ask your average person in the street for the defining characteristics of the church and they're unlikely to talk about the church as a place of passion. But they should be. It should be one of the prime internal dynamics of the church that we looked at yesterday. It's my prayer for you this w/e that you will recapture your passion, your excitement about being the people of God, and your love for the God who makes you his people.
This world desperately needs passionate churches. And this world desperately needs passionate churches for one simple reason – because it's in the demonstration of our passion that the passionate love of Jesus is revealed in us and through us [x2]. If frankly we don't care all that much, then however much we may claim to be the body of Christ then nothing of Jesus will be seen in us. If we're indifferent, then he'll be invisibe. But if we reflect and demonstrate his passion, then he will be seen and found and known in us. And that's what the world desperately needs – to meet Jesus in his Church. This world desperately needs us to recapture our passion, that it may meet Jesus in his Church. And that means that this world desperately needs this prayer to be answered in us.
Let's pray it together now.
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:19 pm
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