Title Ephesians 01:17-19 Knowing God
Contents
Title: Knowing God!
Text: Ephesians 1:17-19 -
In Paul's prayer to the Ephesians, Paul offers three prayers to God. I hope that the three prayers of Paul that appear in this Bible text today will be prayers for yourself and for the Kyunghyang Church you serve.
The content of the first prayer in verse 17 was that the Ephesians might come to know God better. The content of the second prayer in verse 18 was that they would know the glory of heaven. The content of the third prayer in verse 19 was to thank the great God who works powerfully in their lives.
If these three prayers are answered, the Kyunghyang Church you serve will be the most powerful and influential church in this area. These three prayers should actually be the content of your daily and regular prayers.
I. View the contents of the first prayer.
Verse 17 says, “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know God.”
I would like to explain the contents of this prayer in the following three ways so that we can understand it easily.
1. The Christian's privilege is to know God personally in Christ.
Six years ago, I met a very prominent politician in England. I saw and read this man on the TV news. Then I actually met him six years ago and we chatted for a few minutes. I am honored to have met this man. A year later, I met him again and had dinner. He remembered me and we spent a lot of time together. Now I have a feeling I'm getting to know him better. Every year until December of last year, we continued to see each other and started talking as friends. We now know each other better.
2. The problem of sin becomes a serious obstacle to knowing God.
But can we know God? Yes, it is! But because of our sins, our ability to know God is greatly hindered. God is holy. His nature is pure and he is an abhorrence of all sin. Because God is holy, He must punish all sins. We have rebelled against God by nature, and the penalty for our sins is eternal punishment in hell.
3. Here is the purpose of the church.
II. Look at the contents of the second prayer.
Verse 18 says, “Open your hearts and your eyes, and what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints?”
The second content of Paul's prayer in verse 18 was that the Ephesians wanted to know the glory of the kingdom of heaven.
In 1797, when the famous film director Alfred Hitchcock was dying at the age of 80, a famous wife visited the hospital to see him. When Hitchcock saw her, he took her hand and said, 'I'm dying.' Then her answer was: ‘One day you will die. And we will all die too.’ And she explained to him the death she was thinking of. It is said that his face was filled with fear as she left his room.
There was a famous British evangelist, Billy Bray. He fell ill in 1868 at the age of 74. The doctor who examined him said: 'Billy, you're going to die soon,' said Billy Bray, full of excitement, and exclaiming with joy. 'glory! God is worthy to be glorified! I'm going to heaven soon.'
Heaven must be a better place. There are better friends there, and it is a cosmopolitan place to which Christians of all generations of the world will gather. There is no need for a chapel, no evangelism, no discipleship, no preacher, no need for a revival. For the Lord our Lord will sit in the midst of heaven. Also, Christian fellowship will be better. There will be no more divisions in Heaven and all believers will agree on everything there. There will be no quarrels, no picky elders or Christians, much less corruption and corruption.
There is also no disease, no pain or death. Hospitals do not exist, and funerals will be even more absent. When Dr. Lloyd-Jones died in February 1981, he was so weak that he could barely speak, instead he wrote something to his family on a piece of paper. He didn't want any more drugs, but what he wrote on the paper was: ‘Do not pray for healing. Do not withdraw me from my glory!’ He looked forward to the glory of heaven. Today, the Apostle Paul is asking all Christians to have the same faith.
However, this ‘hope’ Paul is referring to in verse 18 does not mean only the kingdom of heaven, but also the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the second coming of the Lord in glory. When Jesus comes again, that will be the end of the world, every knee will bow before Him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. All enemies will fall, the dead will rise from the grave, and new heavens and a new earth will unfold in which righteousness dwells. That is our hope, and that is what we look forward to and look forward to. Maranatha! “Amen, come quickly, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
III. Look at the contents of the third prayer.
Verse 19 says, “I pray that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of the power that is bestowed upon us who believe, according to the work of his mighty power.”
The third part of Paul's prayer was to thank God for His great power in our lives.
It was the power of God that Paul wanted to thank in his Christian life. The same power of God who raised Jesus from the dead and took him up to heaven (Ephesians 1:20) is the same power that works in the lives of all Christians.
Dear saints,
It is the power of God that gives new life to the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). It is none other than God who gives life to us who are spiritually blind because of sin and transforms us into new people (Ephesians 2:5). This is a miracle, a miracle, and only God can do it. This same power is the power that works in us, the power to fight sin, and the power to obey Christ.
Oh, ability! The power that makes us strong! But it belongs to God. We must wait for power from heaven. Because God works in God's people like you and me. Let's pray that all of us, including you and me, may experience God's more "powerful power" (Ephesians 1:19). And for this, let us give thanks, praise and glory to our Almighty God! Hallelujah! - Amen -