I realized something about myself while I was studying Ephesians Chapter 1. I think I always thought that God just tolerates me. I mean, I can be kind of a pain, and I want to do the right thing and to live a life that honors my savior. But I often get tripped up by my own failures, my fear and pride and selfishness. And I know that God loves me, but I think I kind of figured that he had to. I mean, God is love after all. But in studying these verses, I was struck by the reality that God treasures me. He doesn't just tolerate me. I am his rich inheritance. And you, my friend, if you are in Christ, you are the inheritance that our great God looks forward to spending forever with. And this is just a small part of the richness that we find in the passage we're studying today. So I hope you will stick around as we study Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 15 through 23. Hi, friend, if you're new here, my name is Sarah, and I love the word of God, and I'm so glad that you're here to study with me. So grab your Bibles and let's seek him together. Ephesians 1 verses 15 through 23 is divided into two parts. The first part is a prayer that Paul has been praying for the Ephesians. And then as is often the case with Paul, when he begins to talk about the goodness of God, he can't help but elaborate on God's bigness and his mightiness and his glory. And that's what happens in verses 20 through 23. Now I shared in my previous videos on Ephesians that we're going to follow a similar pattern with every passage that we study. Now, the first thing that we want to consider is the context of the passage. We want to think about what do we know about the book of Ephesians, about the author, and about the original audience of the book. Then we want to make some observations. We want to look for things like repeated words or key themes and ideas, maybe references to other passages in scripture. Next, we strive to make an accurate interpretation of the passage. We want to understand what this passage is actually communicating. We're trying to understand what did the original author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intend to communicate to his readers. And then lastly, we'll make our application, what does this passage mean for me? How can I apply what I'm learning to my life? How can I grow in my understanding of God and allow that to change the way that I live my life following Jesus? So very briefly, I'm going to remind you of the context for the book of Ephesians. Now I actually made a whole video introducing the book of Ephesians, covering the history of Paul's relationship with the people in Ephesus, as well as some of the cultural information about the city of Ephesus and the people who lived there. If you haven't watched that video, I encourage you after this one, go check that one out, because it has some great information that's going to expand your understanding as you study Ephesians. Here's a summary of what I covered in that video though. Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in the city of Ephesus in the surrounding region, and those people were primarily Gentiles. Paul spent more than two years in the city of Ephesus at the end of his third missionary journey. Then he wrote this letter about five to 10 years later, while he was imprisoned in Rome. A few specific details about the city of Ephesus that are important to keep in mind are, first, the temple of Artemis was located in Ephesus, and the culture in that city and the surrounding region was primarily focused on the idolatrous worship of Artemis. Also, the city of Ephesus was steeped in the practice of dark magic and the occult. These are both things that would have highly impacted the lives of the Ephesian believers, and it would have affected the way that Paul communicated to and taught the believers about following Jesus. Now, today, we're actually covering the second half of Ephesians Chapter 1. And I did make a video covering the first half of Ephesians Chapter 1. So if you happen to miss that video, I'd actually encourage you go ahead, stop this video here, go watch that first video, and then don't forget to come back here and watch this one, so that you can get the picture of all of Ephesians Chapter 1. Okay, before we really get into this passage, I'm going to read the whole thing to you. So follow along with me as we read Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 15 through 23. “This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the mighty working of his strength, he exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.” Okay, so let's start making some observations. Remember, we're looking for things like repeated words and phrases, key themes, and ideas.And we can also consider questions like who, what, when, where, and why. Now, when I'm studying a passage, I don't necessarily ask all of those questions, and we're not going to cover all of my observations together, but I'm going to share with you the main things that I took note of. And remember, when we're making observations, we're just taking note of things. We're not necessarily trying to find any specific meaning in them yet. We're just trying to notice what does the passage say? And I will tell you, when making observations, it is really helpful to read the passage over and over and over and over and over again. But it's easy when you're doing that to kind of go on autopilot. What happens is we get this idea that because we've already read it, we know what it says, and so we kind of speed read and we don't really focus. So one thing that can be very helpful with that is to read the passage in multiple translations. This can also broaden your understanding of the passage and give clarity in certain portions that might be a little bit confusing. And there are many good Bible translations out there. And if you don't happen to have a physical copy of multiple translations, you can go to Biblehub.com, Biblegateway.com, or BlueLetterBible.com, and these are all free resources that will give you access to multiple translations as you're reading. Okay, back to our observations. One of the first things that I noticed is how frequently Paul uses the words “you” and “your” to refer to the Gentile believers. He uses the word “I” referring to himself, and references to “Jesus” and “God the Father” are also repeated. We also see the word “pray” and “prayer” multiple times, and multiple uses of words referring to wisdom or knowledge. And then also later in the passage, there's a real emphasis on the power of God. Paul uses words like power, mighty, and strength. Something else that I noticed in my observations is that if you look at verse 22, the words he subjected everything under his feet appears to be a reference to Psalm 8, verse 6. One last observation that I want tp share is the reference to the inheritance that we saw in verse eighteen. That caught my eye because I remembered that the verses right before this passage discussed the believer's inheritance. And so it's just interesting to notice the repeated reference to an inheritance, and yet we're going to find that this is actually a different inheritance. We'll look more at that shortly. Okay, now that we've made our observations, let's use that information to interpret our passage. But before we begin going verse by verse, I want to talk for a minute about the who of this passage. Remember, one of the first observations that I made was in regards to the repeated use of references to Paul and the Gentile believers. Basically, this is a very personal passage where Paul is talking about Jesus and about God the Father, but in these verses, he turns from having a primary emphasis on God like he did in verses 1 through 14. And in our passage, we also see a significant emphasis on Paul and the believers. Paul is turning his focus from recounting the goodness of God to telling the Ephesians that he's been praying for them and what has been the focus of their prayers. And so they, the believers, and Ephesus are mentioned over and over, and over again in these verses. I also noticed that Paul refers to himself in these verses almost the same amount of times as he refers to the Ephesian believers. We see here an emphasis on that personal connection, the personal relationship between Paul and the Ephesian believers. And we're going to see throughout this book that there is a real focus on the unity of the church. Both Gentile and Jewish believers are to be united in Christ. And Paul, as a Jew writing primarily to Gentile believers, is already putting a focus on that unity. He's telling the believers there in emphasis that he, a Jewish believer, loves them, that he prays for them, that he values them, and that they are saints along with him, that because of Christ, they have been adopted into God's family. Okay, keeping that in mind, let's read verses 15 through 16 again. This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. First, notice that this section starts with the words, “this is why”. That phrase points us back to the previous verses. When we read words like “this is why” it should cause us to ask, what is why, what is this? And if we look back at verses 3 through 14, we see that Paul pointed out a few things. He emphasized the extravagant grace that God lavished on us by choosing us before the creation of the world and making a way for all people to have the opportunity to be forgiven and adopted as his children. The other major focus is the inclusivity of God's grace. Remember, most of the believers in emphasis would have been gentiles, and the reality that gentiles could be adopted into God's family was relatively new and truly revolutionary. Paul wamts the Ephesian believers to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God chose them, that he redeemed them, and that he sent the Holy Spirit to live in them as a guarantee of their inclusion in his kingdom. So knowing these truths, Paul tells the Ephesians that he has heard about their faith and their love for all the saints, and he has been praying for them. Now, if you watched my video introducing the book of Ephesians, you may remember that in Acts chapter 20, we learned that one of the last things that Paul told the Ephesian believers while he was with them was to care for each other. He told them that while he was with them in Ephesus, he had set the example of not taking advantage of other people, but working hard and caring for each other, and he instructed them to do the same. So here in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15, we read that Paul heard that they've been doing exactly what he had told them to do. News of their faith and their care for each other had spread, and it had inspired Paul, who is in prison hundreds of miles away, to be grateful for them and to be praying for them. Notice also that in Ephesians 1, verse 1, Paul refers to the Ephesian believers as faithful saints, and now he's commending them for their care for all the saints. Paul is grouping all the believers together as saints, which is made possible by the work of Jesus on the cross. And how encouraging it must have been to the Ephesian believers to know that Paul, their father in the faith, was thankful for them and had been praying for them. Remember, Paul spent more than two years in the city of Ephesus. He would have known many of these believers personally and had relationships with them. He cared for them not just as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but as individuals that he knew personally. Now, in verses 17 through 19, Paul shares what he's been praying for. So let's read that now, starting in verse 17, we read, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. So let's break down Paul's explanation of his prayer a little bit and look at each part separately. We already discussed that his prayer started with gratitude; he is thankful for them. Then Paul says that he asks God to give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Paul's desire for the believers is that their understanding of who God is and what he has done through Jesus would increase. And he knows that, that increase in understanding, it always comes through the Holy Spirit. And you can actually read more about that in First Corinthians chapter 2. Now, here in our passage in verse 18, he refers to the expanding knowledge to be gained when the eyes of their hearts are enlightened again. This is a spiritual understanding, not just intellectual information. Then in verses 18 and 19, Paul expands on what this increased knowledge includes, and he lists three specific things that he's been praying for. First, we read that Paul has been praying that they would know what is the hope of his calling, and the ESV translates that phrase as the hope to which he has called you. Now remember, verses 3 through 14 were all about the truth that God chose them. This word calling refers to their divine invitation to embrace salvation. So they have been called by God, and Paul wants them to grow in their understanding of the amazing hope that is the result of that calling. Hope is the expectation of good, and Paul told them in verse 12 that a believer's hope is in Christ. Because of Jesus, a believer has the amazing ability to anticipate the immeasurable good of our future in eternity with God. The believers in the early church faced persecution that most of us struggle to even imagine, and this hope of what their eternity held was so important. Of course, it's also so important for us, but we can tend to take it for granted because of our more comfortable lives. But we'll talk a little bit more about that in our application.The second thing that Paul says he's been praying for is that they would know what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Now, remember back in our observations when I pointed out that Paul had actually made a reference to the believer's inheritance in previous verses, but that this inheritance is different. I want you to pay close attention to the wording here. Notice that Paul says the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints. This, my friends, is the part of this passage that impacted me the greatest. We are God's inheritance, and he considers us a wealthy inheritance. Let me say that again, those of us who have given our lives to Jesus and accepted the free gift of salvation, we are God's inheritance. We are what he is anxiously waiting to enjoy for all of eternity, not because of anything we have done, but because of his infinite love for us, his creation, and he doesn't consider us a measly or lesser inheritance, but we are his abundant, rich inheritance, you and me. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, you can find this beautiful song of Moses, where he is telling of God's amazing greatness and mercy. And he mentions that when God gave the nations their inheritance, that he proclaimed that his people were his inheritance. Listen, as I read Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses 1 through 4 and 8 through 9, “Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak, listen earth to the words from my mouth, let my teaching fall like rain, and my words settle like do like gentle rain on new grass and showers on tender plants, for I will proclaim the Lord's name, declare the greatness of our God, the rock, his work is perfect, all his ways are just a faithful God without bias. He is righteous and true. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance and divided the human race, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the peoples of Israel. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his own inheritance.” Can you even fathom it that the God of the universe chose us, created us, redeemed us, and considers us his valuable inheritance? What kind of love is that? That is the love of our God. So while we wait with hope for our completed redemption and our inheritance in heaven, which is the tremendous blessing of spending eternity with God, he also waits in anticipation for the same. He is our inheritance, and we are his. Thank you, Jesus. Okay, the third thing that Paul praised for the believers is that they would know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believed, which Paul explains is according to the mighty working of his strength. And then in the next few verses, he's going to expound on that power. So let's read Ephesians 1 verses 20 through 23 again, and then we'll look closer at this prayer request. It says he exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power, and dominion and every title given not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way. Notice first that this power is toward us, but it is according to his strength. So God moves in power on behalf of his children, and Paul wants the believers to understand the extent of this power. And so he gives the greatest example of God's power, Christ's resurrection and Ascension. When God raised Jesus from the dead, not only did he demonstrate the miracle of bringing someone back to life, but because Jesus is the Son of God and was the perfect sinless sacrifice who bore the sins of the whole world when he died. God also demonstrated the ability to conquer the effects of sin. His resurrection created the opportunity for our resurrection. In addition, after Jesus rose from the dead, when he returns to heaven, Paul says that God seated Christ at his right hand in the heavens. This is demonstrating Jesus's divinity. He himself is God and ruler overall; he sits in absolute authority with the Father. And Paul goes on to elaborate further on the extent of Christ's authority. In verse 21, he says that Jesus is seated far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but in the one to come. Now, remember in our intro to Ephesians video, we talked about the prevalence of the occult in Ephesus. You see the believers and emphasis, they were surrounded by people who were practicing magic through demonic forces. These forces displayed a level of power that brought about fear and worship. And there was some confusion among the people of Ephesus as to the comparison between the power that these demonic forces displayed and the power that Paul demonstrated through God. But make no mistake, there is no comparison. God's power is absolute, it is limitless, and it is perfect.And God used Paul to show the matchlessness of God's power. And you can read about that in Acts Chapter 19, verses 11 through 20. But back here in Ephesians 1, verse 21, Paul is reminding the Ephesians that the power of God is far, far greater than any other force. Then in verse 22, Paul goes on to say that God subjected everything under Jesus's feet and appointed him as head over the church, which is the believers. Now, in our observations, we notice that this phrase he subjected everything under his feet is a phrase that we can also find in Psalm 8, verse six. Now this is a really interesting quote because Psalm 8 is actually a psalm where David is praising the majesty of God. And in this psalm, David talks about how even though God created the whole universe, he still cares about humankind and even put man in authority over the rest of creation. God put everything under man's feet. Now, when Paul says this phrase, he subjected everything under his feet; he's actually talking about God subjecting everything under Christ's feet. Now, there are some different ideas as to why Paul may have used this passage in this way, but ultimately what matters is that god is the one who gives authority. David recognized that God gave man authority over creation, animals, plants and birds, and in our passage, God gave Christ authority over everything. And by saying that God appointed Christ as head over everything for the church, we see that Christ’s ultimate and complete authority is to the benefit of the church. We as believers are blessed by the reality that our savior is Lord over all. He does not have a rival or an equal or even a real threat. He reigns and rules, and neither the powers of man nor the powers of hell have any sway over him. Finally, in verse 23, Paul explains that the church is Christ's body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way. And Paul says something very similar to this in Colossians 2, verses 9 and 10, where you can read for the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority in Christ. Believers are made complete by the one who is complete. So what does all of this mean for you and for me? Well, if Paul thought it was important enough to pray continually for all the believers, then certainly we ought to be praying for each other, and we can take an example from Paul's prayer. Our salvation, our calling should motivate us to lift each other up in prayer. We need each other, and the body of Christ is a gift from God so that we can grow together and walk through life together. When studying these verses, I found myself considering, how often do I pray for my friends and family to grow in their understanding of their salvation? Do I ask God to help my friends understand their value to him, their great worth, and the significance of their calling?I have been so blessed by the increased awareness of God's love for me, that he chose me, that he redeemed me, and he treasures me as his inheritance. I want my friends and family to understand and feel the depth of that as well. And so I'm inspired and convicted to pray more diligently for that, and also to pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ would understand how matchless is the power and authority of our God. And I don't want to take the hope of my calling for granted. I want to remember the significance of the promise of eternity with God. And I want to remember that Jesus sits on the throne above every authority. Regardless of who controls our government, who runs the show in our places of employment or school, or even what evil spiritual forces are attacking, our God reigns. And he has placed everything, everything under the feet of Christ. We can trust our good and mighty God and friend, that is my prayer for you: that you would trust and submit to our good Almighty God, and know how very loved you are. Thanks so much for being here. I'd love to hear from you in the comment section. What are you learning in Ephesians? Let's grow together. And if you haven't yet, I'd really appreciate it if you'd give this video a thumbs up, and make sure you're subscribed. You can find the other videos in this series on Ephesians if you click here. And in the meantime, remember keep seeking Jesus. He is so worth knowing.