in that true spirit of worship.
Let us turn to the Word of God.
Our reading this morning is in Ephesians chapter
1.
We read from verse 15 to the end
of the chapter.
Let's hear the Word of God together.
Therefore, I also, after I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love
for all the saints, do not cease to
give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that
you may know what is the hope of
his calling, what are the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints, and
what is the exceeding greatness of his power
towards us who believe according to the working
of his mighty power, which worked in Christ
when he raised him from the dead, and
seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power,
and might and dominion, and every name that
is named, not only in this age, but
also in that which is to come.
And he put all things under his feet,
and gave him to be head over all
things to the church, which is his body,
the fullness of him who fills all in
all.
May the Lord apply his word to our
hearts and our lives with power.
I'm very happy this morning publicly to endorse
the two appointments within the EMW.
I'm delighted that Peter Hallam, the small man,
is my colleague down the corridor.
We get on well together, and it is
a joy and a delight to fellowship with
him, to liaise with him, and I trust
that he will continue to be well used
in the office as Chief Administrator, as the
boss, as I call him.
I also endorse the appointment of Stuart Elyot.
The college has given him a free transfer.
We haven't had a record transfer fee at
all, but the free transfer is a happy
one because the condition is that he plays
some home games for us, and an occasional
away game.
So we're delighted that he will be able
to contribute to the teaching programme and the
preparation of preachers, particularly as we are expanding
that provision during the coming months.
I'm very happy of the appointment because it
will help further to express the unity of
God's people.
Any appointment, any development that expresses the unity
of the Lord's people must be welcomed.
And I trust, not just between the college
and the movement, but amongst Christians generally in
Wales, and further afield, that this appointment will
manifest, encourage and foster genuine fellowship and unity
amongst the Lord's people.
I think too we must remember that the
work of God is always much bigger than
any small area of the work that we're
involved in.
Sometimes we can be guilty of tunnel vision.
Imagine that the work of God is confined
to our little organisation.
But God's work is much bigger, much more
important than our own little area of activity.
Therefore, in that, Stuart is being set apart
to a wider work, and I trust wider
than the EMW.
I trust that God will bless and use
him.
Let's turn now to the Word of God.
Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
We are considering this morning the glory of
God in and on behalf of the church
in verses 15 to 23.
The little word, therefore, which begins verse 15,
is extremely important.
So notice it.
It points you back to the blessings which
God has blessed us with in Jesus Christ.
These glorious blessings include election, predestination to adoption,
redemption, forgiveness of sins, the making known of
the mystery of God's will, the cosmic renewal
of the universe, and also the sealing of
the Spirit as a guarantee of our glorious
inheritance.
These are great and glorious blessings with which
God has blessed us in Christ, and these
are the privilege of all believers in him.
Now from praise to God, in verses 3
to 14, the apostle now turns to thanksgiving
in verses 15 and 16.
And then he turns to specific prayer for
the Ephesian Christians in verses 17 to 23.
It's essentially a prayer for the spiritual progress
and development of these Christians.
Christians are expected to grow in grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
their understanding of the truth as God has
revealed it.
And so the apostle is praying for these
believers.
Once again in the Greek text, this is
a single unbroken sentence from verse 15 down
to verse 23, consisting of 169 words this
time.
But throughout the long sentence, the glory of
God is prominent, particularly as it is manifested
in and on behalf of his church.
Now before considering the prayer in detail, I
want to ask two basic questions very quickly.
These are questions which some of us are
asking this week.
The first question relates to the apostle's thanksgiving
in verses 15 and 16 for the Ephesian
Christians.
The question is a basic one.
What is a Christian?
It's the most important question you can ask.
I remember being asked this question in Romania,
in a very small village out in the
countryside.
I was there for the best part of
two days preaching in a very small Baptist
church in the evening, just about 15 members.
The small church persecuted fiercely by the local
Orthodox priests and his members.
These believers were suffering because of their faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the preaching service, I knew a few
unbelievers were present.
After the service, we all went to the
home of one lady, one couple.
This was a very special occasion because the
husband had recently professed faith.
He had been one of the active leaders
of the Orthodox church, who along with the
priest had been persecuting these believers and even
giving his wife and children a very difficult
time.
It was the first time that they'd ever
held a fellowship meeting in their home.
So I gave greetings.
They wanted to know a little bit about
me.
As I told them how I became a
Christian, they began to give their testimonies.
When it came to the turn of the
man living in this house, he said, I
think I'm a Christian now.
But his face was beaming.
He explained he had recently watched a baptismal
service in the river.
He'd heard some testimonies.
He knew what his wife believed and his
two children.
About a month previously, he'd been reading New
Testament, unknown to the family, and John 3
.16 had spoken powerfully to him.
After reading that verse, he came under a
measure of conviction.
He then asked me the question, do you
think I'm a Christian?
What is a Christian?
He went on to say.
I threw the question back at him.
Well, tell me what's happened to you?
Three things he said have stuck in my
mind.
One thing he said, I knew they were
right, pointing to these Christians.
I had to agree with them in the
end.
What they said about God, about the Lord
Jesus Christ, about sin, about believing, repenting, I
knew they were right.
And that's a vital element in saving faith.
Knowledge.
Knowledge of the Word of God.
Knowledge basically about God, about his Son, about
our sin, the way of salvation, trusting in
Jesus Christ who bore our sin.
Then he said, I had a longing.
I looked at my family, I looked at
these Christians.
I was aware of my sin and my
danger, and I longed to know what they
knew.
I was jealous of them.
There was conviction, there was thirst, there was
hunger, a longing.
It's another vital element in saving faith.
Then he told me, I ran.
I didn't know what he meant.
I ran to the fields, he said, to
find Jesus.
Tomorrow morning I'll show you in the field
where I went.
I didn't want to be with Christians.
I wanted to find Jesus.
Out there in the fields, I prayed and
I found Jesus Christ and I trusted in
him.
That is saving faith.
It's what the Apostle refers to in verse
15.
After I heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Saving faith rests upon the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a running, a going to him.
Not just knowing about him, not admiring him,
but going to him.
Resting upon him and trusting in him.
After hearing this, I used a number of
New Testament texts to encourage him.
And verse 15 here was one of them.
And I underlined the fact, your love for
all the saints as an evidence of being
a Christian.
He stopped me.
Yes, he said, I love these Christians and
he went round them one by one.
He named them.
I love you.
Forgive me for what I've done to you,
but I love you.
The evidence of grace is love to God's
people.
And so the Apostle Paul rightly, hearing of
the faith and knowing of the faith of
these Ephesian Christians, thanks God for them.
It's God's work.
He's regenerated them and he's given them the
grace of faith.
The fruit of the Spirit is evident in
their lives.
I do not cease to give thanks for
you.
Second question concerns the prayer which follows in
verses 17 onwards.
Why pray if God is sovereign?
If God chooses the elect and does as
he pleases in the world, what's the point
of the Christian praying?
Well, God decrees all things.
Nothing happens by chance, by coincidence.
We're not governed by fate.
It's not the movement of stars, as astrologists
tell us.
The world is governed by God, by a
personal living God.
History is the outworking of his eternal decrees.
But the sovereign God who has decreed all
things has decreed the means by which he
will accomplish his purposes.
This is not fatalism.
God has chosen the means by which people
will be saved, the means by which Christians
will grow.
He's chosen prayer.
He's chosen witnessing on the part of his
people.
The Bible, the Word of God, the reading
and the preaching of the Word.
The holy living of God's people.
The diligent use of the means of grace
in the church, the fellowship of his people.
These are the means which God has chosen
and through which he will work and he
will bless them.
And so God gives us the privilege of
accomplishing his purposes in and through his people.
A young Calvinist Baptist pastor in 1785 in
a small Northampton village of Moulton.
You all know his name, I'm sure.
In order to support his family, he taught
in a local school and he also made
shoes.
But he was a great man of prayer.
He had a passion for preaching the gospel.
Oh, he believed in election, predestination.
Sometimes when teaching the children in the school
in the geography lesson, he would point to
certain countries and islands and say to the
children, these are pagans, pagans.
Tears streaming down his face.
A burden, a passion for the lost.
And he prayed for them.
In 1793 he sailed with his wife and
four children for India.
William Carey knew that God sovereignly decreed all
things.
But he has appointed the means by which
people will come to faith.
He was to go and to preach the
word.
I remember a moving occasion when a missionary
friend with whom I had some banter sometimes
because he was a very strong Arminian.
And he was describing a visit he'd made
to a village and a village he believed
that had never seen a missionary or had
a Christian visit that village before.
He believed that he and his colleague were
the first Christians to take the gospel to
that people.
As soon as they arrived in the village,
his colleague with him was a doctor.
They were appointed to an old lady who
was dying.
And he told me that before they could
actually witness to this old lady, she died
in the arms of the doctor.
And he said, I wept and I wept
and I wept.
He turned to me and said, but Errol,
you are a Calvinist, aren't you?
And you wouldn't cry.
I rebuked him.
We may give this impression to people and
we can be cold and indifferent, but the
Christian who knows God's electing grace, the wonders
of Calvary, the love of Christ constraining him,
weeps for sinners, longs to see them converted.
And so the Apostle Paul here is doing
something which is within the revealed will of
God.
He's praying for the believers.
He wants them to grow, grow in their
understanding of the truth.
He wants them to know God better.
He wants them to be encouraged.
He doesn't just sit back and leave them
to God to do it.
He knows that God is involving him in
praying for these Christians.
Some of us Christian friends with our Orthodox
theology tend to be fatalistic.
Theologically, we may know it.
But in practice, we just leave it as
if it will inevitably happen.
But God involves his people in accomplishing his
means, his ends.
And you must repent of any hard, callous
attitude, any failure to respond to the right
use of the means which God has appointed
to accomplish his purposes.
And if you are neglecting the means of
grace in the church, you must put it
right.
If you are neglecting to pray for Christians,
repent of it.
If you are not reading the Bible and
fellowshipping with his people, you are dishonoring God.
Well, after thanking God for these Ephesian Christians,
the Apostle proceeds to pray for them.
There are three requests I want to mention
as briefly as possible.
First one, verses 17 to 18, that they
should know God better.
He first describes the God to whom he
is making this request in verse 17.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a lovely description.
It's as if the Apostle is saying, Lord,
God, I know you.
You've loved me from eternity.
You've chosen me.
You've given your Son to die for me.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember visiting a hospital, very eager to
get into a particular ward to see a
patient.
And the ward sister insisted, it was outside
visiting hours, but she insisted that even as
a pastor, I could not go and see
that patient.
When a ward sister tells you that, you
have to listen.
And so disappointedly, I turned around and began
to walk away from her office.
And then suddenly, providentially, the medical consultant was
walking down the corridor towards the sister's office,
towards me.
I knew him well.
He greeted me, a personal name.
We chatted.
And then he said to me, well, who
do you want to see?
What are you doing on this ward?
And I explained.
And he turned to the sister and said,
Sister, it's all right for my friend to
see this patient.
Yes, she said.
So I turned to the sister, perhaps you
will take my friend and show him where
patient X is.
And when my friend is finished, he said,
the three of us will have a cup
of tea in your office.
I didn't take that up at the end,
I must admit.
But I knew him.
I knew the man at the top, if
you like.
It's almost, in a much more wonderful way,
it's as if the Apostle is saying, God,
the Father, who loves me, who loves his
people, who has chosen us, who has predestined
us to adoption, who has given his Son,
and for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has
died, I'm praying to you, the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he describes him as the Father
of Glory.
I believe the description functions in two ways
in this verse.
First to express worship, but also to express
a spirit of expectancy.
It obviously expresses an attitude of worship because
the term glory refers to what God is
in all his essential perfections and beauty.
God is unutterably and inexpressibly glorious and perfect
in his essential being.
He is the Father of Glory.
But this attitude of awe and worship also
expresses an attitude of expectancy.
It's this God of Glory, Stephen says in
Acts 7 verse 2, who appeared to our
Father Abraham.
The God of Glory appeared, manifested himself, dealt
with our Father Abraham.
Here is the God who reveals himself to
his covenant people.
The God who unveils his character, shows his
will, extends his grace.
And now the Apostle is praying to him.
Oh God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of Glory, I want you to manifest
yourself.
I want you to have more dealings with
these Ephesian Christians.
Notice what the request is in verse 17.
The Father of Glory may give to the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him.
Real knowledge, genuine knowledge, certain knowledge, accurate, reliable
knowledge about God.
But including experimental knowledge, knowing God himself.
Isn't this what Christianity is all about?
Our Lord Jesus in John 17 verse 3
tells us, this is eternal life that they
may know you, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you sent.
In Ephesians 2 verse 18, Paul tells us
for through him we both have access by
one spirit to the Father.
Our broken relationship with God has been restored
in and through Jesus Christ.
Christ introduces us to the Father, ushers us
into his presence.
And our privilege as Christians is to know
God.
And Paul is praying that they will know
him better and better and better and better.
It's Paul's prayer in Colossians 1.
There's a close affinity between Ephesians and Colossians.
In verse 10 of Colossians 1, Paul speaks
of increasing in the knowledge of God.
But how can we know God better?
There are lots of different, strange answers today.
What you need, some tell us, you need
a weekend away to get the spirit.
You'll come back a different person.
Or you need to go to one of
the North American airport churches and get slain.
Or you need to go to that exciting
church in your locality with fabulous worship and
music, miracles.
Or you need to go to one of
those centers in the UK where every part
of the building is anointed with oil, every
part of it.
When anyone goes inside that anointed building, things
happen.
That's in the current magazine of this organization.
And I wonder people are confused.
How can I know God better?
That should be the cry and the longing
of each Christian.
Simply there are two requirements, the Bible and
the Holy Spirit.
The Bible, this is God's revelation of himself.
He's unveiled himself, his character, his purpose to
us through the prophets and apostles and supremely
in his Son.
Do you want to know God?
Well, you must come back to the Bible.
You must read it.
You must meditate.
Are you longing to know fellowship with him?
To catch new glimpses of his character and
his glorious purposes?
Come to the Bible.
It's God's book.
He's the author.
God breathed out this through the teachings and
even the very words of the Bible.
So the prophets and apostles spoke and wrote
what God was revealing.
So here is wisdom, the wisdom of God.
It's knowledge from God which can make us
wise unto salvation and which equips us to
live our Christian lives.
And where we can see God revealed.
But notice how Paul expresses this prayer.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give to you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him.
He's not asking for extra biblical new revelation
but rather fresh understanding, insight into what God
has already revealed in the Bible.
And verse 18 confirms this.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
The perfect sense is used.
Conveying a sense of a completed action which
has a continuing impact and force.
Illumination has come to us in new birth
and conversion.
There's been a decisive change in chapter 4
verse 18.
Paul tells the Ephesians that they were darkened
in their understanding.
Unable to see the truth.
In chapter 5 verse 8 of Ephesians, he
says, once you were darkness but now are
you light in the Lord.
So the inner disposition of the heart is
changed in the miracle of regeneration.
So the eyes of our heart or understanding
are opened.
I remember Christians years ago always saying or
asking the question, have you seen the light?
This is what they meant.
Their eyes have been opened.
The miracle of new birth has taken place.
They can now see the glory of God,
the way of salvation in Jesus Christ.
But that's just the beginning.
We need the Holy Spirit to open the
word more and more to us, to reveal
more of the Lord to us.
And in the word, by the operation of
the Spirit of God, to be able to
experience God and to know him intimately.
So the prayer request is that believers will
be given ability and grace to see the
Lord, to discern, to understand, receive what is
revealed in the scripture.
It's the work of the Spirit to do
this.
To give us a growing supply of wisdom,
of clear knowledge.
To be able to see the real meaning
of the gospel.
To have clearer views of the glory of
God.
To be humble, to have a sense of
amazement.
The word is the means through which we
come to know him better and better by
the Spirit.
To know God better.
That's his prayer.
It should be our prayer.
Practical hints?
Well, read and use your Bible well.
Treasure it.
Pray.
This is what Paul is doing here.
Spend time in the presence of God.
Get to know him on your knees.
And as you pray and read your Bible,
ask God to illumine your minds by the
Spirit of God.
Discipline yourself in your use of time.
George Whitefield used to divide his day into
three parts.
He said 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work,
8 hours prayer and Bible study.
John Wesley, very disciplined having his 2 hours
of prayer in the morning.
But he was disciplined in going to bed
on time as well.
Remember that Pentecostal pastor who was convicted of
the time he spent watching television and he
covenanted before God that the time he spent
in the late evening watching television he would
devote to God and to prayer.
God blessed him.
God met with him.
We need discipline.
Using the word.
Praying.
Looking to God the Spirit to work in
the word to bring us to know him
better.
But secondly, notice the request in verse 18
that we should know the hope to which
we are called.
This little word call in verse 18 may
have lots of associations with possibly a parent
thinking of a young child playing and then
runs further and further away from the parent.
You call and call and call.
The child ignores the call.
You probably know the experience of having to
run for all you're worth to catch the
child up and forcefully pick it up, bring
it back.
And God is calling people, sinners everywhere in
the gospel.
It's the general invitation.
Many people as they hear the call ignore
it and they go further and further and
further away from God.
But usually in the New Testament this word
call or called carries a much stronger meaning.
God actually bringing the person he calls, invites,
but with the call he actually brings the
sinner.
So Romans 8 verse 30 Paul writes whom
he predestinated, these he also called.
Whom he called, these he also justified.
1 Corinthians 1 verse 9 God is faithful
by whom you were called into the fellowship
of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
It's God's work.
It's powerful.
It's irresistible.
It's effective.
And apart from that mighty effectual call by
God, no one would ever come and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
God brings us.
We often struggle and fight and resist, but
in bringing us and in calling us effectually,
the miracle of regeneration takes place inwardly in
us.
And we embrace and we yield and submit
to God's irresistible call.
And God brings us into union and fellowship
with Jesus Christ.
God's power, God's grace does it.
And so the people of God appreciate and
anticipate the hope which lies ahead of them.
There's a glorious future.
I do believe that the Apostle is referring
to heaven here.
I think the close link between Ephesians and
Colossians, for example, confirms this.
In Colossians 1 verse 5 the Apostle speaks
of the hope laid up for you in
heaven.
Believers can look forward to future glory.
The Apostle could say that absent from the
body, present with the Lord.
In Philippians 1 he says, I have a
desire to depart and to be with Christ
which is far better.
To be with Christ which is far better
than living here as a believer.
There's a very moving story of a lady
in her early 60s living near Betta Sequoia
in North Wales.
Around about 1860, there had been a very
powerful work of God's Spirit in revival.
And this lady was a godly woman, very
prayerful.
She'd been well used in the village to
bear testimony to Christ.
But she was very ill and she was
thought to be dying.
She had a longing to be with Christ.
And the local doctor called to see her
this particular day.
And just after he left, the pastor went
to see this lady.
And she was crying bitterly, sobbing and sobbing
her heart out.
And the pastor assumed that the doctor had
given her the most awful news.
You're going to die then soon, said the
pastor.
Well that's the problem, she said.
The doctor has told me I may not
die.
And I'm longing that I'll be with the
Lord in heaven before next Sunday.
In anticipation of glory, being with Christ.
And often as Christians we're so earthbound, so
worldly.
Money, houses, things mean so much to us.
Heaven is a kind of appendix.
Postpone it for as long as possible in
the New Testament.
The believers anticipated, looked forward to it.
They couldn't wait to get there.
Heaven is to be with the Lord, to
be in His immediate presence.
Heaven is to see the Lord.
1 John 3, 2, We shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He
is.
We see Him in creation, His glory.
We see Him revealed in the Word.
We see Him reflected in His people.
But we're going to see Him face to
face.
Heaven is home.
In my Father's house are many mansions, says
our Lord Jesus.
It belongs to Him.
He's going to prepare a place for us.
And I believe that in the rest of
verse 18, the Apostle goes on further to
describe heaven.
I'm aware that some understand this as referring
to God's possession of His people and their
privileges.
But Paul has the habit of continuing and
piling up a description or words describing the
same theme.
The word inheritance, the people of God, appears
in verse 11, for example, and suggests this
interpretation.
And after mentioning general terms, the hope, perhaps
here he's spelling it out, the riches of
the glory of His inheritance among the saints.
It's a corporate privilege.
All God's people will inherit glory.
It's a rich and a glorious inheritance.
John Bunyan died in 1688.
And some historians believe that what he writes
of Mr. Stanfust and part two of his
Pilgrim's Progress was really reflecting his own dying.
Remember where he says there, I'm going now
to see that head that was crowned with
thorns.
I'm going to see that face that was
spit upon for me.
This thought, I'm going to see my Savior.
I'm going to this better country.
I shall be with Christ.
I shall see Him and enjoy Him.
We're going to be there with the saints,
with all the saints one day.
All the elect will be safely gathered in.
It's going to be international.
Not one Christian will be lost.
We'll all be together.
We won't be there just for a week.
We'll be there for eternity.
The Lord will be there in the middle.
No Bible is needed, no prayer meetings, no
preachers, no chief administrators there, no encouragers of
pastors.
No Lord's Supper there.
Heaven is glorious.
There'll be no division.
Some of you have been telling me of
difficulties in your churches and people leaving and
quarreling.
I can't grasp it but we're going to
agree 100% in heaven.
No partings, no imperfections, no problems with that
elder or deacon.
I will look at that difficult elder or
deacon and I will love him 100%.
There'll be no disease, there'll be no death
there.
And I wonder, Lloyd-Jones scribbled on that
piece of paper a day or two before
his death, don't pray for healing.
Don't keep me back from the glory.
Finally notice, in verse 19 onwards, Paul is
praying that we should know the great power
of God at work in us and towards
us.
The Apostle wants these Christians to know the
greatness and the extent of God's power which
works in and on behalf of his people.
To do so, in verse 19, he uses
as many as four different Greek words for
power.
They may all have the same basic meaning
as disagreement.
Possibly slightly different emphases.
God's power, God's ability.
His ability to accomplish what he pleases.
He never fails, he's never defeated.
His inherent strength, this is his nature.
He is gloriously strong.
He has vast resources of power in himself.
Perhaps another word refers to the way in
which God in his power overcomes all opposition.
Nothing can hinder God in doing what he
decrees.
Perhaps another word expresses the exercise of his
power.
The energy of God.
The strength of God.
The might of God's power.
So the Apostle prays, Lord, I want these
Christians to see clearly the greatness, the vastness
of your power exercised towards us who believe.
Open their eyes.
Why emphasize power?
Well, different commentators give different reasons, but perhaps
the local situation in Ephesus is one reason.
One of the largest cities in the then
known world.
It included one of the seven wonders of
the world.
The great temple of Diana was there.
Bigger than a football ground.
I almost said Anfield, or I should have
said Goodison Park.
There were massive columns, pillars supporting this big
roof.
Thousands of ungodly, immoral priestesses serving the goddess.
And linked with that temple was the occult,
magic, witchcraft.
There was power in that ungodly worship.
Perhaps these Ephesians were somewhat afraid.
He is asking God to show them the
greatness of his power working in them and
towards them.
To help us, and to help them, he
refers to three events where God's glorious power
was exercised.
First, which he worked when he raised him
from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an act
of God the Father, in his power, raising
his human nature.
It is an act of omnipotence, indicating that
his sacrifice is accepted.
Death and grave are now conquered.
Satan is defeated.
Christ is risen.
Then he refers, in verse 20, to the
power which seated Christ at his right hand
in the heavenlies.
In verses 20-21, there is even more
emphasis on the power of God taking the
Lord Jesus, our Mediator, back to heaven.
The words are grounded in Psalm 110 and
verse 1.
Our Lord uses them himself in Mark 12
verse 36.
They are used later in Hebrews 1.13,
Hebrews 10 verses 12 and 13.
Do you recall the scene of the Ascension?
Nearly six weeks after resurrection, the Lord Jesus
talking to his disciples.
Suddenly he was taken up before their eyes.
A cloud hid him from their sight.
It is the act of God's power, taking
him.
In verse 19, according to the working of
his mighty power.
So the God-man, our Mediator, the victor
over death and hell and sin, returns to
heaven and to the right hand of God
the Father.
I like to think of him going past
all the believers in heaven, going past all
the various levels of angels, going straight to
the very throne of God, sitting where only
God can sit, at his right hand.
Position of absolute universal authority.
In verse 21, no one is higher in
position or power.
Far above all principality and power.
Above the most powerful angels and archangels.
Far above Satan and his evil hosts in
this age and the age to come.
Far above all worldly powers which may be
opposed to God.
The point is reinforced in verse 22, and
he put all things under his feet.
Words taken from Psalm 8 and verse 6.
Psalm 8 concerning man's uniqueness as the summit
of God's creation.
Hebrews 2, verses 6-8, as if the
writer is saying, here is greatness, here is
glory.
It's not an earthly king.
It's not a great scientist.
It's not a philosopher.
It's Jesus Christ.
He is God the Son, the one who
became man.
He is now also exalted to the position
of the highest authority in the universe, seated
at God's right hand, fulfilling Psalm 8 far
more gloriously than anyone else.
And all are under his feet.
It's underlined and pressed by the apostle.
All creatures.
Everything subject to the authority of Christ.
And it gets even better.
At the end of verse 22, Paul tells
us, not just that he put all things
under his feet, but gave him to be
the head over all things, to the church.
In his meditatorial lordship, all authority in heaven
and earth is given to him as our
mediator.
And he is exercising that universal authority on
behalf of his people, his church.
He is the organic head.
He is the ruling head of the church.
And he uses his power to bless and
to build his church.
There's a mystery in Providence why Christians and
pastors should be killed in parts of Pakistan
or Sudan or Indonesia.
Why there should be such intense persecution in
some areas in Eastern Europe.
But Christ is sovereign.
He's exercising his power on behalf of his
church.
In Iran, despite evil regimes, more and more
Iranians are coming to Christ.
In Iraq with Sudan, a thriving church in
Baghdad, men and women come into faith in
the Lord Jesus.
In Sudan, despite intense persecution, more Muslims are
coming to Christ in Sudan than anywhere else
in the world.
A lot of them are being martyred.
They're suffering.
Christ is building his church.
He's blessing it.
He is our exalted head.
Oh, says Paul, to the Lord, open their
eyes to see the great power which is
at work.
That little prayer meeting of yours in your
church, discouraged, dejected, look up.
Remember your ruling head.
Remember the meditatorial lordship of Christ.
He is Lord.
Pray to him.
Seek him.
Ask him to regenerate people in your locality.
Ask him to restrain evil.
Ask him to come again and to revive
his church.
May God help us.
Let's pray.
So Lord, we ask that you will open
our eyes to the rich teaching of your
word, to your glory, and to the exalted
position of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Encourage us.
Come, O Lord, and exercise that power even
more evidently in our situation here in the
United Kingdom for your eternal glory.
Amen.