Ephesians 1:22 - No silver medals

"...and He subjected everything under the feet of Him, and Him He gave [as] Head above all the assembly..."

-This verse must be taken in connection to the previous one, as it is connected with an ‘and’.  So in exalting Jesus to His right hand in the highest heaven, God the Father put all things under His feet.  This is a metaphor for submission, specifically of triumph over enemies.  In this instance, the list of enemies includes all those in spiritual rebellion against Almighty God, as well as death as an active (anti)life force.  What we are talking about is total victory, the ultimate vanquishing, and there is only one Person on that victory stand - no points for second place, no silver medal of any kind.  And what enemies exist are not only defeated, they are destroyed (or are destined to be).  

-God's Son is now the realization of the perfect God-Man, finally and fully in charge (or soon to be) of the entirety of creation (cf Psalm 110.1, 8.6).  Man was originally intended to be in charge over creation, but that position he abrogated when man chose to disobey his Creator.  For Jesus’ part, we do see that as of yet not everything is completely subjected to Him.  People still live in rebellion against Him.  stuff still breaks down, and death is still has operational control.  But a day is coming and soon will be, when every knee will bow before Jesus and confess Him as Lord (Philippians 2.9-11), and death will once and for all be cast out of existence (Revelation 20.4).  What a day of rejoicing THAT will be, right?

Ephesians 1:21 - The Name

"...far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name being named, not only in the this age but rather also in the [one] coming."

-Not only did God exert miraculous power in raising Jesus out of the dead, but He exalted Him [back] to glory. In Jesus He (re)established and inaugurated a new level of unrivaled authority.  Jesus ascended to heaven and sat right down at His Father’s right hand, the right hand of Power, forever reigning co-equal with God the Father.  Now and forever, that’s what Paul says.  There is no power on heaven or earth or anywhere in the universe, no angelic being, no force of nature, no ruler, no empire or majesty or nation or alliance of nations even that can or will ever come close to comparing with the power and authority which resides in Jesus now and forever.  He is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords (cf Revelation 19.6).  demons tremble and flee at the mere mention of His Name (Luke 10.17, Acts 16.18).  His Name brings life and hope and healing and forgiveness to the nations (Matthew 12.21; John 1.12, 16.23, 20.31; Acts 3.6, 4.30; 1John 5.13).  In fact there is no name which has or will ever rival His, no better name, no other name ever by which we can be saved or at which every knee will bow (Acts 4.12, Philippians 2.9-10).  We can bow now of our own free will (cf Colossians 3.17), in this present age, or we will have no choice but to bow in the next (Revelation 11.18, 15.4), where we will be held accountable for how we in fact disrespected and hated His Name in this life (cf Matthew 10.22, James 2.7), for every last vestige of rebellion and godlessness.  Wisdom would point to choosing door number one...

Ephesians 1:20 - Wonder-working power

"...which He worked in the Christ, having raised Him out of [the] dead and having seated by His right hand in the heavenlies..."

-This power, this surpassingly great power which is at work in the lives of those who believe in Jesus and which God desires to unleash to bless a lost and dying world - just how great is it?  Where might one look to get an idea of how great it is?  Look no further than the empty tomb.  Yes, the tomb is empty, and death - that great enemy, dauntless and unflinching, the final and tragic common destiny of fallen man - death itself was dealt one massive decisive death blow.  Death and taxes, right?  Everyone says those are the only two inevitable things.  Well in truth, only death is unavoidable.  Or was.  On that fateful day a long time ago in a garden paradise far, far away, that day of first disobedience, death entered in to the world and began to reign.  The curse of all curses, this.  All living things began to die, and all things began to break down, a process and a power which continued unabated and unchallenged until... Another fateful day, a Sunday not quite so long ago and not too far away from another garden.  There in a sealed rock tomb lay a corpse, a dead body.  And we must consider for a moment just what we are about to consider.  Once life is extinguished, there is no bringing it back.  No matter if it is a human being or a fly or a blade of grass, there is no power on earth, no power known to man that is able to produce life out of death.  Death is the final, impenetrable and irreversible barrier, and life is a miracle, a wonderful impossible, completely beyond the capacity of man in every sense.  Yes, man (and beast) may pro-create and multiply that which already lives, but to generate life out of death much less to create it ex nihilo (out of nothing) is a hopeless pipedream.  Medical science aspires and tries desperately to accomplish this but to no avail.  Sure, they are able to produce amino acids in a test tube, and clone some already living cells, and sometimes resuscitate one whose life functions have just stopped, but this is not life out of death.  Man is able to plant a seed in the ground or in a womb, and it will bring forth life, but that is life which already resides in the seed itself, which came from the living one which gave rise that seed, all the way back to the very Life Giver Himself.  And it was He Who brought the body of His Own dead Son back to life, not just to a life and a body that again break down and die but rather now life unending, eternally glorified, death defeated forever.  Life out of death is the greatest Miracle of miracles - it requires a power beyond our comprehension and way beyond compare.  This is the awesome wonder-working power which is at work in the life of every person who believes in Christ.  It should be a total game changer, and Paul knew it, which is why he is asking for God to help us to know how great this power is.  Even just tapping into and unleashing a tiny morsel of God’s power in my life is enough to get me and those I care about over or through whatever mountain we might be facing.  With God, all things are possible.  Do I know this?  Do I believe this?  God, help my unbelief...

Ephesians 1:19 - If we only knew...

"...and what [is] the surpassing greatness of His power unto us, the [ones] believing, according to power of the strength of His might..."

-But wait - there’s more!  Yes, Paul is asking God to reveal one more thing, and that is how surpassingly great God’s power is towards those who believe.  And again, we really have no clue.  We struggle and stumble, two steps forward and one or two and sometimes three steps back, inching forward as best we can in our own strength, and therein lies the problem.  We try to make progress towards heaven in our own feeble finite strength, when in fact the unlimited power of almighty God is constantly at our disposal.  Scripture tells us that we are impotent, unable to do even one good thing apart from Him, our own best efforts nothing more than filthy rags.  And at the same time, the God Who made everything out of nothing and for Whom no thing is impossible lives inside of us!  The very Power that flung out and fuels a billion billion stars in each of which a hundred million nuclear bombs is expoding every second of every day is the same Power that lives and works in and through me, surpassingly great, so far beyond anything on earth, defying explanation and description.  Paul has seen this power at work in and through his own life, power to work miracles, power to overcome, power to persevere, power unleashed through prayer.  Which is precisely why Paul is praying now...

-He is saying, if only we knew, if only we knew the hope, the riches, the power at our disposal.  Life would be different.  We would live differently.  We would pray differently (more), we would expect differently (more), we would settle-for-less differently (less).  Our lives would be full of hope!  Our lives would begin to show off the greatness of God.  We are children and heirs of the King of the universe - He loves us, and lives inside of us with all the power at His disposal.  God, show them, show us Your hope, Your riches, Your power!  Blow our minds and change our world(s) for Your glory, for You are glorious, and gloriously worthy of nothing less...!

Ephesians 1:18 - World-rocking mind-blowing Magnificence

"...having been enlightened the eyes of your heart, unto you to be having known what is the hope of His calling, what [is] the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the holy ones..."

-Again, not purely physical, this.  Paul is talking about God revealng spiritual knowledge, something which transcends the material.  It is not something you simply see with your physical eyes, not something you can just glean from glancing around or from a book or a lab experiement.  This is inner illumination, God turning on a light in the very core of my being, right in the very ‘heart’ of my understanding and feelings (2Corinthians 4.6).  We’re talking about more than mere head knowledge - this is something I will know that I know that I know and understand with every fiber of my being.  I will be thoroughly convinced and forever changed.  To be sure, what I see with my physical eyes and what I perceive and feel and desire in my heart tend to follow one another (cf Matthew 13.15; Jeremiah 22.17; Psalm 36.1, 19.8), but this is a divine act.  This is heart knowledge about God which comes from God, divine truth about Him which only He can reveal.

-The first thing for which Paul is asking is for us to know what is the hope of God’s calling, this Father of glory.  We already saw in the first section how this breathtakingly good God has indeed called us, chosen us, foreknown and predestined us to be a part of His family and live with Him forever.  At least that’s what we hope will happen.  We expect and desire to be in heaven someday.  But surely we have no idea what an unspeakable privilege we have been given, how great and awesome and unbelievably glorious this will be, and how 110 percent guaranteed it is.  The believer’s hope is not a lame case of, ‘well, I hope so’. ‘I hope I go to heaven.’ ‘I hope it’s good.’  We have no clue.  Ours is not like the hope of the world - uncertain, temporary, false, dead, destined to disappoint.  Our hope is certain, it is real, it is alive and abiding, and it is a game-changer.  It - heaven - will be magnificent, stunning beyond belief, truly unimaginable - which is why we need God to reveal how awesome and sure our hope is.  If we could only get a real glimpse of this - mind blown.  Because again, our hope, this hope of heaven, is Him.  He is our hope.  He is heaven, our heavenly treasure.  He is the Magnificent One, unimaginably stunning beyond belief.  For the God of glory to reveal to us what is the hope of His calling is to reveal to us Himself.  Because our hope of heaven is to be with Him, forever, in the very presence of Glory.

-But wait, there’s more!  Paul continues by asking for us to know what are the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.  We with Paul have already mentioned this in the previous section, but now Paul wants God to peel back the layers and show believers just how glorious our inheritance really is.  Again, the nature of this inheritance is unlike any that one might ever receive in this life.  The ones here at best are temporary and finite, subject to moths and rust and thieves, trinkets and baubles and stuff and so much cotton candy which can never satisfy.  No, our inheritance in heaven in Christ is inexhaustible, infinite, eternal and eternally satisfying, and it is so not because of where we will be or what we get but rather Who we get.  We get the God of glory.  HE is inexhaustible, eternal, and He alone is so eternally satisfying, breathtakingly good - we have no idea.  we just don’t get it - we can’t really this side of heaven.  But it has nothing to do with us or how special we are.  It is all about God.  Which is exactly why Paul is praying for this.  Getting a real good glimpse of the untold glory that is this God Who is calling us into His presence forever will rock our world.

Ephesians 1:17 - A limitlessly-layered proposition...

"...in order that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, should give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in [the] full knowledge of Him..."

-So Paul was giving thanks for giving thanks for these believers, and he was praying for them...

-He takes a moment to clarify to Whom he was praying: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ - His Boss, so to speak, the Father of glory.  He is certainly the Father of Jesus, the Father of us all, and as such He is glorious and breathtakingly good beyond compare.  Consummate awesomeness.  He is also the progenitor of all that is glorious, of anything and everything that is good.  All that is good issues forth from Him (great day, He is the Giver of all good things for us to enjoy! 1Timothy 6.17).  You got something good?  From Him.

-We glean from this prayer that this truth is at the top of the list of things for us to know, IF we are to better and fully know God as Paul is praying for the Ephesians.  And here is precisely where man goes wrong in his mind and heart, the failure to know and gratefully acknowledge that God is this Father of glory, that He alone is breathtakingly good, all that He makes is very good, all good things in fact come from Him and He in His sovereignty makes all things good (Romans 1.21-23, cf Luke 18.19, Genesis 1.31, James 1.17, Romans 8.28).  Not only do we take God’s goodness and good gifts for granted, prone as we tend to be towards selfishness and ingratitude, but as fallen (guilty) people we can live more in fear of His severity than in the awareness of His goodness, a fear which is exacerbated by living in an increasingly corrupt world where things constantly break down.  There are too many times when God’s goodness is so obscured by brokenness that it is hard to see even if we’re looking for it.

-But Paul is asking the God and Father of glory to give these believers a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of God, to know Him better, Who He is, what He is like.  Which is a prodigious request, as to fully know the infinite God is practically preposterous, far beyond the capacity of our feeble finite minds.  Yet we press onward and upward with Paul, aware that this knowledge is rooted in the realm of the spiritual, the realm of things which you cannot see or touch physically, which you cannot control or reproduce in a test tube, things which you can’t quite put your finger on.  Literally.  God is Spirit - we relate to Him in our spirit (John 4.24, Proverbs 20.27), which is that part of us that died as a result of sin and which is reborn only in Christ and animated by the Spirit of Christ (cf Romans 8.2, 8.10).  Like any wind or breath, you cannot see it or hold it per se but you can see its effects.

-Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge.  Knowing facts doesn’t necessarily help you if you lack the ability to put that knowledge to use.  That’s wisdom.  What good would it be to know about how to make money if you didn’t actually go out and make some money?  That’s not ignorance, it’s foolishness (cf Ecclesiastes 10.1, Proverbs 1.7).  But there are two broad sources of wisdom.  There is earthly wisdom, which is more creature-centered and short-sighted (cf James 3.15, 1Corinthians 3:19, 2.13, 2.6, 1.20, 2Corinthians 1.12), and there is heavenly wisdom, that which comes from God Himself (James 3.17, 1.5, 1Corinthians 2.7-8, cf Daniel 1.17).  This wisdom from above is pure and gentle and full of mercy and good fruit, and it is spiritual, so it runs counter to the temporal, self-seeking mindset.  As such it is misunderstood or missed altogether by the world, and thus it is generally disrespected.  Missed AND dissed.  and we are talking about not just knowing things about God but having (being given) the ability to know how to apply that knowledge, how to relate to Him and live the life He wants us to live.  And let’s be honest, what good is knowing stuff about God if you aren’t able to put that to use?  The devil in himself knows quite a bit about God, but in no way puts that knowledge to good use.  In fact, he suppresses what he knows to be true and lives in rebellion towards God (suppressing what you know about God would be considered UN-wise/foolish, in as much as it incurs God’s wrath, Rom 1.18).  Those who are filled with this wisdom from God are greatly used by God (Acts 6.3, 6.10, cf Luke 2.52), but receiving this wisdom begins with knowing and relating rightly to God.

-But wait, there’s more!  Paul is asking not only for wisdom, but for revelation.  This is the uncovering of something hidden, something that others do not see or know or understand.  Sad reality for the world, this - and they are looking right at it.  The truth about God is right in front of them, inside them and all around them, they are looking right at it, but they can’t make it out.  The deep need of each and every person who would know God is that He must reveal Himself to them (Matthew 16.17, Luke 10.21-22).  The blindness must be removed from their eyes in order to begin to know God in the first place, but knowledge of the Holy, of the Infinite, is a limitlessly-layered proposition.  There are new things to learn around every corner, new truths and hidden gems to mine every day.  No doubt there are not enough days in ten thousand lifetimes to uncover even a snippet of all there is to know about Him with Whom we have to do.  The Almighty must reveal Himself, but this He is more than ready to do to anyone who truly wants to know Him.

Ephesians 1:16 - I. WILL. ANSWER. YOU.

"...I am not ceasing giving thanks on behalf of you, making rememberance upon the prayers of me..."

-Paul was assured that these Ephesian believers were exactly that, that they genuinely believed in Jesus because they genuinely loved one another.  Once he knew they were truly following Christ, he began praying for them (altho I for one would not be surprised if he had been praying for them even before then).  And he was praying for them a lot.  Now, he may have had added incentive to do so, since he had had a hand in helping to plant the church in the first place, but his still serves as an excellent example for us.  If nothing else, the very fact of their faith was a constant source of gratitude for Paul, and he says he never stopped giving thanks for them.  He was so encouraged and gratified to know that they were truly following Jesus.  But there’s more to it than that...

-No, Paul wasn’t with them, he couldn’t be with them, but he could (and did) still make a difference in their lives.  He knew he had a direct line to the One Who had a direct line into every heart in Ephesus and on planet earth.  ‘Call to Me and I will answer you’, says the Lord (Jeremiah 33.3).  I. WILL. ANSWER. YOU. We must never underestimate the power and reach of prayer.  Prayer at its simplest and most profound is talking with God, but let us not whizz past the import of the act.  We are talking about talking with Almighty God Himself, having words with the One Who with a word made the entire universe.  This is speech in its most natural state, exercising the gift with the Speech-Giver Himself, that highest form of communication which He gave only to man, not to any of the other animals or other creatures.  It might be fair to say that prayer, talking to God, is the ultimate reason why He gave man the gift of speech to begin with.  He gave us speech so that we could talk to Him.  Expressing gratitude and praise as well as talking about life, our thoughts and feelings, our hurts, our joys, our needs and desires.  In our natural fallen state (How’s that for an oxymoron?  Fallen was never to be our ‘natural’ state...) we hide from Him, we avoid talking to Him, we go hours and days and long seasons ignoring Him Who is with us always, yet this One Who made us wants us to talk to Him, and He hears and listens and understands what we’re saying, even when we mess up.  Like any normal parent, He waits and longs for us to come and talk to Him, with Him, sharing our heart, our messes, presenting requests and pleas, claiming His divine promises and tapping into the untold resources of Heaven, finding forgiveness as well as strength to move mountains (or to move through them) and to fully live into the supernatural greater works about which His Son told us (John 14.12-13).  You want to get to know God better?  Talk to Him.  You want something in your life or somebody else’s to change?  Talk to God about it.  You want something in the world to be different?  Talk to God about it.  Keep on talking to Him, because He promises that He will answer you.  You want to grow in your experience of God’s breathtaking goodness, and for others to get a glimpse?  Talk to God, spend time, communicate, celebrate, appreciate.  And by all means, ask.  We do not have because we do not ask (James 4.2).  Jesus Himself, on that last night He was with His disciples gathered in that upper room, repeatedly told them to ask (John 15.7, 15.16, 16.23-24).  And I think they got the message, cuz you know what they set themselves to doing in that upper room after Jesus ascended back to heaven? (Acts 1.12-14)  We leave so much meat on the bone when we pray and ask and thank God for so little...

Ephesians 1:15 - Ephesian pudding

"Because of this too having heard the faith according to you in the Lord Jesus and the love unto all the saints..."

-It’s one thing for someone to say that they have faith, that they believe in Jesus.  But you wanna know how you can know if someone is really and truly following Christ, if they have indeed trusted in Him for the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life?  Love for all the saints.  That is the litmus test.  Jesus said it (John 13.34-35), John reiterated it (1John 3.10, 4.20-21), and Paul says it here.  He is assured of the Ephesians genuine faith by the genuine love they display towards one another.  How can I be following the God-Who-Is-love, how can I claim to love Him Who I have never seen when and if I do not love the one right next to me who as it turns out is actually a member of my family?  The proof of the pudding, so to speak, is seen in the love and care and compassion I demonstrate for my fellow Christ-followers.  Paul knew that God was indeed at work in the lives of the ones in this assembly in Ephesus, that they were truly following Jesus, because they gave clear indication of this thru the fact that they really loved one another.  You wanna know if God is at work in an assembly?  Look for how they love one another.  You should see it on their faces and in their holy kisses (hugs?).  You will see it in their devotion and service to one another.  Sharing, patience, kindness, forgiveness, striving together for the Gospel, spending time together, breaking bread, joy and celebration, compassion and caring and meeting needs - that’s how you know.

Ephesians 1:14 - We are His, and He is ours

"...Who is a down-payment of our inheritance, unto redemption of the possession, unto praise of His glory."

-There are two ways you can receive a kleros, a lot or portion.  One is by the luck of the draw, randomly, and the other is lawfully, by inheriting it.  In this case, Paul says, we are in line for a real, legal, royal inheritance from the King of the Universe!  But check it out, fascinating juxtaposition, this.  We are God’s possession - He is buying us back, and yet we are inheriting Him - He is our portion, our inheritance.  We are His and He is ours.  

-And all this to the praise of His glory.  Yes, here for a third time Paul gives us the grand end of all that God has done and is doing in Christ to gather a people to Himself.  In the end, all these people who He has purchased with the blood of His Son and who are now His heirs will join the great host of heaven in forever declaring and celebrating the excellencies of this One Who out of nothing made all things better-than-good (Genesis 1.31), and then though they were subsequently broken will make them all even better (well, technically not all - sadly some will face destruction).  But more specifically, He made man in His image to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him and even though that relationship was severed and the image marred almost beyond recognition, He has been restoring all that, all things through Christ, through Whom He also made all things to begin with (cf Colossians 1.15-20).

-And those who do trust in this Message, in God’s redemption through Christ, they have already received an advance on this inheritance - to everyone who believes God gives His Spirit, the living God Himself living right inside us.  You see, I told you He is the inheritance.  Now in our spirit, then and forever face to face.  But He is with us and IN us now always at all times, just as Christ promised (John 14.16, cf Matthew 28.20), never more to depart (Hebrews 13.5), unlike how it was for God’s people in earlier times (cf Psalm 55.11, 1Samuel 16.14).