Thursday, February 21, 2008

Open Our Eyes - Part 2

Ephesians 1:17-23

Part I of this devotional gave us insight into what Paul prayed for all believers – spiritual maturity and an opening of our hearts to see beyond this world and to the riches of the next. Paul prays that we would catch a glimpse of the following: first, hope; second, a glorious inheritance; third, the immeasurable greatness of power. Paul doesn’t elaborate too much on these first two things, but spends four verses fleshing out what he means by the third. Let me point out just a few things from these closing words of Ephesians 1.

First, this power is spiritual. It is not just ‘natural’ or ‘physical’- though it is certainly that, as the bodily resurrection demonstrates. It is in this sense that we must have our ‘heart eyes’ opened up. We do not see this power at work in a natural, or normative, sense. God isn’t levitating chairs or blinking light bulbs in the parlor like some sort of poltergeist. As if this were any real display of power anyhow. Paul prays that we might see with the eyes of faith what is ‘beyond the veil,’ so to speak. Paul is assuring us that the same power that breathed life into the dead body of the crucified Lord, the same power that rolled back the stone, the same power that lifted Christ bodily into the heavens, the same power that established Christ as Lord of the Universe at God’s right hand, this power is at work in us, through us, and for us.

Second, I’d like to focus in on verses 22-23, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” When Paul speaks of God’s power at work in ‘us,’ it is important to understand who this us is. Paul says that God’s power is “toward us who believe” and that those who believe are united to the church, which is the very body of Christ. There is a treasure of truth in Ephesians related to this wonderful new creation that God made in Christ, the church. I believe the central truth and theme verses of this letter are found in 3:10-11, “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is a lot more to be said about this, but here in chapter one, we see that the power of God is not received, felt, and displayed in our lives individually. We are brought into a corporate relationship to God and the saints, and we are to corporately reveal and unfold the mystery and wisdom of God as the church.

This is a very important point, and is a driving principle in my life and ministry as a pastor, so we’ll linger here a bit. You will often hear me say, “I don’t believe in the priority and importance of the local church because I’m a pastor; I’m a pastor because of the biblical priority and importance of the local church.” What I mean to say here is that I don’t push membership and involvement in the local church because it’s crucial to my vocational success, or because it is in my job description. I push membership and involvement in the local church because I believe it is crucial to the growth and sanctification of the believer and the spread of the gospel to the world. Because of this conviction I gave my life to leadership and service in the local church. The church is not a social club; it is not a therapeutic program; it is not a non-profit community center. The church is the body of Christ, the instrument of God’s sovereign and saving power, the inheritor of all the spiritual blessings of God in Christ, the display of God’s wisdom to rulers and authorities (seen and unseen). The believer who embraces the fullness of this Ephesian ecclesiology, who commits fully to this glorious design of God will see hope to which he has called us, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power.

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