In Christ: Know It, Live It - 22 (The God Who Has Called Us to Hope)

"...Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you many know what is the hope to which He has called you..." Ephesians 1:18

The Apostle Paul's great prayer for the Ephesian saints (and us!) in the first chapter of that letter centers around the request that they might KNOW Him better (v.17). But what does it mean to know Him better but to know WHAT HE IS LIKE and WHAT HE DESIRES and DELIGHTS TO DO? In Paul's prayer, there are 3 things He asks God to illumine the hearts of the saints to. The first of these is "to know the HOPE to which He has called you" v.18.

Note:

• CALL refers to an INVITATION. The word is used in the NT of an invitation to God's Kingdom and its privileges. Who in their right mind, apart from Scriptural revelation, could envision the Sovereign God who rules the universe in infinite holiness issuing THEM an invitation to be part of His blessed Kingdom? But He has done it. God has issued Kingdom invitations to His ENEMIES! And not after long observation to determine their suitableness for His Kingdom; God has sovereignly (and irresistibly) issued invitations to His Kingdom to rebels who were actively and passionately REJECTING His Kingdom...to subjects of Satan. Such is our King and such is His glorious invitation.
• The particular Kingdom invitation God has issued to us in Paul's prayer is the invitation to HOPE. Again, this is God-founded, biblical HOPE...CONFIDENT EXPECTATION that God will come through and that our future holds ultimate GOOD. In Ephesians 2:12 Paul writes that before Christ we "had no hope and were without God in the world." The expectation we had before Christ was of fearful judgment, lonely dark torment, and a life here without ultimate meaning or purpose. DO YOU REMEMBER THOSE DAYS? Perhaps like me you lived to drown out thoughts of the future because they were so dark and empty and foreboding. Satan calls to destruction and despair. His is the downward call to the convulsive wretching of a ever-dying soul. We were all at one time headed down that hellish hallway. BUT GOD...
• This particular HOPE that we have been called to is nothing less than HEAVEN and eternal life with the Father and the Son. It is final possessing of our promised inheritance (Ephesians 1:5,11,14). God will get us and we will get God. What grace has done for us is stranger than fiction. But there is no fiction here. How precious are thoughts of Heaven to you? Does the HOPE of HEAVEN have motivating and drawing power on your soul? The power of heavenly expectation is dependent on the depth of our KNOWLEDGE of God now. If HE is not precious to me, if HE is not my increasing joy, if HE is not what I want more than anyone or anything else then Heaven will not be a joyful, empowering HOPE (1 John 3:1,2).

One primary way to deepen my joy in God and my HOPE of Heaven is to meditate on the fact that my Father in Heaven is the God who has INVITED me to share HEAVEN with Him, through Christ, for all eternity. This is what Paul prays here. That we may know God more deeply as the God who has called us to HOPE, and what that hope is. It is astonishing. HE is astonishing. May God grant us today the help of the Holy Spirit to SEE God as the God who has invited us to share all eternity with Him, when we deserve Hell, and all because He is the gracious God.

HE is the RESURRECTION!

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and he who lives and believes in Me will never die." John 11:25,26

I think the main truth that has stood out to me in the MANY past Easters of my life is this: "Jesus has risen from the grave and He is alive! Therefore He is WITH ME, helping me. He will never leave me." THAT, however, is NOT the main point of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It IS true, and it is a precious truth. But it is more ME centered than Christ-centered.

WHY is Jesus' resurrection so important? There could be many reasons listed, but the GRAND reason His resurrection is important is that it demonstrated HE IS THE RESURRECTION. Not just the One who was resurrected and not just the One who resurrects, but the RESURRECTION itself! Jesus is LORD over the resurrection and He is JUDGE of the resurrection.

"God...has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." Acts 17:30,31

Being resurrected and exalted as Lord of the resurrection, Jesus POURED OUT RESURRECTION LIFE on His church: Acts 2. He sent the Spirit to bring resurrection life into His people. This is RESURRECTION NOW: spiritually. He will complete the RESURRECTION THEN of His people at the last day when He raises up our decayed bodies and gives us glorious, made-for-heaven and eternity bodies: 1 Corinthians 15.

Therefore, since Jesus is Lord and Judge of the Resurrection and is THE RESURRECTION Himself and has given us NOW resurrection life in our souls: how are we to live this resurrection life on earth in ways that will glorify Him who is the Resurrection and in ways that look forward to our final, bodily resurrection?

Here are 4 ways:

• We are to live HOLY LIVES, victorious over sin. See Romans 6:5-13. We have been raised with Christ and therefore the ruling power of sin in our lives is BROKEN. We can say NO to sin and YES to our Resurrected Lord.
• We can face the future with UNSHAKABLE CERTAINTY. See 1 Peter 1:3-5. Our future in Heaven with the Father and Son is absolutely guaranteed because Jesus is Lord of the Resurrection, of the last days, of the final judgment. When life is full of disappointment and even suffering, we can authentically say, "This is NOT my home. Heaven is. I am on my journey there. I will live while I am here by Christ's resurrection power, but I will not forget that THIS IS NOT HEAVEN. The absence of tears and evil and temptation and aches and pains and failure and sin IS NOT FOR THIS LIFE. But it WILL BE for Heaven. And HEAVEN IS MY HOME. And my RESURRECTED LORD WILL take me there."
• We are to give ourselves to RADICAL SERVICE TO CHRIST. See 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 5:9,10. Because Jesus is the Resurrection there will be REWARD for our service to Him. That investment of our lives in faithful stewardship will reap rewards ALL OUT OF PROPORTION to what we have done. AND...those rewards will last forever. There will be no taxes, no recession, no inflation. If your bank were to guarantee you that for every $1 you invested you would received a return of $1,000,000.00, how would that affect your savings strategy? You'd watch every dime closely and invest every dollar you didn't use for absolute necessities! You'd be a fool not to. The NT gives us a similar guarantee, but the return is even greater. Our labor is NOT IN VAIN in the Lord. It will reap reward. See Luke 6:35; 1 Corinthians 3:14.
• We are to WAGE WAR FOR LOST SOULS. See Daniel 12:2,3. There WILL be a resurrection of the wicked and the righteous. Jesus will be LORD over that resurrection and He will be JUDGE over that resurrection. Those apart from Christ will be resurrected to shame and everlasting contempt. But there will be some who are WISE, who TURN many to righteousness, and who will shine like stars in Heaven. Don't you want to be one of those WISE EVANGELISTS who is resurrected to life and has the joy and REWARD of seeing many in Heaven because God used your stammering words and "weak" prayers to bring MANY to righteousness? May God give us ALL that kind of wisdom.

Jesus IS the RESURRECTION and the LIFE. And because of that we have resurrection life NOW and can live for HEAVEN in our personal pursuit of holiness, our facing the future with unshakable HOPE, our tireless labor, and our evangelism. This WILL glorify Him now and it will store up rewards that we will enjoy FOREVER in our Heavenly inheritance. HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!

In Christ: Know It, Live It - 21 (Knowing Through the Word)

Paul prays in Ephesians 1:17 that God would give the Ephesian believers (and us!) "...the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." We have written previously about the Holy Spirit as the One who gives revelation of God. He teaches us and shows us what we could never know apart from His ministry. He opens blind eyes to SEE CHRIST and the GOSPEL.

It is important when we speak of the Holy Spirit's work of revelation (or ILLUMINATION, once we are believers and know Christ) to remind ourselves that He does His revealing work THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES. So...we can PRAY for Him to open our eyes to know Christ and to know our spiritual blessings in Christ, but if we do not ALSO devote ourselves to reading and meditating in the Scriptures, we do not put ourselves in the PLACE OF REVELATION.

If I am a beggar and do not put myself in a place where people with money pass by, I won't receive much financial compassion. I can and should and MUST cry to the Spirit to make me know my Savior, but if I do not put myself regularly WHERE THE SPIRIT GIVES REVELATION, my prayer has no environment for being answered.

Of course this means that not only should I regularly read and meditate on the Scriptures, but also:

• I should read and meditate in portions of the Scriptures that most specifically focus on the object of my prayers. For example, if I want to see Christ more clearly, I can go to Colossians 1 or the Gospels or the book of Revelation. Of course Christ is revealed in ALL of Scripture (Luke 24:27), but some portions focus more specifically on His attributes or deity or passion. If I am asking for insight into God's will re: finances, there are weighty passages in Proverbs or 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
• I should also regularly put myself under the PREACHING and TEACHING of the Scriptures. How MANY times the Spirit has opened my eyes to some needed truth as I sat and listened to a brother open the Word. This is why "...He gave some...pastors and teachers" Ephesians 4:11. If God has planted you in a local church body ( and I PRAY HE has!) then it is important to trust that HE will feed you, His sheep, THROUGH the shepherds in YOUR CHURCH.
• Another wonderful place for the Holy Spirit's revealing/illumining ministry to reach us is in books written by godly, scholarly, devotional-hearted saints. I have loved reading the Puritans (though at times the conviction was painful) or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or J.C. Ryle or present day authors such as John Piper or Iain Murray.
• Today there are wonderful and FREE sites for downloading biblical, Christ-centered sermons and teaching onto MP3 players. www. biblicaltraining.org features Bible-college and Seminary levels courses in most subjects (like preaching, OT Survey, NT Survey, Systematic Theology, etc.) at no cost. DesiringGod.org offers many hundreds of messages by John Piper and others, including some MP4 video sermons. Many larger churches offer downloads of their pastor's sermons. Use these to SUPPLEMENT your church's teaching, not to REPLACE it!
• MEMORIZING the Word is critically important as it allows you to MEDITATE on a portion of Scripture that you are learning from or studying. I have been meditating on Colossians 3 lately and from past study and meditation have memorized much of it. It is a valuable thing when asking the Spirit to teach you to have a critical passage in memory so that you can mentally "chew" on it during spare moments during the day.

Fellow beggars, let us park ourselves everyday in the Word where the Spirit will meet us and "turn on the lights" of our souls to SEE JESUS.

How the Lamb Has Conquered

After the SLAIN but LIVING LAMB takes the scroll from the One on the throne in Revelation 5, there erupts from Heaven to the far corners of the universe a praise service such as has never been seen or heard before.

It begins with the cherubim and the mysterious 24 elders. From a prostrate position (Revelation 5:8) and with golden harps (the instruments of praise) and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (are these the long, patient prayers for God to bring His justice and finish His redemptive plan and bring all things to their promised end?) they sing a new song:

• NEW SONG is a song that is sung to celebrate a divine act of blessing and deliverance. What act of deliverance does this song celebrate?
• WORTHY ARE YOU to take the scroll: again, WHY? HOW has He become worthy? How has He conquered?

Here's HOW the Lamb has CONQUERED:

• FOR YOU WERE SLAIN. The Cross is the Sovereign God's weapon for conquering death and hell and sin and Satan. The crucifixion of God very God the Son, the violent spilling of His own life blood is the STRATEGIC PLAN for utter and complete and eternal victory.
• AND BY YOUR BLOOD you RANSOMED people for God. The Cross conquered because on it the price was paid to RANSOM us for God. The price of our infinite guilt against the INFINITE ONE was nothing less than HIS own INFINITELY VALUABLE LIFE. The Lamb slain was the price paid. On the cross HE "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame..." Colossians 2:15. Now we are not only forgiven but we also BELONG to God. We are His possession. We are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
• FROM EVERY TRIBE AND LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE AND NATION: The victory is utter and complete because from EVERY people group on earth men have been ransomed to God. ALL are represented. Not one is lacking. Satan succeeded in destroying NO people group on earth. Sin could not keep every individual in any remote jungle tribe from the sovereign, saving power of the CROSS. The heavenly choir will be complete with tenors in Swahili and bass singers in the language of Taliabo and sopranos from Kazakhstan and altos from the Eskimos.
• And YOU HAVE MADE THEM A KINGDOM AND PRIESTS TO OUR GOD: Rebels have been won to willing submission to the King of Heaven by the Cross. Multiplied millions of men and women who lived life utterly committed to serving their lusts now joyfully and with deepest soul satisfaction serve God as His priests. The CONQUERING of the CROSS goes to the deepest recesses of the human heart. Full redemption.
• AND THEY SHALL REIGN ON EARTH: We will reign with King Jesus. The reign that was man's created purpose will be restored. How? The SLAIN LAMB on the CROSS.

Let us join the cherubim and elders in prostrate praise.

The Lion Has Conquered as the Lamb

The glorious picture of Jesus as the Lamb of God in the New Testament is found primarily in the book of Revelation. As the aged Apostle John is given the visions recorded there he sees symbolic pictures of what is happening and will happen in Heaven.

The picture of all pictures in Revelation is of the Lamb. Of all the pictures of the Lamb, chapter 5 is most amazing and graphic. But it does not open with the Lamb...it opens with the LION! John sees the exalted God on His throne with a SCROLL in His right hand. This is the scroll that will be progressively opened throughout Revelation. It is the scroll that contains God's plan for the finalizing of human history - to bring history to an end - with judgment for the wicked and eternal salvation for God's people. But NO ONE is found worthy to open the scroll. John begins to weep loudly. The suffering, hopeful people of God, including John here in exile on Patmos, have been praying and longing for this time of God's justice and reward. No one is worthy to open the scroll and put the final, decisive movements of God's glorious plan into motion?

But stop weeping, John. The LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH (see Genesis 49:9,10)...has CONQUERED. HE is worthy to open the scroll (v.5). This LION is none other than the promised MESSIAH, the long-awaited conquering King of God's people. And WHAT/WHO does John see? NOT a conquering LION, the King of beasts, the VICTORIOUS GENERAL of the Hosts of the Lord, but "...a Lamb standing as though it had been slain" v.6. A LAMB! But not just ANY Lamb, this Lamb is "standing as though it had been slain." Here is the RESURRECTION and CRUCIFIXION of the Lamb, Jesus, in one phrase. He WAS slain, but now He stands, because He rose from the grave and ascended to the Father.

And note:

• "...with SEVEN HORNS": Horns represent POWER. SEVEN is the number used to indicate fullness or perfection. This Lamb is ALL POWERFUL, OMNIPOTENT! This Lamb is God very God! He is no common member of the weakest and most vulnerable of livestock, this Lamb is DIVINE. HE could die because He was indeed a Lamb (a man who could be sacrificed for men). His death could have INFINITE worth because this Lamb is God.
• "...with SEVEN EYES": Eyes represent KNOWLEDGE. This Lamb is also ALL-KNOWING, OMNISCIENT! Not a dumb sheep, but He who possesses infinite awareness of all things in one comprehensive knowing.

This slain but standing, all-powerful, all-knowing Lamb goes to the One on the throne and takes the scroll...and the most amazing scene of cosmic worship ever recorded commences. We will look more at the increasing intensity of this worship and its content tomorrow, but for now let us note this one, great truth portrayed in the Lion/Lamb in these verses:

The LION is worthy and has conquered BECAUSE He is also the LAMB! It was the DEATH of Christ that totally destroyed the legions of wickedness, death, and hell. The greatest display of POWER that the universe has ever witnessed was THE CROSS. Let us praise and worship our WORTHY Lion/Lamb today as He who has conquered for eternity on our behalf.

I can't wait to look at the rest of Revelation 5!

In Christ: Know It, Live It - 20 (The Spirit of Revelation and Relationship)

"I keep asking that...God...may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better" Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul's prayer for the Ephesian saints begins with a request to God to give them THE HOLY SPIRIT. The ESV translates this "a spirit of wisdom and revelation." Which is it, capital "S" or a little "s"? There are no capitals in the Greek. The determination regarding "Spirit" or "spirit" has to be made from the context or from the teaching of Scripture taken all together.

We know that believers are graciously given the Holy Spirit at conversion (Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:9) to INDWELL them. So Paul could NOT be asking for the Spirit to be given to indwell the Ephesian saints. But the Scriptures DO speak of the Spirit being given for special tasks (e.g. Acts 4:8; 4:31) and Jesus did teach His disciples that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those (those CHILDREN of His) who ask (Luke 11:13). In this sense, being "given" the Holy Spirit would mean to be given His HELP, to RECEIVE HIS MINISTRY.

The Holy Spirit is the One whose ministry is to TEACH believers and to make them KNOW TRUTH (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 John 2:27). HE it is who opens our eyes to see God as the One who calls us to hope, makes us His inheritance, and works in and for us with immeasurable power (Ephesians 1:18-19). And so...Paul constantly asks for God to give the "Spirit of WISDOM and REVELATION" to the saints.

Note:

• REVELATION: means to make known what could not otherwise be known. What is revealed in this sense could never be known by human investigation. A picture of this would be a pot cooking on the stove with the lid on. You wonder what is in the pot, but you will never know UNTIL the lid is taken off. The Holy Spirit TAKES THE LID OFF so that we may see and know WHO God is, WHAT He has done for us in Christ, HOW much He loves us, and HOW to reciprocate. If the Holy Spirit does not "take the lid off" for us, we will NEVER know these things. This is why if we GRIEVE the Holy Spirit by our sin, all of a sudden we stop SEEING like we used to. The Word of God becomes dry and new insights stop. Even what we DO know shrivels. We are absolutely dependent on the Holy Spirit to KNOW God. We must, as Paul did, for ourselves and others...keep asking for the Spirit to be given us to minister His revealing and teaching in our lives through the Word.
• WISDOM: Wisdom deals with PRACTICAL knowing. Without REVELATION, we cannot know God truly. Without WISDOM we do not know HOW to respond to our knowledge of God. That is, how is knowing God supposed to affect my life? How do I respond to Him? How do I live out a relationship to Him?
• KNOWING HIM: This word for KNOW deals with DEEP, CLEAR, FULL, INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE. This knowing is personal and relational knowing. It is knowing UP CLOSE. It is glorious to know that this kind of knowing is not only POSSIBLE for us, but PROMISED to us, if we seek to know Him and have the Spirit's help. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and the FIRST and FOREMOST of them is knowing HIM!

Nothing is more important than personally, intimately, life-changingly knowing our Father and His Son. This has been provided for through the redeeming death of the Son and the indwelling, revealing presence of the Holy Spirit. And so, as the prophet wrote:

"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3

In Christ: Know It, Live It - 19 (Our Greatest Prayer: To Know Him)

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better." Ephesians 1:17

Prayer is not a magic activity. Prayer is not powerful nor answered simply BECAUSE we ask. Prayer is to be wise and insightful and ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD (1 John 5:14). WHAT we ask is very important in relation to our prayers being answered.

This glorious prayer of the Apostle Paul's in Ephesians 1:17-19 is FIRST of all a prayer that believers may KNOW GOD BETTER. It is NOT primarily that they will know more ABOUT God nor that they will know more about His BLESSINGS, but that they will know HIM AS THE BLESSER.

Note the first two things Paul says about this God:

• He is "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ." This phrase seems to note the SUBMISSION of the Son to the Father, doing the will of the Father in all things, especially our salvation. This phrase also seems to highlight the Father's role in planning our salvation and sending the Son to secure these spiritual blessings cataloged in 1:3-14.
• He is also, "the glorious Father." GLORIOUS means GREAT...VISIBLY, MAJESTICALLY GREAT. God's glory is His greatness shining forth for others to see. God is the Father whose greatness sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. His great and glorious LOVE CHOSE hell-bound sinners like you and me to be heaven-dwelling sons for all eternity. The Father is so great that ANYTHING we ask according to His will...will be done. The potential or raw material for what we ask does NOT need to be present for God to answer prayer. He is the God who CREATES out of NOTHING (see Romans 4:17). He is also the gracious Father who delights to answer, especially to glorify His name (Psalm 50:15).

The more we KNOW this God of our Lord Jesus Christ, this glorious Father...the greater, more full of faith, more consistent, and more ANSWERED will our prayers be. A great answer to pitiful prayer lives is a clearer, greater KNOWLEDGE of God.

When I really KNOW and BELIEVE that my Father is ready to answer, able to answer, wanting to answer...I will pray. So let us pray, pray, pray, pray, and...pray that He would open our eyes to KNOW HIM BETTER as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent Him to save us and the glorious Father, who gives good things to those who ask.