When Kate and Will got married six months ago, there were heaps of the world’s royal families invited to London to attend the celebrations. Just before Kate & Will’s big day, the Queen and Prince Philip organised a lavish banquet in their honour, inviting the world’s royals to attend.
VIDEO CLIP: (WELCOMING) ROYALTY
Jesus taught his disciples using many parables about the kingdom of God. Every time God’s kingdom is mentioned in the Bible, it is implied that there has to be a king. So when Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God, he is teaching us about his own reign as King in his kingdom.
One of the greatest truths that come from this passage in Ephesians 1 is that God has blessed us immensely. He has bankrolled each of us! Just like all these royals were bankrolled from the day of their birth, so we too are bankrolled from the day of our second birth. The King has lavished on us, his subjects, the wealth of his kingdom.
Paul prayed that they may know God (Eph 1:17).
God has made it possible for all of us to know him. It is not just possible, but it is also do-able. It seems an awesome thing: for a finite, created being to get to know the One who created us. The all powerful, all knowing, invisible, immortal, fully present everywhere all the time; the unknowable makes himself known to us. He gave himself for us so that he might give himself to us.
In Philippians 3:10 Paul says that his goal in life was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection..’. But it was not just knowing about God, like you get to know the character of a book when you read a story, but that you actually discover who God is and what God is really like when you experiment and when you begin to trust your life over to him little bit by little bit. He wanted to get to know him better every day. So, he prays for all Christians, that they might know God better. This knowledge comes through the ‘Spirit of wisdom and revelation’.
When people become Christians for the first time, they begin to know God. This happens as they are born of the Spirit because the Spirit gives them the wisdom and revelation to be able to get to know God in Jesus Christ. The atheist claims that is impossible for anyone to know God, so God does not exist. The agnostic says that if there is a God we still cannot get to know him. But Christians have met God in the person of Jesus Christ. We declare that, because what the Bible says rings true with our experience of God, that we cannot understand much of anything unless we begin to know who God is. As one of the songs from ‘Godspell’ put it, ‘just to see Thee more clearly, to love Thee more dearly, to follow Thee more nearly, day by day’. When we get to know God better and better every day, we will love him more also. For to know him is to love him. And to love him is to listen to him, and to listen to him is to do what he wants, and to do what he wants is to become more like him.
So, we get to know God by trusting him. 40 years ago, when I first said, ‘Yes Lord Jesus, come and take over my life’, I began to make sense of what Paul prayed for me about. That i might know God better and better, day by day.
Secondly, he prayed that we might know God’s calling (Eph 1:18 a).
The word ‘called’ is an important word for us as God’s people. We have been called out of darkness into his marvellous light (1Peter 2:9). God calls us by his grace, not by any merits or worthiness of our own success. Paul never got tired of telling us that he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 1:1; 1Cor 1:1, Gal 1:15). He reminded Timothy that we have a holy calling (2Tim 1:9). And the Lord calls you and me. The word ‘church’ comes from two words that mean ‘called out’. So, you and I are called out of darkness into the wonderful light of God’s presence.
Paul prayed that the light of our hearts may be enlightened so that we would know the hope to which we are called. Connected and switched on! Electrical terminology: I saw the light, I am switched onto Jesus, I got zapped! But his experience of light has a purpose: that we may know the hope to which we are called.
Some callings offer no hope at all. But, the calling we have in Christ assures us of a fantastic, but real future. Hope is not ‘I hope so’, but rather the positive assurance that God will keep his word to us because of his promise to us.
This hope we have, the hope that belongs to our calling, is designed by God to be a dynamic influence on our lives to encourage us to be more like Jesus (1John 2:28 – 3:3). Our assured hope is that one day soon we will all see Jesus face to face. We are excited about his coming. He has called us, we have responded, and he will be here soon to pick us up and take us to be with him forever.
Today we hear the voice of Jesus the king calling to us and saying like he said through Jerermiah, ‘I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.
Thirdly, he prayed that we might know God’s riches (Eph 1:18 b).
This phrase does not refer to our inheritance of heaven when we die, but rather for us to see that we are being recognised as Christ’s inheritance now that he is King. Jesus has inherited us! We are his wealth! God sees us as an asset in his kingdom! Do you believe that. I used to think that all that belongs to Jesus is now ours too. But this truth takes that to another level.
You see that God loves the Church, and has invested a lot in His church. All of who God is, and all that belongs to him is in His Son, the King, who has given his life for you and me. That’s why we are an asset and not a liability. You and I are God’s wealth, riches, glory and blessing to the world that does not know him yet.
You see God deals with us on the basis of our future, not on our past. To the cowardly Gideon God said, ’You mighty man of valour, I am with you’. Jesus said as he called one of the 12, ‘You are Simon, you will be called Peter (which means a rock)’. Gideon did become a mighty man of valour, and Peter did become a rock in the early church. Because we are God’s assets of wealth, because you and I are God’s inheritance, we choose to pledge our lives to love and serve him.
Fourthly, Paul prayed that we might know God’s power (Eph 1:19-23).
V 19-20 tells us that God’s power at work in us is like the operation of God’s mighty strength which he displayed in the resurrection and ascension of Christ who is now seated alongside the Father in heaven.
We Christians need power in order to use the resources that God has lavished upon us. God’s power helps us use God’s resources wisely. Also we need God’s power to overcome those who would want to rob us of what God has given. Spiritual forces of wickedness abound in high places. We need God’s power to stand strong against the enemy. Paul wants us to know the greatness of God’s power so we will not fail to use all the resources at our disposal in being strong Christian people.
Just think of this: how much power did it take to raise Jesus from the dead? I don’t know. But I do know that the same resurrection power is in us. Paul says in Romans 8:11, if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you, he will also make your body alive by the same Spirit who lives in you.
Because we are the Church (Christ’s body), Jesus is our Lord and Master (He is the head of his body). This means that there is a living connection between us and Jesus. In our bodies, the head controls everything. So it should be in the Church. If Christ is head of the body, then we are parts of his body. When all things are under Christ’s feet, they are under our feet (v22)!
This power of the Spirit is available to us all today. Greatest power shortage is not in supply of electricity into the SA grid, but the resurrection power in the lives of people who profess the Christian faith. Friends, today we celebrate Christ as King. Lets welcome his kingdom into our hearts in the power of his Spirit.
