Ephesians 1:15-16b: Lessons in Faith and Love

SPEAKER 01 : 0:07

Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:44

Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through 16. Ephesians 1, 15 through 16. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We now find ourselves in this doctrinal section that’s found in chapters 1 through 3, and it’s very interesting because this doctrinal section begins with one single sentence in the original language, the Greek, a sentence that consists of 202 words, and a sentence that’s 12 verses long, verses 3 through 14. And in those amazing verses, Paul praised God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, you remember? He praised God for choosing us for Himself, for… predestining us to adoption, for making us acceptable in the Beloved, for redeeming us, for forgiving us of all our sin, for showering us with undeserved grace, for ensuring for us an eternal inheritance, for God’s sovereign care over us, for giving us a purpose and a reason for living His glory. for saving us and for giving us the Spirit who seals us and who guarantees all the eternal blessings which are most certainly to come for us in Christ. So, in light of all those incredible blessings, now what? Praise God, right? Bless God, glorify God, because He certainly is worthy of it. Well, that long 12-sentence verse of praise to God has now ended, but Paul now begins another long sentence that’s found in verses 15 through 23. So let’s go ahead and look at the first part of that sentence, verse 15. Therefore… Notice the first two things that Paul has heard about the Ephesians. First, he heard about their faith in the Lord. Note that this isn’t just talking about their initial act of saving faith in the Lord, but it’s talking about their continuing faith in the Lord, their faithfulness. So, I guess a good question is, what does that kind of faithfulness look like? Well, for the Ephesians, it was clearly their love for all the saints, which flowed out of their faithfulness to God, which we’re going to get to. But before we look at that, the Ephesians had a talked-about faith, because Paul heard about their faith in the Lord, that they were living it out. It had to have looked like the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, but Paul mentions one aspect of their faith, this. Their love for the saints. How good is that? See, because of their great faith in the Lord, therefore they had a talked about love for one another, which is a great thing to be said about any Christian and about any church. Therefore, Paul says, I also, after I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and what? Your faith. Your love for all the saints. That is a massive compliment here because love is the chief mark of a true Christian. Who are we? We are those who love God and we are those who love others passionately and from the heart. Only Christians can truly do that. The word for love here is the Greek word agape. Now there are four different Greek words for love in the Bible. Eros, which is the word for romantic and passionate love. Philia is a word for love that we have for those near and dear to us, for our family and our friends. Storge is a word for the love that shows itself in affection and care, especially close family affection. But agape love is different. It’s distinct. Agape love is a love of choice. It’s been called unconditional love because it chooses to love even that which is undeserving of love. Agape love is a kind of love that God has for us. It’s special. It’s unique. While we were yet sinners, enemies of God, He still gave His life for us. And we’re called to exhibit that kind of love to others. And it’s a very distinct kind of love. It’s a godly love. It’s a unique love. It’s a covenant love. It’s a love that comes from God Himself to us in Christ and then flows through us, out of us, to others. See, agape love has to do with the mind. It’s not simply an emotion that rises in our hearts all at once, but it’s a principle by which we deliberately choose to live by. And this sets a Christian apart from the non-Christian. William Barclay says that agape means unconquerable benevolence. It means that no matter what a man may do to us by way of insult, injury, or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but his highest good. It is therefore a feeling of the mind as much as the heart. It concerns the will as much as the emotion. Agape describes the deliberate effort which we can make only with the help of God. never to seek anything but the best, even for those who seek the worst for us. Did you hear that? And only Christians, with the help of the Holy Spirit, can really love in this manner. See, non-Christians don’t love like this because this kind of love is contrary to their nature. Romans 5.5 says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So again, only true Christians can love in this way as the pattern of their lives because God gives that love to us, not so non-Christians. And that seems clear when you look around you. What kind of love marks the world? Not agape love. Self-love, yes, look around you. Lustful love, yes. Love that benefits me, yes. But not a forgiving, selfless, gracious, sacrificial, turn the other cheek, I put you ahead of me for the glory of God kind of love. Not at all. But it must be true for us here. If you’re a Christian. True Christians love love. with this agape, godly love. Do you? First, we love God, of course, right? In Mark 12, Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, and He said the greatest commandment is clear, right? To love God. What’s the second commandment? To love your neighbor as yourself, right? That makes sense. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. That comes first. He’s the one true God. And because of who He is and because of what He’s done, our call then is to love Him fully and completely. And how could we not, right? I mean, in light of what He’s done. Love Him how? Love Him with all your heart. For the ancient Hebrews, the heart was understood as the organ of intellect and volition. It represented the location of one’s mental activity and moral choices. Love the Lord with all your soul. The soul was the very life of the individual. It represented every facet of man’s being, including his deepest desires and emotions. Love the Lord with all your mind. Stressing the fact that this isn’t just an emotional thing for us. No, this is a well thought out thing. And look, we’re all in. We’re all in. We’ve thought it through and it’s clear. Love the Lord with all your strength. This phrase stresses emphasis and may be understood as a command to love God with excessive, unrestrained passion and devotion. With all, with all, with all, with all. Speaking of true love, intense love, a love that’s captured your heart and that affects your life in a profound way, in a dramatic way. It’s a love that loves with the totality of one’s being because of who He is and because of what He’s done for undeserving sinners like us. see God wants the heart and soul of his people and why not right he wants every part of you he doesn’t want empty religion no he wants you to love him with all your affections and with all your adoration because he certainly deserves it okay what else because it can’t end there what else love your neighbor as yourself so if you love God then it’s going to show in loving others who’s my neighbor Everyone’s your neighbor, not just your friends and not just the people you like. One said, your neighbor is anyone who wears a suit of skin. So the call is clear, right? Love. Anybody know where I’m going next? Turn to 1 Corinthians 13, please. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. We know this Scripture, but let’s look at it and examine ourselves to see how we measure up. We’re called to love God. We’re called to love each other. Am I loving people the way God wants me to love people? This passage defines biblical agape love, and the question is, does it define you? 1 Corinthians 13, 4-7. Look, love suffers long. Do you? Are you patient and are you forbearing with others? Are you really? Love is kind. Okay, are you a kind person? Or are you just mean, harsh, brash, and cold? Love does not envy. Is that true of you? Where you think the best and you want the best for others even when you don’t get what they have. Love doesn’t parade itself. See, it’s not boastful. Instead of being all about self, real love lowers self and exalts God and then others. Are you like that? Love is not puffed up, conceited, self-consuming. Are you that way? Or are you humble, selfless, and Christ-like? Love does not behave rudely. No, love is polite. It’s gracious. It’s respectful. It’s courteous. Are you that way? Love does not seek its own. It seeks others first. Does that mark your life? Love is not provoked. It’s not easily angered, irritated, upset, or offended. What about you? Or are you slow to anger and do you show a whole lot of grace to people? That’s the way of love. Love thinks no evil. Literally, it keeps no record of wrongs. It forgives. It doesn’t harbor bitterness. It doesn’t make memories out of a person’s evil deeds done to you. It’s fast to forget. Is that true of you? Too many Christians refuse to forgive, but that is not godly love at all. Are you quick to forgive even when you have been clearly wronged? Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love never rejoices in sin, yours or someone else’s, but it rejoices in the truth when it’s spoken and when it’s practiced. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and while others may let emotions dictate their love, we in Christ choose to love even when it’s hard. Is that true of you? Clearly. Clearly. Love must mark us in Christ. Love for God and love for others. But look how Paul is specific in verse 15 with the Ephesians. Look, he’s heard about their love for the saints. Talking about other believers. And that’s where it begins, right? First with loving God and then loving each other in Christ and then going out and expanding from there. They will know we are Christians by our love, first for God and then for one another. What does that mean within the context of the church? Well, how about this? Just a few things. Forgive that person. Anybody ever get offended by anybody else in church ever? Forgive. Let it go. Turn the other cheek. Don’t lash out back at them when they lash out at you. God sees. Don’t retaliate. Pray for them. Refuse to gossip. Just be gentle and humble. Don’t get sinfully angry. Just love. Forget about winning the argument. Forget about your own rights. Look to Jesus. Forget about your pride. Honor the Lord and love like He has loved you. Can we do that for one another in light of all that He’s done for us? That’s the way of love. This is where the rubber meets the road. Loving others with agape love. And many Christians fall way too short. May we not fall short here. Some Christians, man, they’re just mean and grumpy and angry. Anybody know Christians like that? Not naming names. None here. Some Christians are cold and harsh and unforgiving. Some are quite unpleasant and spiteful and unfriendly and rude. What a contradiction. Don’t be like that. I love the book Pure Gold about Eric Little. Eric Little was an Olympic champion in 1924, and you know about that if you ever saw the movie Chariots of Fire. Even more important, Eric Little was a strong Christian and missionary in China. He married and had children there, but as World War II was looming, Little put his pregnant wife and children on a ship to Canada while he remained there to do work for the Lord. Eventually, Little was imprisoned in a Japanese work camp where he died of a brain tumor just before the end of the war. It’s a very dramatic story. You should read it. Listen to this. Little ran and lived for the glory of God. Once in prison, Little did what he was born to do, practice his faith and his sport. He became the moral center of an unbearable world, counseling many of the other prisoners, giving up his own meager portions of meals for many days, and organizing games for the children there. He was the hardest worker in the camp. The author continues, “…the camp was filthy and unsanitary. The pathways strewn with debris and the living quarters were squalid. The claustrophobic conditions brought predictable consequences. There were verbal squabbles, sometimes flaring into physical fights over the meager portions at mealtimes, and also the question of who was in front of whom in line to receive the food.” There were disagreements, also frequently violent, over privacy and personal habits and hygiene, as well as perceived idleness, selfishness, and pilfering. Little was different. Little was different. He overlooked the imperfections of character that beset even the best of us, doing so with gentlemanly charm. With infinite patience, he gave special attention to the young, who affectionately called him Uncle Eric. His forbearance was remarkable. That’s the way of love. No one could ever recall a single act of envy, pettiness, hubris, or self-promotion from him. That’s the way of love. He bad-mouthed nobody. He didn’t bicker. He lived daily by the most unselfish credo. which was to help others practically and emotionally. He became the camp’s conscience. Everyone regarded him as a friend. Each morning at the camp, while the camp was still sleeping, Little lit a peanut oil lamp in the darkness and prayed for an hour. Every night after studying the Bible, he prayed again. He didn’t discriminate. He prayed for everyone, even for his Japanese guards. As one said, it’s rare indeed when a person has a good fortune to meet a saint. He came as close to it as anyone I’ve ever known. That’s just a snippet of the character of this amazing man of God. And he was known by his love. Love for God first. It was clear who he was. He was a Christian who loved God. And then love for others. He loved God with passion. And that’s what drove everything that he did. And then because he loved God, he lived out that love tangibly in his daily life. And he let it flow out of him to others. And he’s a good example for us today. Love others. And it begins with loving one another in Christ. It begins in this family. Is your love clear? It must be. Talked about and heard about agape love for the saints is a quality that greatly pleases God and it’s something that should and must mark us in Christ today. Lord help us, does it mark me? Does it mark you? So Paul heard about these two things, about the Ephesians. And after that, Paul did two things. First, he continually thanked God for them. Verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. How good is that? He not only thanks God for them, but he continually thanks God for them. Oh, that every Christian would feel that way towards one another. Think about this. Paul, the prisoner, in bonds for the gospel, he’s joyful and thankful when he thinks of these Christians in Ephesus and he tells God about it. Now remember, Paul had ministered in Ephesus for a year and a half. So he knew many of these Christians as well, I would think. And now about five or six years later, as Paul thinks on these Christians, he gives thanks to God continually and he lets them know it. Oh, that we would do this for the Christians around us, especially for those who have poured our hearts and lives out for us. Let me ask you, do you bring joy to other believers when they think of you? Why? Because you’re a blessing. Because you’re an encourager. Because you show people what Christ is like. Because you love people and you’re greatly loved in return. Because you’re involved in other people’s lives, helping them when they are hurting and correcting them in love when they are erring. Because you show them that Christ gives victory, that Christ is sufficient, that Christ gives comfort in trial, that Christ is worthy of giving our all to. Question, what do your fellow Christians think about when they remember you? Every time I think of you, I just get depressed. Every time I think of you, I get sad. No. Every time I think of you, I think of mediocrity and hypocrisy. No, I hope not. How about this? Every time I think of you, every time I remember you, man, I’m thankful. I’m joyful. What a blessing. How about that? Is that true of you? And again, Paul not only told them that he was thankful for them, but he also told God. It shows us something about Paul, doesn’t it? He lets the Ephesians know that he thanks God for them, and this not only would have encouraged them in many ways, Paul’s praying for me and thanking God for me, but it shows us what Paul’s relationship with God was like. See, Paul didn’t just ask God for things, but Paul thanked God as well. He communed with God. He poured out his heart to God. To me, it doesn’t seem that Paul had set times of prayer, and I’m sure he did have set times of prayer, but it was way more than that. He was constantly in prayer, asking things of God, yes, but just thanking God and praising God and sharing his heart with God and talking with God all the time. And he’s a great example for us today. So look, second, and that’s obvious, Paul prayed for them. What is prayer? We’re going to get to the prayer next week, but he prayed for them. What’s prayer? Prayer is simply communicating with God, and your prayer life is a great revealer of where you’re at in your relationship with your Lord. The Bible is very clear that God hears the heartfelt prayers of His people, that God delights in the prayers of His people, that our God sovereignly works through the prayers of His people, and that prayer is powerful in the life of His people. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable of the persistent widow. The widow demanded justice from the judge, and so she persisted and came to Him again and again and again. Get justice for me from my adversary. At first He said no, but later He said, because this widow troubles me… nags me, I will avenge her. That is a parable on prayer. Persistent prayer. And the point is this. If the bad judge did that for the widow, how much more will God do for us whom he loves? The judge was unloving, evil, ungracious, merciless, and unjust. But our God is loving, good, gracious, infinitely merciful, and always just. The widow in the parable was nameless and insignificant. But as Christians, we are God’s very own children. His bride whom he laid down his life for to save. And the simple point is this. How much more us whose heartfelt prayers are sweet to the ears of God. So many people are messed up about prayer these days. I’ve heard it all. I’ve heard people say that prayer doesn’t really do anything at all. And the only reason we pray is to go to God with it because it makes us feel better about things. On the other extreme, I read a popular book on prayer that said that God’s hands are tied until we pray and release God to move and to act. And until we pray, God can’t do anything. Wow. I read another book that said that God collects our prayers in a heavenly bucket. And only when the bucket is filled can God then act and answer our prayers. All those obviously are unbiblical. All those obviously are wrong. The truth is this, that God sovereignly chooses to work through the heartfelt and passionate prayers of His people. And heartfelt, passionate, persistent prayer, much prayer is better. Do you pray like that? When’s the last time you agonized in prayer about something for someone, about your sin issue, about something else? I mean, agonized. One of the reasons so many Christians in churches today are so weak is because they pray so little. This sin, I’ve heard it. This sin, it has a hold on me. I can’t shake this sin. I might as well just give up. Okay, well, are you fervently praying against it? Are you in the Word and are you fervently praying about that sin for help, for victory? Passionately praying about it? No, I’m not praying like I should. Then stop complaining. Because you’re proving by your lack of prayer that you don’t really want the victory over that sin. For your weak prayer life proves it. Prayer is powerful and you’re not praying? No, prayer is really powerful and God moves through the passionate, fervent prayers of His people. Not through passionless, weak prayers. So be like Paul and pray, pray more, pray much, and pray with fervency. And then trust God with the rest. Note this, that because Paul loves these Ephesians, he prays for them, and doesn’t that make sense? Think about that. If you really love someone, is there anything better that you can do for them than to pray for them? I mean, than to go before the Lord God Almighty for them and for their need? Than to intercede before God for them? I mean, that’s certainly a place to start because Paul knew that what he was doing for them was availing much and had eternal value. That it was doing something for their eternal well-being, him praying for them. That’s called intercessory prayer where you intercede for other people and go to God with their needs and it’s a real labor of love. That kind of fervent prayer isn’t easy. So what does it say when you really pour out your heart to God for each other? If you love God… You will commune much with Him in prayer. And if you love others, you will pray for them and for their many needs.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:34

Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on Expository Truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.