Ephesians 1. 15-23 Receiving the Spirit, being the Church. March 26th

Ephesians 1. 15-23 Receiving the Spirit, being the Church.

When Paul made his big visit to Ephesus, he found a group of "disciples" - a word that, in Acts, always refers to a Christian.  But Paul saw something was missing, and asked "did you receive the Spirit when you believed?  He had prayed for them and seen the Holy Spirit come upon them.
* He knew from experience that they had the Holy Spirit.
* He knew by report that they loved Jesus and his people. He had heard about the good things that are happening in Ephesus.  He knows about their faith in Jesus and their love for God's people.
* He knew theologically that God had blessed them in every spirit blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

That's all background to what he says next.  He is praying for them, that God  may give them a spirit of wisdom... well, no.  He prays that God may give them Spirit of wisdom.  Whenever Paul uses the word "pneuma" in his letters, he means the Holy Spirit.

So often when we talk about "recieving the Holy Spirit"  there are wrong ideas and fears floating about, that pretty well can sideline the whole conversation. One is that we have already received the Spirit - so we shouldn't be asking to receive the Spirit. Another is that somehow to seek the Spirit is dangerous or "extreme" or only for a certain type or only for leaders, or somehow too vague and impractical.  It boils down to two questions.

Question 1. Should we pray for the Spirit to come?
Here is another question: does Paul  pray for something that can't be done? Does he pray for something God doesn't want to give? Is he asking for something that is already given therefore we don't really need?

No, for people who have the Spirit, Paul prays that God would give the Holy Spirit, because he knows that God wants us to continue to receive the Spirit. It's that simple really.

Question 2 What will the Spirit do?

What Paul prays reveals a great deal about the things the Spirit wants to do:  he is the spirit of Wisdom Revelation knowledge understanding. This all seems to be about doing something is us, a healing and expanding of our minds and our inner life.
* Wisdom is a practical understanding: it meant "knowing what to do".  OT models are Bezalel, the craftsman who was given wisdom in working with material things. (Ex 31.2) & Messiah (Isa 50.4).
* Revelation is apocalypsis, (the Greek word from which we get apocalypse). It means unveiling, removing the veil, "unhiding"  (That's a word I made up.) cf 2 Cor 3.16: "When someone turns to Christ the veil is removed."  The work of the Spirit in our lives turns us in our hearts and thinking, irrevocably towards Jesus Christ.  And in Christ our minds are enlarged so that they can receive and pass on God's message.
* Accurate knowledge of God. For the Greeks, the idea of "knowledge" was something important.  They loved "knowledge" and there were religious groups (the Gnostics) who looked for secret knowledge that only a privileged few could have.  Paul says that the ability to know God isn't some secret mystery that you have to buy into. It is a gift that God himself give by his Spirit.   And as a Jew, Paul knew that to know God was to love him and obey him.. That's what the Spirit does inside us.
* A continuing sense of discovery.  The eyes of your hearts having been lit up (perfect tense: it has happened at conversion) that you may see, or understand.... This is about being able to build upon our conversion, in a sense of life-long-learning, Continual Personal development in the life of the Spirit....

Inside us, the Spirit wants to develop a practical wisdom, a passionate focus on Jesus, an accurate knowledge of God and constant growth.

Then Paul goes on to say what he wants them to see.  These are the things Paul wants the Ephesians to see the Spirit doing not just inside them but outside them, through them and beyond them.  They are about faith making a connexion with external realities, and there are three.

The hope we are called to. The Kingdom Hope - the rule that Jesus demonstrated, over the whole of creation. All things new. All people, all things, praising God. All things united under one head, in Christ. Diversity, unity, generosity.  What a wonderful vision. What a wonderful world.  What are we going to do with that? Wait for it to happen?  No, we need to see that hope, to see foretastes of the Kingdom in the sweet here and now.  We need to live a Kingdom life.  And we do that not because we desire it or hanker after it. We do so because that is the hope to which God has called us.

The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.   Whose inheritance in the saints?  His! Not ours! As we anticipate experience and live out of that future reality in a proactive way, we see, and demonstrate the glorious riches of God.  We belong to him.  We are his people.  God wants us to see and understand and demonstrate what a fantastic, rich treasure he has inherited in us the saints!

The overflowing dimensions of his power towards us who believe.  The overwhelming power of God, flowing towards, into us.  The source of that power and the grand pattern for how that power works is the resurrection.... Paul says literally it is according to the energizing of his power that he energized in Christ when he raised him from the dead.   We seek to live the coming Kingdom, to be God's inheritance, in the power of the Spirit, because Jesus is alive.

What does God want to do by his Spirit?   Firstly he wants to grow us, so that we are big enough on the inside to be really wise, to have the veil on big truths taken away, to know God accurately, to perceive with eyes that can handle the light.  Secondly, he wants us to go on a voyage of discovery... unwrapping our future hope (God's Kingdom - impacting the world today); God's inheritance in the saints; and the overflowing dimensions of his power towards us... That's a voyage, not a destination.

But Paul hasn't finished this breathless sentence.  He's still thinking about God's power that raised up Jesus, seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places and made him head over all things for the Church which is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way.  He finishes it with this lightning bolt that connect the transcendent glory of Jesus, with this frail, fragile community of people on earth: the Church which is his body, the fullness of Jesus. That means that the Church is the entire contents of the Good ship Jesus, crew, passengers, cargo, supplies.  And that Jesus is head over all for that church.  And he fills everything that is in everything.  That - again - is the cosmic Christ, the Christ who is bigger that our little Church and our little nation and our little vision.  So as Paul prays that the Ephesians will receive the Spirit, he does so in order that they may really be the Church, really live as the fullness of him who fills everything that is in everything.

That's Paul's prayer.  It's a "more, Lord" prayer.  The prayer "more, Lord!" is a good prayer.  But as Guy Chevraux says, "More is not enough."  Paul isn't praying more, he's praying "all." If you like, he is praying for more of the "all" that they have already been given.  And from that "all", there's always "more".   Our call is to pray "more, Lord!" To receive the Spirit. And to be the church.

© Gilmour Lilly March 2011