Ephesians 1:15-23

Are we weak or are we strong? Are we confident or are we afraid? Are we moving forward or are we retreating? How do we see ourselves as a church, as the Christian Reformed Church in Hollandale, as the Church of Jesus Christ in this world? Are we on the ropes, just about finished, are we going down the drain? Or are we standing strong, winning victories, with the assurance of the final victory firmly grasped?

How we see ourselves makes a big difference in how we do church, how we carry out the work that is given to us. If we see ourselves as strong, assured of victory, we will confidently move forward. We will try. We will look for opportunities to help people. If we are confident, we will be able to look at ourselves honestly and see if we are missing something, if maybe we are wrong, and we need to fix something. We know the strength of the church, and we know the strength of the Head of the church, we’re going to enjoy church a whole lot more, we’ll love to do ministry.

But if we’re afraid, if we feel threatened, if everybody seems to be against us, and they all seem so big, we will retreat. We’ll nervously look at ministry opportunities, and if there is any way to avoid them, we will. After all, we might fail. We will look at other people and be able to point out their faults, but we dare not look at ourselves. We are afraid to look at ourselves, to see our own faults. So, we ignore the parts of ourselves that need fixing. When we are afraid, when we see ourselves as weak, we don’t really enjoy church a whole lot. Ministry is necessary, something we have to do.

And it’s for this reason that Paul prays. Paul is incredibly optimistic about the church, not because of our own human abilities, not because we’re such great people, but because Paul knows Who’s in charge. He knows the Head, and he knows what Jesus can and does do in His church. That’s why, verse 15:

Remember where faith and love come from. These aren’t just nice people that Paul is writing to. These are people who have received the fruit of the Holy Spirit, including faithfulness and love. And Paul is seeing that in them.

They are remaining faithful to their Lord. They are loving Him with their mouths and with their deeds and with their hearts. They are wanting what God wants. They’re doing it. They’re remaining holy and pure.

And they’re loving each other. They are loving their neighbors like themselves. They’re getting along, and when there’s conflict, they’re working it out with patience and respect. They’re not biting on each other. They’re not tearing other people down with words. They love Christians. They love the saints. And not just the people in their own little church. They love "all the saints." Christians with different color skin are still part of the family, still brothers and sisters. Christians that sing different songs and use different expressions, they love them. They don’t love them in spite of their differences, they love them because of the differences, because of the diversity.

And Paul is so thankful. He’s seen what churches can look like who are not being faithful and who are not loving all the saints. He’s seen the rich absolutely ignoring the poor. He’s seen them squabbling over what kind of meat to eat. It’s so frustrating for him to see the church not being the church. But here in Ephesus, Paul sees them being the kind of church they were supposed to be. And he is so thankful, he can’t stop praying, giving thanks to the Lord.

And asking for more. Not only is he thanking God for strong healthy church, verse 17:

Hear it again, how important it is to know Jesus? To not just know about Him, but to know Him.

Because that’s going to make all the different. If we know Jesus, if we know that He’s here, if we know that He loves His church and helps His church and keeps His church strong, we’ll calm down. We won’t be afraid.

And if we know Jesus, then we have been given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to equip us in the work we are called to do. And that Spirit, the Holy Spirit, He keeps giving us that wisdom, making us grow in our abilities to see truth and to speak truth, equipping us in our capacity to be the body of Christ in this place.

That’s why Paul also prays, in verse 18:

Because he knows how bad things can get if we don’t know the hope and we don’t know the riches and we don’t know the power. He knows we’ll quit, we’ll shrink into ourselves, and in the end we’ll stop being faithful.

If we don’t know the hope. Not a wishful hope, not a wondering hope, but a certain hope, a knowledge that we can actually succeed at being the saints of God in this world, a light to people who are grasping in the darkness. God will bring His kingdom fully into this world. I know, it doesn’t look like it at times. But He will. He is. This is fact. Not wishful thinking. It’s truth. And knowing this truth, we stop being paralyzed by the resistance, we stop watching them with fearful eyes, and we move forward.

We move forward, knowing the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Does it feel sometimes like we don’t have enough people or enough money or enough time or enough ideas to get done what we’d like to get done? That the problems that are in this community, problems of poverty and addiction, health issues, broken families, that these are just too big for us? How can we even try?

And then we think about the riches, the glorious inheritance in the saints. For the Lord who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, for the God who created creativity, for the Lord who controls the value of the dollar, do we think His saints are ever going to run out of resources for the work God calls us to do? True, we might not have the resources, but that can be for a couple of reasons. Maybe we’re not using our resources the way we’re supposed to, and so we run out. Or, we’re not supposed to fix the problem in this way. Maybe it’s not up to us to finish the problem. Maybe the resources need to come from someplace else. But as long as we’re coming to our Lord, using what He has given us, we’ll have plenty.

So, we know the hope, and we know the riches, and we know the power. The strength. Verse 19:

Again, what can stop us when the power that brought a dead man back to life is the power that is in this group, right here, that we are a part of. This is us. This is the power that is at our disposal. We’re not a little, weak church. We are a church with the power of the resurrection.

And that’s the work that we do. Our power is not in the ability to control or to dictate how people should live their lives. It’s not a power that tells people what to do. It’s certainly not a political power. It’s the power of Christ, in us, to heal and restore and resurrect. In our community, in our church, in our families, in ourselves, there needs to be dying and rising happening all the time. We need to be able to see dying of sin, dying of habits, dying of selves. There needs to be the dying of addictions, the dying of pride, the dying of feuds and arguments. And after there is the dying, then there is the rising, the rising of lives, rising of relationships, rising of attitudes, rising of persons. That’s what we do here, in the power of the resurrection.

All under the watchful eye and guiding hand of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, I wonder if we know that Jesus will be all-powerful and fully in charge, in the future. Right now, we wonder a little. I mean, we know He’s there, and we know He’s powerful. He just doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot sometimes. Like He’s waiting, or something. He’s not. He’s ruling. He’s in control. He’s working. He’s directing. He’s holding us back and He’s pushing us forward. He’s compensating for our failures, and He’s using the gifts He has given to us. He is, verse 21:

Now, hearing all this, hearing who our Leader, our Head is, hearing about the hope and the riches and the power that is His, in us, are we weak or are we strong? Do we have to retreat, or can we press forward? The church of Jesus Christ is not in trouble. The church of Jesus Christ is alive and well and under great supervision. Now, of course this means that we stay diligent and watchful for heresy or sin. We keep our eyes open, but we don’t need to be afraid. We can calm down. If there’s a problem, Jesus will take care of it. He’ll expose it and eradicate it from His church. Verse 22:

Which means that, when something new comes along in the church, we can calmly, objectively examine it to see if it is righteous or evil. Is it useful or harmful? Is it Christ-like or not? If we are afraid, if we feel threatened, we might actually miss something that is Christ-like, because we were afraid of something that was new.

But if we are strong, and if we know we are strong, we will be that much more effective in ministry here in this community. When the deacons receive a benevolence need, their first thought won’t be, "Oh man, how are we going to do this?" Instead, they’ll be thinking, "Okay, what’s the best way to use the riches and power that God has provided to help this person." When we become aware of someone in our town that just doesn’t fit with us, is different than us, talks different, acts different, goes to different places than we go, our first reaction won’t be, "Uuh, we don’t want to get involved. It’s too hard. We’re too uncomfortable. Instead, our reaction will be, "Okay, Jesus, I’m not sure what to do here. I’m uncomfortable. I don’t know what to say. But I know You are giving me the wisdom to know what to do and how to act. It’s up to You to get me over there, to start a conversation. I’ll go, but You need to get me there."

It’s the church that Jesus uses to "fill everything in every way". Jesus wants to be evident everywhere, in every thing. He IS everywhere. It’s just hard to see Him, sometimes, because of sin. But Jesus is using the church to make Him more evident. And it’s precisely the most hopeless places, the darkest homes, the most rebellious people, that Jesus directs us towards so that He can fill everything and everyone in every way.

So we go, and we talk and we befriend and we help. Because we’re not afraid, because we know the power of the resurrection, there’s no need to retreat from our community, from our neighbors, from other churches, from anything. Jesus said, in Matthew 16:18:

We have the hope. We have the riches. We have the power to be the church. There’s no need to fear. Let’s be the church. Let’s show up. Let’s get involved. Let’s go!