Since I gave a message here, in fact, I think the last time I preached was last year when we’re still in the old premise. But it was still on this series which I intend to continue, which is the series on the book of Ephesians. We’ll still be looking at chapter 1 this morning, now considering what Christ has done for us. And we have previously, last year, of course, looked at the first fourteen verses when we’re still in Puchong.

So based on this timeline, I should be able to finish this series in 2030. So it’s going to be a long journey. Alright as I’ve said, we’ll still be considering the book of Ephesians. That is the series I plan to go through with you. Now we’ll be looking at chapter 1 verses 15 to 23, but my sermon is only going to focus on verses 18 and 19 okay? Now but before I read the verses to you, let us come to God in prayer. Let’s pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You once again for an opportunity to consider what You want to say to us. And we pray for a humble heart, attentive ears to listen and to understand Biblical truths. And we pray, O Lord, that indeed these truths will speak to us and help us to live out godly lives, for all these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

First, let me read these verses to you starting from verse 15 of chapter 1: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,

according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”. Again I’d like to remind you that the key verse this morning is verses 18 and 19.

The three main points would be the three what’s: What is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe? But I think we need to recap a bit of what the book of Ephesians is about. There are six chapters in this book or this letter written by Paul, and he spends the first three chapters expounding to us, telling us and informing us what God has done for us in Christ. And then in the following three chapters (4, 5, and 6), he then instructs us how we ought to live our lives for Christ. 

I know oftentimes you are quite discouraged when you are serving the church. The work is hard, the people are not nice, life is tough. I can’t go on overseas holidays because I need to tithe the church. Well, if you think this way, it’s because you have forgotten what Christ has done for you. Now, some of you if you have read through Ephesians, you may look at chapters 4, 5, and 6, and you might think of this is very legalistic. You see in chapter 4, you are commanded to be patient. You are asked to maintain the unity of the church in chapter 4. Now do not be drunk with wine, chapter 5.

Now you must take care of how you speak. Do not speak foul language, chapter 5 verse 4. You should not waste your time, chapter 5 verse 16. And children you must obey your parents, chapter 6. Why is this Bible so legalistic here? Aren’t we saved by grace? Well again, if you think this way, you have forgotten what Christ has done for you and that you are serving Him because of what He has done for you. So this is why Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians in the first few chapters by again reminding us what God has done for us in Christ. And if you are able to grasp that, then keeping the law does not or will make sense to you especially as Christians.

So now we have already gone through the first fourteen verses, which is on spiritual blessings. Again just a simple recap, Paul starts off chapter 1 by expounding to us what are the spiritual blessings which we enjoy as Christians. Now this is not to be confused with earthly blessings. Earthly blessings are, you know, the things which all of us enjoy, regardless whether we are Christians. Some will enjoy more; some will enjoy less. Like the food that you eat, the clothes that you have, the house you stay in, the car that you drive. But for spiritual blessings, these are only blessings which Christians enjoy. And if you are Christian, you don’t get a bit of a spiritual blessings. You get the whole list of spiritual blessings, which is very clearly stated to us here in the first fourteen verses.

And what are they? Well, of course you see here, you as Christians, you enjoy spiritual blessings such as being adopted, you are accepted. You have been redeemed, you have the forgiveness of sins. You’ll be given the knowledge of His will. And one day, you’ll be gathered in heaven and will have an inheritance. And as Christians, we should be grateful of these spiritual blessings. And after Paul explains to us all these spiritual blessings that we will enjoy as Christians, we come now to this section which we will see this morning, and this section is prayer by Paul. It is a prayer by Paul. Now how do we know that this is a prayer? Now it’s quite clear in verse 16. Paul says: “Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers”. So this is a prayer by Paul.

And in this text here, we might want to ask also: Now who is Paul praying for? This is a prayer by Paul, but who is Paul praying for? Is it for the country? Is it for a certain individual? Well, verse 15 here describes two characteristics of a Christian: “Therefore, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints”. Now, this is some sort of a litmus test for a Christian. Are you a Christian? How do you know that you are a Christian? Well, there are many ways, and Paul lists two main ones here. And that is you have faith in the Lord Jesus and you have love for other Christians.

Do you have faith in the Lord Jesus, faith that only He can save you from your sins, or are you in denial that you do not have any sins, or are you still trusting in your own works to save you from your sins? And do you love other Christians? All of them, not some of them? Now, who you spend time more really shows who you love. Do you love to spend time with other Christians? Now do you put in the effort to get to know them, to pray for them, to love them? And so this is a prayer by Paul for Christians, not for any other things. Now again I’m just going through very quickly this first few verses before we reach verse 18.

In verse 17, he also prays that God may grant the church help of the Holy Spirit, that they may understand now certain things. It says here “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”. So to understand spiritual things, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. And Paul is now praying that God would grant the Ephesian Church the help of the Holy Spirit, now that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, you see that in verse 18. I know some versions of the Bible which you may be using says “the eyes of your understanding”, but I think the majority text reads “the eyes of your hearts”. “The eyes of your hearts being enlightened”.

No matter how much you understand now or how much truths you can see in the Bible, I can assure you what you see now is only a glimpse of what really is. The more you grow as a Christian, the more you will realise how much you did not know in the first place, and the more you will realise how much more you still need to know. We need to be like Paul. We need to pray that God will continue to help us enlighten our hearts to help us to see more, to understand more. We need to grow more in the knowledge of God. And Paul here in this text is praying unceasingly for the church that they will understand more and more, that the eyes of the heart may be enlightened so that they may know more.

What you would say that Paul wants them to know? Well, now we come to verse 18. Paul prays that they may know these three what’s: What is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. And these three what’s are related to salvation: His calling, His inheritance, His power. Firstly, what is the hope of His calling? I’m sure when you were young, you must have done something wrong. Either you have accidentally broke a flower pot, probably your mom’s favourite flower pot, or probably during the exam time you were supposed to be studying, but instead of studying, you sneaked out with your friends to play computer games. And then suddenly you hear your mother calling.

I assure you there is no hope in this kind of calling. This is a calling of punishment. And you hear your mother calling, you know that you are dead. Or perhaps when a loved one dies, someone you love very much. Could be your spouse, could be your father or mother, could be your siblings. They passed away because of some illness, and you are there. You’re very sad. You’re calling for the person’s name, asking him or her to wake up. “Please wake up! Don’t leave me now!” You call and you call, but you know that call is in vain. You do not have the power to call someone up from the dead. This is not the calling of hope, this is a vain and painful calling.

Now likewise, do you see that we are dead spiritually? There is no hope. A pastor can preach all he wants to the congregation, and that won’t save anyone. A church member can preach the gospel in the streets, and that won’t save anyone. A mother can teach her children every night about Jesus, but her children will not become alive spiritually because they are all spiritually dead. There is no hope in this kind of calling. But here Paul says that I want you to know what is the hope of who’s calling? He wants us to know what is the hope of God’s calling. Now there is a calling that has hope, and that is a call that comes from God. And when it comes, the Holy Spirit will personally apply the truths of the Bible that we have heard.

We apply it to the hearts of the believers or the hearts of the people. It’s a calling that will raise people from the dead. It is a calling that will regenerate your soul. We termed this as “effectual calling” because it is a calling that has an effect. When God calls someone spiritually, that person will rise from the dead. And now that he is alive, he can grow and he can live as a Christian. So, what is this hope that God’s calling that a Christian now has when he is alive? As a Christian, I am now alive. I now belong to God. So how should I live my life? How should I view this hope? Do I still live in despair?

No. A Christian’s hope is that now that he’s been called, he now belongs to Christ. He will be protected until Christ returns again. We have this call. He now can hope that all things work together for his good. He knows that there will be bad times, but he can hope that it will come to an end. He expects to be tempted in sin, but he can hope to be kept and upheld. He supposed suffers many trials and tribulations, but he has a hope that God is his Shepherd and he shall not lack. He can hope that one day that his body will be perfect. He can hope that one day Jesus will return, just as Jesus will return one day to claim His bride, which is the church. So are you a Christian? Do you know these things? Do you know what is His calling?

We know that Abel and May’s wedding will be coming soon. There are a lot of preparations to be done. A lot of planning. You have to choose the wedding gown. Now there is a photoshoot. You have to decide where is the wedding hall, and you have to choose a nice place for dinner. Just so many things to be done. And May, you know, is living in this hope that when the fateful day comes, Abel will come with his groomsmen and his best man. And at 6 a.m. in the morning, they will drive over to USJ 5, and they will pick May up. And when they’re at the front of the door, Abel press the doorbell, and what does he find? May is still sleeping.

May is still sleeping, and when he wakes her up, she realised she hasn’t bought the wedding gown yet. So no choice, Abel has to cancel the wedding. Now we know of course marriage is a very good example of Christ and the church. As Christians, how are we living our lives? Do you know what is the hope of His calling? Do you live in light of the hope of His calling? Do you know what this means and what it implies? Are you preparing yourselves to live when Christ comes, or are we still pursuing the things of the earth that does not last? Are we waiting in hope for His return, or are we still making ourselves at home on this earth, storing up treasures for ourselves?

Now there is so much hope for a Christian that has been called by God. We must anticipate it. We must prepare for it. Those who claim to be Christians do not prepare themselves only show who they really are. And of course, we know that when the day comes when Abel comes to pick May up from her home, we know that she is not sleeping. Probably she’s only praying, but already dressed in her wedding gown, waiting for Abel to come and pick her up. Likewise, as Christians, we must be ready for our husband when He comes to receive us. So that is how we should live our lives in the light of the hope of His calling.

Now we look to the second what. Not only does Paul prays that our hearts may know what is the hope of His calling, he also prays that we may know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Now, this is quite a long statement, took me quite a while to figure out what is this about, but it’s actually quite very simple. The first is referring to His calling. The second what is referring to His inheritance. So what is God’s inheritance? Is it the stars in the sky? Is it the grand oceans, the big mountains or the beautiful rainforests? Now of course, we know all these things do indeed belong to Him, but what does the verse say?

The verse says: “His inheritance in the saints”. Now we are the chosen ones, we are the called ones, and we are God’s inheritance. The Christian is God’s inheritance. We belong to God. We know everything on this earth belongs to God. Like I mentioned, the stars in the sky, the grand oceans, the big mountains, the beautiful rainforests. All these wonderful things belong to God, but we are His crown jewels. I’ll just like to point out that it is actually quite amazing that if Paul would have just mentioned that we would know that we are God’s inheritance, it would have been a pretty amazing statement to be an inheritance of an all mighty, all-powerful King. But no, it would have been twice as amazing that Paul would have wanted us to know that we are the glory of God’s inheritance.

Well is that what he said? No. Paul puts a superlative upon a superlative. Paul wants us to know that we are the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance. Now, this is quite an amazing statement which Paul is praying for us here. So why are we described so magnificently? Now how can there be so much richness and glory in sinful beings such as us? Well, it is because God has spent so much wisdom, love, and effort upon us. Now consider a piece of wood. Just a normal piece of wood. Now that piece of wood can be worthless, probably only worth fifty cents or one ringgit.

But if a woodcarver comes or an artisan comes and works on this piece of wood, spending time and effort carving the wood into a very beautiful art piece, then the piece of wood will now have some value. He could have carved the wood into a beautiful bird, a wooden bird. And now you can sell this piece of wood, this beautiful piece of wood, which is now a beautiful wooden bird for a high price. Likewise, a spoiled child is worthless in society. The less of those, the better a country will become. But if a mother would spend her time and effort and love and wisdom to bringing up that child, there’s a big possibility that that child will eventually grow up to be a fine young man, and he can join the workforce, he can contribute to society, he can earn a living.

God willing, he may be blessed with a family for him to lead. If God so wills, he may be even be saved and be joined to a church where he can serve in a church. Now, how about us? What has God done to us that we may become the riches of the glory of His inheritance? Well, all three persons of the Godhead is involved of this making of a Christian. God has put so much thought and wisdom into His grand plan of redemption. The Father must elect, and He indeed has done so even before the foundation of the world, even before we were born. The Son must redeem, and God knows what it will cost to save sinners, but He loved us so much that He was willing to send His only Son down to this earth to die for our sins.

And Jesus Christ knows that our sins has to be paid, and He so willingly came down to be a sacrifice for our sins. The Holy Spirit must also work. The Holy Spirit must regenerate our spiritually dead hearts. He must regenerate us and give us a new heart, and that He must continue to live in us, to continue to sanctify us and preserve us throughout all our lives now because we need to change and work out our salvation. And what is the product of that? The product is an inheritance of God which is so wonderful, so brilliant, and so rich in glory. Now do you see yourselves as God’s rich and glorious inheritance? Are you living your lives in light of this, or are our hearts still blind?

I know many of us are still either short-sighted of half-blind, sometimes I see it in myself. I’m supposed to be the glory of His inheritance. I’m supposed to grow in my faith, but often I have been so anxious about things. I wonder if I still have a job tomorrow. I wonder if I’m single, whether I will get married. If I have a girlfriend, I wonder if she loves me. If I have kids, I wonder if they will grow up to be fine young people. If I have a husband, I wonder if he still cares for me. If I have a wedding coming, I’m wondering if it would be successful, and on and on is the list of a never-ending worry. And I failed put my trust and my faith in Him as if God is not in control.

I’m supposed to be growing in love, but often I have not shown enough love towards others, especially those who are closest towards me. We fight and we quarrel, but because of our proud hearts, we are reluctant to apologise or to repent. Sometimes we see a brother or sister hurting at a corner, but we couldn’t care less to go and ask about them, to pray for them. Often we see a friend in need, but I’m so busy to lend a hand to them. This is not how we should live our Christian lives. We should be the salt and the light of this world. We are the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and we should live as model Christians. We should live as Christians who are growing, now knowing that one day we would be in heaven together with Christ.

The Spirit will work in us, but we must strive to work out our salvation. Many of you, I think I can hear silently in your hearts, especially in those humble and convicted believers. You might be saying: “There’s nothing good in me. How am I supposed to live out my Christian life? I still commit old sins. I’m barely surviving each day. My mind is so fickle. I’m weak, I’m frail. I’m scared that one day the devil might come and snatch me away. Every day I pray, I cry out for help from the Lord. But sometimes, I cry over my own prayers because my prayers are at times so infected with selfish desires.” Some of you may even be like Job and declare yourselves to be vile and evil in God’s sight.

Now I want to encourage you not to fear. Salvation is of the Lord. He planned it, He will redeem, He will make it happen. We are His wood which He carves like the woodcarver. We are His children, which He trains and will chastise when we do wrong. The power that is able to raise Christ from the dead is the same power that is responsible for the conversion, the preservation, and the salvation of any Christian, which is where I want to bring you to the third what. The third what is Paul wants us to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that is upholding us.

You know Donald Trump is so courageous and brave. If Iran wants to fight back, he’s not scared. He knows behind him there is a huge army of US soldiers. There he has fighter planes, he has submarines and warships, and worse come to worse, he has his nuclear bomb. So he’s not afraid of Iran. But Donald Trump does not have the power to raise people from the dead. And if Donald Trump is so confident in his own army, shouldn’t we be confident of a power so great, greater than Donald Trump? As Christians, we have the power of God supporting us, upholding us. It says here we need to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. And this is the same power that is able to raise the dead.

What would you say if you are at the gates of heaven, and God asked you: Why should I let you in? Some of you might say because I attended church and I served it with all my life. Some might say because I prayed, because I gave money to the church, because I visited church members every week. Some would say I did this, I did that, but I think every answer that starts with ‘I’ should be an answer before the gates of hell. The correct answer should be because God. Because Jesus. Because Jesus died for my sins, because Jesus rose again, which means the sacrifice has been accepted, and this great power which resurrected Jesus Christ is now working in me. The Holy Spirit has been working in me to work out my salvation.

By myself, I will never achieve salvation. I’ll probably give up when I’m in my 30s or 40s, but with God nothing is impossible. The power of darkness may be strong, the temptations of sin may be strong, but the power of God is exceedingly greater. And because of that, we have confidence to march on towards heaven. Only those who can see how truly sinful they are, how stubborn they once were, how difficult it is to change someone, or probably even impossible to make someone to come to a true conversion. Now if you are able to see that, then I trust that you are able to see the exceeding greatness of God’s power towards us who believe.

Now in closing, I just want to summarise. Paul here is praying for the Ephesian Church. He is praying for believers and the three what’s that he is praying for is related to salvation. He wants us to know what is the hope of God’s calling. It is a calling that gives us new life. It is a calling that regenerates our hearts. It is a calling that gives us hope as Christians. God wants us to know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

We belong to Him, and we draw great comfort and privilege to be part of this royal family. And we should live our Christian lives in light of this knowledge. And God wants us to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power that you may never doubt if you are ever saved. Give yourselves to Him. Let Him work in you, and in turn, you must work out your salvation. It is His calling, His inheritance, and His power. Let’s close in prayer.

“Our Father in heaven, as we again are reminded of the great truths of salvation, we come to see that indeed it is so amazing that there is hope in Your calling. And as Christians, we are now the riches of the glory of Your inheritance. And we know, O Lord, that we have confidence that we will never fall away because what’s supporting us is the exceedingly great power of Yours which is even able to raise people from the dead.

We ask O Lord that these truths will motivate us to live out our Christian lives, will draw us closer to You. Well, You’ll help us, O Lord, as we live our lives in such a hostile world, hostile towards Christianity. We pray for all our friends here that we would be encouraged by Your Word. And for those who are still outside Your kingdom, we pray Lord that this day after they have heard Your Word preached, that You will grant them the gift of faith and repentance, for all these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.