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A Prayer for Weighty Wisdom (Ephesians 1:15-17)

June 17, 2018 Preacher: Bob DeWaay Series: Ephesians

Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-17

Those who are believers as described in Paul’s berakah are characterized by faith in Christ and love for the saints. This description i not of extraordinary believers, but of all who truly know Christ. We show that prayer for the saints is rightly accompanied with thanksgiving to God for them. Prayer is very important in the New Testament and is part of the means of grace mentioned in Acts 2:42. What Paul prays is that the weightiness of God’s glory would profoundly influence the thinking and worldview of believers such as those in Ephesus (and all of us). To understand why Paul would pray that believers would have “wisdom and revelation” of what Paul had just mentioned in the previous section is to realize the difference between meaning and significance. An unbeliever can see what Paul wrote and what it means, but believers take it seriously as the very word of God. Significance has to do with our reception, belief, and response to what God has revealed in scripture. We study some important material in Daniel 2 to show that Daniel also blessed God with his own berakah.  The king of Babylon demanded that his wise men would describe a dream he had and give the interpretation, or they would be killed. The pagan diviners knew they could not do this, but Daniel knew God and said that God alone gives true wisdom. God revealed to Daniel the dream and its interpretation which had to do with future world history. We also study Isaiah 11:2, 3 which is a Messianic prophesy that tells us that Messiah would have wisdom and understanding that would be beyond anything ordinary humans could have. We end by looking at passages in 1 Timothy about Christ being the mediator between God and man and the need for people to turn to Him to be saved.

Sermon handout and slides available under Downloads tab.