Knowledge and Supremacy of Christ
Ephesians 1:15-23
• We are going to explain each of these verses this morning. But there are two things that are
overarching the context of what we just read:
Knowledge and the supremacy of Christ.
These are the two things that will be our primary focus in this text.
But first I want to point out that in Ephesians the term in Christ is used so many times.
Around 30 times in this book we are told that we are in Christ.
Today we hear things like: “invite Jesus into your heart.” Like we make a little room
for Him in our life: we make a little room for him in there.
But Ephesians give us the idea of being submerged into Him. He is all consuming.
He engulfs every bit of us and everything around us if we are found in Him.
And Scripture tells us that in Him all fullness dwells.
Look at Colossians 1:19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell
in Him
• We that dwell in Him have all the fullness of life.
• Being submerged into Christ is a very different picture than what some paint, isn’t it?
v15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists
among you and your love for all the saints,
v16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my
prayers;
• Paul heard of the faith that this church had in the Lord Jesus. It’s true that he started this
church but he had been gone for a while.
a. This is the only way that you can be saved. Faith alone in Christ alone.
• That is the gospel. You cannot earn salvation; you cannot be impressive to God.
• Then Paul mentions the evidence of being a saint, Love. . . you and your love for all the
saints.
This is a fruit of the Spirit. A Christian loves people and especially those who are in
the family of God: our family.
• Paul thanks God for them and their faith and love for one another. Because this isn’t
something common.
And what does the Apostle Paul pray for: Look at 17:
v17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a
spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
– Is there a quest for something more than being in Christ today? Some object or benefit
more appealing than Christ Himself?
– Is knowing Jesus enough or is He just the gateway to something greater?
– Maybe Jesus is the answer to your desires and your desires are the object of your belief?
You believe in Him because it is beneficial to what you want out of life.
– Or maybe this view: I don’t really need to understand theology or doctrine, because I have
Jesus and all that knowledge stuff is not that important.
• There are many wrong views out there.
I was discipling a man once, and I told him the time had come for him to start
learning theology and doctrine, and he said to me: “I don’t need to understand
theology and doctrine, all I need is Jesus.”
– Well, Jesus has something to say about that.
Matthew 22:37 And He [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
• Jesus commands us to love Him, not only with all of our hearts, not only with all of our
souls, but also with what? With all of your mind.
• There are different theologies floating around that makes it seem as though there is more of
Jesus, more of the Holy Spirit, more power than what is available to us who are in Christ.
Really this is very similar to Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the belief that there is a
secret elevated knowledge or higher truth that is beyond what Scripture teaches us.
Gnosticism is based on a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward emotional approach
to truth. Does that sound familiar?
• Paul is praying something important here in verse 17, that the saints would have: a spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
– a spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of Him
– a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him
What is Wisdom in knowledge of Him?
• This is wisdom in doctrine and theology that leads to knowledge of Him.
There were many false teachers then, just like there are today. They needed wisdom
to discern true knowledge, to navigate through the false teaching, just like we need
today.
This is dealing with the knowledge that helps us grow in sanctification.
What you understand about God through His Word will determine how you behave
and whether you mature as a Christian.
• There are three types of knowledge Scripture speaks of:
1. Knowledge of this world.
2. Knowledge of the gospel that leads to salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
3. Knowledge of Scripture that leads to sanctification and hope.
2 Peter 1:2–3 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
excellence.
• The true knowledge of Him is referring to knowledge of the gospel, what it takes to be saved
and obtain a faith that God has graciously given you out of His own mercy.
2 Peter continues but switches from talking about a saving knowledge to a
sanctifying knowledge:
2 Peter 1:5–8 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the
true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• For those of us found in Christ we grow in our knowledge through the study of Scripture
and hearing true biblical exposition or explanation.
This knowledge is for the sake of our sanctification and hope.
• We don’t get more Jesus, more of the Holy Spirit, or some kind of level up Christianity that
a lot of churches teach.
What is A spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him?
• Revelation means unveiling. To open something and see what is inside of it.
• The Bible is where we find knowledge about God.
• God speaks through His word. Will you open it? Will you see what is inside? Will you
discover the knowledge of God?
v18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know
what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints,
– What is the hope of His calling? What is God calling you to do?
You must have eyes of the heart to know.
• The world doesn’t have eyes of the heart. You must be in Christ in order to understand the
riches of the truth of Scripture.
The word heart is kardias in Greek, which to a Hebrew would mean mind or
thinking.
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit
searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of
a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one
knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13
which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by
the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14 But a natural man does not
accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual
appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known the mind
of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
• Those of us in Christ will never be able to live out these principles if we do not understand
the truths of Scripture.
1 Cor 2:13b tells us: combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
Spiritual words are Scripture.
a. Spiritual thoughts come from the indwelling Holy Spirit as you read Scripture.
b. You gain knowledge through Scripture and He will give you understanding.
• We will never fully understand God or His Word this side of heaven, and we will get
theology and doctrine wrong sometimes because sin corrupts.
Yet, just as our physical eyes see better when there is plenty of light, so does our
spiritual understanding see clear by the light of God’s Word.
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
God’s Word is the only light in this dark world, will you open it?
So that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints
• This is Gods whole plan from start to end.
-His calling since the world began is to glorify Him, to worship Him, and to magnify
Him. Those who do this will know hope. Hope is only found in Christ.
-Those who know Him will see what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance.
Which leads us to The Supremacy of Christ
v19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
• Jesus is omnipotent. He is all powerful.
He possesses every ounce of power in the universe and there is no person, no angel
from heaven or demon from hell, no thing that can overthrow Him.
He is mighty. He is unlimited in power and strength, and none can usurp Him.
• We serve not only a powerful God, but a God who is the issuer of power to anyone or
anything that has any power at all.
In other words, He is the source of all power in the universe and anything that we
can think of that has any power at all only gets that power from God Himself
because He has spoken it.
• Paul is praying here that we have knowledge of this power.
We find comfort in this don’t we? An Omnipotent God whose power is toward us
who believe. If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 1:15–16 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are
in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• The preacher has confidence when he isn’t just giving his opinion but preaching the words
of God. There is power in that.
• The Christian, when witnessing, brings the gospel not by their own power, but by the power
of God.
Colossians 1:9–12 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased
to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the
Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the
attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who
has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
• This really sums up what we have been talking about doesn’t it?
Paul is praying here, again, that the Christian be filled with the knowledge of Gods
will.
He is praying that this leads to spiritual wisdom and that spiritual wisdom leads to
understanding God and His Word in the highest possible way.
iii. He prays this so that we can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and to please Him
in all respects.
And the evidence of that is bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God.
Which strengthens us with all power, not our power but according to His glorious
might.
For something that benefits us: steadfastness, patience, and joy.
And we give thanks to God the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light, not in darkness.
• What a privilege we have in Christ.
• What an inheritance we will receive. Christ is the gift.
• Think about how that we may pray like our text in Ephesians as well as this one we just
read in Colossians this week, both for ourselves, and as Paul did, for others.
i. Pray for God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
ii. Pray that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened so that we would know the hope
of His calling.
iii. Pray for us to know the glorious riches of His inheritance.
iv. For us to know the immeasurable greatness of His power
v20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and
seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
v21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that
is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
• Jesus is no longer dead, He is resurrected.
Jesus went to the cross for you. He died for you.
• Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. Because He is God!
• He is far above every ruler and authority, far above every power and dominion, and far
above every title given.
• Jesus is far above every name that is named. Not just today, not just tomorrow, but for all
of eternity.
v22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over
all things to the church,
v23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
• God put everything under Jesus’s feet. He is supreme.
In the book of Revelation Jesus is shown to have feet of bronze.
The altar in the Old Testament was made of bronze. This is where daily
sacrifices were made by the priests to atone for the sins of the people.
Revelation 1:13b–17a I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the
sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.
• Jesus isn’t a baby anymore. Jesus isn’t a white guy with long blond hair walking around
holding a sheep.
i. When John saw Him, he fell at His feet like a dead man. This is the reaction of
someone who is terrified.
This isn’t the last time that John would see Jesus like this: John see’s Jesus again in
Revelation 19:
Revelation 19:11–16 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who
sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His
eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on
Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and
His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes
a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a
rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And
on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF
LORDS.”
• This is the supremacy of Christ.
• Jesus is head over the church.
• Jesus is omnipotent and He is coming in judgement against all of those who are not in Him.
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