Focus on Worship: October 2004 Archives
I recently had the opportunity to preach to one of our guy’s dorms. My text was Ephesians 1:15-17, Paul’s first recorded prayer for the Ephesians. Of course, I knew that if we were to understand this prayer rightly, we had to discern its connection with Paul’s river of doxological doctrine running through verses 3-14. God used my meditation on 1:3-17 to provide rich food for my faith.
The central request in Paul’s prayer (vv. 15-23) is in verse 17. He prays that “the Father of glory may give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.” The question that arrested my attention as I studied was why does Paul refer to the Father as “the Father of glory”. Why didn’t Paul just say, “the Father”? Why did he add the words “of glory”?
“Glory” is one of those words that is extremely difficult to define or explain. It is a word that we use very frequently in our Christian circles, but I often think our understanding of it is lacking in substantive content. So, what is meant by “glory”? Well, we could go to Psalm 19 to fill out our understanding. “The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). What David is saying is that what we see in the sky is the glory of God. In other words, the sun is the glory of God. The moon is the glory of God. The stars are the glory of God. Romans 1 tells us that the sun, moon, and stars make known the eternal power and deity of God (Romans 1:20).
Several years ago, I received an e-mail about a Hubble Telescope discovery. The e-mail reported that Hubble focused on a spot the size of a dime seventy-five feet away. That is a really small spot to focus on. What scientists discovered is that in that small spot they were able to identify 1,500 separate galaxies! I could not believe what I was reading, but it got better. The e-mail went on to say that no matter where on the horizon Hubbell focused on a spot that size, there would be approximately 1,500 galaxies! Let that sink in. That is way more than my dime size brain can get its comprehension around! Now that is some glory of God!
However, I don’t think that Paul has Psalm 19:1 glory in mind when he refers to God as “the Father of glory.” Verse 17 is not the first time Paul refers to glory in this great chapter. In verses 3-6, Paul says that God blessed, chose, and predestined us TO the praise of the glory of His grace. In other words, God did these great things to us so that we might display the glory of His grace. In verses 7-12, Paul says that we have the forgiveness of our trespasses and an inheritance so that we might be to the praise of His glory. Then in verses 13-14, Paul says that we have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Verses 3 to 17 are consumed with God’s glory, particularly His glory in bestowing unbelievable blessings upon sinners. It is His glory that He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that He chose us before the foundation of the world, and that He predestined us for adoption. It is His glory that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, that we have obtained an inheritance, and that we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. However, there is a huge question that should press in against our minds at this point, namely, ”How can God do that?” How can God bless sinners with all the unbelievable spiritual blessings in the heavenly places? How in the world can God predestine lawbreakers for adoption as sons? How is it even possible that God can forgive all the trespasses of those who have exchanged His glory for that of the creature? The question that should fill our small minds is, “How can God possibly bless sinners with these infinitely extravagant blessings?”
Consider what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he (that is, the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In other words, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). God could bless us with the blessings of Ephesians 1 because He cursed His Son with the curses that we justly deserved (notice how many times Paul uses the phrase “in him” in Ephesians 1:3-14). We are blessed because His perfect Son was cursed! That is THE glory of God! The sun, moon, and stars can only dream of declaring the weight of glory that we who are the works of God’s saving hands declare.
Therefore, when Paul prays that “the Father of glory might give [the Ephesians] a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” he is praying to a God who is more FOR them than they can even begin to imagine! He is a God to be worshipped, treasured, adored, trusted, loved, hoped in, obeyed, and praised with all that we are and ever hope to be (understatement of understatements)! And get this, “the Father of glory” has “raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). Glory to the Father of glory!
"So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks."
~J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Camilla Unwin - May 20 (which, by the way, is my birthday), 1969
NEWS FLASH:
On December 14, see even more of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the Special Extended Edition DVD and VHS releases! This all-new version of the film includes over 50 minutes of never-before-seen footage integrated into the original theatrical release.
The DVD release is a 4-disc set, featuring two discs loaded with extra features.
Read this quotation from John Piper with the vicarious perfect obedience of Jesus in mind.
"I believe it can be shown Biblically that all our behavior should be motivated by a thirst for more and more satisfaction in God ...When our whole life is consumed with pursuing satisfaction in God, everything we do highlights the value and worth of God. Which simply means that everything becomes worship" (From the sermon "What is Worship? - Part 2" by John Piper, delivered at the 1994 Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, Apr. 8-9, 1994).
Scripture shows that all of Jesus' behavior was motivated by the pursuit of satisfaction in His Father (John 4:34). His food, his sustenance, his satisfaction, was always to do the will of the Father. This is just another way of saying that everything Jesus did was entirely God-centered. Everything he did was always done in the context of finding his complete satisfaction in God. As amazing as that is in itself, it is even more amazing to learn that Jesus' pursuit of satisfaction in God was a vicarious pursuit (Romans 5:18-19). He did not just pursue satisfaction in God for himself. He also pursued it for us! All Jesus' behavior was motivated by the pursuit of satisfaction in God (John 4:34) "in our place" because all our behavior was motivated by the pursuit of satisfaction in the creature (Romans 1:23). Our pursuit meant that we were under the wrath of God. So in great grace and mercy Jesus pursued satisfaction in God in our room and stead. Therefore, we can say that Jesus’ pursuit of satisfaction in God was a saving pursuit. He pursued it that we might be saved and satisfied in God. The Goodnews of the Gospel is that Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, so that we who are sinners might worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:23), so that all of life might become worship for God-belittling sinners. Amazing Grace!
