Knowing God Better (Ephesians 1:15-23)

When we meet people for the first time, usually the first thing we might learn about them is their name. After that, to get to know them better, we might ask about what they do, where they are from, or what football team they support. Since living in the Barossa Valley, I’ve learned that people might also ask about family history to see if there are any relational connections. Learning about people can help to establish and strengthen our relationship with them.

Over time, if our relationships grow deeper, we can move beyond getting to know things about people and we can start to get to know who they are. We can learn about what kind of people they are, their character, what they are passionate about, whether they are trustworthy or dependable, and things like that. Knowing things about others is good but really knowing who they are takes the relationship to a different level.

In Ephesians 1:15-23, the Apostle Paul described the prayers he was offering up to God for the Christians in Ephesus. He prayed for them constantly, asking God to give them ‘spiritual wisdom and insight’ (v17 NLT), that their ‘hearts will be flooded with light’ (v18), and that they ‘will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power’ (v19) in the resurrection of Jesus. This passage has been selected for festival of the Ascension of Jesus because it talks about God the Father seating Jesus ‘in the place of honour at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms’ (v20 NLT). This happened at Jesus’ ascension when he was lifted up from the earth and given all the glory, power and authority that is his as God’s eternal Son.

As we celebrate the Confirmation of eight young people in our congregation this Ascension Sunday, Paul’s words can also be our prayer for them. One element of Paul’s prayer which we can be praying for our confirmees, as well as the young people in our lives generally, is that they would know God better (v17).

As a Confirmation group, we have talked a lot about God over the last nine months. We have discussed the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. However, my purpose in doing this wasn’t just so our young people could learn a lot about God. My hope was that they would know God personally.

Just like human relationships reach a deeper level when we move from just knowing things about people to really knowing them, our relationship with God reaches new depths when we not only know things about him, but we start to know him. To talk about faith in God as a relationship with God can sound strange to some people when we can’t see God like a physical, flesh and blood person in front of us. Paul uses relationship language to describe what a life of faith looks like. God wants us to know him better, just like we can get to know the people in our lives better and have a deeper relationship with them.

By knowing God better, we can receive the good things he has for us. Paul explains that as God gives us ‘spiritual insight and wisdom’ to know him better, he floods our hearts with light so we ‘can understand the confident hope’ (v18) we have through faith in Jesus. This hope is anchored in and grows out of the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection for us. It promises us a better tomorrow through the same power which raised Jesus from the dead. Paul points us to this power when he prays that his readers ‘will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him’ (v19). This is the power through which God raised Jesus from death and destroyed the power of sin, death and darkness in the world and in our lives.

This resurrection power gives us hope when everything seems hopeless. It shines the light of God’s grace and love for us in Jesus into the dark places of our lives, driving out the darkness of guilt, fear and shame. To know God is to know his resurrection power which lifts us up when we are low, makes us whole when we are broken, and gives us strength when we are weak. Knowing God and his resurrection power unites us with Jesus in all our struggles, suffering, hardships and uncertainty in this world. It assures us that God is with us and that his love is stronger than anything we might face in this world which could hurt us or rob life from us. It helps us to live every day in the hope of a better tomorrow and a future where we share in the glory and honour that we have as God’s children through faith in Jesus.

We get to know God, the hope he has for us and his resurrection power in the same way that we can get to know anyone: by spending time together, talking with and listening to each other. We can know God better when we spend time with him, talk with him in prayer and listen to his voice in his Word, the Bible. When we exercise these basic spiritual disciplines, our relationship with God grows as we don’t just learn about him, but we get to know him better and the ways in which he is at work in our lives.

This becomes one of the most important reasons for Christian community. God wants us to know him better through our connection with the living body of Christ. In verse 23 Paul identifies the church as the body of Christ, ‘made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself’ (NLT). When we are living as Jesus’ followers, learning to trust God in everything that happens in life and to love others with the same Christ-like love with which he loves us, others get to know God and his resurrection power through us.

This gives us a very important role to play in the future of the young people who are confirmed this Sunday. We can join Paul in praying that these young people will know God better. One of the main ways they can get to know God better is by the way we model the life of faith and love in our lives to them This Sunday we celebrate as eight young people are confirmed in our congregation, but what happens after that? Getting to know someone is a life-long journey as we go through whatever life might throw at us together. God wants these young people to continue to get to know him so that they can also know the power of the resurrection of Jesus which gives us hope, value, meaning and purpose. The best way that can happen is when we embrace our identity as the church, the living body of Christ, so they and others can get to know God through us and the way we live our lives. As we get to know God better and grow in our relationship with him, then our young people can encounter and get to know God better through us. As that happens, they can also encounter and grow in his resurrection power through faith in Jesus as the body of Christ with us.

More to think about or discuss:

• What do you learn about people when you first meet them? How does knowing them change over time as you get to know them better?
• How can you know God better? What difference might it make to know the hope God calls us to and the resurrection power of Jesus in your life?
• How can others know God better through and in us? What might we be able to do to help the young people of our church know God better?