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The Glorious Riches Awaiting You · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, the month of May is coming to an end
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  Speaker 1: for us, and it means in our navigator's Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: plan that we're wrapping up the Book of tewond Samuel,
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel of Mark, and Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
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  Speaker 1: That will clear the slate now for us to begin
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  Speaker 1: June with fresh readings in First Kings, Luke and Ephesians,
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  Speaker 1: and that will land us in Ephesians one eighteen, one
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  Speaker 1: of those beautiful texts that we come back to over
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  Speaker 1: and over again on the podcast for all sorts of
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  Speaker 1: issues and challenges in life. It's so deeply rich and
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  Speaker 1: necessary for living the Christian life right to understand this
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  Speaker 1: text that we must pray it that we, having the
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  Speaker 1: eyes of your heart's enlightened, that you may know what
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  Speaker 1: is the hope to which He has called you? What
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  Speaker 1: are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the Saints?
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  Speaker 1: A text like that, an awakening like this, is necessary
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  Speaker 1: if we're ever going to a gave the clutches of
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  Speaker 1: our entertainment culture and find personal awakening within us in
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  Speaker 1: global revival around us. That's just a few of the
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  Speaker 1: connections that have been made on the podcast previously, as
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  Speaker 1: you'll see in the APJA book on pages three h
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  Speaker 1: two and three oh three. But to embrace Ephesians one
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  Speaker 1: to eighteen that awakening and to feel its influence in
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  Speaker 1: our lives requires that we first understand Ephesians one eighteen. Right,
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  Speaker 1: And that's today's question to Pastor John on the phone
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  Speaker 1: with us. Hello, Pastor John. My name is Christina, and
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  Speaker 1: I follow you from Italy. I appreciate how you and
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  Speaker 1: the team at Desiring God make such wonderful christ centered resources,
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  Speaker 1: and I particularly appreciate your fairness and honesty in dealing
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  Speaker 1: with all kinds of tricky Bible questions. Here's mine personally,
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  Speaker 1: I struggle with interpreting Ephesians one eighteen. I pray that
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  Speaker 1: the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened, that you
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  Speaker 1: may know what is the hope to which He has
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  Speaker 1: called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance
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  Speaker 1: in the saints? Namely, is this about what God is
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  Speaker 1: going to inherit in us the saints? Or is it
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  Speaker 1: about what we, as poor empty handed people, are going
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  Speaker 1: to inherit from him? Do we inherit from him? Does
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  Speaker 1: He inherit from us? What's the inheritance and who inherits it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Christina, you're not in a class by yourself because
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  Speaker 2: in English the wording is ambiguous, and frankly it is
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  Speaker 2: in Greek as well, though not quite as ambiguous. So
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  Speaker 2: let's get it in front of us. In the first
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  Speaker 2: fifteen verses of Ephesians, Paul laid out the magnificent saving
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  Speaker 2: work of God from eternity to eternity, and then in
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  Speaker 2: verse fifteen he or sixteen, he turns from theology to prayer.
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  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful example of how we need both theology
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  Speaker 2: verses one to fifteen and then divine supernatural spiritual illumination
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  Speaker 2: in versus sixteen to the end of chapter one. Just
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  Speaker 2: a beautiful example of how to go about seeing and
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  Speaker 2: savoring the glories of God. So here's the key text
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  Speaker 2: that she's referring to. Start at verse seventeen. I pray
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  Speaker 2: that God, that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 2: the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of
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  Speaker 2: wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having
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  Speaker 2: the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know.
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  Speaker 2: And then he mentions three things she's asking about. The
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  Speaker 2: second one one what is the hope to which he
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  Speaker 2: has called you? Or literally, what is the hope of
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  Speaker 2: his calling? Two? What are the riches of the glory
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  Speaker 2: of His inheritance in the Saints?
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  Speaker 1: Three?
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  Speaker 2: What is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us
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  Speaker 2: who believe according to the working of His great might.
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  Speaker 2: That's Ephesians one, seventeen to nineteen. And Christina's question is
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  Speaker 2: what does this phrase mean the riches of the glory
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  Speaker 2: of His inheritance in the Saints? Does it mean that
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  Speaker 2: God inherits us the Saints, or does it mean that
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  Speaker 2: we the saints, will have an inheritance from God? And
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  Speaker 2: I think the correct interpretation is the second one. Namely,
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  Speaker 2: the inheritance is given by God and is in or
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  Speaker 2: among the Saints. We receive it into our midst and
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  Speaker 2: in our hearts. I don't think Paul means that God
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  Speaker 2: gets us as an inheritance. And there are at least
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  Speaker 2: four reasons why I think this. Number One, Paul is
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  Speaker 2: praying that the Saints would have the eyes of their
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  Speaker 2: heart enlightened to grasp the majesty and glory and riches
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  Speaker 2: and wonder of the things he's been talking about, and
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  Speaker 2: just before the prayer, we read this in him, you
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  Speaker 2: will see with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the
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  Speaker 2: guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
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  Speaker 2: to the praise of His glory. That's verse fourteen, just
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  Speaker 2: before the prayer begins. So the most immediately near reference
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  Speaker 2: to an inheritance is not God getting one, but giving
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  Speaker 2: one to us for his glory. So I think it
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  Speaker 2: would be natural to think that's what he's praying about,
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  Speaker 2: that we would grasp that inheritance. Number two. Second reason
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  Speaker 2: for thinking it's God giving an inheritance rather than getting one,
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  Speaker 2: if we look at what comes later as a possible
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  Speaker 2: help and filling in of a description of what the
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  Speaker 2: inheritance is, I think we find it in chapter two,
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  Speaker 2: verse six and seven. See if you don't think so.
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  Speaker 2: He raised us up with him and seated us with
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  Speaker 2: him Christ in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, so
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  Speaker 2: that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
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  Speaker 2: riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: So what he calls the riches of the glory of
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  Speaker 2: his inheritance in verse eighteen of chapter one. I think
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  Speaker 2: he describes in Chapter two, verse seven as the immeasurable
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  Speaker 2: riches of his grace in kindness toward us. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: the riches of the glory of the inheritance is what
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  Speaker 2: he gives us, not what he gets. Third reason, if
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  Speaker 2: we focus on the three specific realities that Paul wants
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  Speaker 2: us to see with the eyes of the heart and
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  Speaker 2: grasp in a profound way, it turns out that he
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  Speaker 2: uses the very same wording with regard to each of
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  Speaker 2: them as to whether they come from God or go
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  Speaker 2: toward God. For example, the hope he wants us to
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  Speaker 2: see the hope of his calling to the glory of
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  Speaker 2: his inheritance. Three, the greatness of his power. Now that's
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  Speaker 2: a significant level of symmetry or of parallel and I
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  Speaker 2: think it would really, really, it would be really strange
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  Speaker 2: if the modifier his had a different meaning in regard
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  Speaker 2: to the inheritance, then it has in regard to the
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  Speaker 2: calling and the power. It's his calling in the sense
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  Speaker 2: that he gives it. It's his power in the sense
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  Speaker 2: that he has it and gives it, and it's his
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  Speaker 2: inheritance in the sense that he gives it. That's argument
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  Speaker 2: number three. And finally, if you do a word study
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  Speaker 2: and look up all the places which I did, where
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  Speaker 2: Paul uses the word inheritance or inherit or air. We
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  Speaker 2: find that in all of Paul's uses of these words,
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  Speaker 2: they never refer to God inheriting, or God's receiving an inheritance,
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  Speaker 2: or God's being an heir. So I conclude that Paul
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  Speaker 2: in Ephesians one eighteen is talking about the riches of
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  Speaker 2: the glory of the inheritance God has laid up for
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  Speaker 2: the saints. Now before I stop, of course, it's not
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  Speaker 2: faulse that the church is God's treasured possession and he
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  Speaker 2: will rejoice over us. Indeed, that spectacular experience may well
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  Speaker 2: be part of the inheritance He gives to us. But
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  Speaker 2: the focus of Ephesians one eighteen is what we will inherit,
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  Speaker 2: not what God will inherit.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thank you bestor John, and thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us today if you want to see how Ephesians want
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  Speaker 1: on eighteen and awakening to the reality of this text
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  Speaker 1: is speaking of that truth, that glory, and how it
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  Speaker 1: can get applied to our lives, and how necessary it
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  Speaker 1: is for us to escape the clutches of our entertainment
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  Speaker 1: driven culture. So that we can feel personal awakening within
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  Speaker 1: and a global revival outside of us. That was just
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  Speaker 1: one connection made on the podcast and the passage you'll
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  Speaker 1: see in the APJ book on pages three oh two
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  Speaker 1: and three oh three. If you have a handy look
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  Speaker 1: at those pages and put the text to good use.
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  Speaker 1: That's what Pastor John does so well on this podcast,
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  Speaker 1: putting great texts to good use. Speaking of a glorious
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  Speaker 1: future ahead of us. As we age, it can actually
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  Speaker 1: begin to feel more and more like in life that
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  Speaker 1: our best years are behind us. That's a challenge we
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  Speaker 1: will all face if we grow old. Next time, Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John will share with us a glorious truth that quote.
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  Speaker 1: If you listen to your own anxieties talking to you,
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  Speaker 1: or if you listen to the avertisements for senior living,
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  Speaker 1: or if you listen to the beckoning of scenic cruises
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  Speaker 1: and how handicap accessible they are, or if you listen
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  Speaker 1: to the latest way to scratch off your bucket list
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  Speaker 1: and comfort, or if you listen even to a list
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  Speaker 1: of ministry jobs you can't take anymore, you will grow
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  Speaker 1: increasingly hopeless and depressed. With every loss of eyes, ears, memory, productivity, mobility,
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  Speaker 1: and friends and family that you outlive. That is a
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  Speaker 1: quote from what we're going to see on Monday. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky. We'll see you then