And Judas Iscariot: Together with other evangelistic addressesChapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Religion
And Judas Iscariot: Together with other evangelistic addresses
Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Evangelistic sermons; Presbyterian Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
_Prayer for Power_. Ephesians 1:15-20, "Wherefore I also, after I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what
is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power; which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places."
The Church at Ephesus was in every way remarkable, but to this people
Paul wrote his most spiritual epistle, which in itself is a compliment
to them, for as in another instance it was not necessary for him to
write unto them as if they were carnal. With this people for the space
of two or three years he labored, as we find recorded in Acts the
nineteenth chapter and the tenth verse, "And this continued by the
space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word
of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." Acts 20:31, "Therefore
watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to
warn every one night and day with tears."
There were no divisions in this church as at Corinth; there were no
heresies as at Galatia, and no dissensions as at Philippi; and yet, for
all that, he prays most earnestly. The natural question for us to ask
is, just what is it for which he prays, and the question is easily
answered.
First: For advancement in knowledge; he asks God that the eyes of their
understanding might be enlightened. Under this general petition there
are three special requests.
(1) _That they might know the hope of their calling_. We have but to
study Paul's Epistles to realize that this calling involved:
A perfect vision, for one day it is Christ's promise and teaching that
they shall see him as he is. The hope of this would keep them faithful.
It involved, in the next place, a perfect likeness, for, seeing him as
he is, they would become like him, and the hope of this would keep them
clean.
It involved, in the third place, a perfect union, for when this hope of
their calling is fulfilled there is no possibility of anything coming
between the believer and Christ; so the fellowship must be perfect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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