Meaningful Prayer

Ephesians 1:15-23

Meaningful Prayer

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Pastoral Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the grace you have given to us in Christ and all that we have in him. Father we pray this morning for that grace to be made further known to those who are yours and that it too may be made known to those who have yet to believe in Jesus. Father, we in particular pray this morning that your grace would be made known in the nation of Iceland. We pray for those who are already in Christ to grow into maturity, and for those who do not yet know the name of Jesus, we ask and pray O Lord that you would open their eyes to the message of the gospel. Make the gospel known to them and beautiful to them. Help them come to saving faith, Father. Father, we too want to pray for the unreached of the world this morning. So, we pray this morning for the Intha people in Myanmar. A people of 103,000 who have no more than .07% who believe in Jesus. Father, we pray that more would hear the name of Jesus and come to believe. Father would you raise up laborers amongst the Intha people and do a mighty work there. Father, we too ask Father for your grace to be present and to strengthen our brothers and sisters in Christ gathered at Odin First Baptist Church this morning. We pray for our brother, Roger Lipe as he preaches your word there this morning, and that your name would be glorified. Father, we also want to pray to you for earthly fathers this morning. We pray for fathers and the important gift they are to their families. In particular, we pray through Father, that earthly fathers would rise up to their calling. Their calling as the Spiritual leaders within the family. We pray that fathers would rise up and point their children to Jesus both in word and example. Oh Lord, would you raise up fathers who sit not passively in the pews, but lead in service and in pursuing godliness. And Father, finally we ask too that you would for the next bit quiet and still our hearts and minds so that we may hear from your word. We ask that you open the eyes of our hearts to see and know you better, that we may grow in our love for you and our obedience in Christ.

Introduction

Have you ever considered what is it that knits people together? In New York, Mets fans are knit together this morning in mourning. Here in the Greater St. Louis area Cardinals fans are knit together this morning with the rare opportunity this year to celebrate. Others are knit together out of their love for crafts or Elvis. Others are knit together because of sharing the same stage of life. Still others are knit together because of other mutual interests. But have you ever taken time to dwell on how the church is to be knit together? In particular, what is to knit it together?

The church is to be knit together based on its mutual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and their love for one another. And because of the mutual faith, because of that love for one another as the source of the church’s being knit together, they are to be given in prayer for one another. But not just any prayer, not just random prayer. And that is what the Apostle Paul models for us this morning in Ephesians 1:15-23. He models for us meaningful, intentional, good prayer for us. And the hopes are that we will learn to follow his model and learn to truly pray for one another in the body of Christ. To pray regarding the state of one another’s soul and spiritual growth.

Now, as we saw last week as we began our study in the book of Ephesians. As we did, we saw Paul start this epistle, this letter to the Church of Ephesus with a standard greeting. But as he proceeded, he broke out into a doxological praise to God in telling the church that they should praise God for all the ways they have been blessed by God in Christ. Namely that in their calling, redemption they have been saved and sealed by the promised Holy Spirit. And it is in light of this glorious truth, that Paul now turns to prayer for the Ephesian Church. A prayer for their continued growth.

Now, as we saw last week as we began our study in the book of Ephesians. As we did, we saw Paul start this epistle, this letter to the Church of Ephesus with a standard greeting. But as he proceeded, he broke out into a doxological praise to God in telling the church that they should praise God for all the ways they have been blessed by God in Christ. Namely that in their calling, redemption they have been saved and sealed by the promised Holy Spirit. And it is in light of this glorious truth, that Paul now turns to prayer for the Ephesian Church. A prayer for their continued growth.

Main Idea: Apart from the work of the Spirit, we will not grow in a knowledge of God or live wise and godly lives. Therefore, to these ends, let us pray without ceasing for one another. We are going to unfold this in four points: (1) know the purpose of prayer for one another (1:15-17), (2) know the hope to which we are called (1:18a), (3) know the riches of his glorious grace (1:18b), and (4) know the immeasurable greatness of his power (1:19-23).

Know the purpose of prayer for one another (1:15-17)

Notice what it is that drives Paul to prayer for this local church of believers, for these saints, verses 15-16….

Because of hearing about the Ephesian Church’s mutual faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints, Paul did not cease to pray for them. Paul gives thanks to God for these fellow believers and their love for all saints. In fact, their love for all the saints serves as evidence of their faith. In his excellent commentary, John Stott writes, “It is impossible to be in Christ and not to find oneself drawn both to him in trust and to his people in love.”

This is true of both the Apostle Paul and the saints in Ephesus. They have a love for one another. The gospel of Jesus is uniting them into one faith with one hope. As it is, Paul’s love for these saints in Ephesus turns to prayer for them and their spiritual well being. In fact, Paul has written that he does not cease to give thanks for them to God in prayer.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how are our hearts knit to those who profess to share the same faith we do in Jesus Christ? Are we drawn to pray for those whom we hear have the same faith we do in the Lord Jesus? Are we drawn to give thanks to God for hearing of the love others have for all the saints? We should be. For we have one faith and one baptism in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:4-6). We are being knit together as one body with one head under Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ, part of being in Christ is to love and give thanks for others who are brought in to join our numbers, to join our body. And part of that love is to pray for them.

In fact, we should be challenged to regularly and consistently be given to pray for one another, starting with the members of our local church. Brothers and sisters, how many of you regularly are praying for other members of Central City Baptist Church? Not just in the named prayer requests and in sicknesses, but in primarily praying for their spiritual walk, thanking God for their lives and their mutual faith in Christ? This is what love for one another looks like. A love for each other's well being. But it doesn’t stop with just our fellow church members here. This is why during the pastoral prayer each Sunday various churches are prayed for. For we want to pray for and give thanks for how God is at work in our sister churches and their members. We are not in competition with one another, we are joined to one another in Christ.

But we must take this a step further as the Apostle Paul does in his letter. We don’t just pray for their spiritual walk as it stands, but that it continually increases. For make note of the particulars of Paul’s prayer as it starts in verse 17-18a. He writes….

Paul’s prayer is not just thanks for the Ephesian Church. His prayer is asking that they grow in holiness, in Godliness. That they increase in their faith. And this increase in faith and holiness is directly tied to knowledge. To quote John Stott again, he writes, “Growth in knowledge is essential for growth in holiness.”

This is exactly what Paul is praying for the Ephesian Church. For in asking that the LORD give them the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, Paul is seeking that the Spirit which they have already been sealed with would now work in them. That it would work to help them become wise to the things of God and to have God revealed to them more deeply. That they would grow in knowledge to cherish more deeply the riches of the gifts they have received in Christ.

Brothers and sisters, there are too many who are content where they are in Christ. There are too many who think that they have arrived. What arrogance and folly has filled the hearts and minds of those within our churches with this kind of thinking. We never should be content in our Christian faith. For in learning the riches we have in Christ, we should strive to press on. Consider what the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-15. He says,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

It is to this purpose of straining forward that Paul prays for the Ephesian Church. That they would grow. That they would grow in knowledge of God. To grow in wisdom and revelation of him. That they would have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to see God for who he rightly is. But make note of one thing, this prayer that they would grow in knowledge of God is not a mere head knowledge. Paul’s desire and prayer for the Ephesian Church is that they would know God intimately. That they would know the Father deep within their souls. And what are they to know? What are we to know to help us strive for spiritual growth? That’s where we turn with our next three points this morning.

Know the hope to which we are called (1:18b)

Look there at the middle of verse 18. It says, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. It is here that Paul prays that the Ephesian believers come to know that their calling, their redemption, their inheritance, their sealing was not without purpose. For they who previously had no hope, as they were without God (Ephesians 2:12) have now been called to a hope, a hope that is essential for them to know and understand if they are to grow in holiness. A hope that is secure.

As the Father has called us to himself before the foundation of the world, he did not call us to just a faint wish, a faint desire waiting to see if it would come to pass. He called us to something secure and guaranteed. Brothers and sisters, you who have been called in Christ to the Father, do you live knowing you have a hope that is guaranteed? That is secure?

It is the prayer of the Apostle and our prayer this morning that we would know the hope to which we are called. We have the hope of knowing that our inheritance in Christ is secure, as we saw last week, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of that for us. As believers in Christ, we are to know the hope of redemption is secure. That under the blood of Jesus, our sins and trespasses have been wiped away and that the Lord Jesus is at work even now to unite all things to himself. He is at work making all things new again. This is the hope to which we have been called.

Unfortunately, there is the great battle of our hearts. We are tempted to misplace our hope and to put it in false promises instead of the hope we have been called to. In our context, we are tempted to put our hopes more in the American Dream than we are the guarantees of Christ. We have misplaced our hope for an internal inheritance for the temporary hope of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, these are found in the United States Constitution. Yes, these are good things. But friends, this world never promises that those pursuits will last, that they will endure. And when we put our hope in those of the American Dream, our hopes rise and fall with America and not the King of glory. If we place our hope in the American Dream, in our families, in our finances, in our health, in our careers, we will find ourselves always grasping for something that was never intended by God to be our hope. The American dream, our families, our finances, our health, our careers are not stable hopes. They will all fail us and let us down.

Christian, our hopes are not to be tied to this world. Our hopes are tied to the promises of God, the promises and blessings of all that he has given us in Christ. The hope of the world to come. The hope of Christ’s reign where all is united under his feet. The hope of the world to come. Friends, we are not living for this city, we are living for the one to come. Know that our hope is set in that which is to come, not that which is here now and fading away. For it is in the city to come where we are told according to God’s word in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This is the hope to which we have been called to. Christian, know this hope, live for this hope, cling to this hope. For it is our guaranteed hope. This is what we long for and are living for.

Friend, if you are visiting with us this morning and you don’t have this hope. I want to invite you this morning to come and enter this hope. Come and enter the hope that is found in Christ and Christ alone. Come and see that there is hope in the midst of darkness. There is hope found in the midst of despair. That there is hope in the midst of suffering. There is hope found in Jesus. For he is the greater hope. He alone is the hope of the world. For he came to live and die so that you could find life in him. Will you come and believe in Jesus this morning? Will you come and place your faith in him alone for your salvation? Friends, let us stop pursuing a lesser hope and start pursuing a far greater hope. May God open the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened to this truth.

Know the riches of his glorious inheritance (1:18c)

The second thing we should know and our third point this morning is to know the riches of his glorious inheritance. Look with me at the end of verse 18, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance.

Last week as we looked at Ephesians 1:1-14, in verses 11-14, we looked a bit about our promised inheritance. But now, in this prayer, Paul prays that we as Christians see that we are God’s glorious inheritance. We see this thought throughout Scripture.

One particular place is in 1 Peter 2:9 where we read, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The Father, who has orchestrated every detail of history, who has chosen us and will carry out his plans in those of us he has called. And the reasoning for this and what Paul emphasizes here for us to know is that it is because we are God’s chosen race, his holy nation, his royal priesthood, his glorious inheritance. We in Christ are the riches of God’s inheritance, of his possessions. And because of this, we can know that God will work to bring about the hope we have been promised in Jesus.

F.F. Bruce is helpful. He writes, “Paul prays here that his readers will appreciate the value which God places on them, his plan to accomplish his eternal purpose through them as the first fruits of the reconciled universe of the future, in order that their lives may be in keeping with the high calling and that they may accept in grateful humility the grace and glory thus lavished on them.”

Or to go further, hear what Kent Hughes writes, “Think of it: he owns all the heavens and numberless worlds, but we are his treasures. The redeemed are worth more than the universe. We ought to be delirious with this truth! Paul prays that we will see this with our heart’s eyes.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we who are in Christ are the riches of the Father’s glorious inheritance. Therefore, let us rest knowing that our Heavenly Father will not stop until his work is complete in us, including all the promises in which we have set our hope. But if we think that his love is not enough to accomplish this, maybe we will be certain as we turn to the third thing we should know in our fourth point this morning.

Know the immeasurable greatness of his power (1:19-23)

The immeasurable greatness of God’s power is worth knowing. For it is this same power that has already been at work in bringing about salvation that is now at work in us and through us to complete our salvation in Christ and to bring all of God’s promises to pass. Verse 19….

This immeasurable greatness of power is at work in us, us who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just any power, the same power that was at work in Christ, verse 20….

The same immeasurable greatness of power that was able to keep Jesus’ body from beginning to rot in the tomb, the same immeasurable greatness of power that caused Jesus’ dead body to be raised from the tomb, the same immeasurable greatness of power to cause Jesus’ body to rise and ascend back to the heavenly places in his human form with his nail scarred hands, this same power is now at work in us Christians. The immeasurable greatness of power is at work in us to make us new in Christ. This power is at work in renewing our minds on the things above. It is the same power at work in killing sin within us.

No wonder Paul labors to teach the Ephesians, as well as us to know these things. For in knowing them, we become aware that we should never become complacent in our walk with Christ. We should always be working to mature in Christ, because of his great power at work in us. In fact, a complacency in the Christian faith might just prove that we really have no desire for Christ because we are not in Christ.

But as if that was not enough, God’s power at work in us is the same power that is above all others. Verse 21…

There is no power or rule or authority above the power and dominion of the LORD our God. There is no god above him or before him with such power. Not that there is any other. There is no power of any ruler in this world who has power over God. As Psalm 2 mentions, the nations rage and they plot against God. But their plotting, their raging is in vain. For they cannot subdue and conquer the almighty.

This particularly would have been important to those in Ephesus. For previously in Ephesus, there was a stirring of emotions as Paul first preached the gospel regarding Artemis. And it was no small stirring. If you will, turn with me to Acts 19:23-27. We read here:

About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

In emphasizing the immeasurable greatness of God’s power over all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, Paul makes clear that these Christians have nothing to fear of these other gods and their devoted followers. For the LORD rules over them all.

Even more, the Father is now giving that rule and placing all under the feet of his beloved Son. Verses 22-23….

The very one we are united to by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ is being given all things under his feet, with him as head of all things, including the church. Therefore, what power should we fear, Christian? What other power is there that is greater than the immeasurable greatness of power toward us who believe? What greater power is there than the power of the Almighty, the power that our King has now been given?

Christian, let us then come and sit at the feet of Jesus, knowing that he is over all things, including us as the church. May we continue to submit ourselves to him more and more. For there is nothing we have apart from him. Our blessedness, our hope, our inheritance, our standing as a treasured possession, are all tied to our union with him. Therefore, let us grow continually in submission to Christ as God’s power through the Holy Spirit is at work in us, particularly through the reading and the preaching of God’s word.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may we come to know the hope that we have been called to, may we know the riches of his glorious inheritance, and may we know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us so that we may grow in the knowledge of our God in all wisdom and revelation. And may we likewise pray that our brothers and sisters in Christ too may grow in this knowledge so that they may press on towards a maturity in Christ.

Let’s pray…..