Through Ephesians -02- Paul's Prayer for the Body

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

Ephesians 1:15-16 (NIV)

Paul's Prayer:

Intro. What would you suppose the Apostle Paul would pray for, when praying for a church he helped found? We see here, as Paul reports on his prayer life, that he had been seeking from God the deepest sort of Christian maturity from these simple people.

I. That we Know God Better.

   -  Understand in the term “know” experiential knowledge, not book learnin’

   -  To know God is Paul’s first petition since without a knowledge/experience of God, what is the Christian life?

   A.   The Spirit helps us know him.

      1.   The Holy Spirit, whom we have as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (v.14) not only marks us and seals us for God, but helps us have a personal relationship with God.

   B.   We need Both wisdom and revelation.

      1.   Revelation because unless God shows himself to us we are without hope to know him.

      2.   Wisdom, because without God’s help we have a hard time figuring out the revelation!

II.   That we know Hope (v.18)

   A.   We need to See a new way.

      1.   “That the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened” - a way of saying “that your spiritual blindness may be healed”

      2.   Seeing - experiencing with the heart the form and shades of color in God’s work in the world and in us.

   B.   Our Hope is Certain.

      1.   It is certain because He calls us to it (and God never calls us to do anything unless He intends for His call to succeed!).

      2.   Not a weak “I hope so.” but a firm and unwavering hope that helps you make sense out of “why get out of bed in the morning?” The hope that says “there is light at the end of the tunnel.” We cannot live without hope - we can only exist.

III. That we know the Riches of our inheritance

   A.   We have Every spiritual blessing! (v.3)

      1.   Review from last week: How many spiritual blessings do we have? Answer: every one!

      2.   Paul doesn’t ask that they get these riches, but that the realize what they do have.

          a.    realize means become aware, but also bring into reality - synonym with “actualize.” (as in to realize a dream or plan).

   B.   We need to see what we Have!

      1.   Because we are already adopted, we have this inheritance.

      2.   To know this, to know our privileged status in the cosmos as Children of God, Wow!

IV. That we know His Power

   -  “His incomparably great power” lit. his over abundant power.

   -  “the working of His mighty strength” lit. the working of the strength of his might.

   A.   See what this power did for Jesus!

      1.   God doesn’t have 2 kinds of power: one for Jesus one for the rest of us. He’s at work in us and for us with the same kind of power.

      2.   Look what that power did for Jesus: picked him up out of death and sat him down at His right hand.

          a.    It looked like the authorities (earthly and otherwise) had won when they killed him (the ultimate exercise of domination).

          b.   But God completely turned the table.

   B.   That power is for Us who Believe!

      1.   First because the Father is at work in us in the same way and with the same power that he used to completely and utterly subjugate all other authority and power.

      2.   Second, because the power he used in Jesus to give him authority is being used by Jesus with that authority for the benefit of His Church: namely all who believe.

The Bottom Line:

Oh Lord, help us Realize the greatness of Your work in us and to be In Tune with it.

Let’s ask God to do that in prayer in the form of a song: #163 “Open My Eyes, That I May See.” This is a prayer song, let’s sing it as our prayer to God.

Benediction Ephesians 3:16-19