PRAYERS OF PAUL: Becoming Rooted In God's Love

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Becoming Rooted In God's Love

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6 And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. 7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.

8 Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. 9 I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.

10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. 13 So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored.

Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth

14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from HIS GLORIOUS, UNLIMITED RESOURCES HE WILL EMPOWER YOU with INNER STRENGTH through HIS SPIRIT. 17 Then CHRIST will make his home in YOUR HEARTS as you TRUST IN him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power TO UNDERSTAND, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the LOVE OF CHRIST, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

At least he writes that it is ‘through the gospel’ that Jewish and Gentile Christians become united to Christ.

The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

This can be so only because the gospel announces the mystery, so that people come to hear it, to believe it and to experience it.

The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

At least he writes that it is ‘through the gospel’ that Jewish and Gentile Christians become united to Christ.

The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

He says so plainly: Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me (verse 7).

7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.
Ephesians 3:7 NASB95
of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
Ephesians 3:8 NASB95
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

He takes the superlative (elachistos, ‘least’ or ‘smallest’) and does what is impossible linguistically but possible theologically; he turns it into a comparative (elachistoteros, ‘leaster’ or ‘less than the least’).

The Message of Ephesians 2. The Divine Commission to Paul or the Ministry Entrusted to Him (Verses 7–13)

He is deeply conscious both of his own unworthiness because he ‘formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted’ Jesus Christ and of Christ’s overflowing mercy towards him.

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

a. The church is central to history

Verse 11, as we saw, alludes to the eternal purpose of God. It is also called his ‘plan’ or ‘the plan of the mystery’ (verse 9)

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

Secular history concentrates its attention on kings, queens and presidents, on politicians and generals, in fact on ‘VIPs’.

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

The Bible concentrates rather on a group it calls ‘the saints’, often little people, insignificant people, unimportant people, who are however at the same time God’s people—and for that reason are both ‘unknown (to the world) and yet well-known (to God)’.

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

Secular history concentrates on wars, battles and peace-treaties, followed by yet more wars, battles and peace-treaties.

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

The Bible concentrates rather on the war between good and evil, on the decisive victory won by Jesus Christ over the powers of darkness, on the peace-treaty ratified by his blood, and on the sovereign proclamation of an amnesty for all rebels who will repent and believe.

The Message of Ephesians a. The Church Is Central to History

For the Bible does not ignore the great empires of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome; and a true secular history cannot ignore the fact of the church.

The Message of Ephesians b. The Church Is Central to the Gospel

b. The church is central to the gospel

The Message of Ephesians b. The Church Is Central to the Gospel

‘Christ died for me,’ we say, and then sing of heaven: ‘Oh, that will be glory for me.’ Both affirmations are true. As for the first, the apostle Paul himself could write, ‘The Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me.’

The Message of Ephesians b. The Church Is Central to the Gospel

not only to reconcile us to God but also to reconcile us to one another. Thus the church is an integral part of the gospel. The gospel is good news of a new society as well as of a new life.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

c. The church is central to Christian living

Ephesians 3:12–13 NASB95
in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

Now ‘suffering’ and ‘glory’ are constantly coupled in the New Testament. Jesus said that he would enter his glory through suffering, and that his followers would have to tread the same path.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the centre? No, we shall seek to become responsible church members, active in some local manifestation of the universal church.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

We shall not be able to acquiesce in low standards which fall far short of the New Testament ideals for God’s new society, whether mechanical, meaningless worship services, or fellowship which is icy cold and even spoiled by rivalries which make the Lord’s Supper a farce, or such inward-looking isolationism as to turn the church into a ghetto which is indifferent to the outside world and its pain.

The Message of Ephesians c. The Church Is Central to Christian Living

If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives.

The Message of Ephesians 6. Confidence in God’s Power (3:14–21)

6. Confidence in God’s power

3:14–21

The Message of Ephesians 1. The Introduction to His Prayer (Verses 14–16a)

1. The introduction to his prayer (verses 14–16a)

Ephesians 3:14–16a NASB95
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
eph 3:14-16
The Message of Ephesians 2. The Substance of His Prayer (Verses 16b–19)

2. The substance of his prayer (verses 16b–19)

eph 3:16b-19
Ephesians 3:16b–19 NASB95
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
The Message of Ephesians a. Strengthened with Might

a. Strengthened with might

eph 3:
Ephesians 3:16–17a NASB95
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
The Message of Ephesians 2. The Substance of His Prayer (Verses 16b–19)

2. The substance of his prayer (verses 16b–19)

The Message of Ephesians b. Rooted and Grounded in Love

b. Rooted and grounded in love

The Message of Ephesians b. Rooted and Grounded in Love

To express how fundamental Paul longs for their love to be, he joins two metaphors (one botanical, the other architectural), both of which emphasize depth as opposed to superficiality.

The Message of Ephesians c. Knowing Christ’s Love

c. Knowing Christ’s love

Ephesians 3:19–21 NASB95
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
eph
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