Praying for Power

Introduction

Prayer is powerful. A couple of weeks ago we looked at and saw how Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus and he was genuinely thankful for this church and their boldness for the Gospel. This was a church that had given up much for the sake of the Gospel - they had burned their silver amulets and incantations (worth as much as 50,000 silver shekels) and they had stopped using magic. They had done all of this because they had come to the realization that Jesus Christ was superior to all other powers and they no longer needed things like magic because they were now a part of the Kingdom of God. What we see Paul do in is thank God for this church and to lift them up in his prayer that they would continue to be strong and that they would know of the power of God.

A couple of years ago there was a movie that came out with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock called “Gravity”. The movie took place in space as 2 astronauts were doing routine work to the international space station until they were knocked loose into outer space by some flying debris. As one thing led to another, Sandra Bullock’s character finds herself in a hopeless situation. She is desperate, stranded alone in the cold emptiness of space and she begins to prepare herself for the fact that she is about to die. As this is happening, she tells herself, “I’m going to die. Everyone dies, but I’m going to die today. No one will mourn for me. No one will pray for my soul. I’ve never even prayed. Nobody ever taught me how.” Obviously this was a scripted scene written by someone in Hollywood, however this seems to be a very common sentiment shared by millions of people in our very own country! People do not know how to pray. The answer to this very basic question, how to pray, is simple: Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the answer to many things. Paul has shown us so far in Ephesians that Jesus has given us access to God () and that the crucified and risen Christ has defeated death (). We have seen many important truths regarding prayer so far in Ephesians as well. We have seen that prayer is conversation with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit (). Paul prayed for divine illumination for this church in verses 17-23 of . What we are going to look at today is more petitions that should fill our prayers.

What we see today is that Paul shows us what it is like to pray in view of God’s greatness and our human need. This passage of Scripture is very important in the grand scheme of Ephesians as well because the first 3 chapters of the book show us who we are in Christ while the next 3 chapters will show us how we are supposed to live. Certainly it is crucial for a Christian to understand both of these concepts! These verses serve as a sort of transition between these two sections as Paul prays for power for this church.

This is a great reminder for the church today as well because we ought to pray for power daily!

Ephesians 3:14–21 NASB95

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 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, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Pray with Humility (14-16)

When we look at verse 14, the posture in which Paul is praying is certainly noteworthy. Whenever we think of people praying today we often imagine them sitting in a pew/chair or perhaps kneeling down on the floor. This is a very western idea of prayer. Kneeling is something associated certainly with the Muslim culture, however it was something uncommon for Jews in this day and age. Often times Jews stood whenever they prayed. This is a position that we are sort of familiar with. Not that one posture of prayer is “better” than another one, however kneeling certainly suggests a level of humility and lessening of oneself before an almighty God. I want to start off by looking at the first few verses of this passage in light of the position in which Paul is praying.

Paul initially is grateful. How can we tell this? By looking at the first thing he states in verse 14. He says “for this reason”. What is the reason that the apostle Paul is praying here? If we backtrack to verse 1 of , we see that Paul had actually begun this prayer before going off on a long, but insightful rabbit trail in verses 2-13. So, if Paul actually had started this prayer in verse 1 with the words “for this reason”, what is the reason? The first 2 chapters of Ephesians talk about God’s amazing grace. Paul is grateful for this grace from God. Paul was humble and in awe of God’s grace in saving sinners like him and how grace brings sinners together, corporately (just like God’s grace does today!).

Whenever we think about God’s grace, there should certainly be a response on our end. Whenever we dwell on the fact that Christ died for us, we should get on our knees just like Paul did in ! The same God who called us, adopted us, redeemed us, sealed us and brought us from death to life has raised us with Christ! Whenever we think of a moment in our lives where we could feel the grace of God, we should respond with thanksgiving and gratefulness! For me, I can think back at being adopted into a Godly family and thank God for protecting and guiding me during that process. For John Newton (who penned the lyrics to Amazing Grace), it was the fact that God would love a man like him who was associated with the slave trade. Newton called himself a wretch, yet he acknowledged that God loved him still. In light of what God has done in our lives, we should respond with humility and gratefulness as well because His grace truly is amazing.

As Christians, we know that prayer is not just something that we do at church. It is not like blowing out a birthday candle, asking God for some “goodies” or making a list for Santa Claus. No. Prayer changes lives and it begins and ends in Worship. Paul is worshipping in these verses. Paul understood that he was unworthy of salvation, yet that is exactly what God had done in his life. God had called sinners to himself, dressed them in the robes of Christ and stated boldly that they were not second class citizens in the Kingdom of God - and this caused Paul to fall to his knees in worship because he was unworthy! Was this because Paul was good? No. Did God do this because we are good? No. God did this because He is good. I know that falling onto our knees and crying out to God is something that can be looked down upon in some baptist circles, but maybe we need to get back to falling down on our knees and worshipping our God for what He has done in our lives. When was the last time that we bowed in humble gratitude before a holy God? A week? A month? 6 months? More? Let us not forget that tells us that “Every knee shall bow and every tongue proclaim that Jesus is Lord.” We get to do that today. Let us kneel before our sovereign Father who is over all and let us worship Him for His grace and glory.

Next we see that kneeling can be a sign of desperation. It can be easy for us to see someone like Paul as a very bold and smart theologian who is extremely busy writing and formulating intelligent arguments for the great thinkers and philosophers of his day to think about (such as the book of Romans). However, what this text shows us is that Paul was also a man who was passionate and also helpless without God. Kneeling can represent a sense of desperation and we see several examples of men kneeling in prayer in the book of Acts. Stephen falls to the ground and prays for his persecutors in (it can be hard for us to pray for our friends… imagine praying for the people who are about to pick up jagged, sharp stones and hurl them at you). We also see Paul kneeling in prayer and weeping after leaving the elders of the Ephesian church in . These examples are great, but why is Paul so desperate in ? Some commentators say that it is because he is praying for this church to receive something that can only come from God. This church is in desperate need of power. Paul prays for God to “grant” them to be strengthened in verse 16. Paul was desperate for God to answer.

Do we come to God desperately? Do we truly realize how powerless we are without Him? tells us that without Christ, we can do nothing. This must both humble us and make us desperate. It should also encourage us because we CAN do what we are called to with His help.

Finally, we see confidence in Paul’s introduction. We must come before God with confidence, not arrogance. We must not buy into the lie that God “owes” us blessings. Why should we come before God with confidence? Paul tells us in that we have access to God because of the work of Jesus Christ. We can pray with confidence because of our position in Christ! tells us that We have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. tells us that our Father genuinely loves us.

Our Father is sovereign and Paul calls Him the glorious Father and the Father of all. Paul states in verse 15 that every family in heaven and on earth is names from God. This demonstrates God’s love and power over all things. We should be thankful because our Father is rich and powerful! His resources never run out! If you are in a situation where you are desperately in need of something, pray to God with humility and confidence because you know that He has the goods to accomplish whatever it is that you need. Know, though, that there is more to prayer than material blessings. We should pray to be led by the Spirit and to attain understanding along the way.

Pray for God’s Power and Love (16-19)

In this middle section of Paul’s intercessory prayer, we see that he makes two key requests: that these people might know of the power and love of God. In verse 19 we see that Paul prays for these things so that these believers might be filled with all the fulness of God. Jon Stott puts it like a staircase, we begin with the lead request in v. 16 to be strengthened with power, then we move through the next requests until we reach the climax, “be filled with the fulness of God.”

If we look at verses 16-19, we see several examples of power and love. “strengthened with power” (16) “rooted and firmly established in love” (17) “able to comprehend (God’s love)” (17-18) “To know the love of Christ” (19) “filled with all the fulness of God” (19)

We see all of these petitions and we will eventually get to verse 20 and see the culmination. What Paul is praying for is that his readers would experience what he has been talking about in chapters 1-2 of Ephesians. That they might experience Christ’s power and God’s amazing love for sinners. We must remember both of these things daily. We must also remember that prayer and teaching always go together. It is one thing to hear something or to teach it, but it is another to actually experience it! Whenever we first started dating, Lindsey had never gone golfing before. Her experiences of golf were of a mini-golf course. That changed quickly and we went to the driving range one fall afternoon and she begins talking about how she had watched people hit golf balls on tv and how it looks so easy to hit a tiny ball thousands of feet into a hole. I begin to grin, knowing what is coming as she is about to hit a ball for the first time, and sure enough, wiff. A couple of seconds later, another wiff. Then, on the 3rd try she hit it! My wife has come a long (!) way on the golf course since that afternoon in 2015, but initially she felt very confident because she had seen other people hit a golf ball and make it look very easy, however she had not yet experienced it for herself and she found out firsthand that it is not nearly as easy as it looks! What Paul is doing in this section is praying for what he believes the Ephesian church desperately needs to experience, and I think that it is safe to say that these are things that we desperately need to experience as well!

We need to be strengthened by the Spirit’s Power (16-17)

At the end of verse 16, Paul prays that God would strengthen the believers with power in the “inner man”. This is interesting, is it not? We have seen many a story in the Bible about God caring far more about the internal things rather than the external. We know that to be true today, as well! We know that the world might look at the outside, the looks, the bank account, the truck and the house. But ultimately what matters is the heart and the way that we live with integrity. Now, this does not mean that someone who is well off cannot be a good, Christian person. However, what matters first and foremost is not the external things but the internal.

There was a song that came out a couple of years ago that had a powerful chorus that said, “In my heart and my soul, I give you control. Consume me from the inside out, Lord.” This should be our cry as a Christian! We should long to be consumed from the inside because then our outside begins to change as well. We fight sin on the inside. We proclaim the Gospel with courage and we love others the way that Christ has loved us from the inside out. We cannot do these things with hollow action, they must come from the heart and be authentic. Praise God that even though our outer bodies might be perishing (and feeling older each and every day), our inner body may be renewed by the Spirit.

So, why do we need to be strengthened by the Spirit in our inner being? We see Paul state this so that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Paul mentions the inner man in verse 16 and the heart in verse 17. He uses strength of the Spirit in verse 16 and indwelling of the Messiah in verse 17. There is a connection between these verses and we cannot miss it. We see that Christ dwells in our hearts through the Spirit. You might be thinking, what is the big deal about Jesus dwelling in my heart? Paul is speaking about something more than Jesus Christ simply existing in your heart but about him ruling it! This is a strong word. He could have simply said that Jesus “inhabits” your heart. There are many people today that believe a lie about Jesus that He will never tell you or force you to do anything that you don’t want to do. That’s a bold face lie. Do you think that men like Paul and Peter wanted to die? Do you think that Christians overseas genuinely want to lose relationships with their family members and be tortured? Do you naturally enjoy telling people about Jesus? Do you like opening up and being “real” with others about God? Maybe we’d like to think so, but I really don’t see it. Thankfully, though, the Spirit brings about conviction and causes us to live a radically different life. If it were up to us and what we feel “comfortable with” then we’d still be in the kiddie pool. Thankfully, though, God calls us out into the waves.

D.A. Carson has a wonderful illustration regarding the Spirit taking up residence in our lives. Carsons says, when Christ takes up residence in a believer, it is like a couple who purchases a home that needs a lot of work. Over time they clean it up, repair it, and eventually say, “this house has been shaped to our needs and taste and I really feel comfortable.” Then, when Christ by His Spirit takes up residence within us, He finds a moral equivalent to trash, black and silver wall paper and a leaking roof. He sets about turning this residence into a place appropriate for Him, a home for which He is comfortable. When a person takes up long-term residence somewhere, their presence eventually characterizes that dwelling. When Christ first moves into our lives, He finds us in bad repair. It takes a great deal of power to change us; and that is why Paul prays for power. He is transforming us into a house that pervasively reflects His own character.” We ought to reflect the character of Jesus Christ and we should pray to that end. That the peace of Christ rules in our hearts.

We need Power to grasp Christ’s Love (17-19)

Certainly, we know about the love of God. We know and we know that God loved us so much that He sent His Son… The Ephesian church knew about this as well. They knew about the love of God, yet Paul is asking for them to know it better. Certainly, we should long to know about God’s love more and deeper. Paul is praying that this church would know the love that Christ has for them better. Not that they would love Him more. This must be our prayer this morning! Paul is not calling them to a mere intellectual appreciation of Christ’s love. Paul is not asking that his readers might become more able to articulate the greatness of God’s love in Christ Jesus or to grasp with the intellect alone how significant God’s love is in the plan of redemption. He is asking God that they might have the power to grasp the dimensions of that love in their experience. Paul is praying for something more than head knowledge. It is a love that is knowable and explainable to a degree, but it must be experienced.

When it comes to experience, though, there are a couple things that we must avoid. We must be mindful of experiential abuse. Some individuals base far too much on experience. So much so that they can filter leave out God’s Word. This is a dangerous position to be in, yet I know some individuals who have come across this way when talking about the importance of “feeling” something. God’s Word and revelation must be the primary lens through which we see our experience. We must also be mindful of experiential avoidance. This is the opposite camp that comprise individuals who avoid the Holy Spirit and experience. They have a cold, dead orthodoxy as a result. This is very similar to what we see from Christ in as He condemns the Ephesian church for forsaking their first love and having a cold, dead orthodoxy. This can be the reputation that Baptists have among other Christians. We can be seen as people who are afraid of the Holy Spirit and we have a cold, dead orthodoxy. Church, this cannot be the case! We cannot be afraid of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit helps us as we go through our life and point others towards Christ! Conversely, we must not abandon Scripture and abuse the Spirit and make Christianity solely an experiential faith. Certainly we experience things, however Scripture is the basis through which we live our lives. It’s so much more than a temporary feeling or emotional response in worship. It’s about our daily lives at work, at school, in our homes and beyond!

We must know 4 things:

Know that you are secured in God’s Love (17)

We are to be rooted in the love of God and build our lives upon His love. There is true life and love from God and from Him alone, we must realize this and recognize that we are secured in His love.

Know the limitless dimensions of God’s Love (18)

God’s love is extensive and spans to include every race and ethnicity. Paul calls us to comprehend God’s love, but we know that we require His power to do this. This is what we have seen in chapters 1-2 of Ephesians thus far!

Know that this Love surpasses knowledge (19)

Vertically, we need to stop and marvel at the relentless and overwhelming love of God as we saw in and we must rest in His promises and forgiveness as we will look at in . Horizontally, we must love others like Christ has loved us. Christ has forgiven us, therefore we must forgive others. Christ was patient with us and sacrificed Himself for us while we were still sinners, therefore we must be patient for others and sacrifice for them as well.

Know God’s Love that you may be mature (19)

Paul ends this section of his prayer in verse 19 by praying that these believers would be filled with all the fulness of God. Paul wants them to know the love of God so that they might be spiritually mature. What a Christlike prayer for a group of believers. This should be our prayer for those around us today. For our children and grandchildren, pray that they might know God’s love and become spiritually mature. For your spouse, pray that they might grow daily in the Word so that they might become spiritually mature. For yourself, pray that you might die to yourself and become spiritually mature.

This is a process. We will not be mature overnight. We cannot be mature unless we know and experience the power and love of God in Jesus Christ. You might know a lot about Jesus and about church, but unless you’ve experienced what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and until you make Him the Lord of your life, you will not know what spiritual maturity looks like! We need the fulness of God’s power and love in order to be like Christ because it is impossible to be Christlike on our own power. It is impossible to love someone who is rude and disrespectful to you whenever you try to do so on your own power. Whenever we try to be like Christ, though, suddenly that disrespectful person in front of you becomes a lost soul who is created in the image of God and you can love that person and share the love of Jesus with them. We MUST look at people this way in order to reach this broken world for Christ.

Pray with Great Expectations

Paul ends this section of Scripture with a closing doxology where he shows us what God is able to do, how He is able and why He does these things.

What God is able to do. Paul states that God is able in verse 20. Able to do what? He says that God is able to do above.... and beyond… all that we ask.... or think! God can do so much more than anything that we can wrap our minds around! We need to remember this whenever we pray! We pray to a God that is great, mighty and eternal! He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead and placed Him as the head of the church, and has put all things underneath His feet! If we believe what we read in Scripture then pour out your heart to Him and know that He is in fact able!

How does God work beyond our imaginations? Paul says in verse 20 that it is according to the power that works in us. Think of various examples of people in Scripture, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, even the disciples, Paul and other church leaders throughout history. God is able to do far more than we could ever do by ourselves! God can take an ordinary man and do extraordinary things through Him by His power.

So, Why does God do these things? Paul answers this in verse 21. God does these things so that His glory would be made known to all nations. That is the ultimate purpose of our prayers for power and love, that the name of Jesus Christ would be magnified in our lives! So, glory in the church and glory in Christ Jesus.... how long will this last? Forever. Forever, God will be glorified by His people. Forever, God will be glorified for His power and love. Forever, God will be glorified in Christ Jesus the lamb who was slain.

You will spend eternity forever in one of two destinations. Sandra Bullock’s character in Gravity was correct, we are all going to die one day, but you can live forever through Jesus Christ who gives us access to the Father in prayer right now. You can know all the right answers, you can have that good feeling in your heart right now, maybe you feel like you need to do something about it.... I pray that today might be the day where you finally have the experience of knowing Jesus Christ intimately. He will change your life and you will never be the same again, in a good way! Let’s pray.