Sermon Tone Analysis

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!

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.