Ephesians 1:15-23 - Paul's Prayer for Ephesians

Well, good morning, church.

Turn with me, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And today we're going to look at verses 15 through 23.

Verses 15 through 23, which is Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus.

So if you guys remember from previous sermons, the church in Ephesus was established by the Apostle Paul.

So these believers lived in a very diverse culture.

Okay, it was very immoral, it was very prideful.

There was false gods, Artemis and Diana, which were prevalent during this time.

There was a lot of magicians, pagan worship, occult practices.

And so you can imagine this led to a lot of confusion in the church over theology, how Jews and Gentiles should relate to one another, and how Christians should be living.

And so Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, he writes this letter.

And he starts by telling these Christians why God should be blessed.

Okay, that is what verses 1 through 14 are all about.

He starts this letter by worshiping God for all of the great things that he has done.

And now in our passage today, he's going to transition and pray for these believers.

He starts with worship and now prayer.

So often in the Christian life, we want to jump past the basics.

Right?

We do this in Christian counseling, we do this in Christian fellowship, we do this in our personal devotions.

We want to jump right into behavior modification, behavior correction, life application, the issue at hand, the problem.

But Paul starts by blessing God.

Thanksgiving, prayer.

There's something that we can learn from the very outline of this letter.

And so Paul, after looking at God and all that he has done in Christ on our behalf, he is now going to pray for these believers.

And Paul clearly saw prayer as his most valuable tool as a Christian.

So out of his 13 letters that Paul wrote in the New Testament, only three of them do not contain a prayer.

And so prayer clearly was central to Paul.

As Billy Graham once said, prayer is the Christian's greatest weapon.

And it is my hope this morning that we would all walk away today from Paul's example with a greater urgency on thanking God for and praying for other believers in churches.

That is the heart of this passage.

So let us look together at what Paul says, starting in verses 15 and 16.

He says, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

And so the church in Ephesus was very special to Paul.

As I mentioned before, he founded this church.

Okay, he personally knew them.

He preached in the city.

By God's grace, a local church was established, but Paul was a missionary.

He couldn't stick around.

And as we know, there are dangers on multiple fronts with new church plans.

Okay, the church could have gone rogue.

False teachers could have crept in and killed the church.

There's always the danger of false converts and persecution and so on.

But Paul is receiving good reports about them.

And it's twofold.

One, they have faith in Jesus Christ.

And secondly, they are loving other saints.

That is what Paul is mostly concerned about.

Okay, not their church budget, not their numerical growth, not their church strategy.

His chief concern is this: do they have a real faith in Jesus Christ and are they loving his body?

And this causes Paul to say, I thank God constantly, without ceasing.

That's quite a statement.

Anytime Paul thinks of this church, he can't help it but to look up to God and say, thank you.

Now is this an overreaction?

No.

Because faith in Christ, in love for the body of Christ, is evidence that they are legit.

It's evidence that God is at work in their lives.

It's proof that their conversion was genuine.

And that's worth thanking God for.

We thank God for many things.

But how often do we thank Him for His divine work of faith and love in people's lives?

When people are gathering together, they're trusting in Christ together, they're laying down their lives for one another.

Church, that's a miracle, okay?

That, my friends, is supernatural.

That is a work of God.

Look around this room for a moment.

Just look around at all, the different people and faces.

Is it not a miracle that there are people in this very room who used to love sin?

They were addicted to so many evil things.

They were cruel, they were nasty, they were godless, but they're now in this room loving Jesus and his church.

Are you thanking God for that?

Look around this county.

There are gospel-centered, Christ-centered churches who trust in Jesus, teaching the word faithfully.

Are you thanking God for that?

Look around the world.

There are men and women who are actively keeping the two greatest commandments.

Friends, thank God for such things.

Anytime we see someone who's going against the grain of this world, rejecting sin, renouncing the devil, and following Christ and loving his people, that's worth thanking God for.

And so don't ever take that for granted.

Don't ever take that for granted, because that is the hand of God.

And so Paul is thanking God for them, and he is also, look at the verse, mentioning them in his prayers.

If someone is worth thanking God for, then they are worth praying for as well.

And he wants them to know that they are on his prayer list.

Do you know how meaningful and encouraging it can be when someone tells you, hey, I want you to know that I have been praying for you.

We should never be afraid to let people know that we're praying for them.

That is biblical.

Just knowing that we have someone in our corner, knowing that we have someone who cares for us, who's interceding on our behalf is so comforting.

I remember a few years back, I was really struggling.

I was in my head, I felt attacked spiritually, which led me to believe just lies, that nobody cares about me, I'm all alone, blah, blah, blah.

And the enemy was just kind of having a heyday on me.

And one of my really good friends sent me a text that said, praying for for you.

Praying the number four, the letter U.

Okay?

That's it.

And that text meant so much to me and motivated me spiritually.

Okay, it did far more for me than a two-hour podcast ever could.

Don't ever be afraid to let someone know that you're praying for them.

It's a reminder to them that you care and that God cares.

It reminds them that they're not alone in the struggle.

It provides a sense of community.

It reminds the individual to shift their focus from the physical realm to spiritual solutions.

And God accomplishes his purposes through the prayers of his people.

And so Paul then goes further in verses 17 through 19, and he tells them the content of his prayer.

Look at what he says, starting in verse 17.

He says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might.

So here Paul prays for three specific areas.

And the first is this that God may give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, aka Christ.

So, in other words, this is a prayer that they would have spiritual insight regarding Jesus Christ.

Okay, he wants them to know Christ.

Paul starts with this prayer because it is the most single important thing in our lives: our knowledge of Jesus Christ.

How can we worship?

How can we praise?

How can we honor?

How can we follow someone we don't know?

Right?

And so the fact that Paul prays for this implies that we need divine help, we need divine aid when it comes to understanding who Jesus is and what he has accomplished on the cross on our behalf.

Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14 says that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

1 Corinthians 2:14

And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritual.

God must open our eyes, he must enlighten our minds to understand who Jesus is and what he has done on our behalf.

Paul here is not talking about mere data or information.

Okay, there are atheists out there, unbelievers out there, who know more scripture and information about Jesus than I do.

Okay?

But yet I know him and they don't.

Okay, what's the difference?

The difference is that God, in his grace, has given me the spirit of wisdom and revelation concerning Christ.

In other words, an academic knowledge of Christ is not sufficient.

We need spiritual illumination, divine unveiling concerning Christ.

If you guys remember when Jesus asked his disciples, Who do you say that I am?

And Peter said, You are the Messiah, the Son of God.

Right?

What did Jesus say back to him?

He said, Flesh did not reveal this to you.

This wasn't your own logic.

This wasn't something you learned, it wasn't a fact that you studied and learned.

He said, My father revealed that to you.

So I don't know about you, but sometimes I read the Bible, I listen to sermons, I have all the content, all the information I could ever need, and I'm still not getting it.

Okay, my brain is limited.

My thinking process is in a fallen state.

My little finite mind can't comprehend divine, glorious doctrines.

And what I need is for God's Spirit to give me illumination and revelation.

I need God's wisdom, his insight to truly comprehend and know Jesus.

This is why Paul prays for this.

And by the way, I don't care if you've been a Christian for one year or 50, you never outgrow this.

There's no such thing as a gospel graduate.

Okay, you will never reach a point in your Christian life where you say, I now know everything there is about Jesus.

My knowledge is complete.

No.

Even after glory, it will take an eternity upon an eternity to unravel the beauty and the majesty and the character of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That is why Peter says in his epistle, but grow, right?

But grow in your grace, in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus.

And so the second thing that Paul prays for here is that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, that they may know what is the hope to which he has called them, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

Paul doesn't want these Christians to just understand Christ on a head level, right, an intellectual level.

He wants the eyes of their hearts to understand and embrace.

Okay, there's a real danger common today in nominal Christianity of knowing God accurately with your mind, but not embracing his truth with your heart.

In the allegorical story of Pilgrim's Progress, if you guys have read that book, there are a lot of talkatives.

Okay, people who love to just talk theology, they know theology, they learn theology, but their lives are unchanged, and their worship is non-existent, which is why Paul prays this prayer.

Because Paul knows that he cannot change their hearts.

He can preach and teach the oracles of God all day long, but only the Holy Spirit can go inside someone's heart and enlighten them to God's promises.

You can speak accurate theology all day long, you can declare the glories of Christ repeatedly, but it is the Holy Spirit who convinces and assures.

It is the Holy Spirit who changes the inside of a person.

It is the Holy Spirit who makes the things unseen real to us.

And so Paul wants these believers to have heart knowledge on a real, experiential, tangible level.

And that's something that only God can do, which is why Paul prays for it.

And Paul wants their hearts enlightened to what?

What specifically?

Two things here: the hope to which God has called them, and secondly, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

In other words, he wants these Christians to understand that they have great hope now and great hope in the future.

He wants them to look at their life right now and say, wow, I have great hope.

Christ is with me.

God loves me.

God is at work and I am his.

There is a great calling I can walk in right here, right now.

And then he wants these believers to look ahead to the future and say, wow, there is a great future that awaits me.

There is an eternal, unfading, everlasting inheritance from me in heaven.

Christians should be people of great hope.

If the Christian faith is true, its followers should have the greatest hope in the world.

But yet there are spiritually depressed Christians, miserable believers, and trust me, I've been there.

I dare even say hopeless Christians.

Why?

Because they're looking around at the world.

Their hope is in the world.

Or they're looking at themselves, or they're looking at media, they're focused on the affairs of this fallen earth.

They're way too focused on the natural consequences of sin and their own lack of ability.

And that will always lead us to what?

Despair, discouragement, and frustration.

It's all too common.

Which is why Paul prays.

I pray that your hearts would be enlightened, that your heart would truly see the great calling that you have right now in Christ Jesus.

He is yours.

And that your heart might see the future, the great glory of God revealed in its fullest, that you might see the inheritance that is stored for you in heaven.

That these things would be so real to us that our hearts might have hope.

That is what Paul wants for these believers.

And the last thing that Paul prays for is that we might know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his might.

Notice that Paul is praying that they might know, okay, or recognize this great power of God in their lives, the working of God's might.

He isn't praying for strength.

He isn't praying that they would receive strength.

He actually does that later in chapter 3.

Paul is saying, I pray that your heart would see and notice the immeasurable greatness of God's power towards you.

Okay, imagine for a moment if after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11, if if Lazarus came up to you and he said, you know, God hasn't really done anything special in my life.

John 11 · chapter mention

You know, God's really not done much for me.

What would you say to him?

I know what I would say.

I would say, are you blind?

Or do you have amnesia?

Like, do you not see the great power of God?

You've been raised to life.

By the word of Christ, you are alive.

Well, in the same way, how tragic it is when we Christians, people who were once dead in our sins, but now raised to life, people who were once utterly lost, but now we're found, people who were once under God's wrath, but we are now objects of his unconditional love, to think God hasn't done much for me.

Or I don't see how God's worked much in me.

Oh, how our hearts can be so fickle, so forgetful and blind.

Don't ever give the Israelites a hard time in the wilderness, okay?

Don't ever criticize them in the Old Testament, because that is us.

Our hearts can be so quick to recognize sinful desires, it can remember the romance of sin, but it cannot see the blatant, obvious power of God in our lives.

I could ask everyone in the room, hey, what character defects does your spouse have?

And you could give me an answer like that.

But if I asked, hey, what great things has God done in your life?

Some of us might say, you know, I'm not really sure.

I'd have to think about that.

God wants us to recognize his great power in our lives.

If you are a true Christian, you've been born again, do you realize the power demonstrated in your life?

Do you realize what power has been done to you?

God didn't come alongside us and, you know, kind of help us a little bit.

He didn't, you know, we were in a pit and he gave us a little step up.

You know, he didn't cheer us up a little bit while we were down.

You know, we were not like kind of sick and he kind of came along and gave us some aid.

He resurrected our lives.

Okay, he came into the sinful, fallen, rebellious world.

He sent his only begotten son to come and die in your place, to provide a salvation for us where we could be reconciled back to our Creator.

And by grace through faith, he transformed the very nature of our hearts and of our lives.

He has dealt with the guilt of our sin, paid in full.

He is currently breaking the power of sin in our lives.

And in the future, he will completely deliver us entirely from sin's presence.

And by his power, he sustains us, and he makes us more and more fit for the kingdom.

And he sustains us, making us more and more conformed into the image of Christ.

This church is something that's greater than creation itself.

Did you know that?

Because in creation, God created everything there is out of nothing.

But in the new creation, God takes a vile, wretched, sin-loving, God-hating person and transforms them into a holy, blameless, sin-hating, God-loving saint.

That's why this verse describes it as God's immeasurable power, his great might.

Who can do that?

Like, tell me, who can change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh?

Who has the power to change the innermost motivations of the human heart?

Who has the power to convince someone that sin is so bad and Christ is so good?

Who has the power to resurrect me and give me a new body after death?

What kind of power is this?

This isn't power that can be described in human language.

This isn't human power.

As the verse said, this is power that can't be measured.

It's a measurable power that comes from an infinite God.

There's nothing more defeating for a Christian if you think that God isn't working in your life.

There's nothing more defeating for a Christian if you are doubting God's power, which is why Paul praised this prayer.

That our hearts may see the power of God in our lives.

God wants to show off his power by transforming our lives and holding us out as his trophies so that the world might say, What kind of power is this?

And if you're doubting God's immeasurable power towards you, Paul ends this prayer by pointing to Jesus Christ.

Okay, he supports his argument by reminding us of God's power towards Christ.

Okay, look at what he says in verses 20 through 23.

Again, talking about God's immeasurable power, verse 20, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

So the same power that is at work in you now, okay, is the same power that God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand?

Okay, we are all human, and at times we doubt the power of God.

We think to ourselves, does God really have the power to save me from my sin?

Is he really strong enough to raise me from the dead when I die?

Can God really sanctify me and bring me into glory?

I'm a tough case.

Can he do it?

And we read the news.

We look at all that's going around around the world, and we're like, is God even moving?

Like at all?

Because the world is a mess.

And then we fall back into a sinful habit and we think to ourselves, maybe God's power isn't working in me because I can't seem to overcome this sin.

And we evaluate our lives and we think there's no way God is going to get me where he wants me.

There's no way.

Which is why Paul reminds us here.

He says, look at Christ.

Stop looking at yourself, stop dwelling on your failures, stop looking at your own strength, your talents.

You're powerless, anyways.

Instead, look at the power of God in Christ Jesus.

Okay, God had the power to raise Jesus from the dead.

God had the power to exalt Jesus above every ruler, power and authority.

God had the power to put all things under Christ.

God had the power to establish Christ as head over the church.

Here's the logical argument here.

If God's power didn't fail Jesus Christ, will it then fail for those whom Christ has purchased?

Now, don't get it twisted here.

This doesn't mean that God is going to make us head of the church or the king of the world.

Okay, that's a misinterpretation.

What it means is this if God delivered and rescued and exalted the Son of God by his power, will he not do the same for the sons and the daughters of God, those whom Christ bought with his precious blood?

You may be here this morning thinking, you know, God's power doesn't seem to be that strong.

Well, Paul begs to differ.

In God's strength, he has raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

That's past tense.

In God's might, he will continue to sanctify us from our sins.

Okay, that's present tense.

That's God's present power in your life.

And in God's unlimited power, he will bring us safely to glory.

He will glorify us and give us new bodies.

That's future tense.

Look, I get it.

You're not where you need to be.

Okay?

In your mind, when you think of the perfect Christian version of yourself, you don't measure up to that standard, do you?

I get that.

But look back at the last year, the last two years, the last five years, God's power is at work in you.

Is it not?

If you are a true Christian and you're not a faker, you're a true Christian, you are being sanctified.

There is growth.

God is making you more and more fit for the kingdom.

The Spirit of God is molding you more into the image of Christ.

You may not be where you want to be, but praise God because of his power, you are not where you used to be.

So if you're doubting God's power, you're looking in the wrong place.

Look at Christ.

So much of our problems would go away if we just simply looked at Christ.

As Helen Thorne once said, she says, look up.

That is the key to perseverance.

Not looking in to our pain, not looking down in despair, but up, up to the King, the Lord, the Savior, the one who has gone before us and will use hard things to make our faith complete.

So anytime we doubt God's power in our life, just look at Christ.

Anytime we're struggling in life, look at Christ and pray for yourself and for others that we might see the unlimited, immeasurable power that is at work in us, that comes from an all-sovereign, an all-powerful, and ever-faithful God.

So proclamation church, what is our applic uh our application and how does this passage apply to us personally?

Well, I've mentioned a few throughout my sermon, but first, I want us to learn from Paul's example.

Okay, we need to be people of prayer.

We need to take prayer more seriously.

And listen, prayer is a privilege, it's not a mere duty.

Okay, there are times, obviously, when it feels like a duty and we do it out of duty, but its very nature is a divine gift that we have been given.

Christ has given us access to draw near to God.

Because of the blood of Christ, we have access to God's throne of grace.

Prayer is our most powerful tool as Christians.

And so I ask, are you utilizing this blessed privilege?

What is your prayer life like?

Who are you praying for?

If I were to ask you, who's on your prayer list, could you show me?

And secondly, we learn how to pray.

Okay, notice that Paul doesn't pray for selfish desires.

Okay?

He's not praying for worldly things.

And by the way, his primary focus is not on Joe's upcoming doctor's appointment or that Tina would get a job and those types of things.

Those prayers are good.

They're fine, they are good, and we should pray for such things.

Okay, but Paul's primary prayer, the greatest thing that he could pray for, was that they knew Christ on a deep and profound level.

That they would have great hope in their calling now and in the future, and that they would recognize the power of God in their lives.

What a powerful prayer that is completely aligned with the will of God.

Because that's what they need most.

Okay, that's what I need most.

What I think I need in my life, okay, is that God would fix all of my problems, that he would heal my wife's kidney disease, that he would give me a new car because our van's falling apart, that he would take away all of my stresses.

And God, guess what?

He may or may not grant these things.

Okay, but what I need most, what I desperately, desperately need that will carry me through anything and all of these concerns and keep my heart and my mind at ease in this pilgrimage is knowledge of Christ.

I need anchored hope.

I need to recognize God's power that's all around me and in me.

God doesn't always give us what we want, but He is in the business of giving us what we need.

The main content of our prayer life for others should be that of spiritual and eternal concern.

Yes, pray for financial stability.

Yes, pray for physical health.

Yes, pray for job openings.

I'm not saying those things are bad.

God loves it, in fact, when we pray for such things, when we bring all things to Him.

But let us not forget to pray God's ultimate will for ourselves and for others.

Knowledge of Christ, enduring hope, and recognition of God's power.

Because the reality is this: I could lose my job, uh, the government could come and steal my bank account, I could get diagnosed with some rare disease.

But if I'm experiencing true knowledge of Jesus, if my heart's overflowing with the hope of Christ, and if I'm overwhelmed by the power of God, I'm okay.

It is well with my soul.

Though the world around me may burn, though my flesh may fail, my heart sings.

Not because I have what I want, but because God gives us what we need.

Pray often.

Pray many, many prayers.

Pray biblical things.

Pray the will of God that's revealed to us in the Word of God.

Those are prayers that God loves to answer because they are perfectly aligned with His will.

Church, let us be thankful for other believers.

Every time you hear about a Bible believing, a gospel centered church, give God thanks for them and pray for them.

And on that note, let us close in prayer.