Sermon Tone Analysis

“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.”[1]

Reading the inspired account that details the expansion of the New Testament churches, I note that the apostolic churches prayed for what they knew to be within the will of God.

Therefore, there was a confidence in their prayers that is frequently absent in modern Christendom.

Jesus encouraged such confident praying.

Mark records Jesus teaching His disciples concerning prayer on one occasion.

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.”

Then, emphasising the manner in which we are to pray, He said, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” [*Mark 11:23, 24*].

Jesus taught His disciples, “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” [*Matthew 21:22*].

These first Christians prayed with confidence, and those who penned Scripture taught us to pray boldly [e.g.

*James 1:5, 6*].

Similarly, students of contemporary church culture will observe that modern followers of Christ tend to pray for specific felt needs, and thus we frequently fail to seek what we know to lie within the will of God.

We have less confidence about what we ask, and thus we often appear hesitant and tentative in our requests.

We are taught to pray for personal needs; and that is wonderful.

We intercede for the physical needs of our family and friends; certainly, God is gracious to receive our requests, encouraging us to ask what we desire for those we love.

However, the spiritual nature of the believer needs prayer as well as does the physical.

How often the spiritual is neglected while all the attention is given to the physical.

Another significant contrast between the prayers of our spiritual forebears and those offered up today is that the first saints prayed great prayers that embraced a world.

Our prayers tend to address an immediate desire.

The prayers of the earliest believers appear to have always sought God’s glory and man’s good.

Our prayers seem often to seek our own comfort rather than God’s glory.

We are too often restricted to a local perspective.

There seems to be less humility in our prayers, as though we know precisely what is needed, and we are prepared to instruct God in what needs to be done.

In our text, the Apostle records what can only be said to be a great prayer—a prayer that he offered on behalf of all who would read the letter we know as “Ephesians.”

His request reaches far beyond the moment in which he prayed, embracing all the people of God for all time.

Moreover, the Apostle prayed with great confidence, knowing that God had already promised to do all that he was requesting.

In his prayer, the Apostle prayed for “the inner man” to be strengthened because he realizes that the outward man is passing away.

Power is needed to live the Christian life, to grow in grace, and to develop into full maturity—which is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Though there are four requests, in truth there is one great request that the Apostle makes in this text, and that is that the readers will “be strengthened with power through [God’s] Spirit in [the] inner being.”

Thus strengthened with power, believers will discover the depth of Christ’s presence in their lives, the depth will enable them to comprehend His love, and therefore be fully filled with God’s grace and goodness.

The more deeply the power to understand and to truly experience the fullness of the love of Christ is known in the church, the more intensely will it reflect the unity, harmony, and vibrant Messianic peace that will finally be restored by God in the new creation.

Paul is praying for the church to work together, to focus on what is truly important—to build one another as honours the Lord Jesus.

*A Prayer for Power* — “I [pray] that according to the riches of His glory [God] may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

Each subsequent request Paul makes is dependent upon the previous petition.

However, this is the initial request upon which all the remaining requests will rest.

Therefore, this request for spiritual power stands as the essential portion of his prayer.

As I have already stated, the Apostle prays that the inner man might have spiritual strength, which will, in turn, lead to a deeper experience with Christ.

This deeper experience will enable Christians to “comprehend” (get a handle on) God’s great love, which will result in them as Christians being “filled unto all the fullness of God.”  Paul is praying, then, for power, depth, comprehension, and fullness.

In the introduction, I stated that Paul’s request reaches far beyond the moment in which he prayed, embracing all the people of God for all time.

That is evident as we read the first two verses of the text.

Paul states that he bows his “knees before the Father.”

Paul’s choice of words is basically an affirmation of God as */Creator/*/ /of all groups of living beings, and as the one who sovereignly gives each its individual ‘shape’ and role.

Though the English reader may wonder why Paul uses the word “family” (*/patriá/*), but its appropriateness would be apparent to those first readers as a word play on “Father” (*/patér/*).

The word “family” is from the root word that is translated “father.”

It is understood to mean all those derived from a single ancestor.

To be sure, Paul is acknowledging God as Creator of all mankind.

However, though he acknowledges mankind’s origin, his request is specifically for those who know Christ as Lord.

The Apostle is expressly asking that we who are Christians will discover and appropriate the strength that comes from the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

The Apostle seeks empowering in the “inner being” for all who are followers of Christ the Lord; he asks that that those reading the letter will be spiritually strengthened.

His request is consistent with the prayer offered in the first chapter of the letter.

In fact, his prayer in our text is a continuation of what he had previously asked.

In *Ephesians 1:15-21*, Paul gives us an example of prayer that is essentially the same as the prayer offered up in our text.

“Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of 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 toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 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.”

In this first prayer, Paul asked that we would have a full understanding of all that Christ Jesus has provided through His death and resurrection.

He asked that we realise the impact of the presence of Christ in us, especially that we employ the power of God to do His work.

Just as Christ was raised to life, so the people of God through their witness and through their prayers bring others to life in the Beloved Son.

Likewise, as the Father is glorified through the ascension of the Saviour, so we who are believers glorify the Father as we work together to serve His Son as the Risen Lord of Glory.

Again looking to the text before us, Paul turns his attention to the matter of spiritual power, asking for God’s mighty empowering by the Spirit in the “inner being.”

This is spelled out not in terms of charismata of one kind or another, but as */Christ/*/ /dwelling (more fully) in the readers, so that they will be rooted in and founded on love.

*Verse 17 *explains the request: “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts.”

A practical example of Christ dwelling in the heart is provided by Paul in *Galatians 2:20*.

There, the Apostle writes, “I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Then, he makes specific application, “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Christ dwelling in the heart is Christ controlling the life!

D. A. Carson aptly explains, “This is not a prayer for mystical experience—far less that our human selves should be abolished so that we become ‘channels only’.

Paul’s prayer is that Christ should dwell in us /through faith/; that is, that we should live our lives with fuller loving trust in him, being more and more deeply moulded by the Christ-event.

It is this indwelling of Christ that strengthens the believer’s life, and keeps him or her on a firm foundation—especially in times of trial.”[2]

The presence of the Holy Spirit is evidence of salvation [see *Romans 8:9*].

However, the power of the Spirit enables Christian living, and it is this power that Paul seeks for his readers.

Jesus performed His ministry on earth in the power of the Spirit [*Luke 4:1, 14*; *Acts 10:38*], and this is the only resource we have for Christian living today.

The importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church is seen in the Book of Acts.

There are 62 references to the Spirit in the book, or one fourth of the total references found in the New Testament.

As the Holy Spirit empowers the inner man, our spiritual faculties are controlled by God—we are exercising them and growing in the Word.

It is only as we yield to the Spirit, letting Him control the inner man that we succeed in living to the glory of God.

This means feeding the inner man on the Word of God, praying and worshiping, keeping clean, and exercising the senses through loving obedience.

There is no need to pray for strength if strength if never required to live this life.

Of course, Paul is praying for spiritual strength, and not mere physical strength.

We do not want to anticipate that the Christian life may require sacrifice, or that we may not get our way in every situation.

We unconsciously anticipate that when we become a Christian, everything will go our way and we will live happily ever after.

However, the Christian life is about honouring Christ and not about feeling good about ourselves.

Certainly, each of the Apostles experienced opposition and difficulties as he followed Christ.

For example, Paul testified to the Philippian Christians, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” [*Philippians 4:12*].

The quintessential statement of the cost of being a Christian is that provided to the Corinthian Christians.

These saints were living as though they were the centre of God’s plan, and the Apostle found it necessary to remind them of what Christian life could be.

“Whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that.

Are they Hebrews?

So am I.  Are they Israelites?

So am I.  Are they offspring of Abraham?

So am I.  Are they servants of Christ?

I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Who is weak, and I am not weak?

Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant” [*2 Corinthians 11:21**b-29*]?