Ephesians 3:14-21: "Why Paul Prays for the Ephesians"
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For this reason I bend my knees before the Father--from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
1) in order that he may give to you according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness ,
in love having been firmly rooted and established,
2) in order that you may be able to grasp with all the holy ones what is the breadth and height and depth
and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge.
3) in order that you may be filled with all the fullness of/from God.
Now to the one able to do more than everything/everyone, beyond all measure what we ask or perceive, according to the power working in us, to him (be) glory in the church and in King Jesus for all generations forever and ever. Amen.
In Ephesians 2, we learned that God has this incredible plan for his creation. God is creating one family, one nation, one people for himself. He is making peace with all people through Jesus. Jesus is our peace.
God is doing something in the world that is far bigger than Kulm, or North Dakota, or the United States. God is making peace with all people, across every line that separates people, through Jesus. If we were up in the heavens, with the rulers and authorities, it'd be easier to see God's wisdom and purpose in all of this. But here we are, sitting in Kulm.
How does all of this relate to our own small church here? How does it relate to the house church in Ephesus?
In verse 14, Paul comes back down from talking about God's global plan, to talking to the Ephesians. He says, "Since all of these things are true, I pray to my Father for some very specific reasons for you."
And so Paul begins, for the second time, by telling the Ephesians how he prays for them. why he prays for them. If you read it carefully, you'll notice that Paul doesn't actually say what he prays for them. He tells them WHY he prays for them. It's this WHY that explains how this Ephesian church fits into God's much bigger picture.
Before I jump in, I want you all to look at the translation I've handed out, and find the numbered sections, (1), (2), and (3). Three times in this section Paul writes, "in order that." And how we understand these three sections, and the relationship of these "in order thats," makes a huge difference in how we read the section. Picture these three "in order thats" as dominoes. The way I'm going to teach this, is that these are three separate requests Paul makes of his Father. The other way to read this, and I just can't make it work, is that these dominoes are in an order, and Paul makes one prayer request and then the other two naturally fall over as a result. If you want to go home and wrestle with this, feel free. I might be wrong. Fair enough? But I'm feeling pretty good about this.
Paul's first prayer request runs from verses 14-17:
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father--
from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
(1) in order that he may give to you in accordance with the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness ,
in love having been firmly rooted and having been established,
God is rich in glory. Glory has to do with three main things. First of all, God's glory means that he is powerful. God can do whatever God wants to do. Second, God's glory means he's radiant. God shines. Third, God's glory means he is lifted up, above everything and everyone else.
God is RICH in glory. And Paul prays that God would give to the Ephesians in accordance with the riches. If you're a server in a restaurant, and Bill Gates sits in your section, what kind of tip do you hope to get? You hope to get a tip that's in accordance with his riches. A nice tip from me might be $10. I'm not rich. I have a lot of mouths to feed. But if Bill Gates thought you did a good job, and gave in accordance with his riches, who knows what will be left for you?
God is rich in glory. He's rich in radiance; He's rich in power. And Paul prays that God would give as a God who is rich. God isn't going to run out of glory, so Paul prays that he would give generously out of it.
To what end? Why does Paul want God to give richly, in accordance with the riches of his glory?
"in order that he may give to you in accordance with the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person"
so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness ,
in love having been firmly rooted and having been established,
God is rich in glory, which means he's rich in power. Paul prays that God would give out of that glory, so that the Ephesians are strengthened through his Spirit. If we were going to work backward and figure out exactly what Paul prayed, the end result would be something like this: "Father, send your Spirit powerfully on the Ephesians to strengthen them."
We tend to think of the Holy Spirit as someone we either have, or don't have. Right? We're Baptists; we aren't Pentecostals, we aren't charismatics. This is our loss. The Spirit can work more or less powerfully in us. We can act in ways that hinder the Spirit. Or we can act in ways that show an openness to the Spirit. But even more than this, we can pray that God would send his Spirit powerfully on us, to strengthen us. Don't let your theology keep you from praying biblically. "Father, send your Spirit powerfully on this church to strengthen it."
This is not a prayer for Samson strength. Paul's hope for the Ephesians isn't that they be able to rip lions apart with their bare hands, or destroy buildings, or kill thousands of Philistines. This is a prayer for strength in the inner person, for a very specific reason.
"so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness."
There is something wrong with the Ephesians' faith in Christ. Part of the problem might be that hey don't fully understand what God did for them in Jesus. They wonder if they need to Judaize, putting themselves under the Mosaic covenant, in order to receive all of God's blessings. The other part of their problem is that they living in sin. They aren't living faithfully.
Faith, at its core, means loyalty and allegiance. And when they stray from this allegiance to Jesus, and find themselves looking elsewhere, it means they are looking away from Jesus. Paul prays that God would strengthen them so that Christ would live in their hearts through faithfulness. Through allegiance. Right now they are vulnerable, and he prays that God would strengthen them. Jesus is enough, and they need to commit to him LIKE he's enough. They need to continue to be faithful, so that Christ continues to live in them. Again, faith is a commitment. Jesus lives in us, because we place our faith-- our allegiance-- in him.
The last line here is this: in love having been firmly rooted and having been established.
There are two participles here, "ing" verbs. When participles follow the main verb, they explain it. Picture a strong, healthy oak tree. It's roots go down forever, and it's strong. Paul prays that they would be like an oak tree, rooted and established IN LOVE. This love is God's love. God's love is the soil that we put our roots in. It holds us in place, it's the source of our growth; it's our starting point.
God expects you to be faithful to him. How can we keep our focus on him, and not get distracted by the world, or by sin? What anchors our faith? The answer, is "God's love anchors your faith." We are faithful to God because we know how much God loves us. God loves you.
This brings us to Paul's second request.
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father--from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
1) in order that he may give to you according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness ,
in love having been firmly rooted and established,
2) in order that you may be able to grasp with all the holy ones what is the breadth and height and depth
and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge.
How much does Jesus love you? In the last line, Paul says that this love surpasses knowledge. You could think about Jesus' love forever, and you will never fully understand it. You will never fully understand a love that goes to the cross for your sins. Paul's prayer, though, is that you will know Christ's unknowable love.
This brings us to our final request, in verse 19.
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father--from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
1) in order that he may give to you according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
so that Christ may live in your hearts through faithfulness ,
in love having been firmly rooted and established,
2) in order that you may be able to grasp with all the holy ones what is the breadth and height and depth
and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge.
3) in order that you may be filled with all of God's fullness.
in order that you may be filled with all of God's fullness.
Paul began this section by talking about how God is rich in glory. He's not going to run out, and so he can give freely and generously out of that to us. This last prayer echoes the first. God is full. He doesn't need anything; he lacks nothing. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be filled, out of God's fullness.
This sounds great. What does it mean?
Let's cheat ahead, and turn to Eph. 4:11-16.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[e] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Fullness sounds like a super cool mystical/spiritual filling-- and it is-- but it's also practical. What God wants is for you to be a mature, stable church. He wants you to understand what he's done for you through Jesus, and how much he loves you. If you've reached this point, you'll be rooted and established in God's love, and you'll no longer be vulnerable to false teaching. The reality is that many Christians will believe anything they hear. If someone has a mic, and they're up front, we believe them.
The Ephesians, apparently, are being told that they have to become Jews to be part of God's people. They think God is holding back some special blessings and privileges for Jewish Christians. If you were filled with God's fullness and spiritually mature, understanding what Jesus did on the cross, and God's bigger plan, you'd see that this is ridiculous. Paul's prayer for them is that God would give them this spiritual maturity. "Father, fill them out of your fullness."
The most important thing you can ever study, or learn more about, is what God did for you through Jesus. You can't think about this enough; you will never fully understand it. But you need to.
If you don't understand what God did for you through Jesus, on the cross, you will never understand God's love. You won't be firmly rooted and established; you'll be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers. If you don't understand what Jesus did in tearing down the wall separating Jew from Gentile, you'll be tempted to Judaize. You'll misread passages like Genesis 17, or Deuteronomy, and you'll put yourself under the Mosaic law/covenant.
Why does Paul pray for them? What does Paul want for them?
(1) Paul wants them to be strengthened, so that Christ to continue to live their hearts through faithfulness.
(2) Paul wants them understand how much Jesus loves them.
(3) Paul wants them to be filled with God's fullness.
This brings us to verse 20. As Paul describes his prayer to God for them, and what God has done for them, he can't help himself, and he ends by offering a doxology of praise to God. How can you think deeply about what God has done for you, without it leading you to praise God? You can't. It's impossible. Praise God, for his mercy and his love.
So Paul writes this doxology, and we will close with this:
Now to the one able to do more than everything/everyone, beyond all measure what we ask or perceive, according to the power working in us, to him (be) glory in the church and in King Jesus for all generations forever and ever. Amen.