How/Why Paul Prays For The Church (Ephesians 3:14-21) Series

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 [place], 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 [place].

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 why he prays for them.

Now, if you read this prayer 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. I think Paul has three distinctive hopes for the church, in his prayers.

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."