May 16, 2010
Morning Worship
Text: Ephesians 3:14-20
Subject: Paul’s Prayer for the Church
Title: The Power is in the Relationship
We are going to continue in our series through the book of Ephesians this morning. We will begin in Ephesians 3, beginning with verse 14. But before we get started in our text I need to bring you up to snuff with what Paul has written in his letter in the last few sections. Last Sunday evening I shared with you about how God has brought Gentiles and Jews together as one body through the cross of Jesus Christ. The wall that kept Gentiles from entering into the temple of God has now been broken down.
The message that has been given to Paul has caused him to be imprisoned. As we look at chapter 3 there are some things that lead up to what we want to talk about today. Let’s take a real quick look at what Paul is saying to the church to prepare us to receive what we need to receive today.
1. Paul has been called by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles. (V 1)
2. God has given him grace to do it… (V 2)
3. The mystery that was made known to him came by revelation from God by the Holy Spirit … (vs. 3-5)
4. The Gentiles are heirs to the promises of God along with Israel… (V 6)
5. Because of God’s grace Paul became a servant… just like Jesus said we should be… and he is working by that grace in power…(v 7)
6. He has a humble spirit… (V 8) less than the least of all God’s people… was given grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ…
7. The mystery is now being revealed through the church…because of the work of Christ…according to His eternal purpose… (Vs. 10-11)
8. In Christ and through Christ we can approach God with freedom and confidence… (V 12)
9. Paul’s sufferings and imprisonment is for their benefit (glory) (v 13)
I could do a whole sermon on each one of those points, and I probably will eventually, but for now I want to prepare you for what all this is leading up to in the next section of Paul’s letter to the church.
Verses 14-15, 14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name…
1. Kneeling out of reverence- the typical posture of prayer for Christians at that time (opposed to Jews who stood)
2. Before the Father – In direct contact with – face-to-face with God…
3. His family includes those who are already in heaven and those who walk the earth now – those who are born again…
Let’s look together to see that the power that God wants His church to have only comes through a right relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Prayer – Lord, open our eyes to see and our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Read 16-21
I. STRENGTHENED IN POWER… (16-17) I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being… I want to break this sentence down for you and try to get at the deep meaning of what Paul is saying. First, in the NIV it says I pray… Those words are not in the original text but are added to connect us with verses 14 and 15. That is what Paul is doing – he’s praying. Now, what is he praying? He is praying for strength. This prayer is not just for the church in Ephesus but is valid for all believers. The word “strength” in the Greek means, “to empower or to increase in vigor”. Paul’s prayer is that we be empowered. According to Webster’s dictionary the word “vigor” means “physical or intellectual power”. OK, so now we see that Paul is asking that we be empowered both physically and intellectually. Why doesn’t he ask that we be empowered in the spirit man instead of in the natural man? Well. Let’s go back and look at the source of the empowerment that he is asking God for. 1) He is asking that it come out of God’s glorious riches. The word translated “riches” means “wealth, as in God’s fullness, or literally, money, possessions or abundance.” Now it would be easy for us to focus on the word “riches” but it is better if we focus on the source – it’s from God; it’s glorious. The word “glorious” comes from a root word that refers to one’s reputation. So if we are to be strengthened it is going to be because of the riches that come from God according to His own reputation. So, the picture you have of God in your own mind and according to your own faith you will be strengthened or empowered. Proverbs 23:7 in the NKJV, “as he (a man) thinks in his heart, so is he.” 2) We see that the source is God, but the catalyst for your empowerment is the Holy Spirit. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit… In all reality Paul is praying that we be strengthened in the spirit man because he knows that when we receive that spiritual power that it will manifest itself in the natural man – both physical and intellectual – in what you do and in what you know or understand. The source of that power is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I read one commentary that says that this is not referring to a repetition of what happened on the Day of Pentecost. The truth is that there is no need for Pentecost to happen again, because once the Holy Spirit was poured out on that day power is now available to all who believe and ask. That spiritual power is intended to be repeated over and over so that all can be filled and refilled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit for power in this life. Let’s continue. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit… in your inner being. That is referring to the heart or spirit man. It is intended to be the continual source of power for the believer. That is what Jesus meant when he said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you… That’s what happened on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit fell with the sound as of a mighty rushing wind and tongues as of fire… that’s what Paul meant when he said “do not be drunk on wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” That is what happened to the apostles at a prayer meeting when those who had been filled on the day of Pentecost received a fresh filling in Acts 4, 31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. That is what Paul is praying for all believers to have because he knows that if we are ever going to be unified as the body it has to be through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That is why God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms with authority. We have authority and the power to answer the call God has placed on our lives. And we have the purpose for that power and authority - 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And we have that because we are…
II. ROOTED IN LOVE (17-18) And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power… “rooted and established” literally means, “stable and erect”! That only comes “in love”. (agape love – the kind of love that God has for you). Now I want you to look at something else. That kind of love is a connector between the recurring theme of “power”. Now he is praying that because of your love relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ, you are rooted and established and with that grounding you can have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ… The word translated “grasp” means, to seize, to take eagerly, or to possess… He wants you to get hold of the fact that you cannot have power or authority without being “in Him”. The ability to understand salvation, to accept salvation and work out your own salvation is given to all, but God’s primary desire in your life is to be number one. Listen to me now; you can be born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can understand your position in Christ and your authority in Christ, you can be commissioned to take the gospel into the whole world (in fact you are) with signs and wonders following, and you can operate in gifts of the Spirit, but without being rooted and established, without spending time with the God who saved you, with experiencing His love in a one-on-one love affair, you cannot expect to live out a life of power and authority. On Wednesday night we just finished studying about nine of Jesus’ disciples who had a boy brought to them who was demon possessed. The boy’s father expected them to be able to cast the demon out, but they couldn’t. Later they asked Jesus why they couldn’t and his reply was this, 29He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer. Or prayer and fasting.” It wasn’t that the disciples weren’t commissioned to preach the word; they were. It wasn’t because they didn’t have authority; they did – Jesus gave it to them. Their problem was that they were simply resting on who they were because of the authority given them by Jesus and not spending time with the One who sent Jesus. They had the authority but not the mind of God. They had the power but didn’t know the will of God. They had faith but it appeared to be misplaced. Their faith was in the authority given instead of in the giver. Jesus intends for you to incorporate your relationship with Him along with the power and authority you have in Him in order for you to know that His love is wide enough to touch the whole world through His body the church, it is long enough to go from eternity past to eternity future, it is high enough to seat all believers with Jesus in the heavenly realms, and it is deep enough to set you free from the bondage of sin and the grave. When you are rooted in His love to that extent then you can be…
III. FILLED TO THE FULLNESS (19) …and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. He wants you to know without a doubt (that’s what “know” means) His love. It is a love that surpasses knowledge. You can try to understand it in the flesh, your natural man ( GR. psuche) but God’s love surpasses knowledge. It is experiential. You see, I can’t say that I fully understand salvation, but I have experienced. I understand what the bible says about it but I don’t fully understand why. I don’t understand how the baptism in the Holy Spirit works or the spiritual dynamic involved in it, but I have experienced it and because of my experience and the fact that it does line up with God’s word I know it’s real. And that is what His desire for you is that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Colossians 2:9-10, 9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. The word that is translated as “filled” has several meanings, among them being, “to cram, to satisfy, to finish, to verify, or to complete.” To be filled with the Holy Spirit is the same thing as being baptized in the Holy Spirit and it is then and only then that you begin to experience the sense of satisfaction or completeness. It is then you verify the work that God is doing in you. It is in the power of the Holy Spirit that you can finish that which God has called you to by his Spirit. The love of Christ that He poured out for you in His flesh on Calvary was not a work of the flesh but it began in the spirit realm. When satan thought he had gained the victory in the natural realm, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus was in the process of dealing the deathblow to the enemy and all his cohorts. His love for you was established in the natural realm at the cross, and has manifested itself in the spirit realm through the baptism in the Holy Spirit in resurrection power. Once we have experienced love, tasted authority, have been satisfied, crammed or completed with the fullness He intends for us in this world, then we can know…
IV. IT IS GOD WHO IS ABLE… 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… This has always been one of my favorite verses in the bible because it incorporates who we are “IN HIM” with who He is, and helps us to understand that the power and authority that He has given us is without limit in the spiritual realm and is intended to flow out of us into the natural realm. Look at Mark 11:22-24. What do you think that Jesus is trying to tell His disciples? 22“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Isn’t that beyond belief? Isn’t that more than you can imagine. Would you ever ask for something so big? Yet Paul says that power is at work in us. It’s not our power – it’s His – at work in us… for this purpose… 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Do you want to live your life in a way that you would glorify God because of who you are and what you do? The apostle Paul had reached the point in his life where he could do just that. It was because he was continually walking in God’s presence and seeking His will for his life. The closer Paul got to God the more he understood his own insignificance. “ …I am less than the least of all God’s people…” he said in Ephesians 3:8. Because of His humility and his constant dependence on God he understood his position “IN CHRIST”. You can have the same understanding today. You can be strengthened in power. You must be rooted in love… you should be filled to the fullness… because it is God who is able.
The call is going out to God’s people today. Will you accept the po0wer and authority that can come only through a continual relationship with your heavenly Father? He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Come to Him today and be filled to the fullness – in love and in power.
Let Him be glorified in you because you are “IN HIM”.
