A Pastor’s Prayer
Text: Eph. 1:15-23
Introduction
1. "A preacher must be both soldier and shepherd. He must nourish, defend, and teach; he must have teeth in his mouth, and be able to bite and fight."
2. A number of years ago, God called me to be a Pastor, and shepherd to his people. Fortunate for me, I’ve had a lot of good teachers and role models, but none greater than the Apostle Paul.
3. Paul loved his people. He taught them, protected them, admonished them and encouraged them. But more than anything else, he prayed for them.
4. In our text today, we see Paul’s love for his people through his prayer. We will see…
a. The motivation of his prayer.
b. The foundation of his prayer.
c. The potentiality of his prayer.
5. Read Eph. 1:15-23
Proposition: It is my prayer for you today to see how blessed you are and how much power is at your disposal because we are united in Christ.
Transition: First, Paul talks about his…
1. Motivation (15-16).
A. Ever Since I Heard
1. When you think of the Apostle Paul many things come to mind: evangelist, church planter, scholar and martyr. But above all else, Paul was a Pastor, a shepherd of God’s people.
a. And one of the primary responsibilities of a Pastor is to pray for his flock. This was something that Paul took very seriously.
b. I’m sure that Paul had knees like a camel for all of the hours he spent in prayer for his people.
2. In v. 15 Paul explains why he prayed for the believers in Ephesus. He says, “Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere...”
a. The phrase “ever since I heard” has led some scholars to believe that Paul had actually never met the Christians in Ephesus. On the other hand, it really doesn’t matter if he had met them or not, because he had heard about them.
b. Things that he had heard about them was the motivation for his prayers for them. He had heard, first of all, about their “strong faith in the Lord Jesus.”
c. The word faith means to “trust in, cling to and rely on.” They had placed their complete trust and reliance on the Lord Jesus, and they did so in such a strong way that word was traveling about it.
d. Have you ever played the telephone game? That’s where someone whispers something in someone’s ear, and then they whisper something in the next person’s ear, and so on until everyone in the room has heard it. By the time you get to the last person, the thing the first person whispered is completely different from the last person.
e. But that is not happening here. What Paul is hearing and what people are saying is that the believers in Ephesus are people of great faith!
3. The next thing that Paul is hearing about them is their love for all of God’s people.
a. Now, Scripture is clear that one of the hallmarks of the Christian is love.
b. It is the supreme characteristics of a Christian, and as Christians, we are expected to love everyone.
c. In fact, Jesus said we are even to love those that hate us. But he is even more clear that we are to love one another, meaning other Christians.
d. 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (Jn. 13:34-35, NLT).
e. Now, I am fairly certain that we have heard the song “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” at least most of us here know it, because we sang it not long ago.
f. But it is without question the number one way that people know we are disciples of Christ by the way we love each other.
g. And word was getting around the disciples in Ephesus were being noticed for it.
4. It was for these reasons, strong faith and love for God’s people that Paul says in v. 16, “I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly...”
a. Now, I cannot think of a greater compliment that you could give another person than to say, “I always thank God for you!”
b. To me this is the best thing you could ever say about anyone. But what Paul says next is even more remarkable, “I pray for you constantly.”
c. Now, this does not mean all Paul did was pray for this church, because anyone can read the NT and know Paul had a lot of other things to do. But it does mean that he prayed for them on a regular basis.
d. It reminds me of the first church we pastored. There wasn’t a lot of fond memories of that church, but there was one older gentleman who would come up to me on a regular basis and say, “Pastor, I pray for you regular!”
e. Even if I was having a bad day, and there was a lot of those, this brother always lifted my spirit when he said he prayed for me.
B. Faith and Love
1. Illustration: There is a song where a woman with a flat tire on a cold wet and very dark night, has a man stop to help her change her flat tire. He won't take money for helping her but tells her to pass it on to someone else that she can help. She stops at a dinner and tips the pregnant waitress that looks tired and holding her stomach because she is due to deliver soon. The woman eats and pays her bill and leaves a tip for the waitress on the table. The waitress goes home and tells her husband about this $100 tip. As the song finished, we understand that her husband was the one that stopped to help change her flat tire. He had told her to pass it along.
2. The number one mark of a Christian is love.
a. This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (1 Jn. 3:11, NLT).
b. As I stated earlier, this is the commandment of Jesus, a new commandment, that we should love one another.
c. He said, “This is how the world will know that you are my disciples.”
d. People will not be able to recognize you for the five-pound cross hanging from your neck, the message on your t-shirt, or the bumper sticker on your car.
e. They will not know that you are a Christian based on how big your Bible is.
f. They won’t even know that you are a Christian based on where you go to church.
g. But they will know that you are a Christian based on how much you love.
h. The first thing I ever learned about this church I learned on Google. This was a review on this church, and it said, “Little church, small congregation where everyone is so friendly and caring.”
i. People will know you are Jesus disciples by your love.
3. A second, nearly as important mark of a Christian is faith.
a. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. (Heb. 11:1-2, NLT).
b. Love is the most important mark of a Christian, but faith is a close second.
c. Faith is the evidence of things we cannot see. Do we really believe when we say that God answers prayer? Do we really believe when we say that God meets our needs?
d. Is it demonstrated by how we react?
e. Do we trust God when they are more bills on the counter than money in the bank? You know you can tell a lot about a person’s faith by looking at the check register. If the first think the appears after their deposit is their tithe check, they have a lot of faith.
f. You can tell a lot about a church’s faith based on what they are willing to do. If the church is willing to take risks to further the kingdom they are living by faith. But a church that says we won’t us four and no more doesn’t have much faith.
g. Are you walking by faith or are you walking by sight?
Transition: Second we see the…
II. Foundation (17-18).
A. Spiritual Wisdom
1. Now that Paul has revealed the motivation for his prayer, he now lays down the monument of his prayer. In v. 17 he says, “asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God...”
a. The intent of Paul’s prayer is clear: that people will receive insight to know what they have in Christ1 Snodgrass, K. (1996). Ephesians (p. 72).
b. Paul here is praying to “God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” but the one who accomplishes what Paul is praying for is the Holy Spirit.
c. First, Paul wants them to receive spiritual wisdom. What he is asking for is that they be able to see life from God’s perspective.
d. Sometimes things happen in life and we try and understand from either our own or the world’s perspective.
e. When Tina received her job offer, we had to leave our home, our children, our church and our friends. And although Tina was offered an incredible job, I was thinking. “what in the world am I going to do?” The closest church from the denomination we were in that needed a pastor was about 4 hours away. Not only that, but we had three houses sold out from under us, and we weren’t sure where we were going to live. Looking at it from a human perspective there were some serious questions. But God had a plan! Slowly he began to reveal that plan to us. We ended up in a beautiful home about 10 minutes from a beautiful church that needed a pastor.
f. Looking at it from my perspective it lacked something but looking at it from God’s perspective it made perfect sense!
g. That’s what Paul was praying for the Holy Spirit to give these believers, the ability to see things through God’s eyes. And the benefit of these things was that they would “grown in their knowledge of God.” He wanted them to know God more and more.
2. So how do we see things from God’s point of view? In v. 18 Paul makes an incredible statement. He says, “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.”
a. How do we see God’s perspective? It’s not always with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of our hearts.
b. I love the way it is phrased here, “that your hearts would be flooded with light.” When you walk into a dark room and turn on the light switch what happens? The light comes on, chases away the darkness, and enables you to see things that you couldn’t see with the light off.
c. Well, Paul prays that their hearts would be flooded with light. In other words, that the Holy Spirit would turn on the lights in the darkness of our hearts so that we can see God and his plan.
d. And what did Paul want them to see? He wanted them to understand the confident hope they had in Jesus!
e. Now, this leads us to a problem, and it’s a linguistic problem, in other words, a language barrier.
f. You see, when we hear the word hope, we think of wishful thinking, like, “I hope Nick Chubb scores five touchdowns today!” We would like it to happen, but we’re not really sure it will.
g. But when the Bible talks about hope it’s not something we wish would happen, it’s something we KNOW will happen.
h. Paul wants them to be sure of the hope they have in Jesus. He wants them to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what Jesus has promised them is going to happen! Not maybe, but definitely.
B. Spiritual Eyes
1. Illustration: I have been to the eye doctor many times. Sometimes they would dilate my eyes, and everything would get so blurry and out of focus. It would be hours before I could really get my focus back and see clearly. Sometimes things were blurry not because my eyes were dilated but because my eyesight wasn’t what it should have been, and I needed glasses. Some Christians are going through life and their spiritual eyes are dilated. their focus is off. Things are blurry.
2. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to come and enlighten the eyes of our hearts.
a. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’ (John 16:13-16, NLT)
b. Sometimes our heart can’t see because of sin. When this happens, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us our sin, help us to repent, and how to avoid it in the future.
c. Sometimes our hearts can’t see because of selfishness. That’s when we need to allow the Holy Spirit to show us where we are being selfish and teach us how to be humble.
d. Sometimes our hearts can’t see because we are out of touch with the Lord. During those times we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us an increased hunger and thirst for prayer and Bible study. We must always make sure that our lines of communication with the Lord are clear.
e. Sometimes our hearts can’t see because of doubt. At those time we need to ask the Holy Spirit to increase our faith and open the eyes of our hearts so we can see what God is doing in our lives.
f. Open our eyes Lord
We want to see Jesus
To reach out and touch Him
And say that we love Him
Open our ears Lord
And Help us to listen
Open our eyes Lord
We want to see Jesus
Transition: Then Paul prays for their…
III. Potentiality (19-23).
A. Greatness of God’s Power
1. Not only did Paul want their spiritual eyes to be opened so they could see their hope, but he also wanted them to “understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.”
a. Paul wanted them to know the power of God that is available to them. “Ephesians focuses on words for power more than any other New Testament letter. In verse 19 alone four different words for power occur, emphasizing God’s activity in people’s lives (Snodgrass, K. (1996). Ephesians (p. 74).
b. When God’s people tap into God’s power source, the Holy Spirit, what they can accomplish is limitless.
2. So that we understand the incredible power that Paul is talking about he says, “This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead...”
a. Now, might think that God raising someone from the dead is amazingly powerful.
b. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the greatest power ever displayed in human history!
c. Or was it? What do you mean Pastor? Well, the original Greek suggests that Jesus resurrection wasn’t an isolated event, but it was just the first of many resurrections on the resurrection day when Jesus returns! Now that is power!
3. Then Paul goes on to say, “and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
a. When Jesus ascended into heaven, Scripture teaches us that he was seated at God’s right hand.
b. In ancient times the person seated on the right hand of the king was the ultimate power next to the king himself.
c. So what Paul is saying is that Jesus is in the place of second in command, only next to the Father, in the spiritual realm.
d. “Christ has no equal and no rival. He is supreme over all other beings.
e. These words ought to encourage us, because the higher the honor of Christ, the Head, the higher the honor of his people.” (Barton, . Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 808).
B. You Will Receive Power
1. Illustration: The story is told of an elderly woman named Norena, who lived in southern Florida. When a hurricane hit that area, her home was one of many that was severely damaged. Norena received an insurance settlement, and the repair work began. However, when the money ran out, so did the contractor, leaving an unfinished home with no electricity. Norena lived in her dark, unfinished home - without power - for fifteen (15) years. You see, my brothers and sisters, the astonishing part of this story is that the hurricane was not Katrina but Andrew - a hurricane which struck in 1992. She had no heat in her home when the winter chills settled over southern Florida. She had no air conditioning when the mercury climbed into the 90’s and the humidity clung to 100 percent. She did not have one hot shower. Without money to finish the repairs, Norena just got by with a small lamp and a single burner. Her neighbors did not seem to notice the absence of power in her home. Acting on a tip, one day, the mayor of the Miami-Dade area got involved. It only took a few hours of work by electrical contractor, Kent Crook, to return power to Norena’s house. CBS News reported that Norena planned to let the water get really hot, and then take her first "bubble bath" in a decade and a half. "It’s hard to describe having [the electricity] ...to switch on," Norena told reporters, "It’s overwhelming." Tell me, "How many Christian true believers have been living their entire lives without ever knowing what it is like to have the overwhelming Power of the Holy Spirit operating within them?" To be quite frank, I believe that some of us have had that Power turned off for so long, that we would not even recognize it if it came back to us!
2. When we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit our potential is limitless!
a. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NLT).
b. We are not “just” a little country church. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a little country church. But any time you put the word “just” in front of it makes it an excuse for mediocrity. And I don’t serve a mediocre God.
c. My God is the King of King’s and the Lord of Lord’s.
d. My God is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
e. My God is El Shadai, the Lord God Almighty.
f. My God is a God of miracles, and he is still in the miracle working business.
g. My God is a God of power, and he said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”
h. And with his power at our disposal there is nothing we can’t do.
i. We are a little country church with the power of an almighty God at our disposal.
Conclusion
1. Paul loved his people. He taught them, protected them, admonished them and encouraged them. But more than anything else, he prayed for them.
2. In our text today, we see Paul’s love for his people through his prayer. We will see…
a. The motivation of his prayer.
b. The foundation of his prayer.
c. The potentiality of his prayer.
3. What’s the point? As your pastor, my prayer for you is that the eyes of your hearts are flooded with light so that you may…
a. Know God better
b. That you would learn to walk by faith and not by sight.
c. Tap into the power that is available to you through the Holy Spirit.
