Let me ask you something. Did you notice who’s at the centre of Paul’s thinking as he begins this letter to the Ephesians? Who is it who takes centre stage in the life of the Church? Who is it that the church is entirely dependant on for their very existence?
There’s the answer in the first verse of our passage: "3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." As Paul begins his letter, as he relates his prayer for the Ephesians, it isn’t them in the viewfinder, is it? No, it’s God. And look at the God he describes: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace ... 8... With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
This God he describes is the sovereign God of history; the centre of every thing that happens; the God who has set an eternal plan in place to be fulfilled when the time is right; who’s sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to bring about the fulfilment of that plan. And as part of that plan he’s chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world (v4). He’s revealed himself to us, his people (v9). He’s adopted us as his children (v5). He’s redeemed us through Jesus’ death on the cross (v7). Everything we’ve experienced as a Christian is the result of God’s sovereign actions in history.
In particular their faith and love are the result of God working in their hearts. And so he says "For this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers."
For what reason? A quick reading might conclude that he’s just thinking about their faith and love. But that would be to ignore all the verses that have gone before. It’d be to ignore the grand sweep of history that Paul has recounted as he introduces his prayer for them.
Notice, by the way, that his prayer for them comes in the context of worship. Look at verse 3. He begins with what’s called a doxology: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." This isn’t a prayer that arises from his theological study. Rather it arises from his desire to worship God; from his overwhelming wonder at the sovereignty of God in bringing his plans to fulfilment in the salvation, not just of the Jews, but of the Gentiles as well, so that the whole world might be brought under the rule of Jesus Christ.
Now before we look in detail at the prayer let’s stop to think about this context of God’s sovereignty. Some people would suggest that if God is sovereign then there’s no need to pray to him. After all didn’t Jesus say that the Father knows what we’re going to ask even before we ask it (Matt 6:8)? Won’t God act to carry out his plans whether or not we pray? Well, I’m not going to answer those objections in great detail today, but let me say first of all, that that quote from Jesus is in the context of teaching his disciples to pray the Lord’s prayer.
But secondly let me say that there are 2 truths taught side by side in Scripture:
God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never acts to reduce human responsibility
Human beings are responsible creatures who make choices, believe or disbelieve, obey or disobey, respond to or ignore God and are held responsible for their actions. But, again, this human responsibility never lessens God’s sovereignty.
Both truths are taught in Scripture and neither must be diminished. What’s more, what we find is that God repeatedly tells his people to pray, to ask, and is regularly seen to respond to those prayers, even on occasion changing his course of action in response.
So when Paul stops to pray in the middle of this song of praise for God’s sovereignty in action, he isn’t being inconsistent or illogical. Rather he’s responding to God’s sovereignty in the only appropriate way.
1. Paul gives thanks for God’s intervening Sovereign grace in the lives of his readers.
The miracle that God has worked in the Ephesians lives is all the more remarkable to Paul because they’re Gentiles. Remember that he grew up with the very clear understanding that the Jews alone were God’s people. The Gentiles had no place in God’s kingdom. But now he’s seen that God’s plan is so much bigger than he’d imagined.
What’s more, Jews were brought up from the earliest age to believe in and worship God while these Gentiles were raised as pagans, believing in a host of false gods. So for them to come to faith in God was all the more remarkable. And so he gives thanks for God’s amazing goodness to them.
This sort of idea is expressed so well in the hymn, ’Amazing Grace’: "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see." John Newton realised what a miracle of sovereign grace his conversion had been. There was no way he would have found his way to God on his own. Not only was he lost, but he was blind, without any hope of finding the way home. Yet God found him. God gave him eyes to see.
Graeme and Jane Peters at Summer under the Son last week told us about their new church in Concepción. In fact they have 2 churches in the city, one for the wealthy upper class citizens, and one for the ordinary middle and working class Chileans. And they said the two groups are like oil and water, they just won’t mix because of their vastly different social backgrounds. But then they told us about a young woman from the upper class church who met a young man from the lower class church at a youth camp. And guess what happened? You got it. They fell in love and decided to get married.
Oil and water don’t mix, but God is able to do the impossible. He’s able to introduce a very effective emulsifier called love and suddenly the whole situation changes.
Well, that’s what Paul sees here. God has worked a miracle in their hearts, he’s brought them to faith in the Lord Jesus and he’s given them a genuine love for the saints. In Ephesians shorthand that means for those of Jewish descent.
So the miracle is not just their conversion, but the bringing together of two religious and cultural groups who are like oil and water, to form a united body under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
2. Paul prays that God’s purpose in the salvation of his people may be accomplished.
Far from God’s sovereignty limiting or inhibiting our prayers it can actually fuel them. Knowing that God in his sovereignty has chosen to save them, Paul now prays that that salvation might be brought to its fulfilment. It’s like us praying, when we think about the second coming, "Come Lord Jesus." We’re not praying because we’re in any doubt that it’ll happen. Rather our prayer arises from our confidence in the fact as well as our desire to see it happen soon.
So what does he pray?
He prays that they might know God better: "17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him."
How well do you know God? How well do you need to know him? How well would you like to know him? The fact is that the more you know God the more you’ll feel the need to know him better.
So in a sense Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians simply echoes his prayer for himself. I’m reminded of a famous prayer by a man named Richard of Chichester, who lived in the 13th century. His prayer went like this: "O most merciful Friend, Brother, and Redeemer; may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly." Do we need to pray such a prayer, given God’s sovereign power and purpose? Yes we do. The prayer itself is the first step in fact to a greater knowledge of God. God loves to respond to those sorts of prayers. He loves to heap on us a bounty of good gifts. He’s done it already in the gift of his only son. And as he says in Romans 8, if he’s already given us his only Son will he not, along with him give us everything else we need?
Notice how Paul addresses his prayer, in fact: "17... the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory." His confidence in praying is based on God’s gift of Jesus Christ, and on his glory that he’s revealed throughout history, but especially in the coming of Jesus Christ to live among us. And that glory continues to be revealed in the way people are changed by their experience of Jesus Christ. In 2 Cor 3 Paul describes it like this: "All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."
And how does this happen? How do we grow in our knowledge of God? By God giving us his Spirit, the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
I could ask the same sort of question again couldn’t I? How wise are you? Would you like to be wiser? Would like to be able to make better decisions about your life? Would you like to understand better how God’s world works, how best to work within that world? Well, what better prayer to pray than this, both for yourself and for your fellow Christian: that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.
But then notice that
He prays that they might be able to grasp certain truths.
He prays "That, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
If God is to give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation, here are the things he prays God might reveal to them:
What is the hope to which he has called you.
He’s not talking here about some vague hope. "I hope this week I’ll win Tattslotto." "I hope I don’t get caught speeding as I hurry home from church this morning." "I hope my husband remembers to buy the milk on his way home." No it isn’t that sort of hope in a remote probability. Rather it’s the sure and certain hope of a place in God’s kingdom when Christ returns. He wants them to understand that their faith is built on something sure and solid. It’s a faith that can be relied upon even when things are tough. It’s a faith that leads inevitably and irreversibly to life in the presence of God. This hope is the anticipation of being presented to God, as he says in 5:27, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
That then leads to the second thing he wants them to grasp:
The riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints
He wants us to understand just how valuable we are to him. He wants us to grasp our new status as his children, his heirs. On the other hand, it could be, - think about this, - it could be that what he means is that we are Christ’s inheritance.
If you begin to think of yourself as Christ’s inheritance, what effect will that have on your behaviour? Are you living sufficiently like God’s child? Are you fit to be considered his inheritance yet? Or do you have a little way to go yet in your growth in Christ-likeness?
What is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power
It’s not enough to ask whether we know God enough, or whether we’re wise enough or whether we’re fit to be Christ’s inheritance. That could just end up with us feeling more and more guilty. No, we need, as well, to understand that we’re not alone in our pursuit of Godliness. We need to understand that God’s power is available to us.
Here again we go back to the sovereignty of God. The fact that it’s God who chooses us, who gives us life, who adopts us as his children, who pays the price for our sin, should encourage us. Why? Because it makes us realise that God will be there helping us on the rest of the pathway to his kingdom. If we need to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, then God is ready to supply all the power we need to do it. In fact he’s ready to supply "the immeasurable greatness of his power." If you’re in any doubt as to how great that power is then read the last few verses of our passage. The power that God used to raise Christ from the dead and to seat him at his right hand in heaven is the same power that he promises to those who believe in him. Power to raise us from spiritual death. Power to transform us, to sanctify us, to unite us, even if we’re like oil and water.
God’s sovereignty isn’t a disincentive to prayer. It’s actually the opposite. It’s the assurance that when we pray for things that accord with his will, he’ll gladly do them. Why? Because he delights to give good things to his children. But most of all, because our prayers then resonate with his own desires for the world and for his church. So let’s pray to our sovereign God with confidence, knowing that his power is sufficient to do anything we ask, and that his will is that we might grow in love into a people united under the headship of Jesus Christ.
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