A Biblical Pattern of Prayer

Transcript

GR 2313
4/25/21
A Biblical Pattern of Prayer
Ephesians 1:15-23
Gil Rugh


We're going to go to Ephesians 1 in your Bibles, and Lord willing we're going to finish Ephesians 1 this morning. In spite of the rumors going around, it’s not going to take ten years to do Ephesians. Those key verses down through verse 14, that long sentence that began with verse 3 that unfolded God's work of redemption, planned by the Father when He chose us before the foundation of the world, predestined us to be placed as His sons, the work that would be carried out by the eternal Son of God, His being born into the human race, going to the cross… And then that work that Christ accomplished on the cross, planned by the Father, would be applied to us individually in verses 13-14 by the work of God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons comprising the one true God—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—all working in harmony to bring about the salvation of lost, sinful people.

Now this is going to move Paul to pray for the Ephesians and pray that they would grow in their depth of understanding and appreciation of the awesome power of God in providing for them such an amazing salvation. I couldn't help but think as I worked on this section, sometimes we think of the sovereignty of God, His determining before time what He would do. We think, it's in His hands, whatever He chooses, that is what He will do, so I'll just leave it there and go on. Even as believers we can become settled in an unprofitable way. Do you know what this does for Paul when he is reminded of God's sovereignty, God's power in redemption even as settled before time? It moves him to pray. We say prayer, if God is going to do what He has planned to do, why do I need to pray about it? Some things I can't put together. Jesus said you don't have because you don't ask. Well, I think whatever God has planned is good with me, I'm not going to bother Him with other things. Then I miss out. How do you put that together? I don't. I just believe what God told me. He planned before the creation to provide redemption and to apply that redemption to certain ones who would believe. He tells me that I can have whatever I ask if I come before Him in prayer. And that is what Paul is doing; he is praying for the Ephesians. He is going to pray earnestly for them, and it becomes a pattern of Paul's life to pray and pray for God's work in the lives of believers. And that is one of the great privileges we have. For some time we have not been able to be together as a full congregation, and some cannot join us for health reasons or other reasons physically, but we do join together spiritually. And one thing we do for one another is pray. We can be doing that and some that cannot leave their home can have a great ministry of prayer.

I sometimes conjure in my mind, and I was doing that a little bit this week, think about what will it be like at the bema seat when we line up for rewards and how it will work out. Well, I'll be there, I've preached the Word and that and I'll be waiting for my reward and somebody will go before me and somebody else will go before me, somebody else will go before, somebody else go before. Lord, I preached. Yes, but they prayed and I wouldn't have done for you what I did if they didn't pray. Just get at the end of the line and be quiet.

I don't know it will be exactly like that. But I think of Paul praying, one of the things we're impressed with—and you can do a whole study of Paul's prayers in the Bible and that wouldn't even take us back then, for example, to the Old Testament—but here we come to him praying. Verses 3-14 are one long sentence. Do you know what verses 15-23 are? You do, one long sentence. Ephesians is filled with long sentences, so we'll see several others of those. We have them broken up so don't get confused. I've reminded you this would be as Paul wrote them in Greek. When we translated into English they broke them up into sentences, which makes it a little easier to follow. And I thought even as I worked through verses 15-23, again, it's harder to follow these complicated sentences. A simple sentence—Gil preached the sermon. Gil is the subject, preached the verb, sermon is the object. That is simple. When you begin to multiply—Gil, being at a very advanced age, having spent a long time already in just Ephesians 1:3-4 . . . You know it gets complicated as you get all those additional modifiers explaining more. And yet these people didn't have a copy, as this was read to them. And it wasn't broken down into sentences like we have it. Just reading this, going on, they had to concentrate and listen and follow along because they were being held responsible for taking it in and putting it into practice. So how blessed we are.

All of that, you'll note Ephesians 1:15 begins, “For this reason.” What reason? What he has just explained in verses 3-14, how all three members of the triune God, all three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—have worked together to bring about our redemption and all that that entails. “For this reason I, too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints.” And you see here he is going, for this reason, I, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints. Before this reason directly connects to verse 16, “For this reason I do not cease to give thanks to you,” but I want to explain a little bit about this reason, based on what I have just written to you in verses 3-14, as we have it. “Having heard of the faith which you have,” which exists among you. We say, wait, Paul started this church, he ministered at Ephesus, spent considerable time there, but also it has been half a dozen years since he has been there. Five, six, seven years. Lots happened since then. He is hearing of what is going on—new people are being saved, and how the people that he led to Christ are doing. How is the church coming along? “Having heard of your faith.” Remember he’s a prisoner in Rome when he writes this, and this imprisonment goes on for some time. The problem, he has been through a shipwreck, getting him to Rome where he will be held under house arrest with a Roman soldier to guard him. This is his condition. So word has been brought to him about their faith in the Lord Jesus. So that comes back and it reminds him of those days when he was there and preaching the Gospel and they were saved. And now others have believed. But their faith has remained a faith in the Lord Jesus.

That's encouraging because sometimes you will share the Gospel and someone will respond, but they are like the shallow-ground hearers Jesus talked about, the seed sown on shallow ground. They immediately respond but a little bit of pressure comes, they wilt away, they had no root. But Paul is encouraged—I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus; it is an ongoing faith. And there are others, probably, who have come to the faith. That faith is demonstrated as genuine because you have love for fellow believers. You know, something supernatural happens when God saves us—He causes us to be born again, we become part of God's family, and He truly is our spiritual Father, our heavenly Father. Do you know what that does? That produces a supernatural love for other believers. So Paul has heard that they have a love for all the saints, fellow holy ones. We are God's family wherever we are and the love you are demonstrating for fellow believers… I've heard of these things, your faith and your love. They shouldn't be separated because Jesus said by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. To claim that you have faith in Jesus Christ but you don't love other believers is not a possibility. The Spirit produces love for God's people, God's family. So these are the foundational things, the truths that I unfolded in verses 3-14 that I am hearing about that are true of you. They are still true, they are growing. Faith and love.

“For this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.” Paul was a man of prayer; he was a busy man but he was a man of prayer. Every time I pray, I am giving thanks for you. You know where Paul starts, I think the prayers that he is guided by the Holy Spirit to write about his prayer life and these are recorded for us... You know where his prayer begins? Not with himself, but with others. Not with what Paul wants God to do to change others, but how grateful he is for God's work. I must please God. We come as His children. Here Paul is separated from them by many miles and is in a totally different situation as he is a prisoner, and that could be a cause of discouragement, depression, a reminder of those days when I could travel to places like Ephesus and present the Gospel and have people saved and a church established. Now here I am, confined in a home with a coarse Roman soldier as my 24-hour a day companion. He doesn't start out, I want you to know that things have not gone well, that I've had a difficult time, it wasn't easy getting to Rome and it's not easy now that I am in Rome. But I am doing my best to get along. This is not Paul's prayer. I do not cease giving thanks for you. How grateful I am! “As I make mention of you in my prayers.” And that just motivates me to pray for you more. Amazing thing is, this is the way Paul starts out so many of his letters. I think I counted eight that it begins with this same kind of way.

We'll just look at those close by and then one not so close. The next letter, Philippians. Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, remember, are three of the prison letters and Philemon is the fourth, written during this time that's recorded at the end of the book of Acts. The book of Acts ends with Paul being under house arrest in Rome, waiting for a trial. He had evidently been released from that, and then after some time of freedom he'll be rearrested and executed. Philippians is one of the prison letters. You come to Philippians 1:3, how does he go? “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your fellowship in the Gospel. And I am confident God is going to continue that work.” This is basically where it is going in Ephesians 1, the same idea. You see this is Paul.

Come over to Colossians 1:3, and what does he say after the introductory brief words? “We give thanks,” verse 3, “to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have.” See, the same ideas, that God has done a work and they have come to place their faith in Christ, and they have a love for others who have their faith in Christ. Verse 5, “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” This is where Paul is going in Ephesians 1, which we'll get to shortly. The hope that they have in heaven. And on it goes, Paul's gratitude.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. This is not one of Paul's prison epistles, but it starts the same way. He is writing to the church of God, 1 Corinthians 1:2, which is at Corinth, “to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him in all speech and knowledge and the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed.” You are not lacking in any gift. Verse 9, “God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son.” Wow, must be a wonderful church. But we know about the church at Corinth. What do we think of with the church at Corinth? Problems. What does Paul think of in his first thought? We just read it. Sometimes we get off track in our prayer life at the beginning because we go to prayer wanting to complain about something, or we want God to change someone, or we are upset with them. And Lord, if You would only change them, if You would do… Wait a minute, let's back up and put things in perspective here. That doesn't mean Paul just overlooks things that should be fixed. Come over to 1 Corinthians 3, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men but as to men of flesh, as infants in Christ.” What would you think if I stood up this morning and said, I can't even address you as adult Christians? You are big babies. You'd say I'm going to another church, that's for sure. He said I had to give you milk because you can't handle solid spiritual food, you are not able yet; you are still fleshly. You are jealous, and you act like unbelievers. Paul doesn't just paper over things that need to be fixed but that doesn't color him in his view of the church at Corinth. That's why he is upset with them. It shouldn't be like that. I want to start where it is. How I thank God for the grace that brought His salvation to you. Let me get my feet on the ground here. You are a work of God's grace. I'm thankful for what God did for you in Christ. I'm thankful that you have a testimony that you believe in Christ. I do that all the time. I'm giving thanks to God for you.

I just wanted to bring Corinth into this because it is just not a church we'd say, of course those churches that were doing so well, they were something encouraging to Paul. The Corinthians weren't doing so well. They even had complaints about Paul. He backed up and he starts where he should start. The first thing is, Paul has to be sure his life and his thinking was where it ought to have been. My thoughts are on God's grace, His power that brought salvation to you Corinthians. I won't stop thanking God for that, and I won't stop praying for you, that you will grow in the gifts He has given you. But in light of that, there are things that need fixed and they better get fixed. So he keeps a balance.

Come back to Ephesians 1. You are praying for other believers—maybe some of them that aren't where they ought to be, or some of them maybe that are a problem for you and to you. A good place to start out is first pray for them in the right sense. If they are professing believers and there is reason to think they are, you can thank God that He is so gracious to save that difficult, unpleasant person that… That's a work of grace. God saw them a lot worse than you see them. He saw their heart was deceitful and desperately wicked and He saved them. What grace. Now you may be disappointed they are not further along, they are not handling things the way they should, but it is always good first to start out thanking God for them, even if they are an immature Christian, or even if they are a Christian that has not grown. As Paul tells the Corinthians, you ought to be further along than this. But that doesn't minimize his thanks that God did a work of salvation in their lives. So we want to be sure we have a biblical prayer life. Stop and think, did I stop to thank God for what He has done in their life and the positive things He has done. Or do I get on to the things I want to ask God to change. Let me pray for them and thank God for all His grace.

Back in Ephesians 1. Paul is saying he doesn't cease giving thanks in verse 16 by making mention. Then he is praying “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” He's going on here now. Here is what I am praying for, and after I give thanks, here is what I want God to do and continue to do in your lives. I'm praying, as I make mention of you in my prayers, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We saw that expression up in verse 3, “May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember the second Person of the Godhead, He was eternally God, but He became a man. So in His humanity God the Father is His God. Remember He told His disciples as He prepared to leave this earth, I am going to My God and your God. That does not diminish the deity of Jesus Christ. Some of the cults misunderstand and misuse these kinds of verses. But in His humanity He functioned fully, completely as a man, and as such, God was His God and He depended upon God His Father and the ministry of the Spirit for the enabling power and work during His earthly life. In humanity that will be a permanent ongoing relationship, but in reality for eternity He has been the eternal Son of God. So He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he emphasizes that aspect connected with the humanity of Christ—what was essential for our redemption because it connects Him with us. And the God of our Lord Jesus Christ was also the Father of glory. He used God and Father in verse 3 in connection with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; here he emphasizes the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of glory. Glory is all that God is. It encompasses all of His attributes, His character, and His power. It's His glory which is the manifestation of who He is. He is God.

“The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” What Paul is basically praying for them is that they'll continue to grow, that their knowledge will get deeper, fuller, and more complete. He’s praying for them to mature. He is not questioning their salvation, but even believers can stumble and fumble. That was the Corinthians, as we just got a glimpse. We want to be growing. It's wonderful to have a healthy new baby. We rejoice in that. Aaron Nicholson just had one of those added to his family. Three girls and a boy. Think of all the attention he’ll get with three older sisters. Then when he gets older, he’ll find out what his position is. We had three boys—I’m off the track—we had three boys, and then my sister was the trailer. She was sixteen years younger than me. I remember asking my parents, why did she get the biggest bedroom? Well, she’s a girl. I got the smallest. Yes, you’re a boy. We’ll leave it there. Now we can get back to Ephesians.

He's the Father of glory; that's preparing us. Do you know why? He's my Father, too. He's my God, too. And something of the glory that is His, He wants me to know about because in one way in the provision of the salvation and making me His child, a partaker of the divine nature as Peter puts it in his letter, not that I am deity but something of the very character of God will now be developed and produced in me. That's what he is praying for them as believers, that God may give to you a Spirit, and I think the word Spirit here, we can capitalize it. In Greek they did not distinguish like we do, in fact, originally the New Testament here was written in all capital letters without making distinctions between even sentences and words. They just knew where it broke. So you can't tell. So the word Spirit, pneuma, it could sometimes refer to a human spirit or it could refer to the Holy Spirit because it’s the same word. The context decides it. I think in the context here he is talking about the Holy Spirit, who gives wisdom and revelation. The revelation, that's what the Spirit does, He enlightens. He enables us to know and understand. So the Spirit that was given to us, we talked about in verses 13-14. Now he wants God to give them this Holy Spirit who will bring to them wisdom and insight and understanding in the truth of God. Now they already have the Spirit, but He gives Him to them in that He will carry on this ministry. They need to continue to grow. We saw that expressed in Colossians 1. You can go back and read it in that context. We didn't emphasize it, but we just read it there. This is what we want God to do. We have the Holy Spirit and he'll elaborate on this later. He'll tell us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. It's a process of growth. So I want Him to give to you the Spirit to produce wisdom and added insight and understanding to know Him better and fuller in the knowledge of Him. So it's like that little baby that is born. It's wonderful but that's not the end; that's the beginning of the process. So when you were born again that's the beginning of the process, of the growth, of the new life. It's the Spirit who gives wisdom, gives understanding and insight.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 2. We looked at this in connection with the ministry of the Spirit in our previous study. But come back to 1 Corinthians 2. This is Paul's concern for the Corinthians as well. Verse 10 talks about “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit,” the things you could not learn through just a human process. That's verse 9, “Things which the eye has not seen and ear has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those that love Him. For to us God revealed them.” So it's a matter of revelation from God, that revelation given to us in His Word and now when we come to believe we know the Word, we can begin to understand it, have clarity and the wisdom then to utilize it and apply it. Revealed them, the Spirit searches all things. Verse 12, and he is contrasting in this whole chapter here the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. They are two different entities. The wisdom of the world gives you no real spiritual insight; the wisdom from God is revelatory wisdom. It comes through the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit with the Word of God. So he says in verse 12, “We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.” What are we looking at Paul praying for? He will give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, in the knowledge of God. So we are growing more and understanding more. No matter how long you have been a believer, you know, you've seen growth, you've seen I understand more about God, I know more about how to handle the situations of life in a way that would be consistent with my being a child of God. Verse 14, “The natural man,” the soulish man, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them, they are spiritually appraised.” So you see the contrast. We need the Spirit and we need not to be resisting the Spirit but submitting to the Spirit. Later in Ephesians he will say, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed to the day of redemption. This was the Corinthians’ problem—they weren't submitting to the Spirit; they had their own ideas, their own ways, and their own desires. It was creating jealousy and conflict, creating division. So it just is not a natural thing. Just like that baby, we say there is a certain natural part of him but if you don't feed him and don't take care of him, he won't develop “naturally.” And that's the way it is with believers. That's why Peter will write in 1 Peter 2, as newborn babies desire the pure milk of God's Word that you might grow with respect to our salvation. A person who gets saved but never gets into the Word in a serious way is going to have a stunted growth. There won't be maturing as there should be. That's what we are talking about here, the work of the Spirit.

Come back to Isaiah. This is foundational to all these passages. Isaiah 11. It's a prophecy concerning the coming of Christ. Here is what he says in verse 2, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding.” What is Paul praying for, for the Ephesians? That He'll give you the Spirit of wisdom. Where did he get that? Well, the Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. That Spirit would be upon Christ as He lived His earthly human life. “The Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” So that's the background for these passages about the Spirit—what the Spirit would do in Christ in His humanity, and what He now does in us. And that's part of what Paul is praying for.

So come back to Ephesians 1. This is about growth in the end of verse 17, it's “in the knowledge of Him,” the knowledge of God. That's what we looked at, the three Persons of the Godhead and what God the Father has in our salvation planned, ordained, and guaranteed with His foreordaining power. “I pray,” verse 18, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” Obviously with that figure of speech here, the eyes of your heart, he's talking about that insight and understanding that you begin to develop as a believer. And you know how it is, if you have been a believer for some time and been in the Word, if you have a new and immature believer and they are going through trouble, you may get together with them and point out from the Word that this is an opportunity for you to trust Christ and see Him work. You point out things they may be careful of, things that they don't want to do that would hinder the work of the Spirit. You might guide them through some passages of Scripture that they are not yet that familiar with. That's the process—the eyes of our heart are enlightened by the work of the Spirit and we help one another in that way. More mature Christians help less mature Christians, and all of us as we gather to look into the Word and want to be open to the Spirit. That's why we want to be careful of the things that would distract us so our minds are really not on it. So all we did was come and sit through a service and get up and leave. I come prepared to hear what God has to say and I want the Spirit to give me understanding. As I go through the Word after many years and sit sometimes, amazed, and say as I was thinking through a passage like this and think, I hadn't thought of that, how that impacts an area of life like this... And you begin to see parts of your life and you say, well, here if I'm honest, I think I need to make an adjustment in this area. This is always going on. That's why “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” so you will see things. As the psalmist said, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things from Your Word. That's the thing, we come to the Word, and this is the Word of God. This is where His power is let loose as the Spirit takes it and pierces to the innermost recesses of our being. This is the most important and most serious thing we do—take in what will prepare us for the rest of life.

“That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” There are three things he wants them to know, and you can underline them or circle them in your Bibles. That you will know, first, “what is the hope,” just to abbreviate it and then we'll come back, what is the hope; secondly, “what are the riches;” thirdly, verse 19, and “what is the surpassing greatness.” This is what I want you to be enlightened to know, so I'm praying for you. I want you to know what is the hope of His calling. We saw that, remember, I mentioned like in Colossians 1, he often mentioned hope because it is important that Christians keep their eyes fixed, their eyes on their hope. So I'm praying that you will know, and obviously you know in different ways—I know certain things, I know God has promised me heaven, I know, we sing about the streets of gold, the New Jerusalem of the ending chapters of Revelation… But do I really know what is the hope of His calling? That gives me an anchor. Where am I going? What has God promised? Hope brings to mind that which we do not yet have. You don't hope for what you already have, as Paul explains in another of his letters. Hope brings it to this is God's promise, what God has promised for us. “What is the hope of His calling.” I haven't yet realized the fullness of that. His calling was what brought me to salvation in Christ. It’s what we call the effectual call because it was effective. I responded to that drawing of the Spirit, placed my faith in Christ, and was saved. But I have a hope that is yet future that came with that calling. That carries my attention to the ultimate realization of my transformation and the glorification of my body. It becomes an emphasis of Scripture.

Come back to 1 Thessalonians 4. Two passages are close together and I've just picked these two because they are close together. 1 Thessalonians 4:13, an important verse, “For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.” Asleep is a word for believers who have experienced physical death. It is called “asleep” because their body looks like it is asleep. Their spirit has left their body and is in heaven with God, but their body is not being used, so it is asleep. “So that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope.” That's what the person is outside of Christ; he is hopeless. They have a lot of hopes, but they have no real hope. They have hopeless lives, and they fill it with all kinds of things, all kinds of plans, but death will come in and put an end to that. False religions try to give hopes but only believers have true, settled hope guaranteed by the God who keeps His promises. He goes on to say, “For if we believe that Christ died and rose again,” and we believe the Word of God, verse 15, “We say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” The Lord “will descend from heaven,” and then those in the graves, their bodies will be caught up, and we are as well. That's our hope. We're not the hopeless of the world. Death brings an end to their hope so all their plans, all their dreams, it is done and they are gone. You hear people in positions, stars of one kind or another say, oh yeah, he’ll be with us. And one of them in the news said, yes, her husband had died, but he comes back and talks to me. He doesn't. It's a make-believe world. It's Alice in Wonderland. It's not real. They pretend they have hope, but they have no hope. We'll see them again; they're singing with the angels. No, they have no hope. We have hope, and death doesn't end my hopes. It brings me into that hope, but it won't be the final realization yet. When my spirit leaves the body and goes into the presence of the Lord, I'll be in the presence of the Lord, awaiting the resurrection and glorification of my body. Then we'll return and have the kingdom and then we see the full outworking of what God has promised.

Come over to Titus 2:11. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” That's what we are looking for. I have a full and complete salvation, but it is not yet done; it is guaranteed.

Come back to Ephesians 1. You'll get the idea further carried out. Paul is praying that we will know the hope, second, “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” I take it that connects back to verse 14, the Spirit is given as “a pledge,” a down payment, “of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's possession,” all that God has promised us in Christ. Riches, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. We talked about that in verse 14. This is what we are looking forward to. They are things that cannot fade away. These are the things that God has promised to those who love Him. I don't want to get too mired down here. We studied Ecclesiastes, where we are told to enjoy the blessings that God gives us in this life; but he also constantly reminded us it is all temporal, it's all temporary, it is passing, and its time is short. Remember? It's a breath. So enjoy it but don't become attached to it. Don't build your life around it and into it. I enjoy it but I can let it go. What am I going to do? I may die tomorrow, and I'll leave it all. I won't see my great-great-grandchildren. Well, for the world, they miss the little bit they have because once they die, it is over. This is the best it will ever be. But for me as a believer, after this life it only gets so much better. I don't want to lose perspective of that. I have to live today, and we liked Ecclesiastes because it gave us a balance on that. I don't have to live and be as miserable as I can today because all my hope is in glory, but all that I value, Peter reminded us of that—everything you see and touch, the tangible things, they'll be burned up. So, we keep our focus and attention, and Paul wants the Ephesians to do that.

We have to be reminded of this, and that's why we study these doctrines. Some have said over the years, I wish it were more practical. Well, this is what the Spirit of God gives us to live practically in life with wisdom. It's not giving ten points how to raise teenagers. It would take more than ten points. But, he gives the wisdom that is applicable in every situation. We get this “just tell me what to do and how to do it” Christianity, but the Bible lays the foundation of what God has done for us and what the Spirit is doing in us. Now we grow in that and that prepares us for every situation. And when I'm in a situation where I think I can't handle it, I have to back up because God will give me the grace. Either I'm in a situation I shouldn't be in, or I'm in a situation that God has put me in so that I'll grow. Like Paul, I prayed that God would remove the messenger of Satan, and God said My strength is perfected in weakness. We may find when we get to glory, the time of our greatest weakness was the time when we were used in the greatest way by God and we may have missed some of it.

So he's going to go on to talk about here, verse 19, “what is the surpassing greatness of His power,” and this is where the emphasis is going to be. What is the surpassing greatness?” When you start to move in and talk about God, His character, and His power, you just can't talk about I want you to know what is God's power. No, I have to tell you about the greatness of His power. I can't just tell you about the greatness of His power, I have to tell you about the surpassing greatness of His power. How do you talk about God's power, the One who sovereignly decided before the creation? We started in verses 3, 4, and 5, settled things. The power to bring it all to pass and to control it all, the surpassing greatness of His power “toward us who believe.” What I need to learn and keep learning, and I have so much more to learn on this at this stage of my life, is the surpassing greatness of His power. And it is working in us, “toward us who believe.” It's in your life as a believer.

“These are in accordance,” and here we go, “with the working of the strength of His might.” We just keep piling these words up—power, surpassing greatness of His power, working, strength, might. These words would have areas overlapping in meaning. You can get a commentary and look, such as “Wuest's Word Studies.” I didn't check it, but it will help you in sections like this. It will give you what the various meanings of these words are. They are different, yet they overlap in meaning, just like our English words. It's like he is just piling these words up because what can I do to get you to appreciate how great God's power that is working in you really is? This is not the superficial, like some of the hyper-charismatics would use it—the Benny Hinns and those kind of things—this is the working of the power that we realize and experience, even when Paul is being crushed it and it seems so limited and beat down by a messenger of Satan with some kind of affliction.

“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.” Now notice, “which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies,” in the heavenly places. The same power of the Holy Spirit that worked to raise the body of Jesus Christ from the dead. Mary saying that by this time the body is decaying and smells didn't keep the Spirit of God from raising him (Lazarus). And He not only raised Him (Christ) from the dead, He raised Him and exalted Him to the right hand of God the Father, the place of supremacy and great honor and authority. That's the power, and that's the power that works in me. Don't lose connection here. That's what he said. It's the surpassing greatness of His power, verse 19, “toward us who believe.” And it was this working, strength, might, which raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand. That doesn't mean He's going to put you at the right hand, but it is the same power doing what God's intention for you is in your life. I don't know, I'm depressed, I'm down… We can get overwhelmed. Paul felt like he was overwhelmed—I besought the Lord in earnest prayer. He is talking about three times. Lord, rescue me. Deliver me. No. Why? My power is perfected in your weakness. It's all about Me, Paul. It's not about you. But, you are precious to Me and I am working My power in you and the outcome is you will bring glory to Me. And then Paul says, bring on the weakness so that the power of God could be manifested. We get so focused in on the weakness—I can't think about God's power right now, I'm just trying to take my next breath. That's the same power that raised Christ and seated Him at the right hand of the power.

In the heavenlies, in heaven, that's where He is, seated at the right hand of God. Note, “far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age but the one to come.” He put all these—rule, authority, power, dominion, whatever you would call one in authority—not only in this age but also in the age to come—Christ is over them all. It's part of the work of the triune God. The Father has planned this for the Son, and the Spirit carried it out, exalting the Son in His humanity. That's important to us because as man as well as God, He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. “And He put all things in subjection under His feet.” And as we'll see when we get to chapter 6, all these “rule and authority,” that includes all angels of all kinds; fallen angels in particular. When it says He put all things in subjection under His feet, that's talking about His enemies. When you put your enemy, and this is in the book of Joshua, you can read it… Joshua captured five kings and do you know what he had them do? They put them down on the ground and Joshua's commanders put their feet on the necks of those defeated. That's the picture. There is no power on earth or in the spirit world that has not been brought into subjection to Him. We don't yet see all things in subjection, but just wait, it is settled. It just hasn't all been carried out yet.

But He has also given “Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” We are in a different relationship. Everything is put in subjection to Him, the enemies are placed under His feet, but He is head over us. We are His body, precious to Him and redeemed by His grace. He is head over the church, the church universal and every church individually, which is manifestation of the church universal. It is His body. It's the fullness of Him who fills all in all. We want to have this because this is what was God's provision for us to live as those who have conquered. You don't look very powerful to me, you are struggling, you are just as sick, you are just as much in financial straits, you just lost your job... All these come to believers as well as unbelievers, but there is a difference—God's mighty power is working in me. I need to know that, I need to learn it, and I need to grow in it. That's what Paul is praying for the Ephesians. Paul isn't praying “make everything easy,” but that I want you to know the wisdom of God, the revelation the Spirit gives so you appreciate what He is doing in your life that could not be done otherwise.

There are two different situations, where some in subjection under His feet will be sentenced to an eternal hell, Revelation 20. But we are part of the body, what He is doing today. Christ said I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Matter. Salvation has been provided. Have you accepted it? If you have, you have the power of the Spirit of God at work in your life; if you haven't, you better grab hold of it today while it is a day of salvation.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for the grace that brought the light of the Spirit that caused us to see our lost condition, to see that we were sinners. But Christ died for us, paid the penalty for our sin, and caused us to be born again when we believed in Him. Lord, now Your Spirit dwells in us and His awesome power is at work in us. Lord, we want to grow to learn and know and experience it. May we not forget as we come to trials, as we come to pain, as we come to difficulty, and as we have great joys. In it all may we keep our focus fixed so that we continue to grow and mature and appreciate more fully, more deeply, more completely, all that you have accomplished for us in Christ our Savior, the One in whose name we pray. Amen.