Making Sense of Paul's Three Prayers in Ephesians

Making Sense of Paul's Three Prayers in Ephesians

Introduction (How is Your Ground?)

What are my spiritual battles that I undergo when I stand to preach? What are your spiritual battles while you are listening to a message? See Matthew 13, the story of the sower as a message of introduction to this series. See also 2 Peter 3:15, 16, concerning Peter’s reference to Paul’s letters.

• What is the mindset of the audience? Background, tensions and stress at the present time, prior biblical knowledge. What is your view of the speaker? Can the speaker be trusted?

• What is the attention level of the audience?

• How do you value the word of God?

Paul’s prayers are some of the most difficult to understand. Where Paul was spiritually is probably where most of us are not. Paul’s level of understanding of theological matters is beyond most people including me. We must be careful in trying to interpret Paul’s meanings of certain issues unless we error. Peter even references Paul’s letters as being difficult to understand (2 Pet 3:15, 16). Apparently when Paul spoke in person was somewhat different in his letters. People expected more from him in person because they had probably read some of his letters. Paul, and most of the New Testament writers would probably be classified as dull and boring today. People, even Christians are fixated on tangible things. Spiritual things seem too far away. People want to experience God now. And many attribute material things with God’s blessings. This was an Old Testament view. Paul’s prayers do not focus on our health, shelter, employment, and wealth. Paul’s prayers focus on driving Christians to seek for spiritual might, knowledge that sustains, and a hope that overshadows. You might consider Paul, the New Testament writers, and many biblical teachers today boring and out of touch.

 “Turn the Light On!” 

1. Eph 1:16, Paul’s Prayer of Wisdom and Revelation.                                            11-29-20

Paul’s prayer contains two quantifiers: awareness (vs. 17) and potentiality (vs. 19). Paul prays for believers to have wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of Christ. He prays this prayer that believers would know three things.

1.     Know the hope of his calling (vs. 18). Later in chapter 6, Paul compares our salvation to marriage. AWARENESS

2.     What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance (vs. 18)? AWARENESS

3.     What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe (vs. 19)? POTENTIALITY

Application:

• Realize the difference in theology of blessings in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Why the gospel is dull to some? The Gospel is not about stuff. Well, it is about stuff, God’s stuff as outlined in Eph 1:3 – 14.

• Your own shortcomings at the expense of experience.

1. My visits to the dentist when I was young.
2. My struggles with English grammar when I was a child.
    
   

2. Realize that spiritual maturity means seeking insight, knowledge, and wisdom in God that is uncommon. Hanging out with chickens when God made you to be an eagle keeps you grounded when you should be flying.

See Paul’s prayer in Eph 3:14.
 
3. [See Paul’s prayer and prayer request in Eph 6:18]

That which is not understood in terms of your life, your family, and that which is around you, pray the Spirit. 1 Jn 5:14-15, there is no implication that God will grant our petition. He hears us which is our assurance in Him. James is blunt in saying we do not know what to pray for in James 4:3. Paul is clearer in saying the same thing in Romans 8:26, 27.

This is what I believe Paul is getting at in his prayer in Ephesians 6:18. 

John 14:13-14 must be considered because the implication from Jesus is that whatever you ask, he will give it to you. But not so fast, he said "in my name." Our kids know that if they ask their mother for something she is automatically going to say "No." Now I am not throwing my wife under the bus. So, the boys will ask me because I may not know or remember certain things that was discussed prior. My point is this, the boys know if they are going to get anything from their mother when they ask, their request must be in accordance with her standards. And that is what Jesus is talking about in Jn14:14. In order to receive something from God, you must know his heart, what pleases him, what are his desires for us, then you ask in that regard.
 
Why I Can't Win

Have you ever realize that the more you try to live right, to do the right thing, sin still has a way of creeping in and causing you to sin? Paul said, "When I try to do good, evil is present with me." Dea. LaDon Tibbs said in his Sunday school review on 11-8-20 that too often when sin and goodness go at it, sin ends up winning. Great theological insight.
 
You are saved, read your Bible, pray, seek to live right, but yet certain habits, proclivities, impulses, behaviors, weaknesses, temptations always seems to not just find you but conquer you. Does this mean that you are not saved? Have you ever thought? Maybe that is what Paul was dealing with in Rom 7.
 
Let me see if I can clear the air: This is a matter that most of us face every day, if not you, maybe a love one.
 
God, you made us, and knew before the world of our proclivity to sin. This had to be if we were to have His nature of intellect. Does that imply that God can sin? Yes. He chooses not to. If God could not sin, why did Satan tempt Christ in the wilderness in Matthew 4? Due to the nature of the flesh, we are contaminated by a disease called sin.

Can man live a holy and just life to please God outside of God? In other ways, can a man please God by only serving to fulfill righteous laws? The Old Testament showed us this was impossible.
 
Can a man live holy in pleasing God by being saved in Jesus? The New Testament and our current lives show us this is not so.
 
So, what and how can we live a holy life to please God? 1. We must constantly yield to the Holy Spirit. 2. Praying and fasting to know the will of God, praying for God to control our thoughts. The father who was wheeling his toddler in the shopping cart saying, "Stop it Jimmy, don't do it Jimmy, no Jimmy, you are better than that..." I am crucified with Christ, Gal 2:20, Put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make no provisions for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof, Rom 13:14.
 

Because of the inevitability of sin present, do we have a license to sin? In other words, since, I cannot win against sin, and since God knew that I was a sinner and that I would sin, and since Christ’s death has cancelled my sin debt, am I free to continue to sin? No. Paul argues this in Romans 6. Paul’s argument is clear, now that you are saved, sin is no longer your master. You must choose (and you can choose without recourse) to serve, submit, and obey Christ. You can simply choose life and righteousness over sin. Why does an abused wife or child choose to continue to please an evil husband or father? Fear. This evil man has power over them even when he is not around, their chooses are based on pleasing him. They choose to please him so that they might have a kind of false peace. There have been situations when an evil husband died, but the wife and child continued to choose those things that pleased the deceased. Paul argues in Romans 6 that we who are saved in Christ, are free from the stronghold of sin. We can freely choose those things that pleases our loving heavenly Father and not the old master of sin who once ruled our thoughts in the past. The benefits of seeking to please God outweigh serving sin. This is how Paul can conclude that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23). 

It is the mental stronghold of our past, that traps and enslaves so many Christians today. Christ is aware and helps us to overcome. And through it all, if sin seems to continue running after us, Christ’s love, saving grace stands and never fails.

Does all this really work, living holy to avoid sin? Yes and no, sin is still present. So why try? God knew this. The point to all of this is that we will always need Jesus. That was the reason God sent his son. And that is the reason we must always give him praise. Why? 1. He made us, and he knows our limitations. 2. Christ died to save us from our sins knowing full well we would return to the hog pin, Rom 5:8, 20. 3. It is the reason we should forever praise Him. You see the illustration of this when Jesus healed the man who was crippled, Jn 5:8. The Pharisees condemn the man because he was working on the Sabbath, by carrying his bed. This is probably a stretch but bear with me. Let us assume the man's bed represented his sins (in a very loss sense). Jesus heals the man and tells him to pick up his bed and walk. The only point that I want to make is that Jesus healed the man of his infirmity. If we equate sin to this man's condition (this is not the implication in the text, I just want to make a point), then the bed represents the thing that the man rested (or trusted in) on due to his sin. Jesus tells him in essence, I have removed the sin, but in carrying your bed is a reminder that you will always have to wrestle with sin. But the bed also serves as a reminder of what Jesus has done for us, I can carry this bed now because my bed is not carrying me. I can carry this bed because the bed is a reminder of what Jesus has done for me. When I see my bed, yes, I see my past, yes, I see my weaknesses, but I also see the one who died for me. When I see my bed, I see the one you raised me up from this bed. Yes, I am healed but I still carry the bed scars. But the scars are there, but Jesus took the pain away. Thus, every day, I can praise and will praise Him forever, because he knows my down setting (Ps. 139), he knows my troubles, my weaknesses, and yes I am coming out of this stuff, but He still loves me...

God allowed Satan to do what he does so that I can realize how great, loving, and awesome God is.

“That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:7).

Ernest L. Williams Sr.