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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Steven Swets > A Prayer for the Church | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) *Song of Adoration: Hymnal #98A: 1-4 “O Sing a New Song to the Lord” Song of Confession: Hymnal #178: 1-4 “We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought” *Song of Preparation: Hymnal #27B: 1, 5-6 “Jehovah Is My Light” Scripture & Text: Ephesians 1:15-23 Message: A Prayer for the Church *Song of Response: Hymnal #520 “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” *Doxology: Hymnal #248: 5 “All Creatures of Our God and King” |
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
You can learn a lot about someone’s theology of prayer by the way they speak about prayer. I met a woman recently who asked me to pray for her son. He is an addict and his life and marriage are a mess. In the mother’s eyes, her son will never change. There is no hope of restoration. I told her that though it might not seem likely from a human perspective, the grace of God is able to change people. Nevertheless, she asked me to pray (I’m not even sure if she is a Christian, but she knows I am a minister). But, why would she ask me to pray if it seems there is no hope of a change in her son’s heart? If you don’t believe in the power of prayer, it will simply be for you as a Christian a mere duty/responsibility. Do not let a “results oriented” framework of the world impact your prayer life. For the world, it is the question, “what have you done for me lately.” But for the believer, it must be altogether different.
As we turn back to Ephesians 1, how do you follow a blessing after blessing record breaking sentence to begin the chapter? You pray for the church below as you lift her up to the heavens and see the spiritual encouragement, support, and hope that the church has in Jesus Christ. Our theme is Paul prays a Christ-centered prayer for the church.
- Cause of Prayer
- Content of Prayer
- Consummation of Prayer
I. Cause of Prayer
Our text is building on the context of the first part of Ephesians 1. There the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just laid out the glorious work of salvation from the past, present, and future, and by the work of the Father, Son and Spirit. That Trinitarian focus will continue in this prayer as well. There are many things Paul could do or encourage the church of Asia with, but what is first and foremost is prayer. Prayer is our communication with God. It is the chief part of our thanksgiving to God. The scriptures describe many of the great men of the scriptures as those known for prayer. Kings David, Solomon, and Hezekiah were known for their prayers. Prophets Daniel and Habakkuk were known for prayer. The fact is, is that there is nothing else like it.
There are two reasons mentioned in verse 15 for the reason for prayers of thanksgiving. The first is their faith. The object of that faith is mentioned as the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith of these Asian Christians would cost them. They would be mistreated, possibly lose their jobs, they might lose their businesses if people stopped shopping there. They would be socially ostracized. When you read some of the stories of the underground church in many places of persecution it is humbling to think about their faith. So many risk so much. (Bob Fu, God’s Secret Agent). Why? Because of the love of God to them. Because they have cast their anchor in the sea of Jesus’ love. This brings in one of the primary themes of our text. We see an interplay between faith and love, or knowledge and experience.
It is easy to play these things against each other. Some churches emphasize knowledge, others emphasize love. The scriptures are clear. They are to be intertwined. Read verse 15. Their faith in Jesus Christ plays itself out in their love for the saints. You see, the object of faith, Jesus Christ, heard through the preaching and reading of the word must touch the heart. True Christianity is not just an accumulation of fact. The Puritan Stephen Charnock said, “A man may be theologically knowing, but spiritually ignorant.” If you don’t combine the Bible’s teaching with a child-like, God-trusting, prayer-offering faith, you miss the whole point. The Ephesians Christians were doing both. They loved the saints. You cannot claim to love the church, pray the great songs of missionary zeal, and support foreign mission causes if you first don’t love the saints God has put in your life.
The fervency and frequency of these prayers are seen in the words “I do not cease to give thanks for you.” Sometimes it is easy to be thankful for the saints, but sometimes, it can be difficult. Pray not only in thanksgiving, but also pray that you might see the blessing of being numbered in the body of Christ.
II. Content of Prayer
Read verse 17. The word Spirit in this verse is rightly translated. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit as this entire verse and prayer is Trinitarian. The Holy Spirit, we know from Romans 8, intercedes in our hearts in prayer. But it is also permissible to pray to each member of the Trinity. It might be ordinary to pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the scriptures give us evidence of many different emphases in prayer. However, prayer must be offered to the true and living God.
In this prayer, Paul is praying a petition to the Lord that the believers may have wisdom and knowledge and that their eyes might be opened. Just because we cannot see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there or isn’t real. Scientists long thought blue whales were mute and made no noise. The sounds of a toothed whale has been well-known, some even hunt with echo-location. But, it isn’t until relatively recently that scientists began to understand blue whale communication. The thundering call of a blue whale is at a frequency below human hearing. But with new instruments they discovered that blue whales can communication over hundreds of miles away. This isn’t new, we are just learning it however.
What would it mean to have the eyes of your hearts enlightened to these great themes of redemption? In one hymn, it uses the phrase, “tune my heart to sing thy grace.” I think this is getting at it. I’m not sure if we are afraid of sounding too charismatic or something, but to have the eyes of your heart enlightened, means that you can see spiritual things you couldn’t before. Some measure a sermon as good or not if they learn something new. I had a man in my last charge who really liked my sermons. He said, “I always learn something new each time.” That is good and all, but learning truths isn’t the ultimate criterion of faithful preaching. Is your heart more attuned to God’s love and his ways. Have you been beat down by the law and then picked up by the gospel? “Open the eyes of my heart God, open the eyes of my heart, that I may see you, that I may see you. To see you high and lifted up, shinin’ in the light of your glory, pour out your power and love, as we sing, holy, holy, holy.” That starts to get at it.
So, what should our eyes be opened up to? Three things are mentioned: they are hope, inheritance, and power. The hope mentioned is not just the Christian word we put up on our wall. It is the hope to which he has call you. This was dealt with in the opening verses of Ephesians 1. Here it is focused on the future. It is altogether different than what you hear in modern pop songs. The song of the unbeliever does not want to think about the future. The popular singer Jimmy Buffett died this past year. He gained popularity in the 1970’s with the themes of island escapism. His popular song Margaritaville eventually launched the entrepreneur-musician to become a muli-millionaire. Buffett was intelligent and hard-working. But, you cannot escape to an island forever. Margaritaville cannot last. If that is what you have, a cheeseburger in paradise, life will be empty of hope. It is because in the mind of an unbeliever like Jimmy Buffett, who was raised Roman Catholic, the future is the enemy and the present is our true friend. For the believer, this is altogether different. The believer rest in the hope of the call of God, both in this life, but even more in the life to come.
The second thing our eyes should be opened to is the inheritance. We looked at this in our last sermon and saw its connection to adoption as children of God. Back in verse 11, it was clear that the inheritance is in Christ. All of the blessings received were received because of the work of Jesus Christ. There is a bit of an interpretive question as to whose inheritance is in verse in verse 18. It could be a reference to the saints being the inheritance of God. Though this might sounds strange at first. But, realize that the covenant people are called God’s treasured possession in the OT. Either way you read it, the prayer is to have your eyes enlightened to the glorious work of the Lord.
The third thing to have our eyes opened to is the power of God. We might speak of the power of God in many different ways. His creation, a mighty hurricane or earthquake, etc. But, the focus of God’s power here is on his mercy to us through Jesus Christ. By the same power that raised Christ from the dead, in verse 20, is the same power that raises us from the dead. It is the same power that gives us a new life in Christ. There are three particular things mentioned of what the “immeasurable greatness” of his power accomplish. They are the resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ. Included with this session is his continued rule.
What those three things validate in the heart of the believer, is the mercy of God to his people. These great events will have a direct impact on the life of the believer.
III. Consummation of Prayer
Here in these closing verses we receive an explanation of the glorious work of Christ. The curtain is lifted so to speak. In the movie the Wizard of Oz the great and powerful wizard was a sham. Todo, the dog finds him out. His response, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Now, we get a glimpse, but it is greater than we had imagined. These last couple of verses of chapter 1 give us a whole theology of the reign, the lordship, of Jesus Christ. Notice that the last section we studied ended in verse 14 with something of a soli Deo gloria. Verse 23 ends in a similar way. It moves our heart to doxology. Let’s look a bit deeper at these verses.
The resurrection of Christ in 20, is the beginning of these cosmic events. The first thing to notice is that Jesus Christ is enthroned. Jesus is enthroned above all worldly powers and authorities. When we use the common phase, King of kinds and Lord of lords, we are saying a lot in those phrases. Jesus, by the power of his resurrection and in light of his perfect life, is enthroned over evil. He had defeated sin, Satan and death. This fulfills Psalm 110:1 (read). The footstool of Christ is his enemies.
His rule touches all. (read vs. 21) As men in this world seek to wrestle power away from each other, they are nothing compared to Christ. People align themselves with a political party. The Republicans are holding presidential debates in the hope of winning the hearts of people so that they might be chosen to become the candidate in the next election. Someone might think, I am a De Santis man, another might say they still support Trump, another might say we need someone younger like Nikki Haley and another might think things are just fine under President Biden. When it comes to the rule of Christ, there are only two options, you are either for him or against him. Frankly, our allegiance to him doesn’t effect his reign, but when it comes to God’s grand design, his is the name above all names. Read Col. 1:17-20.
Kings and rulers have come and gone, but there is something altogether unique in the reign of Jesus Christ. When you bow your knee to this king, not only does he give you benefits of citizenship in his eternal kingdom, we will reign with Christ. In QA 32 of our catechism, we are asked why we are called a Christian. The answer concludes, “…and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for eternity.” Believe on the Lord and you will be saved. Believe on the Lord and you will eternally reign with him. The reign of Christ is cosmic and fulfills the mandate given to Adam to exercise dominion over the earth. He fills all in all.
There is one final theme that is explained in these last two verses. Christ is the head of the church. It is described there as his body. This is easy enough to understand…we answer to Christ, we submit to Christ, we are obedient to Christ. But, notice the exact language of verse 22. This is a good translation, but the tricky part is that it seems Jesus is given to the church instead of the church given to Christ. Even though we know from other places, even in Ephesians 5 that the church is the bride of Christ, what this implies in verse 22 is that the church in some way fulfills Christ. This was the view of John Calvin and others. It is also connected to the term “fills” in verse 23.
We should think about these things this way. As in marriage, (illustration used in ch. 5), there is mutual completeness with husband and wife, the church is the glory of Christ. Christ’s reign is that much more fulfilling because of the church. The church is God’s gift to His Son, even though it was the Son who purchased her and the Holy Spirit who will effectually call and sanctify her. Jesus Christ and his reign is glorified when the church submits to Christ.
Remember, what started out as a prayer of a text has turned into a doxology. But, that is okay in a prayer as well. We echo this prayer when we say, “your kingdom come, your will be done.” The prayer of our text can be read in under a minute, but I think it took Paul longer than that to pray it. Let us echo this prayer. Let us ask God to open the eyes of our hearts that we might see the glorious reign of Jesus Christ. How does that truth impact your life this week? Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Steven Swets, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2023, Rev. Steven Swets
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