God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Cor. 1:27). In my short life, the more I find myself trying to teach the things of God and walk in obedience to them, the more I find myself recalling this verse over and over. For it is utterly true. For example, men walk around in rebellion towards God, as haters of God, bound to sin, under the power of the evil one, and dead in their sins; and yet the manner in which God has given us to undo all these things and bring to them eternal life is by telling them the events that are the gospel: that Christ lived, died, was buried, and rose again. It is simply foolish to our minds.
In short, I would never have come up with the way of doing things that God has done in his infinite wisdom. And yet I have tasted the power of them. I have tasted the power of the gospel message as it has made my heart come to life, despise sin more and more, and love and adore my Lord. However, it is still so clear to me how foolish these things should and do appear to many.
One of these things established by the Lord that is so easily seen as foolish (to the point that many in the church ignore the power of doing it) is prayer. Think about it, one of the most powerful things in the universe – something that actually affects our lives, the lives of those around us, and is followed by a miraculous working of our Lord – is prayer. Or, more specifically, it is saying words or thoughts either out loud or in your head to someone that we cannot even see. It can seem like such a waste of time for a group of people to get together, share some requests and praises, and pray. “Why don’t we actually do something?” is probably the cry of many who hear of these things going on in the church. It seems foolish. And yet it is the wisdom of God. It is the God-ordained means for supplying his grace to his church and leaving his church no room to boast. Prayer is so key in the Christian life that it is often (if not always, and quite probably always) antecedent to seeing the grace of God in our lives. It is so important that Jesus in his final hours on earth prays for his disciples and even those who will believe because of their testimony; he prays for us.
Therefore, it is quite clear that, though it seems foolish to the carnal mind, we should be a people of prayer.
But how shall we pray? What should be our focus? Part of our church covenant reads that we will not neglect to pray for one another and ourselves. So what should we pray, especially in light of the sovereign working of God that Paul has described in Ephesians 1:3-14? Paul gives us a great model of prayer to answer this question in Ephesians 1:15-23, and it is this that I want to look at this morning, that we too might better know how and what to pray.
Paul writes in verses 15-16, “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, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”
That is to say, because he recognizes that all things are only possible because of the eternal desire of God (1:3-14, which is his thought as he writes, “For this reason”) and he sees great faith in Jesus and a love for all the saints in these believers to whom he is writing, he thanks God for them. He thanks the one whose grace he recognizes in their lives. This is definitely a right step in praying for one another and ourselves, for it recognizes that all glory should go to God alone and then addresses glory to him.
I would think that the loving atmosphere of a church would greatly change as we began to pray for one another and began our prayers looking for the evidence of the grace of God in one another that we might praise him. It would surely remind us that we have no business to not love those whom God has made objects of his affection and grace. Therefore, we should first thank God for his work in the lives of our brothers and sisters.
However, this is not the main content of Paul’s intercession (quantity wise). He prays that God would open their eyes to who he is and what he has done toward them. He has spoken of them receiving “every spiritual blessing” in verse 3, and now he prays that their eyes would be open to what they are.
There is a lesson here for us as well, and, more specifically, I believe that it is one that God is wanting us to hear and learn as a church. Too many people fall off one side or the other and miss what Paul is doing here. That is to say either people are always praying for more spiritual blessings or their desires are too weak to plunge the depths of what they have been given. Neither of these are modeled by Paul in this chapter. He does not pray for more spiritual blessings to come to the believers in Ephesus. Why? It is because they have already received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, being chosen in him before the foundation of the world. Besides the return of Christ, we as believers are not in need of seeing another revelation of God except the revelation of his glory through us, his church. And yet people are constantly praying for this. It is like a little boy crying at supper time because he is hungry when there is a feast set at the table around him.
But others, whose desires are weak, will rightly claim, “We’ve been blessed already” without longing, and praying, and crying out that their eyes might be open to explore the riches of the blessings that have come to them. They are those (possibly many of us) to whom I cried last week, “Stop being mentally lazy and meditate on the work of God that has come to you that you might cry with Paul, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”
Paul avoids both of these, realizing that we have been given every spiritual blessing and yet crying out that his readers would have the eyes of their hearts opened that they might see them fully. We should pray this way for one another and make it a priority. Therefore, let us return again to examining what Paul specifically prayed that we might better know how to pray as well.
Now before we blaze over this too fast, we must realize the meaning of Paul’s use of “calling,” for it is unlike others in Scripture. For example, when Matthew uses the word, “call”, he means a general call of the gospel that goes out to many men, whether they respond or not. Therefore, he writes: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16, 22:14). That is to say, “Many men will hear the gospel, but (in comparison) there are few who receive it and have eternal life.”
Paul does not use “call” in that sense. When Paul uses “call” he means that it has been effective. He means that men have not only heard but have obeyed the message. For Paul, one who is called is one who is saved. Therefore, he writes in 1 Corinthians 1:21-24: “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (emphasis added). Also, in Romans 8:30 he writes: “Whom he predestined, these he also called; and whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified.” That is, for Paul there is none who is called who is not also justified and eventually glorified.
Therefore, as he prays for the church at Ephesus to know the hope of God’s calling, he wants them to know what is the ultimate hope we have in being called to salvation in Christ. Paul also writes in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”
Thus, ultimately our hope and the end of our salvation is that we might behold and reflect the glory of God, being in his presence and being conformed to the image of his Son. Our ultimate hope is that for which we live now – the glory of God. As you see glimpses of it now and it brings you to tears, know that it is only a taste of what is to come. This is no doubt what sustained Paul in his life of suffering as he writes, “I reckon that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed” (Romans 8:18).
We are to think on that coming glory, and pray to know it more, and even fast out of a cry that we do not know God’s glory now as intimately as our hearts desire. But, brothers and sisters, it is coming. And the more we meditate on how great God’s glory really is and the reality that it is a sure end of the hope of God’s calling us, it will affect the way we live.
Paul also longed for the believers to know who they were in Christ. We need to know who we are as God sees us, not because of our intrinsic worth but because of our identity with his Son. It is only as we begin to realize how God sees us and who we are in Jesus Christ that we will begin to recognize the spiritual blessings that have come to us and long to know them more deeply. It is only then that we will begin to function properly within the body of Christ and as the body of Christ in the world. Too often people do not recognize their God-bestowed worth in Jesus Christ. Thus, Satan convinces many to give up on their dreams because they are not wise enough, or strong enough, or good enough; all the while God is telling us that it has nothing to do with our intrinsic wisdom, or strength, or goodness but of Christ’s wisdom, strength, and goodness eithin us. The focus is the value of Christ whose temple we are. Therefore, this letter will tell us later not only not to give up on our dreams but to realize that God can do more than we can ask or imagine, and that according to the power that is at work within us (however, we will get to that more in a few weeks).
But, in short, we need to pray that our brothers and sisters in Christ realize who they are in God’s eyes in Christ Jesus.
But what kind of power is Paul talking about here? He writes, “In accordance with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name which is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all tings in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (1:19-23).
Now why did Paul choose this event to describe the kind of power that God has? I mean, he could have spoken of his work in creation, which displayed him speaking creation into existence out of nothing, or the fact that he displayed his power over the Egyptians and parted the Red Sea. But he spoke of God raising Christ from the dead, putting all things in subjection to him, and making him head of the church. Why?
I believe (though there is an obvious other reason that Paul will show in chapter 2) that it is because Paul’s intent is to show God’s power “toward us who believe” (1:19). That is, he can think of nothing that shows God’s power toward the church more than raising and exalting Christ above all things to be the head of the church. For this means that the one who is above all things (with exception of the Father himself, though they are at the same time equal – 1 Corinthians 15:25-27) is the head of the church. The one who is in control of all and over all is the head of the church. Or, to say it differently, “All of God’s sovereignty is mediated through one who was crucified on my behalf.”1 This is good news for us and something that we need to know and realize deeper and deeper.
Therefore, this is at least one important way that we should pray for ourselves and one another. And I think the reason praying this way is so important is because it is only when one realizes the ultimate hope of his salvation, his worth and value in the eyes of God because of his unity with Christ, and God’s power shown toward us in exalting Christ and making him head of the church will one truly find the strength to give his life for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the gospel message. And that is ultimately what we must all do, whether we are tortured and killed at the hand of haters of God or we live for eighty years and die of cancer. For we must choose daily to die to ourselves and pour ourselves into the work of filling the earth with the glory of God, presenting others before him complete in Christ.
By his grace, Amen.