Ephesians 3 : 14 - 21

For This Reason...

Paul starts Ephesians 3 with the words “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner go Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles...” he then goes into everything that we have looked at the last two sessions, then almost like he remembered the point he was started with, he starts again in verse 14 with “For this reason”. So what is the “reason”? What is it that moves Paul so deeply that he kneels before the Father in heaven?

There are two parts to the answer, it is both the reconciling work of Christ and also Paul’s own understanding of it by the special revelation that God has given to him. This being so, an important principle of prayer then emerges, the basis of Paul’s prayer was the knowledge of the mystery (verse 6). It was because of what God had done in Christ and then revealed to Paul that lead Paul to drop to his knees and pray for the {early} Church - which was Jew and Gentile reconciled through Christ.

Paul is praying for the church created by God because the church being created was Gods will though the actions of Jesus. This is a perfect example of why Bible reading and prayer should always go together. For it’s in scripture that God has disclosed his will, and it’s in prayer that we ask him to do it.

Another way to think of it is to notice that Paul is praying for Christians as Gods family and as he does so with a boldness a family relationship provides. Our prayers for Christians are normally different to those who haven’t yet accepted Jesus as saviour. When we pray for Christians we pray for those who have already responded to the gospel and we know what God is doing in them and through them. God is making them more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ, teaching them to live and serve, and (as we looked at last session) even suffer. We are therefore bold in these prayers because we know from scripture that this is God's will for Christians.

We should carry this boldness into our prayers for all Christians just as Paul does. He prays for the whole church {family} on earth - Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, male and female, young and old, educated and uneducated - he prays for every Christian on earth - for it is through this family that Gods great purpose of making known his manifold wisdom is fulfilled. This is a great lesson in prayer, when we pray, we must remember to pray for the whole world-wide church of God, not just those in our little circle. We must ask God to strengthen the Church throughout the whole world, and we should be encouraged by what God is doing through his people everywhere.

A Prayer Staircase.

This is one of the examples of the brilliance of how the scriptures are written. Paul goes on to pray for the whole family of God and shows not only whom we should pray for and why we should pray, but also gives us an outline of what to pray.

John Stott compares this to a “Prayer-staircase” consisting of several steps, which is quite a good way to think of this passage. There are six parts, or steps, to this prayer.

1. That Believers may be strengthened internally through the Holy Spirit. Paul has been talking about suffering just a few verses prior to writing this, and probably has suffering in mind when he writes this and starts with a prayer for strength through the Holy Spirit. We do not choose to suffer, we tend to try and avoid it. Consider Jesus in the garden, he draws back from suffering and asks that if it is possible, if there was any other way, to let the cup be taken away. Jesus prays this three times, but each time accepting that it is Gods will. If we are to show Gods wisdom in such times of suffering, God will give us the strength to face it.

Still, it is not only in times of suffering that we need to be strengthened, we need strength every day of our lives and in every circumstance, whether it be strength to avoid temptation, to make moral choices at work, to witness effectively or, for some, simply getting up to face the day. When Jesus prayed for God to send the Comforter or Holy Spirit to be with his disciples, he used the word “parakletos” means “one called alongside to help” The Holy Spirit helps us to do the right things in difficult situations.

2.That believers may be in-dwelt with Christ by faith. Without looking further , it would be very easy to skip over this line considering it an obvious statement, for what makes a Christian a Christian is having Christ within, if he does not indwell the person they are not a Christian. Unfortunately this is one of the times that the translation is let down.

Paul uses the word here katoikeo rather than the similar word paroikeo. Both of these words are translated to “dwell”. The second word - which Paul does not use - means dwell in a place as a stranger, it was used to describe Abraham when dwelling in a land that was not actually his own. The first word (katoikeo) is the word that Paul uses and it means much more settling down and dwelling in a place and becoming a permanent resident there. Pauls prayer here, is that Christ will “settle down” in our hearts and become a permanent resident there.

3. That believers may be rooted and established in love. The first metaphor (rooted) here is botanical. It compares the believer to a plant that is rooted in the love of God. The second (established) is architectural, it compares the believer to a building established on love as a foundation. Whilst (so I’ve been told) it’s less than perfect English, it is sound theology. In the first case love is pictured as something that nourishes us (which it does) and in the second case it is pictured as a solid foundation (which it is).

4. That believers may be able to grasp the fullest dimensions of Christ’s love. In the last century, when Napoleon’s armies opened a prison that had been used by the Spanish Inquisition they found the remains of a prisoner who had been incarcerated for his faith. The dungeon was underground and the body had long since decayed, only a chain fastened around an anklebone showed the sign of his confinement. But this nameless prisoner, long since dead, had left a witness.

On the wall of his small, dismal cell, this faithful soldier of Christ had scratched out a rough cross with four words surrounding it in Spanish. Above the cross was the word “height”. Below was the word for “depth”. To the left was the word for “width” and to the right was the word “length”. Clearly this prisoner wanted to testify to the surpassing greatness of the love of Christ, even in his suffering.

When Paul speaks of width, length, height and depth, he is probably trying to show the vastness of the love of Christ. However it would not be wrong to say that the love of Christ is “wide” (or broad) enough to encompass all of mankind, “long” enough to last for all of eternity. “deep” enough to to reach even the lowest of sinner, and “high” enough to exalt him in the heavens.

5. That believers may know this love that surpasses knowledge. Paul here is making a point that there is a difference between “understanding” the love of God and “knowing” the love of God. Maybe a way to consider the difference is to think about baking a cake. You can be shown the ingredients, you can follow the recipe and put the ingredients together in the right order and put them into the oven at the right temperature, leave it to bake for a certain amount of time and out comes a perfectly prepared cake. You can be taught to understand the principle of cake making. But to fully know what a cake is, you need to eat a slice and experience the taste and texture.

This is, in a way, what Paul is praying for. Yes, that we will understand and grasp the height, width, length and depth of Gods love, but also through experience, that we will know Gods love.

6. The believers may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. This audacious prayer is the top step of the prayer staircase. The phrase “fullness of God” can be read in two different ways, it could be read objectively, meaning the fullness of God would be the fullness of grace that God bestows on us. Or it could be read subjectively meaning the fullness would be Gods own fullness, that which fills himself.

Because of the wording used in the original texts, the subjective meaning is usually favoured. Audacious as the prayer may be, Paul is praying that the Ephesians (and indeed all Christians) may be filled up with that which fills God, that being love. One way this has been described, is that the fullness of God in us is like some of the ocean being in an empty shell. I think this is still selling short the gravity of what Paul is saying about the infinite love of God, but it helps you to see the grandeur of the prayer.

Paul is praying that we will be filled with the love of God, for all eternity and that we will be filled and filled and filled and filled - forever, as God out of his infinite resources, increasingly pours himself out into the those sinful but now redeemed creatures he has rescued through the work of Christ.

Now To Him... Be The Glory...

We may not know or understand the mechanics of how God is going to do that, something being poured out infinitely is beyond our understanding, but we are in good company, because Paul doesn’t understand it either. We can assume this because of what Paul goes on to say after he has finished the prayer.

Paul writes “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all WE ask or imagine, according to his power the is at work within us...”. When Paul writes “we”, he is including himself. He is saying that even he, the great apostle and founder of the Church, cannot fully understand or even imagine all that God is going to do, is doing and will do. But Paul does know that God can do it, and not only is God able to do it, he is able to do it immeasurably, which is to say unmeasurable and therefore indefinitely.

To finish off this session, or any session, or any act of worship or prayer, there is no better way to close than to read aloud Ephesians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”

Questions.

These are not necessarily questions that need answers, they are rather to be used as conversation starters.

1. Paul says he kneels to pray, does this make a difference to his prayer? Why? Or why not? If it makes no difference, why does he say it?

2. What emotions do you feel as you read vs 16 - 19? Considering both the words that Paul uses, yet also that he is saying it for you? How do we, or should we respond to that prayer?

3. What can we learn about how we pray from this passage?

4. Paul says that Christ’s love “surpasses knowledge” in vs 19. How could you explain that to someone who is exploring their faith?

5. When we do anything for the church, how do we ensure that we are always working to Gods glory? Can you think of a time where you have forgotten that and started working to be seen to work, or to put it another way, to work for any other glory that God? Would you be willing to share the experience?