Praying with Apostolic Power
Ephesians 1:15-16
Sermon Summary The attributes of God, His decrees, and His people all motivated Paul to constant prayer and thanksgiving. How can we develop this level of devotion to prayer, and why did all three of these things motivate Paul to pray? |
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Ephesians 1:15-16
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
As we move into this new section of Paul’s epistle, we have the opportunity to do some in-depth study on the topic of prayer. We are going to be picking this prayer apart little by little, and there’s no doubt that we will be learning a lot of things along the way. But hopefully, we’ll learn something about how to pray ourselves.
What strikes me about the passage before us is that Paul’s prayer life must have been something extraordinary. Paul was a man of prayer. He was a guy who maintained a spirit of prayer and likely devoted much of his time to prayer. Granted, when you are in and out of prison, you probably can spend a good amount of time in prayer. But there’s no doubt that Paul could teach us a thing or two about developing some real fortitude in prayer.
As a matter of fact, look at verse 16. Notice what Paul says there about his prayer life. He says, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Do you hear that? Paul is not ceasing to give thanks, and on those occasions where he gives thanks for them (which is constantly), he is remembering to pray for them.
The original language here could also be translated as, “I am not restraining myself as I am giving thanks for you and remembering you in prayer.”
I like that way of thinking about it because you get a real perspective of how much Paul prayed for these people. You can imagine a dog that is pulling at its leash. The master of that dog keeps trying to restrain the dog, but the dog is frantically lunging forward. Finally, the master gives up and lets the dog go, so the dog is now able to run free and go crazy.
Or you can think about a leak in your faucet. You can try and put your finger over it and plug it up, but you feel the pressure building up. It’s trying to get loose. The pressure builds up so much that water starts spraying all over the place. So you let go of the faucet and it’s no longer restrained. As a result, it just flows and flows and flows.
That’s the way Paul is describing his prayer life. He just can’t be restrained. When it comes to praying for these Ephesians, he cannot hold back. He is just constantly thanking God for them. He’s continually bowing before the Father in order to offer his petitions and supplications for them.
This, my friends, is incredible. Paul is a model for us when it comes to maintaining a spirit of prayer. He’s showing us that prayer should be a vital part of our lives. It should be as natural to us as breathing. There’s a sense in which it should be as frequent as breathing.
Now, I am exaggerating to some degree there. We shouldn’t be spending every moment of our lives in prayer. And certainly, some people will have more time to devote to prayer. I and the other elders of the church as ministers are supposed to be men of prayer and devote specific time each day to lifting up this congregation.
But I don’t doubt that each and every one of us could do a little better when it comes to how much we pray. I know that there’s always the exception, but could you really say, “Hey, that man spends too much time in prayer. He is completely and radically unrestrained when it comes to his time with God in prayer.”
I doubt that seriously. I bet that most of us would desire to be like Paul when it comes to our prayer life. I bet we would all like to be able to say that we are not ceasing in our prayers for the people of Hopewell Church.
Well, I don’t know that today’s message will make you an expert, but I do know that what Paul says in these verses can increase how much you pray. Really, if you take to heart what Paul says here, you will find that you will spend a lot more time speaking to God. Your prayer life will not only be much richer, but it will also be much more frequent.
I know that because Paul lays out for us what stimulates his own prayer life. He mentions three things that rouse him to look to heaven and give thanks to God and pray to God. And I want you to hear these things because I want you to grow in this area. I want you to be a little less restrained when it comes to how much you go to the Lord.
And the truth is that when you understand the majesty of God’s nature, the certainty of God’s decrees, and the sanctity of God’s people, you will be more apt to pray.
What gets you praying? Well, you might say a good old-fashioned catastrophe. There’s nothing like a major problem in your life to get you to cry out to God, right?
But I think we all know that’s kind of shallow. It’s good, and we do need to pray in times of hardship and suffering, but I think you will agree that many times, when the problems go away, so does our prayer.
But there are other things that can create a longer-lasting, more enduring prayer life. The first of which is simply the nature of God.
I. The majesty of God’s nature
You will be more prone to pray when you get to know God better. When you understand something of his majesty and grow in your knowledge of who God is, you will become much more prayerful.
I can say that with confidence because that’s what motivated the Apostle Paul to pray. Notice the first three words of verse 15. It says, “For this reason.” This is obviously referring back to everything we just studied in verses 3-14. And what has Paul been talking about there? One way to sum it up is simply by saying, “God.” He’s been talking about God’s nature.
Throughout verses 3-14, we keyed in on certain themes. We’ve studied God’s sovereignty. He is sovereign over history and he is sovereign in our salvation (i.e. the doctrine of election). We mentioned a couple of times that the study of verses 3-14 is a study of the three persons of the Godhead. We’ve looked at some of the dynamics that pertain to each member of the Trinity and what each particular person’s role was in our salvation.
And we noted certain attributes of God along the way. We talked about how gracious he is. We hinted at his justice when we talked about how Christ had to shed his blood. If Christ had never died, we would not be redeemed because God’s justice would have broken out against us. We didn’t talk specifically about his eternality, but it was certainly implied when we noted that he chose us before the foundation of the world and that we were going to spend eternity with him. Verse 4 mentions God’s love. Verse 8 talks about his wisdom and insight. Verse 12 talks about his glory, which is the cumulative expression of his person.
You get the point. Verses 3-14 compose a study of who God is in all his grandiose majesty. And here in verse 16, Paul says, “It’s for this reason that I am unrestrained in prayer.” That’s what moved him to prayer. It was because his mind had just been bathed in these wonderful thoughts of God’s nature.
Why study theology? Because it will make you more apt to pray. He who knows the most about God will be the most likely to pray to God.
There are so many people who complain about theology. “Predestination is too hard to comprehend, and it just causes fights anyway. It’s dry and really fruitless to spend so much time filling your brain with all that kind of stuff.”
A lot of people will say that it’s better to just focus on the practical things, things that have more to do with everyday life. Things like how to parent, how to handle one’s finances, and how to be a good husband or wife. Those are the things that really matter and those are the things that really affect a person’s day-to-day spirituality.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Paul’s going to get to those things. Those are important subjects. But prayer is pretty important too. In fact, it’s very important. As I’ve said before, many theologians say that prayer is the chief expression of our faith. I’d like to say that prayer is fundamental to your parenting. Your financial status is, in many ways, dependent upon your prayer life. To be a good husband or wife, you need to be someone who prays regularly, for yourself and for your spouse.
Prayer is very much basic to every aspect of the Christian life. But how is it that one comes to pray? It’s not by having a series of sermons on prayer. Giving you tips on how to pray and what to pray is fine and dandy, but it really won’t make you any more motivated to pray. Those kinds of things are not going to make you more apt to pray or more inclined to pray.
You may find that it makes you feel more guilty. That’s because you know more about how to pray and you know that you should be praying more for these things. But when it is all said and done, you are still not praying any more than you used to.
The key to becoming a person who prays more often and is more fervent in prayer is gaining more and more knowledge about who God is. When you understand his nature, his sovereignty, his benevolence, those things are going to make you more inclined to pray.
It’s kind of like this: If I was asked to do a teaching series on giving or stewardship, I’d do ten classes. I’d spend the first five or six of those classes talking about God’s sovereignty and the doctrine of Providence. That’s because no one is going to give a dime unless they know that they can trust that God will take care of them. And once you are convinced that His omnipotent hand will uphold you and provide for you all that you need, then you’ll be more inclined to crack open your wallet. You will be more liberal with what you have.
It’s the same with prayer. The more you know how great God is and how much he cares for you, how much you are dependent upon him, how liberal he is with his grace, and how he governs every tiny molecule in this universe, you will find that you call out to him more.
And, as it is with God’s nature, so it is with God’s decrees.
II. The certainty of God’s decree
Just as learning more about God’s nature will make you more inclined to pray, understanding how certain God’s decrees are will also make you more ready to pray.
It is important that we take further note of what lies within these initial three words. “For this reason.” I want you to know how critical and informative these words are. And I just want you to notice a further practical point about what is here.
We said that in verses 1-14, there were many different themes that stood out. The chief among them was the doctrine of predestination. It’s mentioned at least five times in various ways throughout the passage. I want you to see the connection between what Paul has laid out about that doctrine and how it is intimately interwoven with what he says here.
Paul has said that all things are predestined. He has laid forth the idea of our election. So it’s not just general things in history that God has sketched out. He has determined all that will come to pass, even our salvation. And he says, “For this reason, I pray.” I pray for you because God has determined whatsoever comes to pass. I pray for you because God has planned all things.
If you were to do a news report and you were to take a camera crew out to Paul and then you were to ask him, “Paul, what motivates you to pray for the Ephesians?”, his response would go something like this, “I pray because I know that God has decreed all things and will work out his infinite plan according to the counsel of his will.”
It is often claimed that, if you believe in predestination, you will be less likely to pray or do evangelism. The claim goes like this: “If it’s already predestined, what can I do about it? What is the use of praying if the outcome is already determined? What’s the use of doing evangelism if everyone is already elect and you can’t change that number?”
Yet, what you find here is the exact opposite. For Paul, he is more inclined to pray because God has predestined all things. He’s motivated to be in prayer constantly precisely because God has written history in the annals of heaven. Paul says, “You Ephesians are chosen by God and predestined. Therefore, I’m praying for you.”
That almost sounds like a contradiction to us. However, when you look at Scripture what you find is that it is the logic of God. Since it is predestined and appointed before time, you have all that much more confidence to pray.
You should never forget that God not only ordains the ends, but he ordains the means. And somehow, in a mind-boggling way, your prayers fit into God’s order of things. You do not change God’s mind or change his plan, but your prayers do effect God’s plan. They help to make God’s plans come pass.
You see, long ago, God ordained that you would pray, and he wrote that prayer into his plan. It would be part of how he would bring about other aspects of his plan.
Let me give you an example that may help you understand this. Let’s say that you are planning a trip. You are looking to drive all the way across the United States. Now, when you decide to do that, you make certain preparations. You know that you can’t make it there all in one stint, so you plan to stop at different places along the way. You have to refuel. You have to sleep. You have to get out and stretch your legs a bit. So you think about where you want to stop and maybe you make some reservations at different hotels at certain points.
Then one day, you get in your car and start driving. At your designated spots, you take the exit ramp and you grab a bite to eat or you get some gas. When you are done, you jump back in the car and you are on the road again. You are further along, and you are also in a better position to accomplish the next phase of your trip.
Now what happened there? You planned those stops so that you could better accomplish your overall objective of getting to the West Coast. That’s essentially what God does. God has a plan for this world. God has a plan for his people. God has a plan for you and me. And he has laid it all out. He has also planned that we would pray. He ordains our prayers, and these prayers of ours help bring about the next phase of his plan.
That’s why Paul can be so assertive in prayer. That’s why he can pray with confidence. That’s why he can be constant in his prayers. He knows that God has a plan; he knows that God’s plan will come to pass; and he knows that his prayers are a part of that plan and that God will use these prayers in accomplishing that plan.
You see, then, the logic Paul uses. You understand that the doctrine of predestination does not throttle prayer at all. Election is not something that impedes prayer. When you grasp the depths of God’s decrees and you understand them properly, you will actually be more inclined to pray. You will be more constant and more consistent in prayer.
As with Paul you will say, “God has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, and therefore I’m going get out there and pray so that it might indeed come to pass.”
So, how is it that you will be more motivated to pray? What will make you pray more? We can say that there is a direct correlation between how much time you spend in prayer and how much you are acquainted with God’s nature and God’s decrees.
But there’s one more thing that Paul mentions. It is the sanctity of God’s people. Your prayer life may very well be enhanced if you hear how God’s people are actively serving and living by faith.
III. The sanctity of God’s people
Look at verse 15 one more time. Paul says that he is giving thanks and praying for these Ephesians so often because he has heard about their “faith in the Lord Jesus and love towards all the saints.”
What you have here is a summation of the Christian life: faith in Christ and love for others. Paul is simply delighted that these Ephesians are living godly lives.
Now you’ll recall that he’s been gone for about five years. He first came to Ephesus on his second missionary journey, and he did the work of church planting. He spent three years in Ephesus, ministering among the people. Now he’s been gone, and it’s been five years, and somehow he gets a report on the status of the Ephesian church.
You have to understand something about Ephesus. Ephesus was a metropolitan city, and it was filled with all the hustle and bustle of Roman life. As a big Roman city, it would have had a variety of trappings and temptations for these young Christians. There were 50 gods who were recognized in the city, the foremost of which was the goddess Artemis. Ephesus was the home of Artemis. People came from all around the world to worship her. You can bet that there was a lot of propaganda and pressure surrounding the worship of Artemis. She was not just a god, but also big business for tourism.
With all these gods, there was a great deal of magic practiced. One example were the magic stones that were peddled in the streets. People from all over the Roman world came to Ephesus to obtain them because they were said to have healing power in them.
There would no doubt be the pressure of family members who were not converted. The believers would be under all kinds of pressure because they didn’t participate in the family festivities and worship the family gods. Do you think celebrating Christmas is hard with your family? Think about the awkwardness of having to say, “I’m sorry mom, I can’t come to the family Zeus fest this year.”
But the family pressures wouldn’t compare to the political pressures. If you didn’t worship the gods of Ephesus, you would face a heavy price. You would likely lose your job and be punished by the civil authorities. You can understand their concern. If the people of the city bucked against the city’s gods, then that would anger the gods and cause problems for the city. So, if you didn’t offer incense or sacrifices, if you skipped out on the rituals, the government officials would inflict fines, floggings, and other sorts of punishments upon you.
And on top of the cultural, familial, and civil problems, you also have the normal ecclesiastical problems. You have maybe a couple small congregations in the city, and each of them would be fragile. Relationships are critical. What would happen if there was some conflict? That happens in churches, doesn’t it? What if there was someone who sinned against you and there was a breach of relationship?
What about dominant personalities or selfishness creeping in? How would the church fare when there were these kinds of problems popping up? These would be incredibly problematic.
Over the course of five years, there’s a lot that could have happened. But Paul mentions he has just received a report. Someone has brought word that the church in Ephesus has been thriving. They are gathering for worship regularly. They are sitting under the ministry of the word. They have been growing in the Lord and learning to trust in Him more. They are more and more renouncing the paganism that surrounds them.
They are helping one another too. Where there is poverty, they share. Where there is conflict, they don’t walk away; they strive to love each other and work it out. Where there is suffering, they seek to help bear the burdens.
This report makes Paul so jubilant that he can’t stop thanking God.
I have to say that those are the best kind of prayers. Some will say that you tend to pray less when things are going well. There may be some truth to that. But the opposite can be the case too.
Many of you have seen me out on my prayer walks. I take my list of names from the church and I go for a walk. I can put a couple miles in and work through the congregation. One of the things that I love to do is simply thank God for the families. “Lord, I thank you that he’s working and attempting to be faithful in his occupation.” “Lord, I appreciate how you have given this family a servant’s heart and that they are always doing little things here and there to help the church.” “Lord, it is so wonderful to see families being dedicated to one another, showing hospitality and welcoming new people in the way they do.” “Lord, I love it that this family has said no to certain things and that they are taking their own family nurture so seriously.”
Sometimes I’ll get a text from different people in the congregation, and it is just an encouragement to me. Someone will share a verse or an insight they had. They’ll say that they are praying for me. When I get those kinds of things it is just a blessing. And I thank God when it happens.
It truly is a cause for thanks and prayer when I see the people of this church excelling in faith and love. I just think, “Lord, how blessed I am to be surrounded by such wonderful, Christian people.”
Now, when there are problems in the congregation, there’s also a need to pray. We’ve been blessed in that we have not had many such things. But I can honestly say that the solid faith and love of God’s people is a real energizer when it comes to prayer.
So, to that end, you have a double application. On the one hand, if Christian maturity can affect others and make them more apt to pray, you should be striving to grow in your faith and love, right? What a great contribution to the growing piety of our congregation! As you grow and as you show more love to others, you may very well be causing a swell in the amount of prayer that is offered up.
And then, on the other hand, you can be praying. You can be thanking God. You can actually train yourself to pray more through this. When you see or hear of someone in the congregation living a godly and pious life, when you see them getting into God’s Word or expressing faith in Christ, thank God for that and pray that they would only abound more in those kinds of things.
All in all, don’t forget that the maturity and the sanctity of God’s people are a means to increasing the amount of prayer that is raised to heaven.
Next time we are together, we are going to delve further into Paul’s prayer. We will actually get to some of the content of his prayers. But here at the outset, we can remember that prayer is one of our highest callings as Christians. There is no greater way to glorify God and bring about the purposes of God. And the more you pray, the more God will respond. The more you pray, the greater good will be done in this world.
I want to encourage you to pray. Make a habit of prayer. Keep a mindest of prayer through the day. Try and train yourself to pray. When you have a dull moment or are stopped at a stoplight, offer up a short prayer.
But of course, as we learned today, keep in mind how best to expand your prayer life. God has given means for making you into a person of prayer, much like the Apostle Paul was. To become someone who is not restrained in his interaction with God, let yourself be further exposed to the majesty of God’s nature. Don’t shy away from meditating on the decrees of God. The certainty of them will only embolden you. And think about how God’s people are growing in their spiritual lives. As you see God’s grace being manifested in each others’ lives, you will no doubt be drawn heavenward more and more.
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,
As we move into this new section of Paul’s epistle, we have the opportunity to do some in-depth study on the topic of prayer. We are going to be picking this prayer apart little by little, and there’s no doubt that we will be learning a lot of things along the way. But hopefully, we’ll learn something about how to pray ourselves.
What strikes me about the passage before us is that Paul’s prayer life must have been something extraordinary. Paul was a man of prayer. He was a guy who maintained a spirit of prayer and likely devoted much of his time to prayer. Granted, when you are in and out of prison, you probably can spend a good amount of time in prayer. But there’s no doubt that Paul could teach us a thing or two about developing some real fortitude in prayer.
As a matter of fact, look at verse 16. Notice what Paul says there about his prayer life. He says, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Do you hear that? Paul is not ceasing to give thanks, and on those occasions where he gives thanks for them (which is constantly), he is remembering to pray for them.
The original language here could also be translated as, “I am not restraining myself as I am giving thanks for you and remembering you in prayer.”
I like that way of thinking about it because you get a real perspective of how much Paul prayed for these people. You can imagine a dog that is pulling at its leash. The master of that dog keeps trying to restrain the dog, but the dog is frantically lunging forward. Finally, the master gives up and lets the dog go, so the dog is now able to run free and go crazy.
Or you can think about a leak in your faucet. You can try and put your finger over it and plug it up, but you feel the pressure building up. It’s trying to get loose. The pressure builds up so much that water starts spraying all over the place. So you let go of the faucet and it’s no longer restrained. As a result, it just flows and flows and flows.
That’s the way Paul is describing his prayer life. He just can’t be restrained. When it comes to praying for these Ephesians, he cannot hold back. He is just constantly thanking God for them. He’s continually bowing before the Father in order to offer his petitions and supplications for them.
This, my friends, is incredible. Paul is a model for us when it comes to maintaining a spirit of prayer. He’s showing us that prayer should be a vital part of our lives. It should be as natural to us as breathing. There’s a sense in which it should be as frequent as breathing.
Now, I am exaggerating to some degree there. We shouldn’t be spending every moment of our lives in prayer. And certainly, some people will have more time to devote to prayer. I and the other elders of the church as ministers are supposed to be men of prayer and devote specific time each day to lifting up this congregation.
But I don’t doubt that each and every one of us could do a little better when it comes to how much we pray. I know that there’s always the exception, but could you really say, “Hey, that man spends too much time in prayer. He is completely and radically unrestrained when it comes to his time with God in prayer.”
I doubt that seriously. I bet that most of us would desire to be like Paul when it comes to our prayer life. I bet we would all like to be able to say that we are not ceasing in our prayers for the people of Hopewell Church.
Well, I don’t know that today’s message will make you an expert, but I do know that what Paul says in these verses can increase how much you pray. Really, if you take to heart what Paul says here, you will find that you will spend a lot more time speaking to God. Your prayer life will not only be much richer, but it will also be much more frequent.
I know that because Paul lays out for us what stimulates his own prayer life. He mentions three things that rouse him to look to heaven and give thanks to God and pray to God. And I want you to hear these things because I want you to grow in this area. I want you to be a little less restrained when it comes to how much you go to the Lord.
And the truth is that when you understand the majesty of God’s nature, the certainty of God’s decrees, and the sanctity of God’s people, you will be more apt to pray.
What gets you praying? Well, you might say a good old-fashioned catastrophe. There’s nothing like a major problem in your life to get you to cry out to God, right?
But I think we all know that’s kind of shallow. It’s good, and we do need to pray in times of hardship and suffering, but I think you will agree that many times, when the problems go away, so does our prayer.
But there are other things that can create a longer-lasting, more enduring prayer life. The first of which is simply the nature of God.
I. The majesty of God’s nature
You will be more prone to pray when you get to know God better. When you understand something of his majesty and grow in your knowledge of who God is, you will become much more prayerful.
I can say that with confidence because that’s what motivated the Apostle Paul to pray. Notice the first three words of verse 15. It says, “For this reason.” This is obviously referring back to everything we just studied in verses 3-14. And what has Paul been talking about there? One way to sum it up is simply by saying, “God.” He’s been talking about God’s nature.
Throughout verses 3-14, we keyed in on certain themes. We’ve studied God’s sovereignty. He is sovereign over history and he is sovereign in our salvation (i.e. the doctrine of election). We mentioned a couple of times that the study of verses 3-14 is a study of the three persons of the Godhead. We’ve looked at some of the dynamics that pertain to each member of the Trinity and what each particular person’s role was in our salvation.
And we noted certain attributes of God along the way. We talked about how gracious he is. We hinted at his justice when we talked about how Christ had to shed his blood. If Christ had never died, we would not be redeemed because God’s justice would have broken out against us. We didn’t talk specifically about his eternality, but it was certainly implied when we noted that he chose us before the foundation of the world and that we were going to spend eternity with him. Verse 4 mentions God’s love. Verse 8 talks about his wisdom and insight. Verse 12 talks about his glory, which is the cumulative expression of his person.
You get the point. Verses 3-14 compose a study of who God is in all his grandiose majesty. And here in verse 16, Paul says, “It’s for this reason that I am unrestrained in prayer.” That’s what moved him to prayer. It was because his mind had just been bathed in these wonderful thoughts of God’s nature.
Why study theology? Because it will make you more apt to pray. He who knows the most about God will be the most likely to pray to God.
There are so many people who complain about theology. “Predestination is too hard to comprehend, and it just causes fights anyway. It’s dry and really fruitless to spend so much time filling your brain with all that kind of stuff.”
A lot of people will say that it’s better to just focus on the practical things, things that have more to do with everyday life. Things like how to parent, how to handle one’s finances, and how to be a good husband or wife. Those are the things that really matter and those are the things that really affect a person’s day-to-day spirituality.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Paul’s going to get to those things. Those are important subjects. But prayer is pretty important too. In fact, it’s very important. As I’ve said before, many theologians say that prayer is the chief expression of our faith. I’d like to say that prayer is fundamental to your parenting. Your financial status is, in many ways, dependent upon your prayer life. To be a good husband or wife, you need to be someone who prays regularly, for yourself and for your spouse.
Prayer is very much basic to every aspect of the Christian life. But how is it that one comes to pray? It’s not by having a series of sermons on prayer. Giving you tips on how to pray and what to pray is fine and dandy, but it really won’t make you any more motivated to pray. Those kinds of things are not going to make you more apt to pray or more inclined to pray.
You may find that it makes you feel more guilty. That’s because you know more about how to pray and you know that you should be praying more for these things. But when it is all said and done, you are still not praying any more than you used to.
The key to becoming a person who prays more often and is more fervent in prayer is gaining more and more knowledge about who God is. When you understand his nature, his sovereignty, his benevolence, those things are going to make you more inclined to pray.
It’s kind of like this: If I was asked to do a teaching series on giving or stewardship, I’d do ten classes. I’d spend the first five or six of those classes talking about God’s sovereignty and the doctrine of Providence. That’s because no one is going to give a dime unless they know that they can trust that God will take care of them. And once you are convinced that His omnipotent hand will uphold you and provide for you all that you need, then you’ll be more inclined to crack open your wallet. You will be more liberal with what you have.
It’s the same with prayer. The more you know how great God is and how much he cares for you, how much you are dependent upon him, how liberal he is with his grace, and how he governs every tiny molecule in this universe, you will find that you call out to him more.
And, as it is with God’s nature, so it is with God’s decrees.
II. The certainty of God’s decree
Just as learning more about God’s nature will make you more inclined to pray, understanding how certain God’s decrees are will also make you more ready to pray.
It is important that we take further note of what lies within these initial three words. “For this reason.” I want you to know how critical and informative these words are. And I just want you to notice a further practical point about what is here.
We said that in verses 1-14, there were many different themes that stood out. The chief among them was the doctrine of predestination. It’s mentioned at least five times in various ways throughout the passage. I want you to see the connection between what Paul has laid out about that doctrine and how it is intimately interwoven with what he says here.
Paul has said that all things are predestined. He has laid forth the idea of our election. So it’s not just general things in history that God has sketched out. He has determined all that will come to pass, even our salvation. And he says, “For this reason, I pray.” I pray for you because God has determined whatsoever comes to pass. I pray for you because God has planned all things.
If you were to do a news report and you were to take a camera crew out to Paul and then you were to ask him, “Paul, what motivates you to pray for the Ephesians?”, his response would go something like this, “I pray because I know that God has decreed all things and will work out his infinite plan according to the counsel of his will.”
It is often claimed that, if you believe in predestination, you will be less likely to pray or do evangelism. The claim goes like this: “If it’s already predestined, what can I do about it? What is the use of praying if the outcome is already determined? What’s the use of doing evangelism if everyone is already elect and you can’t change that number?”
Yet, what you find here is the exact opposite. For Paul, he is more inclined to pray because God has predestined all things. He’s motivated to be in prayer constantly precisely because God has written history in the annals of heaven. Paul says, “You Ephesians are chosen by God and predestined. Therefore, I’m praying for you.”
That almost sounds like a contradiction to us. However, when you look at Scripture what you find is that it is the logic of God. Since it is predestined and appointed before time, you have all that much more confidence to pray.
You should never forget that God not only ordains the ends, but he ordains the means. And somehow, in a mind-boggling way, your prayers fit into God’s order of things. You do not change God’s mind or change his plan, but your prayers do effect God’s plan. They help to make God’s plans come pass.
You see, long ago, God ordained that you would pray, and he wrote that prayer into his plan. It would be part of how he would bring about other aspects of his plan.
Let me give you an example that may help you understand this. Let’s say that you are planning a trip. You are looking to drive all the way across the United States. Now, when you decide to do that, you make certain preparations. You know that you can’t make it there all in one stint, so you plan to stop at different places along the way. You have to refuel. You have to sleep. You have to get out and stretch your legs a bit. So you think about where you want to stop and maybe you make some reservations at different hotels at certain points.
Then one day, you get in your car and start driving. At your designated spots, you take the exit ramp and you grab a bite to eat or you get some gas. When you are done, you jump back in the car and you are on the road again. You are further along, and you are also in a better position to accomplish the next phase of your trip.
Now what happened there? You planned those stops so that you could better accomplish your overall objective of getting to the West Coast. That’s essentially what God does. God has a plan for this world. God has a plan for his people. God has a plan for you and me. And he has laid it all out. He has also planned that we would pray. He ordains our prayers, and these prayers of ours help bring about the next phase of his plan.
That’s why Paul can be so assertive in prayer. That’s why he can pray with confidence. That’s why he can be constant in his prayers. He knows that God has a plan; he knows that God’s plan will come to pass; and he knows that his prayers are a part of that plan and that God will use these prayers in accomplishing that plan.
You see, then, the logic Paul uses. You understand that the doctrine of predestination does not throttle prayer at all. Election is not something that impedes prayer. When you grasp the depths of God’s decrees and you understand them properly, you will actually be more inclined to pray. You will be more constant and more consistent in prayer.
As with Paul you will say, “God has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, and therefore I’m going get out there and pray so that it might indeed come to pass.”
So, how is it that you will be more motivated to pray? What will make you pray more? We can say that there is a direct correlation between how much time you spend in prayer and how much you are acquainted with God’s nature and God’s decrees.
But there’s one more thing that Paul mentions. It is the sanctity of God’s people. Your prayer life may very well be enhanced if you hear how God’s people are actively serving and living by faith.
III. The sanctity of God’s people
Look at verse 15 one more time. Paul says that he is giving thanks and praying for these Ephesians so often because he has heard about their “faith in the Lord Jesus and love towards all the saints.”
What you have here is a summation of the Christian life: faith in Christ and love for others. Paul is simply delighted that these Ephesians are living godly lives.
Now you’ll recall that he’s been gone for about five years. He first came to Ephesus on his second missionary journey, and he did the work of church planting. He spent three years in Ephesus, ministering among the people. Now he’s been gone, and it’s been five years, and somehow he gets a report on the status of the Ephesian church.
You have to understand something about Ephesus. Ephesus was a metropolitan city, and it was filled with all the hustle and bustle of Roman life. As a big Roman city, it would have had a variety of trappings and temptations for these young Christians. There were 50 gods who were recognized in the city, the foremost of which was the goddess Artemis. Ephesus was the home of Artemis. People came from all around the world to worship her. You can bet that there was a lot of propaganda and pressure surrounding the worship of Artemis. She was not just a god, but also big business for tourism.
With all these gods, there was a great deal of magic practiced. One example were the magic stones that were peddled in the streets. People from all over the Roman world came to Ephesus to obtain them because they were said to have healing power in them.
There would no doubt be the pressure of family members who were not converted. The believers would be under all kinds of pressure because they didn’t participate in the family festivities and worship the family gods. Do you think celebrating Christmas is hard with your family? Think about the awkwardness of having to say, “I’m sorry mom, I can’t come to the family Zeus fest this year.”
But the family pressures wouldn’t compare to the political pressures. If you didn’t worship the gods of Ephesus, you would face a heavy price. You would likely lose your job and be punished by the civil authorities. You can understand their concern. If the people of the city bucked against the city’s gods, then that would anger the gods and cause problems for the city. So, if you didn’t offer incense or sacrifices, if you skipped out on the rituals, the government officials would inflict fines, floggings, and other sorts of punishments upon you.
And on top of the cultural, familial, and civil problems, you also have the normal ecclesiastical problems. You have maybe a couple small congregations in the city, and each of them would be fragile. Relationships are critical. What would happen if there was some conflict? That happens in churches, doesn’t it? What if there was someone who sinned against you and there was a breach of relationship?
What about dominant personalities or selfishness creeping in? How would the church fare when there were these kinds of problems popping up? These would be incredibly problematic.
Over the course of five years, there’s a lot that could have happened. But Paul mentions he has just received a report. Someone has brought word that the church in Ephesus has been thriving. They are gathering for worship regularly. They are sitting under the ministry of the word. They have been growing in the Lord and learning to trust in Him more. They are more and more renouncing the paganism that surrounds them.
They are helping one another too. Where there is poverty, they share. Where there is conflict, they don’t walk away; they strive to love each other and work it out. Where there is suffering, they seek to help bear the burdens.
This report makes Paul so jubilant that he can’t stop thanking God.
I have to say that those are the best kind of prayers. Some will say that you tend to pray less when things are going well. There may be some truth to that. But the opposite can be the case too.
Many of you have seen me out on my prayer walks. I take my list of names from the church and I go for a walk. I can put a couple miles in and work through the congregation. One of the things that I love to do is simply thank God for the families. “Lord, I thank you that he’s working and attempting to be faithful in his occupation.” “Lord, I appreciate how you have given this family a servant’s heart and that they are always doing little things here and there to help the church.” “Lord, it is so wonderful to see families being dedicated to one another, showing hospitality and welcoming new people in the way they do.” “Lord, I love it that this family has said no to certain things and that they are taking their own family nurture so seriously.”
Sometimes I’ll get a text from different people in the congregation, and it is just an encouragement to me. Someone will share a verse or an insight they had. They’ll say that they are praying for me. When I get those kinds of things it is just a blessing. And I thank God when it happens.
It truly is a cause for thanks and prayer when I see the people of this church excelling in faith and love. I just think, “Lord, how blessed I am to be surrounded by such wonderful, Christian people.”
Now, when there are problems in the congregation, there’s also a need to pray. We’ve been blessed in that we have not had many such things. But I can honestly say that the solid faith and love of God’s people is a real energizer when it comes to prayer.
So, to that end, you have a double application. On the one hand, if Christian maturity can affect others and make them more apt to pray, you should be striving to grow in your faith and love, right? What a great contribution to the growing piety of our congregation! As you grow and as you show more love to others, you may very well be causing a swell in the amount of prayer that is offered up.
And then, on the other hand, you can be praying. You can be thanking God. You can actually train yourself to pray more through this. When you see or hear of someone in the congregation living a godly and pious life, when you see them getting into God’s Word or expressing faith in Christ, thank God for that and pray that they would only abound more in those kinds of things.
All in all, don’t forget that the maturity and the sanctity of God’s people are a means to increasing the amount of prayer that is raised to heaven.
Next time we are together, we are going to delve further into Paul’s prayer. We will actually get to some of the content of his prayers. But here at the outset, we can remember that prayer is one of our highest callings as Christians. There is no greater way to glorify God and bring about the purposes of God. And the more you pray, the more God will respond. The more you pray, the greater good will be done in this world.
I want to encourage you to pray. Make a habit of prayer. Keep a mindest of prayer through the day. Try and train yourself to pray. When you have a dull moment or are stopped at a stoplight, offer up a short prayer.
But of course, as we learned today, keep in mind how best to expand your prayer life. God has given means for making you into a person of prayer, much like the Apostle Paul was. To become someone who is not restrained in his interaction with God, let yourself be further exposed to the majesty of God’s nature. Don’t shy away from meditating on the decrees of God. The certainty of them will only embolden you. And think about how God’s people are growing in their spiritual lives. As you see God’s grace being manifested in each others’ lives, you will no doubt be drawn heavenward more and more.