A Prayer for Spiritual Power Ephesians 3:14-21 Rev. Min J. Chung (Lord s Day Service, December 2nd, 2018)

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1 A Prayer for Spiritual Power Ephesians 3:14-21 Rev. Min J. Chung (Lord s Day Service, December 2nd, 2018) Ephesians 3:14-21 Prayer for Spiritual Strength 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Introduction Video of a group of coworkers do a trust fall as a team building exercise together. However, the woman that is supposed to fall backwards into the hands of her coworkers, falls forward where no one can catch her. There are a couple of things we can learn from the video: we need to trust the right god. But also, even with the God we trust, we need to trust in the right direction. We need to trust Him according to the Word, not what we feel like. We can always trust in the wrong direction and say, Why isn t God there for me? well He told you to lean this way [not the other way]. The beginning part of chapter 3 was basically an exposition of the Old Testament. There s a mystery of how God is going to save and redeem his people. The mystery is about Jesus Christ uniting a divided humanity of Jews and Gentiles to create the third race: the Church of Jesus Christ. As Paul does the exposition of the Old Testament in the beginning part, now he turns into prayer. The exposition turns into intercession for the Church. The Bible study leads to a prayer meeting. Revelation and petition should go together. He prays for his people on the basis of the knowledge that he just talked about. What do you think is the essence of prayer? I remember this question was asked by several pastors in my life. I remember all of them and I really appreciate each and every one of them because they added different aspects of who I am right now. One of the pastors that I was under his name was Reverend Han in New York City (he passed away and is with the Lord now) I grew up with for two years in the church. I was tremendously impacted by that church. I just remember him preaching about the cross and it tremendously impacted me; I can never forget those times. He knew me ever since I was a junior high school student and after I became a pastor, that church in New York City invited me to speak for them. I was still a young pastor and I remember preaching there. After I preached, he gave me such a positive response, and he usually doesn t, and from that moment I realized his treatment of me was different. He wasn t talking to me or teaching me; he was now asking questions to me. He was asking for my advice or

2 opinion on things. One of the questions he asked was, What do you think is the essence of prayer? and I was honored that my pastor asked me for my opinion. I said something dumb, sounding like I knew something even though I didn t, but what I basically said was something like power. He said, I think the essence of prayer he wasn t trying to correct me, he was also saying his opinion is relationship. There was profound truth to that that was absent in my younger days. Putting our two opinions together gave a comprehensive picture of the essence of prayer. As we have relationship with God, we have power that is being released from our relationship with God. Through a relationship that we have with God, we grow in our character to expand God s Kingdom for His glory. I think there are definitely both aspects relationship and purpose, love and power in our prayer. I think that s what this passage is really talking about. There are three main prayer passages in Ephesians: Chapter 1, Chapter 3, and Chapter 6. Chapter 1 talks about prayer for knowledge. Chapter 3 is about prayer for power. Chapter 6 is about prayer for ministry and it relates [to prayer]: prayer for knowledge of God and His power. In chapter 3, Paul asks Ephesian believers to be able to know that and he asks for prayers to know God and His power. Now Paul prays for that power to be in us, which is what this passage is about, prayer for receiving of that power. In Chapter 6, it will be prayer for releasing of that power in ministry. We will learn how to pray through this passage and we ll learn how to pray for spiritual power through this passage. I. How to pray [14-15] 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, A. Read the Word [14] 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, Verse 14 starts off by saying, For this reason the same way Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 starts. Before Paul prays, he articulates theology. He articulates the exposition of the Old Testament. He articulates the thoughts that he has about God. Paul pens his immortal prayer with unusual emotion, as it says, For this reason. There are a few possible reasons for why he has so much emotion. Perhaps it s because of the stunning impact upon himself of the immense revelation he has been receiving and articulating through chapter 3. Additionally, the apostle is on his knees in profound emotion because he realized the mystery of Jesus Christ uniting the divided humanity of Jews and Gentiles. So, before the Father of whom the whole family on heaven and on earth is named. And how beautiful it is to see a man go to his knees because of God s Word. If we really read God s Word in such a way that it impacts us, it will drive us to our knees. There is a message here for us who are studying God s Word and who minister with God s Word. Understanding that the Word should always drive us to our knees. As I study the Bible throughout the weeks, I spend several hours at time sitting down studying the Word. And about two or three times during the day, I m about to weep. The understanding of the Scripture and the revelation that comes to my heart through the Word is so amazing. Read the Word before you pray.

3 B. Go to the Father [14] 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, The revelation Paul receives drives him to his knees before the Father. The position of kneeling shows humility. As he sees that Jesus Christ is the center of everything, not himself, it humbles him. It s not about me, it s about Jesus. He s kneeling before the Lord and he realizes that because he s in Jesus Christ, God the Father is the source of blessing. So, the eyes of his heart open to see the reality that drives him to his knees. C. See the reality [15] 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, He sees the reality of the universe from whom every family in heaven and on earth that s everything is named. What is Paul seeing? In chapter 1, the reality of the universe is under Christ. In chapter 2, all humanity is under Christ. In chapter 3, both Jews and Gentiles are under Christ as the Church of Jesus Christ: the third race. Who is the family? Verse 15 talks about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit the original family. There is a heavenly family, the Church triumphant in heaven all the people that died, believers in heaven. And there s an earthly family, the church militant on earth, made up of Jews and Gentiles a multiethnic, multicultural community. Though separated by death, there is a heavenly family and earthly family, two parts of the one great family of God. This, to Paul, was a reality. Think about this: why do you pray more when you are in need? In one sense, it s because we re selfish. Often, we only pray when we are in need and when we are in trouble. But another angle is that it s because we are seeing reality. Even when you don t feel like you are in need, you are still in need. You just don t see the reality of it. God drives us to our knees so we can see the reality of our spiritual state, that we are in trouble apart from God. We can do nothing apart from God. When we see the reality, we re able to see and cry out to the Lord. And when you see the reality, we re able to see that everything is somehow connected to God, which is what this verse is saying. Everything is connected to God; every family derives from His Name. That s why people who know the Bible can answer any question about your life. They have wisdom. Wisdom is being able to see the connection of everything in our life to God. II. What to pray for [16-19] 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. A. That we may have power through the Holy Spirit to fight [16]

4 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [image of a heart with a sinful nature and spiritual nature displayed] We are born with sin nature. We are totally depraved when we are born, but when we are born again, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we become Christian. That s what happens [referring to the image]. We have a sin nature and a spiritual nature in our hearts. A spiritual nature that can actually be connected to God. It s a very simple picture but we don t think about it enough. Often, we talk as if we only have one nature, but if we are Christian, we have two desires/natures in our hearts. You have to understand that. This is the reality. This is a spiritual x- ray of your heart. As he prays, notice that he s not praying to the Holy Spirit but he s praying to God the Father. That we would have power in our inner being to fight our sin nature through our spiritual nature through the Holy Spirit. Examine these phrases: 1. According to the riches of his glory resource In Christ we have unlimited resources. 2. he may grant you to be strengthened with power substance He s talking about the substance, from Him, this resource comes to our hearts: power. The Holy Spirit giving us the ability to fight in our hearts. 3. through his Spirit means The Holy Spirit gives us the power in our hearts to fight our sins, fight our addictions, fight our laziness, fight our apathy, fight our hatred, jealousy, and lust. 4. in your inner being location It goes into our hearts, into our spiritual nature. Paul speaks of this: 2 Corinthians 4:16 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. We are frail containers, but we are pulsating with divine power. We need to receive His power daily. In this chapter Paul is in prison. His situation is not that great. Many Christians during those days were not in great situations either. But an amazing thing in this chapter is that the prayer has nothing to do with the circumstances. He doesn t pray, Lord, help me to get out of jail, but he just simply prays for the power of inner life. Basically, he s saying, Stop complaining! Pray! Hard circumstances are like bug bites to Christians. It s bothersome but just keep going. You re not going to stop living because of a bothersome situation; you re going to have inner power to

5 keep going. We need to receive His power daily. While you re seeing a few things that seem terrible externally, God is working a million things that are good for your eternal joy, eternal happiness. As you like to be fed with breakfast and wash yourselves in the morning, feed your soul with God s Word and wash your heart with meditation and prayer. The best way to heal an unhappy heart is to feed it with grace and wash it with gratitude. Your outward circumstances can never overcome your inner being if it is strengthened with God s power. What is this strength about? To fight in your heart. If you don t fight in your heart, you fight people. If you fight in your heart, you can love people. There are two natures. We always have strength in our sin nature but we need strength that comes from above to our spiritual nature. This strength is strength to fight our sin nature so that, in our spiritual nature, we can overcome and love. B. That Christ may dwell in us as we fight in our hearts [17] 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, It says, so that Christ may dwell, but isn t Christ already in us when we become Christian? Why is Paul asking for what we already have? This word dwell means that we would always choose Christ, not ourselves. Because we have two natures, we can always choose our sin nature, but we can always choose Christ in our spiritual nature. We pray so that in our motive and our hearts, we would choose Christ, and he would reign. We can always disobey. But we pray so that we would always choose Christ, not ourselves, and so it becomes a habit in our heart battle, constantly repenting and redeeming. As it becomes a habit, it helps us to grow, so that we would be rooted and established in our heart motive of love. Paul never separates the second and third person of the Trinity. He says that as the Holy Spirit dwells in us, Christ dwells in us. Is dwelling of the Spirit and dwelling of Christ the same? I would say yes and no. Yes, dwelling of the Spirit and dwelling of Christ is the same because they go together. If the Spirit is in us, Christ dwells in us. If Christ dwells in us, the Spirit dwells in us. But no, they are not the same in the sense that their function is different. The Holy Spirit empowers our spiritual nature, to choose Christ in our motives and our loves and our lives so that we become like Christ more and more, we can become more like Christ so he dwells. We become like Christ. He controls and rules in our hearts. So, the word dwelling means to have a permanent residence in our hearts, not temporary residence. The specific word is used intentionally to talk about permanent residence, not temporary residence. Christ is not just lodging in our hearts. Christ is always in our hearts. But in our hearts, we can choose either to dwell in him, or to be away from him, to choose sin. So, what does that mean? Because we can always temporarily lead towards our sin nature, dwelling means constantly focusing on Christ, choosing Christ in our motive and the choices of our lives. The prayer for the power of inner being is the power for transformation, that we would become the people of God, the holy temple of God, and with that power that God gives us in our spiritual nature, we study not for ourselves but for Christ. We serve not for ourselves but for

6 Christ. We work not for ourselves but for Christ. For the glory of Christ, does Paul give praise to the Father, that Christ, by his spirit, will be allowed to settle down in our hearts from his throne, and from there both control and strengthen us as we live for Christ, until we permanently become like Christ in our character. And that happens through faith. Faith is a condition of our hearts. It s like the face of our spiritual nature. The spiritual nature is about believing through faith. To receive an , you need an account. To receive a phone call, you need a phone number. To receive God s resources, you need faith. Faith is the condition of your heart that believes and hungers and asks, even right now as He releases His power to you. Faith of your heart says, Lord, fill me with your spirit, fill me with your power. If you constantly do that day by day, moment by moment, you become rooted and grounded towards there. It s another way to describe our heart battle and our character change. As choosing Christ constantly becomes a habit, character change takes place and we become rooted and grounded. Rooted is a botanical illustration. The nourishment of a tree establishes an architectural illustration. Roots are like the foundation of a building. So like trees, our lives are to send down roots deep and wide into the soil of the Word and the soil of love, so that we grow. Like buildings, the edifices of our lives here on earth are to have a deep solid foundation of love, foundation of the Word, established and grounded in love. This is what it means to constantly operate in our spiritual nature. If we are properly rooted on the foundation of love, nothing will be able to shake us. Paul prays that love would be the constant motive of the Ephesian believers, that they would consistently operate in their spiritual nature and that this condition would become their character. As they represent Christ, the world should see that every fiber of their being is operating in love. Love is to be the soil in which their lives are rooted, and the foundation on which their lives are built. He is praying for that change. The destination of them becoming like Christ is the fourth request, but he s talking about the direction as the heart battle takes place. C. That we may experience His love and fall in love with Christ [18] 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, He s not just praying for one person, he s praying for every saint, all the saints. There are probably several house churches from Ephesus that are reading this letter. This is not to be a solitary, individualistic, isolated occupation we are to do it comprehensively, together with all the saints. We need to pray for spiritual power. We need to pray for others. We need to pray for other churches in this world: The Universal Church. To comprehend means to grasp, to make it your own, so that it becomes experiential knowledge, not just head knowledge. Experiential knowledge becomes a testimony, that as you become rooted and established in love, you would not leave. You can only come to a better and fuller understanding of His love in community, together with all the saints. We become more rooted and established than we can comprehend and grasp. It s not just praying for other people or being with other people. It s not just a nice thing to do, an added request, but it s an added

7 necessity. We absolutely need other people to be rooted and founded in love in Christ because we absolutely need one another. Together we become more comprehensive, stronger. Some people say, I don t go to church. I just worship on my own. Now, that s still better than not worshiping on your own, but wherever you go, you always need the Church of Jesus Christ. After you leave CFC, you have to belong to some church. Always. This growth, this comprehension, this grasping of His love happens together. This happens when we sit under the preaching of His Word. It happens when we study together and discuss it, when we share our knowledge of God s love with each other. As we discuss and share different blessings, different aspects of Christ. You see it and your spiritual nature moves when you see another spiritual nature move for Christ. It happens in our hearts as we go upward in our worship, as we listen to one another singing. Our voices are instruments of our spiritual nature that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It happens when we are together. When we re together, say hello to each other. We need each other to comprehend His Word so that we can grasp the breadth, length, height, and depth of His love. Some people try to make each thing mean something allegorically, but I think it really means the unlimited love. He s talking about how great His love is. Some commentators saw the dimensions illustrated the four dimensions of the cross. One of his arms represents wide: he loves everyone in all generations. Long: his love lasts forever. You can t outlast his love no matter how old you get. High: he came from the highest heaven to raise us to the highest throne. Deep: he loves to the deepest part of the deepest sin of our hearts. It s unbounded, unlimited love that he loves us with. That becomes our experience. We cannot help but to see it and when we see it, we fall in love with him. Martin Luther said, When I look at myself, I don t know how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don t know how I can be lost. Leslie Mitten said, Whether you go forward or backward, up to the heights or down to the depths, nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. Pray for the power to grasp as we pray for one another the infinite love of Christ, because there s always more. An inevitable result of this experience and grasping will be you falling in love with Jesus. D. That we may become like Christ as we are filled with the fullness of God [19] 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge is not about head knowledge, it s experiencing reality true knowledge by becoming. If you talk about marriage and compare pre-marital counseling and post-marital counseling. Or compare pre-parent and post-parent counseling. With pre-parent counseling, you can talk about everything and they ll say, Oh, that s great. But with post-parent counseling, after they ve had evil kids and you give counseling to the parents. It s way different. When you become, you start to understand. To know the love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled, we have the capacity to grow infinitely more. We re going to continuously grow in heaven because Jesus is infinite and we re going to become more and more like Jesus Christ

8 through faith. That s why 1 Corinthians 13 talks about how faith, hope, and love are eternal. We ll always have the heart condition of faith to receive more and more of Christ. Christ is infinite, so we ll never be Christ, but we ll become more like Christ in heaven. God desires that He would fill you with the best, that He can fill you with the likeness of His son. Filled with all the fullness of God. Some people think that the fullness of God is in the objective genitive, meaning that God wants you to fill you with His blessing, something outside of Himself. But it s in subjective genitive, meaning that He s filling us with Himself, that we may become more and more like Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fullness of God, according to Colossians. He fills us with the fullness of God. Filled us with all the fullness of God means that God is going to fill us with Christ-likeness. Paul is thinking that if we get to know Him, we cannot help but to desire, pray, receive His strength, go through our sufferings, hardships, difficulties, and in the midst of all that, you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul is saying that if you know Him, you re going to read His Word. You re going to be hungry for Him. You re going to be thirsty for Him and not hungry for other things. More than you re hungry for your sin or other things in this world, you re going to hunger for God. Philippians 3:10 That I may know him and the power of His resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, I believe there s proof of that. Paul is saying that I may know him and the power of His resurrection so we become like him. And before becoming like him, it says and may share in his suffering in his death. In between knowing and becoming is suffering. You go through hardships and difficulties, with his grace and strength, and then you become. The power of Christ is internalized. You become like Christ through the means of hardships and difficulties and suffering of this life. Do not avoid it, go through it by His grace. You don t have to find suffering. Don t go finding suffering. It will find you. We live with sinners, we are sinners, so we are bound to have suffering. God uses those things to grow us, help us, strengthen us, empower us, make us beautiful, make us worthy masterpieces in Jesus Christ. III. Why pray [20-21] 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. A. The foundation of praise Who God is and what God does [20] 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, Now to him is not now to us. Always focus on God. We can never pray enough because He can do more than we can ask. It s stupidity for us to stop praying because we can always ask for more. We can never pray or imagine enough. We can never read God s Word enough. Whatever we pray for is so small compared to what He can really do for us. Whatever we think is too small,

9 that s why we read the Bible so that we can increase our thinking process. Without the Bible, all we think is about the world, but as we read the Bible, we expand our thoughts into all generations from beginning of time to the end: eternity, infinity and beyond. I think Paul didn t understand it either when he said, we. I m most impressed with Paul, of all the people in the Bible. What he saw, what he understood, was just unimaginable. Yet he includes himself in we because even he doesn t understand how much God can do. And he says that power is already at work within us. It has already begun, we are just tasting the appetizer. Don t be satisfied with just the appetizer. The feast is coming. When CFC started, I remember saying, We haven t seen anything yet. I still say the same thing after 29 years of CFC. B. The goal of everything What God deserves [21] 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. When you see a child, imagine the potential of that child. I see each and every one of you and see the potential that each and every one of you have. Otherwise, I d quit ministry. But that s nothing compared to God and when you see the potential of God. The reason why I see the potential of people is because I see the potential of God. High theology always becomes high praise. That s why we teach theology at CFC. The more Paul saw the ability of God s power, Paul saw the availability of it for us. The foundation of praise, the goal of everything what God deserves: praise, honor and glory Paul piles up synonym upon synonym to emphasize the eternity of glorifying God. Paul s magnificent doxology, to him be glory, means that no one else deserves any of the praise that exists in this universe that God deserves. To him be glory in the church. Paul conceives that the Church is like the theatre of the glory of God. Through the Church, God s glory will be visible, seen. Each and every one of us play our roles in our lives. The plan of the mystery hidden for ages, God who created all things, that through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The reason God created the world and called the Church into being is so that He would have a sufficient, diversified yet unified system of mirrors with which to reflect the glory of His many-sided wisdom to the universe. CFC is a local expression of this Universal Church. Our destiny is to be a corporate and visible and audible doxology to God. To Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus. If the Church is the theatre in which the principalities and powers of the universe are to see the glory of God s manifold wisdom, then Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that wisdom and the main character in the drama played out in the theater of the Church. There s hope for every generation. All generations had many sins. But in this generation, you can do just about anything or go just about anywhere. How dangerous it is. Can we have hope for this generation and the next generation? Yes. No matter what it s like outside, we have to remember who is within us. We need to redeem technology. You need to redeem this world that is filled with temptation and sin because the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. The promises of God say that God will be faithful in all generations, including yours and the next, to all generations forever and ever.

10 Paul ends his prayer with doxology. The reason we pray is so that we can end in praise. The reason we praise is not to get our prayers answered. That s the means. The reason we pray is so that we can end in praise. The goal of our prayers must be so that we can sing, so that we can praise Him. I was thinking about how blind we are to the potential of God, and I was thinking about Abraham. Just like us, he was always trapped in his needs. He couldn t have a child. Every night, crying out to God, through many sleepless nights and pillows wet with tears, crying out with Sarah, Can I have a child? God one day takes Abraham outside at night. Abraham, stop crying. Wipe your tears. Look up at the sky. What do you see? So many stars, God. You don t know how many stars there are, but as many as the stars, you will have your children I don t know what Abraham understood at that time. He might have said, Can I just have one? He had no idea what God was talking about. He had no idea what God was planning to do through his life, and through his descendants. God was probably saying, One? I can do more. I can do more than you re asking. I can work in more ways than you are thinking. Abraham wanted a kid but he got a generation of kids. They were as numerous as the stars in the skies and the sand on the seashore. His descendants were children of faith that s each and every one of us. God was thinking much deeper than just biological. The spiritual DNA of faith is in all of us from Abraham. He probably didn t understand what was being said at the time but we know that it was immeasurably more than he ever thought or imagined. I think I m just a pastor of a small church. Though people may think that my church isn t that small, I think like that. I m just a pastor of a small local church. I just want to be faithful until the end, then to be forgotten so that Christ can be exalted. But when I go to other churches, other places, other pastors from different parts of the world, they think our church is a big deal. They ask questions like, Pastor Min, how did you start CFC? and my response is not that I started it. I always say, God started it in 1990, I just happened to be there. I often think about when we first started this church. Just like with Abraham, I know God can do more. Even now, maybe we re at the beginning stage of what God will do. God can give you more children than you are asking and God can work in more ways than you can imagine. God always says to us, You haven t seen anything yet. Let s learn to see the potential of God.