Text: Ephesians 3:14-21 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.
Today we will delve into Ephesians 3:14-21, which happened to be the text for my NT exegesis paper while in seminary and also the text for my first seminary sermon. I remember being intrigued by the phrase “…according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church…”(v.20-21). Amazingly, 10 years later this same text was the highlight of author Paul Miller’s new book, A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World. This book was the basis of our recent A Praying Church seminar held in January. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will be drawing insights from that book into this devotional.)
Miller’s first insight is that prayer accesses the spirit of Jesus, which can readily be seen in v.14-16. This is the beginning of what Miller describes as a pattern that he calls the church’s power train; prayer accesses the Spirit, who carries us to Jesus, where we find power, where we find the ability to live in a discouraging world and where we find “glory in the church” (v.21). It comes especially as God’s people pray together, such as is first seen in a 10-day prayer meeting in the book of Acts, starting with the disciples in the upper room (1:14) and culminating at the end of Pentecost with the disciples experiencing mass conversions at the end of Chapter 2. A similar display of corporate prayer leading to power is seen in Acts 4: 23-31. Miller states “prayer is the critical spark that brings this Spirit engine to life”, much like the spark of a plug that initiates the power train of a car. So, prayer is not just one more activity of the church, it properly lies at the heart of all the church’s ministry. And there is no special gift of prayer, it is not optional (like breathing!); it is for all of God’s people to participate in!
The Lord Jesus in his ascended humanity was fully clothed in the Holy Spirit and that “clothing” is now experienced by the disciples as Jesus now gifts the church with the Spirit at Pentecost. So now we can say that as the fully human Jesus lives by the power of the Spirit, so do we. In v.17, Paul asks that Christ may dwell in the heart of his readers. Although as believers, that is already the case; what I believe he is asking for now is an experiential knowledge of that truth. So that the Ephesian brethren would be naturally given to love others (“rooted and grounded in love”) as well as be granted the strength of comprehension of the massive love of Christ for them, such that they are literally possessed by Christ and His love (v.19).
This prayer is “cap-stoned” by the amazing doxology of v. 20-21, where Paul ties together these truths with powerful praise. He even invents a new Greek superlative word in v.20 to express himself, as he appears at a loss for words that already exist!! Ephesians 3:14-21 is a wonderful and comprehensive prayer that I have encouraged as many parents as I can to pray over their children as they seek their hearts to be changed toward the day when they experientially know the truth of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith (v.17) and then find themselves expressing love as the fruit of that faith. Then they in turn are granted strength to comprehend the love of Christ for them (v.18-19). Pray this for yourself, pray this for friends dealing with besetting sins (like young men dealing with porn) as again this prayer goes straight to the heart and seeks to expel idols and replace them with a deep experiential knowledge of Christ and His love.