A Prayer for a Lifetime

Introduction:

Open your Bibles with me to Ephesians 3:14-21, as we continue our series of sermons on Paul’s letter setting forth our new life in Christ and in God’s New Society, his church.  Two Sundays ago (This past Sunday the series was interrupted by my illness) we looked at the first 13 verses of this third chapter, wherein Paul describes the church in the purpose of God, making known the mystery of God’s saving message in Christ.  This mystery includes bringing together into the church both religious Jewish insiders and pagan Gentile outsiders.  The first part of this 3rd Chapter is actually a parenthetical statement Paul gives, interrupting his own train of thought, explaining his particular calling and role in making Christ known to the Gentile outsiders.

Verse 14 begins with a restatement of verse 1, with Paul resuming his thought, which was to offer a prayer for the Ephesians, indeed for the churches throughout Asia Minor.  Our text for today is the second of Paul’s two prayers in Ephesians, the first one being in 1:15-23, which we studied five weeks ago, which is Paul’s prayer for the church to have insight into the glorious life we have in Christ.  It seems as though Paul, when writing about the glorious life we have in Christ, is moved to fall to his knees in prayer, and continues to write to the churches, not just admonitions but prayers in their behalf.   As one writer has noted, these prayers are not just parenthetical footnotes, but are possibly even the very heart of Paul’s letter (White, 127).  

This second prayer, which is our text, is a lofty passage, a spiritually high summit, not unlike Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17.  As one great preacher of old put it, this prayer “soars to the very Throne of God” (Maclaren, 171).   

Follow as I read Ephesians 3:14-21.