Strengthened by the Father
Ephesians 3:14-17
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, July 26, 2009.
Due to technical problems, there is no audio of this sermon. Below are the sermon notes.
After a few weeks away from Ephesians we return this morning, picking up with Ephesians 3:14-21. This passage contains another prayer for believers. This morning we will look at the first part of the prayer, taking the rest next time.
In Ephesians Paul has divided the letter between how we should think and what we should do. This is a common feature of Paul’s writings as he first shapes our thinking then shapes our doing. Some Christians seem to have the idea that an intellect shaped to the things of Christ is unnecessary. The shape of our thoughts is generally unimportant so long as we are obedient to the things of God. Paul would disagree. Right doing comes from right thinking, and a great deal of Paul’s energy in the New Testament is given to helping Christians think the right things about themselves and about God.
Here, chapters 1-3 focus on what we should think about God, ourselves, salvation, the church, and the unity of God’s people. Chapters 4-6 shift to focus on how we should live as believers.
Neither of these sections is exclusive. As Paul shapes our thinking in chapters 1-3 he is also giving powerful implications for how we should live. Likewise, as we are told how to live in 4-6 we also learn more about how to think as believers.
With our passage today we come right up to the division. Paul closes the first half of this letter with a prayer for the people. We saw one prayer at Ephesians 1:15-19. The second prayer is in Ephesians 3:14-19 with a doxology in verses 20-21. In the earlier prayer Paul wants believers to know the power of God that is at work in them. In today’s prayer Paul wants us to know the love God has for us. But it starts with a reminder of the strength given to us by the Father. Let’s start today by reading the whole prayer, Ephesians 3:14-21, but our focus in this sermon will be verses 14-17.
Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul opens his prayer by describing the direction of his prayer and his posture. The direction is to the Father. He is not casting his prayers to the wind, he is aimed at the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how Jesus taught us to pray, praying to our Father.
Paul’s posture is kneeling. This is descriptive, not prescriptive. Paul is telling them how he is praying at this moment, not how they must always pray. But we learn that this is a good posture for Christians to take when praying. It is a position of humility, a position that shows we recognize how serious this business of prayer is.
Paul also teaches the Ephesians why it is worthwhile to pray to the Father. He says of the Father in verse 15, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. There is some question as to what family Paul refers to – does he mean God’s family, saved humanity, both those in Heaven and those on earth? Or does he refer to every group of creatures within creation, angels and humans, saved and fallen? In the Greek both are possible. It could be that Paul wanted the ambiguity since either way his point remains the same.
The Father is said to be the one who names every family. In Paul’s culture to name something is to have authority over it. You attempt to define the character of something by the name you give it. The Father is described as one who has authority to name more than just a few children, he names everything in creation. He has authority over all things. This includes authority over his church, which is his immediate family of adopted children, and it includes all other creatures. Nothing escapes his control. Christian, pray to your Father with the knowledge that he has the ability to shape every event to his will. Your prayers are not in vain, you pray to the one who bends worlds.
There are three main parts to Paul’s prayer. In verses 16-17 Paul asks God to strengthen believers through the Holy Spirit, filling them with Jesus Christ; in 17-19 he wants believers to know the immeasurable greatness of the love of Christ, and in verse 19 he seeks the fullness of God in every believer.
The whole prayer hinges on what he says at the start in verses 16-17a: that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…
Why would Paul ask for believers to be strengthened with power through the Spirit? We are already born again, already a new creation! Why is there a need for more strength? Although we have been saved the war continues to rage around us. Every day we face continued pressure from the world, pressure to give in, to abandon God, to jump back into the world’s ways. Every day we are tempted to rely on the power of our hand, trusting our strength to win the battle. But we are powerless without the power of God at work within us.
When we are saved God does not dump on us all the strength we will ever receive. We do not have to ration his strength, hoping to make it stretch the rest of our lives. God will strengthen us throughout our lives as we walk with him. We need constant renewal, constant power, or we will fail.
The source of this strength is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has been sent to all believers to guide us, instruct us, comfort us, and empower us. Christians are said to battle between the flesh and the Spirit. In Romans 8:9 Paul says, You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. You cannot survive the Christian life without the Spirit. From what Paul says, you aren’t even a Christian without the Spirit.
But how much power does the Spirit have to give? How much can he strengthen me? How long until his reserves run out? Paul tells us in verse 16 the Spirit strengthens us according to the riches of his glory or, as some translations have it, his glorious riches. Later we will take a closer look at the closing of Paul’s prayer when he says in verse 20 that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. I can imagine God doing a great deal, and doing it for every individual who has ever lived or ever will live. But Paul says this does not even scratch the surface of God’s potential. I fancy that I am able to think big, to dream great things, but I am so finite I cannot even begin to fathom the limitless depths of God’s power.
Christian, never fear the level of God’s strength. He has all sovereign power in the universe and he has promised to use this for his glory and your good. These are the same thing. When he is glorified, you are blessed. Remember the assurance of Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He has power to sustain you and has promised to finish what he started.
But what has he promised to sustain? As Christians, do we have a guarantee of luxury, of the easy life, of pampered flesh and good things on earth? Pick any page of the Bible at random and you will find examples that quickly discount this idea. God has not promised physical comfort on earth. This is why Paul says in verse 16 that God will strengthen you in your inner being. It is your soul, not your flesh, that God will nurture. In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul tells us, So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Our physical bodies are crumbling. One day they will be dust. There is no promise of comfort to this shell I am walking around in. But you are more than the shell. You are not your body. God will strengthen you, not this lump of water and flesh. When I am strengthened then my body will be able to endure greater hardship making difficult times easier to bear, but difficult times will not go away. The Lord will sustain you! Stand firm in the day of trouble. Stand firm in the face of persecution, of those who can kill the body but cannot touch the soul. Stand firm knowing this world is not your home and God has in store for you a form far more glorious than this failing shell you are dragging around. Stand firm in service to God until the day you are called home to him. Hear the word of the Lord in Isaiah 41:10: fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Christian, the Lord is able to strengthen you with power through his Holy Spirit in your inner man. Trust him.
There is another aspect to this strength we receive. In the first part of verse 17 Paul tells us, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. This goes along with the Spirit within us. In John 17:23 Jesus promises to be in his followers. He is present with us through the Spirit. When the Spirit is at work in us, Christ is at work in us.
Christian, the whole trinity is at work in your life. It is the Father who has authority to send us aid, to cause us to be strengthened. He strengthens us by giving us his Spirit and through the Spirit, Jesus. There is no disagreement within the trinity on whether or not humans should receive divine aid. We would be helpless if all of God were not at work in us. Thus Paul adds to his prayer in verse 19, asking that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. This fullness is possible because God is not divided in his work for us. The Father sends the Spirit, through the Spirit we have the Son. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit and because of the Spirit you have Jesus within you. How can you overcome the world? Because God is at work within you to strengthen and sustain. You will be victorious in the world because he is victorious in you.
But it all comes back to faith. Verse 17 says that Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith. This does not happen automatically for everyone but only for those who have faith in the Son of God. If you are a believer then you have this faith and you have this Father, Son, and Spirit. You may feel your faith assaulted. The devil loves to go after faith and we live in a world absolutely full of people trying to create doubt. But know that your faith is sustained by your Father. Paul does not plead with us to have more faith; he prays that the Father would strengthen our faith. Christian, here again is the source of your strength. It is not you. Faith does not come from your determination to believe, it comes as the Father strengthens it within us.
How should you respond to trouble in life? Not by stiffening your shoulders, tensing your muscles, and pushing through by your strength. You will surely fall. Endure trial on your knees, praying to the Father for strength. He is able, and he is willing. What looks like a position of weakness, of surrender, is the Christian position of strength. As we said earlier, I do not mean you must pray on your knees, but I do mean you must pray! As Paul prays for the believers, so you too pray. For yourself and for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Pray to the Father Lord God, do not let me go! And do not let them go. I feel the coldness in my heart, I feel the battle pressing, I know my grip slipped long ago – I cannot make it! Then you will know it is the hand of Jesus that holds you. Peter could not walk on those stormy waves unless the Son enabled him, and when Peter fell into the seas it was the Son who grabbed him and pulled him back to security. Your only chance for safety is in the hands of your God. Rest in him. Seek him out in your prayers. Intercede for your brothers that Christ might hold them above the waves. We are all inches from drowning, or inches from the flames, kept safe only by the strong arm of our God. And he has promised to sustain us, to see us safely to the day of Christ Jesus our Lord. Trust in him and him alone.