Ephesians: Praying to the Father
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Eph. 3:14-15.
Here we are, back to where Paul wanted to go at the beginning of chapter 3.
Paul here is finally getting back to his inital thought that he started in v1.
Paul must have been a Baptist Preacher, because this is not the first time he has chased a rabbit.
Paul picks back up in unique fashion, and begins informing the believers in Ephesus that he is praying for them. This prayer is most likley the best picture of what prayer is.
Prayer is worship and praise.
Prayer is conversation with God.
Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.
Prayer is the guide to perfection.
Prayer is the overflowing of the heart in the presence of God
Prayer is a cry of hope.
Prayer is an effort to lay hold of God himself, the author of life.
Prayer is petitions and pleas
Prayer is a unworthy sinner coming before a holy God.
This is no buda that we are coming before
This is no father dressed like a mother that we are coming before
This is the only true and living God.
The Creator of all things and sustainer of all things created
This is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending
The holiest of holies
The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations Prayer, Definitions Of
What you love you worship; true prayer, real prayer, is nothing but loving: what you love, that you pray to.
Augustine of Hippo
That is who it is that we are praying to and Paul is going to make that very clear to us this morning.
So My prayer is that at the end of the message this morning, you have a better understanding of who it is that we are praying to, how our prayer life should be and how important prayers are for others.
So if you will allow me the next few moments I would like to preach on, Praying to the Father.
The first thing we see is...
I.The Purpose for Prayer
I.The Purpose for Prayer
(v.1a,14a) “For this cause...”
For this cause, shows us that there is a motive for his prayers.
To find out the motive we must go back to what Paul is referring to.
In the last verses of chapter 2 we find the purpose for Paul’s prayer.
He is praying specifically for fellow believers because they are fellow believers and they need to be reminded of that.
as we will see tonight, he wants God to strengthen them in the spirit and settle them in the faith and strengthen their love in Christ.
This makes me ask
How often do you pray for a fellow believer just because they are a fellow believer and you want God to dispel any doubt they may have?
How often do you pray for fellow believers because you know what it is like to struggle in the faith?
How many times do you pray for those that are in other countries?
Paul could not get to his readers but he could pray for them and he wanted them to know that there was someone praying for fellow believers.
We need to get in the habit of praying for fellow believers just because they are fellow believers.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
II. The Posture for Prayer
II. The Posture for Prayer
“I bow my knee..”
Bowing the knee was not typical for a Jew. Most Jews stood when they prayed.
Pauls posture shows us that there are times that getting on our faces before God is needed.
This expression brings us face to face with the whole question of our posture in prayer.
This is a matter which has troubled people in two diametrically opposed ways; they tend to go to one extreme or the other.
But the Scripture is quite clear on the matter.
It teaches that sometimes men bow their knees or they kneel in prayer; but it is equally clear in its teaching that others stand in prayer.
Both methods are mentioned in the Scripture, and even others, such as lying prostrate on the ground.
This question must detain us for a moment because it can so easily be handled in a wrong, and even foolish, manner.
There are two extremes to be noted.
The one extreme is formalism, and the other is thoughtlessness or casualness.
Formalism virtually teaches that unless we actually kneel we are not praying at all.
There are people who honestly believe that those that do not bend the knee never truly pray
To such people the kneeling is vital and essential to prayer.
They forget all about the references to standing in the Bible.
We can put into this selfsame category all who think that forms of liturgy are absolutely essential.
You know, say the right words and utter scripture after scripture.
These types think those that seem to be short or lack scripture have never prayed
On the other side are those who assert the principle of liberty. Just pray anyway you like say anything you want.
The principle of liberty can also be pressed too far, with the result that it becomes lazy, looseness, laxity, and thoughtlessness and can lead to a manner of prayer that is totally unworthy of God.
Surely the vital principle involved is that it is not the posture or the attitude in and of itself that matters; but what it represents and what it indicates.
Bowing the knees is an indication of reverence, of what the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews means when he writes in Chapter 12 of ‘reverence and godly fear’.
King James Version (Chapter 12:28b
serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
It is indicative of an attitude of worship and of adoration and of praise.
It is obvious that you can drop on your knees mechanically when certain words are uttered, but your heart may be far away.
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
This can be seen by those people whose reverence is entirely determined by the type of building in which they are found.
If they are in certain cathedral-like types of building they walk softly and they speak in whispers; but the moment they go outside they may be blaspheming and cursing.
So what they are doing in the building is not displaying reverence, it is simply the case that the building has affected them psychologically.
Scripture is not interested in that type of behaviour.
There are men who may be most devout in their postures, in their crossing of themselves, and in striking other attitudes;
but that is valueless unless it is truly an expression of the state of their hearts.
And it is here that the expression used by the Apostle is so important and so interesting.
We have all been in those meeting where one after another stands up and asks God to meet a need without ever truly coming before the throne of grace.
There has been no mention of His majesty and His glory.
There has been no ‘bowing of the knees’.
Some were perhaps literally on their knees, but their spirits were not bowed.
All was taken for granted.
They seem to have an attitude of casual talk with a buddy
Paul dispels this type of attitude.
If ever a man knew God and who it was that he was approaching it was Paul and Paul says, “I bow my knee”.
He knew who he was approaching.
He was not approaching his buddy, yes he was approaching with boldness and confidence but it was accompanied with ‘reverence and godly fear’ because Paul knew that ‘our God is a consuming fire’.
We know that we have access, but we need to remember that it is access into the presence of the living God in all His glory and His power.
‘I bow my knees’.
This is Worship, adoration, praise!
We must never proceed to particular petitions until we have first worshipped and praised and thanked God, and submitted ourselves utterly and entirely to Him
The word unto carries with it the idea of in front of. It literally means face to face.
Paul bows his knees in order to come face to face with God.
The moment that we realize and understand that prayer means coming face to face with God, we will do nothing less then a bending of the knees.
Isaiah had that understanding of God, Isa.6:5
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
When John realized who he was in front of he fell to the ground like a dead man. Rev. 1:17
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
If we had just a glimpse of God, we would tremble being face to face with Him.
Lets praise God, for wherever we may be, whatever our circumstances, in and through the Lord Jesus we can always come face to face with a holy and righteous God.
III. The Privilege for Prayer
III. The Privilege for Prayer
“Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
Paul prays with assurance because he is praying in the only name that matters, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is also letting his readers know that they can pray the same way he is, because they have access to the Father just like he does.
We have a great privilege, we can come to God by way of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this knowledge should cause us to shout with joy.
We are not praying to Buda, we are praying to the God of heaven.
We are not praying to God through a priest, we are praying directly to God by the access granted to us by His Son.
AMEN!!!
This is a great privilege that we have. Paul was letting his readers know that regardless of their situation, prayer is the one thing that can never be taken away from them.
In many ways in this cruel and uncertain modern world of ours, having the privilege to come before the throne of grace in prayer is one of the most comforting and consoling truths we can ever learn.
Think of what this means to thousands, of Christian’s in various parts of the world at this moment.
Some are in prison, and some in labour camps.
Some are in the darkest parts of the jungle hiding from certain death.
They are subject to untold suffering and indignities but thank God they can still pray.
The spirit of prayer is still free in spite of all the cruel tyrants.
Men may forbid us to speak with our lips, but even were they to stitch our lips together we can still pray in our spirits, still keep on praying to God.
This is always applicable to us whatever our circumstances may happen to be at the moment.
There are times when as Christians we seem to be in some kind of prison.
We may be hemmed in and tied down, perhaps by illness or some physical weakness or by circumstances, or circumstances may prevent us from coming to the House of God or of having fellowship with others.
Christian people often find themselves in some such circumstance.
let us remember that whatever circumstances or evil men may do to us, there is always open to us this particular ministry and activity.
Nothing need ever hinder it.
In other words if you find yourself ill and confined to a sick bed, that does not mean that you are useless for the time being, it does not mean that you can do nothing.
You can still go on praying.
You can pray for yourself; you can pray for others; you can be taking part in a great ministry of intercession.
I fear though we have forgotten this. We have become a generation of Christians that tend to live on attendance.
We think that the only time we can pray is when we are gathered together corporately.
We think that if we are not at church we cant access the throne room of God.
Child of God, no matter where you are or how you feel, you have the great privilege of prayer.
IV. The Pedigree for Prayer
IV. The Pedigree for Prayer
“Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”
Its not just that we have the privilege to pray, its our pedigree that gives us the privilege.
Here In verse 15 we have a a very interesting statement.
The ‘of whom’ really means ‘after whom’, or indeed ‘from whom’.
the word ‘family’, as meaning ‘belonging to a common stock’.
Such is the meaning of the word ‘family’ in and of itself.
It may also mean a tribe or a class or a nation.
Furthermore, every family has a family name.
The family name derives from some original father; the tribes of Israel all took their names from a particular man.
‘Our Lord came from the family and lineage of David’; He was ‘of the seed of David according to the flesh’. All groups are given their names from some such origin.
What family is Paul referring to though?
Of course, none other then the redeemed.
We are from the stock of God.
The Eph. believers have the right pedigree and Paul is wanting them to know that.
To have access to the father , you must have the right pedigree.
The only ones that could be inside the holy place was Levites.
They had to have the right pedigree.
Not just anyone could be the high priest, the high priest had to have a direct linage to Aaron.
You had to have the pedigree to get access to God.
That has not changed in 5000 years. You must be from the linage of Christ.
The only way God will allow you access to him is if you are one of His blood related children.
You may have been made in the image of God, but unless you have been born again, you have not had a blood transfusion and you are still a child of the devil and therefore you have no privilege to access the throne room because you dont have the right pedigree.
Get the right pedigree and you can have the privilage!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul has just shown us what it is to really pray to the Father.
He has shown us that our purpose and our posture need to be right, but he has also showed us that we have a great privilege because we have a pedigree and that is why we can go to the Father in prayer.
Our pedigree gives us access into the throne room and I believe Paul used this form of expression “the whole family” in order to teach these Ephesian Christians not to think of themselves any longer as Gentiles.
They were to think of themselves now as the children of God, as belonging to God’s great family.
Nothing we can ever learn is more precious for us than to realize this glorious truth.
You may be unknown by the world, you may be insignificant, or you may feel that you are forgotten, that no one knows anything about you; and that may be true.
But if you are ‘in Christ’, if you are a Christian, you belong to God, you are in His family, and your Father has His eye upon you.
Nothing can happen to you apart from Him and without His permission; ‘the hairs of your head are all numbered’.
You are as much His child as the greatest saint, the mightiest apostle, that has ever lived.
We all have this access into His presence because We belong to His family.
Let us never forget it; and especially as we pray and approach God in worship.
But let us never forget that we also display His name in our conduct and behaviour.
We know what it is to be proud of our families and of ‘the family name’.
We know what it is to be proud of country, of a class, or group, or school—proud of the name!
So as Christians let us always remember that the Name that is on us is the Name of God, ‘from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named’.
What matters is no longer the family of David, no longer this tribe or that tribe, no longer this country or that country, this class or that class, this group or that group.
No! The family name which I claim is the Name of God, and I am to live in this world as one who represents that family, as one who represents that Father.
His Name is on me; so May men never think meanly of Him and His Name because of what they see in me!
May God open our eyes to the privileges that are ours through the Name that is on us, and also to the high, and in many ways the dread responsibility of having upon us the Name of God!