A Prayer for and the Power of Knowing

[0:00] And in case you were wondering what the connection is between Psalm 100 and Ephesians 1, the passage that we're looking at this morning, it's really around this idea of knowing.

[0:13] ! Now, you may be very surprised if you know me at all well, that I'm reading from a psalm but not preaching from a psalm, which is quite unusual. But Psalm 100, there are seven commands in Psalm 100. Shout, worship, come before him. Then the central one is know, and then enter his gates, give thanks.

[0:40] And so you've got seven commands that revolve around this idea of knowing. Knowing that the Lord is God. And Paul says something quite similar in his prayer. His prayer for the church is that we would know him better.

[1:00] And that's what links these two passages. Now, we don't normally use know as a command in English, do we? You either know something or you don't. You've either learnt something or you've not.

[1:14] But the psalmist here in Psalm 100 says, know that the Lord is God. This is something that he expects us to take upon ourselves.

[1:25] And Paul prays a similar prayer for us in Ephesians chapter 1. So, this morning we're on Ephesians chapter 1 and Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus, or really I should say Paul's prayer for the churches in Ephesus.

[1:42] Because it was probably a circular letter that was shared amongst all of the churches within that part of Asia Minor, modern day Turkey.

[1:56] There would be churches spread throughout the area. So, we have actually got very early manuscripts with slightly variant titles, which shows that it was going to all of the churches throughout that area.

[2:18] And this is Paul's prayer for the church. So, he's praying for the church. He's praying for the churches throughout that area. And that's what we get in verses 15 to 23 of Ephesians chapter 1.

[2:32] For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

[2:44] And then Paul goes on to outline his prayer for the church. And I was just thinking, surely that's something that we want to take note of, isn't it?

[2:55] What is it that the Apostle Paul, the great missionary Apostle, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one whom God used so powerfully to see the spread of the gospel throughout the known world of his day, and eventually coming to our own lands here in the 5th, 6th century, whatever.

[3:23] What is it that Paul prays for the people of God? How do you feel about church?

[3:45] Let me just ask that question. I'm not going to make anyone answer that question aloud. Please, don't worry. How do we feel about church? When somebody asks me how things are going at church, I'll often reply, and I was just thinking about this the other day, I'll often reply, you know, church is church.

[4:05] And then I thought, what do I mean by that? Everyone kind of nods and acknowledges that they know what I mean. But then I was thinking, well, what do I mean by that?

[4:16] And then I guess what I mean by that is church is probably full of all of the contradictions that we expect in human life. Church is in some ways the best place to be where we have great fellowship and we experience great care and where we can genuinely experience great love.

[4:38] But church is often also a place of human weakness, isn't it? It's a place of human fallibility. It's a place where we experience all of the contradictions of the life of faith, isn't it?

[4:55] It's a place where we experience the very best that the life of faith has to offer. And sometimes we experience something less than that. And so it just got me thinking about just this whole question of what is it that Paul is seeking to see in the church?

[5:17] How's that reflected in this prayer? So this great apostle used by God for the expansion of the gospel across so many lands, which, you know, ultimately leading to the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

[5:34] What is it that the apostle Paul prays for the church? With all of its goodness, with all of the good things that the church has to offer, and with all of its weakness, all of its humanity, and all of its fallibility, what is it that Paul prays for the church?

[5:55] And I just thought that would be a valuable thing for us to think about. But I guess we in the West, when we think about the church, we often feel a little bit discouraged, don't we?

[6:11] You know, we are very much a minority within the culture within which we live. In fact, we're a small minority within the culture in which we live.

[6:23] And I guess statistically, in many ways, we're a declining minority within the culture in which we live. And the world around the Bouters is becoming increasingly secular.

[6:34] And so Christian values and Christian ideas are becoming increasingly alien within the world of which we're a part. Now, I think there are two things that I would say.

[6:45] Is that often how we feel about the church? It's certainly, I think that's, I preach a lot around the different churches. And, you know, there can often be a slightly pessimistic tone when we think about the church and the future of the church.

[7:01] And yet, there are a couple of things that I would point out. Firstly, is that the industrialized West is the only part of the world where that description is true.

[7:13] It's the only part of the world where the church statistically is in decline. Throughout the rest of the world, the church is growing. So we shouldn't absolutize our experience, should we?

[7:26] We should lift our eyes and we should give thanks to God for all of the growth that we're seeing in the church across the world, around the Bouters, across different parts of the world.

[7:40] And the second thing is there seems to be, just within the last five or ten years, something of a denial of that downward trend, even in the industrialized West.

[7:56] We're selling more Bibles than we've ever sold before. And the interesting thing there is that that uptick in Bible sales is not amongst people of our generation, approaching our prime.

[8:11] That uptick in Bible sales is amongst the younger generation. It's the so-called, I refuse to call them Gen Z.

[8:22] So I will call them Gen Z. It's amongst the younger generation, 18 to 35, where we see this uptick in interest in things spiritual.

[8:33] And that is slowly been reflected in church attendance as well, in many parts of the UK.

[8:44] So we often may feel discouraged, but we need to just lift our eyes and see the reality of what's going on in the world around the Bouters, even if it's not our present reality necessarily here and now, but also to recognize the good things that are going on within our own culture.

[9:02] So, what is Paul's prayer for the church? Effectively, there are three objects, three things that Paul prays for when he prays for the church.

[9:14] And you'll notice these as you read through the passage. It's typically Pauline. It's kind of, what we have here is two, but very long and very complex sentences, which in English we have to break down into four or five sentences for it to make sense.

[9:31] But don't worry, it's not as bad as his previous sentences. So, verses 3 to 14 in Ephesians chapter 1, that's a single sentence in Greek. A single sentence with all loads and loads of different subclosses that we have to break down into sentences and paragraphs and so on.

[9:49] But really there are three objects of prayer, three things that Paul is praying for here. Firstly, you'll see in verse 17, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation to what end?

[10:11] So that you may know him better. So, what does he pray for first? That we may know him better. And then secondly, in verse 18, that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

[10:30] Know him better. Know the hope to which he has called you. And then thirdly, in verse 19, that you may know his incomparably great power for those who believe.

[10:47] His incomparably great power for those who believe. So what does Paul pray for the church in Ephesus? And by extension for the church in Invergordon?

[11:00] Paul prays that we would know God better. That we would know the hope that we would have. And that we would know the power that God manifests towards us.

[11:16] The power that is available to us all in prayer. That is Paul's prayer for the church. For the church universal.

[11:27] That we would know God. That we would know the hope that we would have. And that we would know the power to which we have access in prayer.

[11:38] These are the three foci. Okay. That is the application for today's sermon. Okay. So if you're wondering about the application. The application is that when we pray. That we would pray that we would know God better.

[11:50] That we would know the hope that we would have. And that we would know the power. That is available to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That should be our focus of prayer for the church. This was Paul's focus of prayer for the church.

[12:03] And that should be our focus of prayer for the church. It should also be what we are thinking about. If these were the kind of the deepest desires of Paul's heart for the church. We should be thinking about how we inculcate these good things in our own lives.

[12:19] How do we come to know God better? How do we know the hope that we have? And how do we know the power that we have?

[12:30] These should be foci for our own lives. These should be foci for our own thinking. So that is your application done and dusted already.

[12:41] But let me just unpack these three ideas for you a little bit more fully. Firstly, in Paul's prayer in verse 15. For this reason.

[12:53] Ever since I've heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints. I have not stopped giving thanks and remembering you in my prayers. So what does a for this reason do?

[13:05] A for this reason always directs you back to the passage that's gone before. So as soon as you come across a for this reason. We tend to read our Bible in fragments, don't we?

[13:16] You know, six verses, eight verses, a chapter, whatever it may be. As soon as you come across a for this reason. You're looking back to what's gone before. And what's gone before is this one great long sentence.

[13:27] From verse 3 through to verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 1. Where Paul focuses on how we are blessed in the heavenly realms. He tells us that we've been chosen before the beginning of the.

[13:41] Before the creation of the cosmos. We've been chosen as part of God's plan before the creation of the world. We have been adopted as children.

[13:51] We have been redeemed. We have been forgiven. And quite clearly Paul sees the church as part of God's plan for the world. So you've got these great, these incredible theological statements.

[14:07] In Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 3 to 14. For this reason. Because that is true. Paul has not stopped praying for the church in Ephesus.

[14:22] And indeed we can extend that into the church more generally. Ever since I heard of your faith and loved in the saints. I've not stopped giving thanks. Remembering you in my prayers.

[14:35] Two other interesting little things there. Not stopped giving thanks. Is that something that we do for one another? Not stopped giving thanks and remembering you in our prayers.

[14:49] Thanksgiving is an attitude setter, isn't it? When we sit down and give thanks for people. When we sit down and give thanks for the people in our congregation.

[15:02] For the people in these seats around about you. It shapes the way in which we think about them, doesn't it? It shapes the way in which we view one another in that sense.

[15:16] So yes, I mean, the people in the church in Ephesus. I'm sure some of them could have been blooming annoying. You know, they weren't perfect. They were human. Like the rest of us.

[15:27] And yet, Paul gave. I've not stopped giving thanks. Because of these great theological truths. I've not stopped giving thanks. And remembering you in my prayers.

[15:37] And that's that difference. Remembering you in prayer. We'll often remember people, won't we? But we need to turn that remembrance of people into remembrance in prayer. Remembering you in my prayer.

[15:49] So it's not, you know, it's not a sentimental remembering in that sense. It's not thinking about the good times. But it's turning those thoughts into prayers for one another. And I think that's, again, an important and practical thing, isn't it?

[16:03] When somebody comes to mind, just to turn that thought into a prayer. So we pray with thanksgiving. And we pray remembering one another in prayer.

[16:16] And then these three objects that we might know God better. Notice the relational theme here. Verse 17. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus.

[16:32] Jesus, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him. So notice the relational tone there. So it's not just the Lord Jesus, but our Lord Jesus.

[16:48] And we pray to God not as a distant God. But we pray to God as Father. But again, relational in that sense.

[16:58] Now, I can fully appreciate that, you know, in any congregation, you know, folks will have mixed experiences of fatherhood.

[17:08] And so the idea of fatherhood or the term father may not be an entirely positive thing in your mind.

[17:21] But the language that Paul is using here and the imagery that Paul is using is of the perfection of fatherhood. Fatherhood as in its very best form.

[17:33] The best way that it can be imagined. He's reminding us with this language of fatherhood that we approach and we can approach in prayer because our God cares for us.

[17:47] It's not an abstract God. He's not a distant God. He's our Father. Fatherhood. It's our Lord Jesus. And he is our Father. And just as a good father wants to give good gifts and see good things happen for their children, you know, that's multiplied beyond imagination in terms of God's heart and God's attitude towards us.

[18:16] Any good father would want to give good things for his child. And that is the case to perfection in God the Father.

[18:27] So we've got this fundamentally relational basis here. He hears our prayers and he answers those prayers because he loves us. Quite simply.

[18:39] Because he loves us. And we can so often get focused on our failings and our inadequacies and what we've not done for God. But he's not. He's God of grace and he's a God of forgiveness.

[18:51] He is a God of great love. And so as a good father, as a loving father, he hears and he answers those prayers. The glorious father as well, which is an interesting one.

[19:05] Do I have time? Oh, no, I don't have time. Oh, well. The glorious father. The whole thing there, the glory of God, when it filled the temple, when it filled the tabernacle, it meant nobody else could enter.

[19:21] You see that? So, you know, Exodus chapter 40, when God's glory filled the tabernacle, no one could approach. Same in Isaiah 6, for example.

[19:34] God's glory descends in the temple. And Isaiah's crushed by his sinfulness. But here, what do we have? We've got this language of the glorious father, the father of glory.

[19:46] And yet we're called to approach. We're called to draw near. Because of the work that Jesus has done. Because he has, in that sense, made us perfect in God's eyes.

[20:01] We can approach the father in all of his glory and place our intercessions and prayers before them. There you go. I did it very quickly. So, the God of glory, God of great power.

[20:13] And he prays also that God would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know him better.

[20:24] It's not something that we can do by ourselves in that sense. It's something that we're dependent on God. But we have this lovely Trinitarian promise here, haven't we? We approach God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:36] Our Lord Jesus Christ. We approach the glorious father through our Lord Jesus Christ. And he sends the spirit. He gives us the spirit so that we may know him better.

[20:50] It's that lovely, just a lovely image of the action of the triune God coming together. So that, to what end? So that we may know him better.

[21:02] It really is a beautiful picture that we see here. The second object is that we may know the hope. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. So that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

[21:17] The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Know the hope. Know the inheritance that we have. These things are sure.

[21:28] These things are set. These things are certain. Again, I need to watch my time. So I don't want to abuse your hospitality here. But there's that real sense.

[21:38] You know, you'll skip lunch if you know you're going to have a big dinner. Won't you? Or, you know, my family love to camp. And, you know, you can go camping for a fortnight.

[21:52] Because you know you will be coming back to a nice comfortable bed at some point. Do you see what I mean? That kind of future hope shapes present reality.

[22:06] And life can be hard. Life can be difficult. And as Christians we can feel marginalized. In decline. Whatever. And yet we know that there is this glorious optimistic picture.

[22:20] Of people from every tribe. And every tongue. And every nation. Gathered around the throne of God. Worshipping and glorifying his name.

[22:32] There is a sure and certain hope. And we can rest in that hope. C.S. Lewis said. He said many things. But one of the things that he said.

[22:43] Is that the Christian should only be focused on two times. Today and eternity. Today and eternity.

[22:55] The temptation isn't that we look back. We look back to the days when things were better. Or we look forward thinking. Oh, if only got a pay rise. If only, you know, we look forward. The next things would make life better.

[23:07] But Lewis is saying. No, no. Focus on two things. Today and eternity. What's God calling us to do today? And what's that eternal promise that we have?

[23:20] Which impacts everything. That we do today. And so we focus on that unshakable hope.

[23:31] Those sure promises. That certain reward. That we see in the scriptures. Knowing that our God is faithful. He has promised us a new heaven.

[23:43] And a new earth. A restored and sinless reality. That is what we look forward to. And in the meantime. We work as hard as we can.

[23:55] With his help. To bring about such a reality. In our present circumstances. So know the hope. Think about the hope. Think about all of the promises of scripture.

[24:06] And allow those. To influence who we are. And how we live our lives. Today. And then thirdly. Paul prays that we would know. His incomparably great power.

[24:18] For us who believe. His incomparably great power. All this in the context of prayer. Isn't it? And I think sometimes we forget.

[24:32] That we access the very throne room of grace. We enter into the presence. Of the God who made all things. The creator. Of the cosmos.

[24:45] And you know. There's a lot more that I could say here. But I won't. We need to remind ourselves in prayer. We may feel discouraged.

[24:56] We may feel a minority. We may feel that the church. Is on a downward slide. But that is not necessarily the case. And we as the people of God.

[25:07] We have the privilege. Of entering into his presence. And experiencing in prayer. That great power. The same power. That raised Christ from the dead.

[25:20] And seated him with all authority. Over all things. That power is accessible to us. As we come before. The living God.

[25:31] In prayer. And I sometimes feel that we just. The temptation can be. To pray small prayers. Can't it? The temptation can be.

[25:41] To pray small prayers. When our God is. A great big God. And if our God is. A great big God. Then surely. We as his people.

[25:53] With this lovely. Trinitarian promise of access. Surely we as his people. Should be praying great big prayers. I'm reminded of the words.

[26:06] Of William Carey. One of the forefathers. Of mission to the Indian. Indian subcontinent. William Carey. Once wrote.

[26:18] To his brother. Or his sister. I can't remember which. But he wrote. That we must. Attempt great things. For God. And expect great things.

[26:30] From God. Attempt great things. For God. And expect. Great things. From God. And so folks.

[26:40] I think. Just. As we look into. Paul's prayer. Here. We just need to lift our eyes. Don't we? We just need to lift our eyes. Again. And to remind.

[26:51] Ourself. Of the God. Whom we worship. Remind ourselves. Of what he is like. Of who he is. And what he is like. We see the sure hope.

[27:03] That we have. In the promises. That he has made. To us. His people. And we recognize afresh. The sure power. That he offers to us.

[27:15] By his son. And through his spirit. As we approach him. In prayer. And so let's. Let's. Pray great prayers.

[27:28] Folks. Let's pray great prayers. And expect. To see. The world around us. Radically. Transformed. By. Those prayers.

[27:38] I keep asking. That the God. Of our Lord Jesus Christ. The glorious Father. May give you the spirit. Of wisdom.

[27:49] And revelation. So that you may know. Him. Better. Amen.