Title: A STARTLING PRAYER LIST
Focus: Deepen and enrich the heart of your prayer life with increasing knowledge of the triune God.
Function: To move the people to deepen their commitment to Christ by centering their prayers on God’s call, inheritance, and power.
Text: Ephesians 1:15-23
In early May, 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands; the Germans encountered unexpected resistance, and thus the German war machine-without any warning—bombed the heart of the city of Rotterdam. That broke the resistance of the Dutch soldiers and the German occupation began.
As a kid I grew up near the city of Rotterdam, and thus I developed a strong awareness of that horrendous bombing. I still remember the trembling voice of one of my aunts who lived through that bombing with her husband and children. After the war, Rotterdam revived and began the great reconstruction.
In order to never forget the bombing of the heart of Rotterdam, its citizens commissioned a Russian/French painter and sculptor by the name of Ossip Zadkine to make a statue. The statue was placed near the harbor of Rotterdam in 1953. You can see it today (on the screen as well). The statue is of a man whose hands and head are raised to the heavens, crying out to God in anguish. And as you look up you’ll notice that this man has a hole in his heart, signifying the German bombing of the core of Rotterdam.
As you contemplate the statue you wonder: what’s he saying? Is he crying out to God, asking for help, protection, healing? Is he perhaps uttering curses on his enemies? Or in his reaching out to God for mercy for himself, is he also praying for forgiveness for his enemies, saying, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
I wonder what’s on the prayer list of this man with a hole in his heart. Listening to Paul’s prayer list found in Ephesians 1:15-23, I think that Paul would say: “I hope that this man deepens and enriches his prayer life with an increasing knowledge of the triune God.”
I don’t know about you, congregation, but Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 rattles me. I find his prayer list so intensely spiritual, rich and deep, while I find my own prayers at times very anemic, yes, shallow, and often self-centered: “Lord, be with me; Lord, give me; Lord, help me; Lord, bless me.” How do we get beyond these self-centered prayers? How do we deepen our prayer life? How do we, having found new life in Christ Jesus, grow in faith and in our commitment to Christ and his church?
In this passage, I think that Paul shows us the way: Deepen and enrich your prayer life with increasing knowledge of the triune God.
Verses 15-23 of Ephesians 1 consist primarily of a prayer uttered by the apostle Paul. Consider, first of all,
· The context of Paul’s prayer: This morning we read verses 1-14 of chapter one. There we find the apostle uttering praise to God for all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. These spiritual blessings find their origin in God’s electing love, which he worked out in Christ Jesus before the creation of the world. In the first half of chapter I, then, we notice a context of praise. In fact, verses 1-14 make up, in the words of John Stott “a great benediction.” (p. 51)
Now this context of praise is followed by a great intercession (Stott). Listen: “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
The wondrous blessings of God which lead to a new life of faith and love stir up a wonderful, rich prayer. As Paul contemplates the teeter totter of his life, Paul burst forth—on the one hand—with God’s benedictions or blessings in verses 1-14 and—on the other hand—finishes with a passionate prayer or intercession. Such is the context of the passage: a great benediction and a great intercession.
Secondly, note
· The Trinitarian approach in Paul’s prayer: Listen (vs. 17) “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” As Paul prays to God, Paul fellowships with God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul is personally engaged with our personal God.
God is not some kind of force or invisible entity far removed from us. On the contrary, God comes to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And in that way, we personally meet God. God is relational, precisely because he reveals himself as Three-in-One.
Paul demonstrates this Trinitarian awareness and relationship with God also in that first part of chapter 1. In verse 17 he mentions the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in one breath of prayer. In verse 3 Paul does the same. There, in one breath of praise, Paul blesses the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, saying:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
I think that the apostle Paul teaches us today that we need to deepen our prayer life with the personal awareness that God reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that in our prayers we need to address him as such. In that way, we deepen our relationship with God and encounter him—NOT as some far away entity or force, but as personal God. In fact, by praying Trinitarian prayers we find ourselves included in the fellowship circle of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, note
· The startling riches and depth of Paul’s prayer: In our culture today, we are taught to think of ourselves as sovereign, independent, self-sufficient. As such, we learn to act very quickly in a self-centered way, in a narcissistic way—where everything centers on I, Me, and Myself.
Eugene Peterson (p. 33 Eat This Book) refers to this way of thinking about ourselves as “the Sovereign Self.” And this has led to a very subtle undermining of God’s sovereign being as the holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now God is “competing” with the holy “trinity” of our Sovereign Self—namely, our (un)holy wants, needs, and feelings.
Our culture promotes this trio of our selves. And this triad of wants, needs, and feelings has a sneaky way of elevating our selves on the throne of attention. They deceive us in thinking that we are the center of the universe.
Thus we need to watch out that we do not bow down to them. What matters is NOT the trio of my wants, needs, and feelings, but the living God who comes to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trio of the sovereign self cheapens our prayers. But praying in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit deepens, enriches our prayer life.
Did you notice how keen Paul is on praying that we may “know the Lord”? (vs. 17) “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.”
Growing in knowledge is impossible without God revealing himself. Therefore, we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. We need illumination, spiritual discernment, light from heaven, so that we may see with the eyes of faith the greatness of God. Such spiritual enlightenment will help us to deepen and enrich our prayer lists and our prayer life. How?
By centering our prayers on God’s call, God’s inheritance, and God’s power.
DEEPENING OUR PRAYERS
Take a good look at the passage, and note
· God’s call: (vs. 18a) “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which (God) has called you….”
God has called us to hope. What is the hope of this calling? (Stott, p. 55ff)
--To belong to Jesus Christ and into the fellowship of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:6; I Cor. 1:9)
--To be saints; to be holy (Rom. 1:7; I Peter 1:15)
--To be free (free from the bondage to the Law (Gal. 5:1,13)
--Into one body (Eph. 4:1,2) to love each other, bear with each other (Col. 3:15)
(Stott) “God called us to Christ and holiness, to freedom and peace, to suffering and glory…a call to an altogether new life in which we know, love, obey and serve Christ, enjoy fellowship with him and with each other, and look beyond our present suffering to the glory which will one day be revealed.” This is the hope to which he has called us. Knowing the reality of this hope will deepen and enrich our prayer life.
We also deepen our prayer life and increase our knowledge of God by centering our prayers on
· God’s inheritance: (vs. 18b)
Listen: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which (God) has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints….”
(Stott). God’s inheritance points to what God is giving (and will give in its fullness) at the end of time when the Lord Jesus comes in all his glory. Note, for example, I Peter 1:4. We are heirs (Rom. 8:17) We deepen our prayer life and relationship with God as we know, ponder, embrace, and glory in that what is to come. As a farmer works his fields and always looks for that perfect harvest, so we anticipate already today the new heavens and earth. Our inheritance is sure to come. Let that inheritance stimulate our prayers, prod our hope, and stabilize our restless souls!
Finally, increasing our knowledge of God and deepening our prayers also require that we pay attention to
· God’s power: (vs. 19-23)
Listen: “I pray…that you may know…(God’s) incomparably great power for us who believe.”
Ah! The power of God! It has revealed itself in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. At the heart of the Christian faith stands Jesus’ victory over death. It points to God’s Spirit, by whose power God has raised Christ from the dead. And we who believe in Christ Jesus have been given this Spirit of God. As Paul says in vs. 13,14 “Having believed, you were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession….” This is why we may seek (or know) the power of God as we pray in the Spirit. And praying in the resurrection Spirit of Christ will deepen our prayers and faith.
The power of God is also found in Jesus’ Lordship. Jesus has ascended and rules as Lord over all, including the powers of evil, wickedness and demons. Praying in the conviction that Christ is victorious over the powers deepens our prayers, because we will find strength to stand firm against all these powers we must oppose today—as Paul says in Eph. 6:12 “Our struggle is…against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
When I contemplate the statue of Zadkine in Rotterdam—the statue of the man whose heart is shot out and who cries in anguish to God, I do not minimize the pain and fear and sorrow so many people face today. Nor do I wish to suggest that Christians do not experience such anguish. On the contrary, we do at times!
However, today we learn that our prayers are deepened, our faith enriched, and our knowledge of God increased, when we center our prayers—all of them—on God’s call to us, God’s inheritance unto us, and God’s power for us.
May we become strong in prayer and in the knowledge of God, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.