God's Purpose for Redeemer Bible Fellowship - Ephesians 3:14-21

Ephesians 3 and the Church’s Glorious Purpose

This afternoon, if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, take them and turn with me to Ephesians chapter three, Ephesians and the third chapter, Ephesians and chapter number.

Three.

If you don't have a Bible, we give away some red Bibles in the back there, and if you grab one of those, it's on page 1034, 1034, Ephesians and chapter number three, and we're going to look, as you can see up on screen there, at verses 14 through to 21, Ephesians chapter three and verses 14 through to 21, Paul's letters to the Ephesians chapter number three and verses 14 through to 21.

It's our custom here at Redeemer that before we engage in the preaching of God's word, we stand out of reverence for God's word as we read it, so if you're able to, can I invite you to stand with me as we read this portion of sacred scripture, Ephesians chapter three, beginning in verse 14.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now, to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

And all God's people said, amen.

Well, let's pray, ask for the Spirit's help, and then we will get to working God's word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is inspired by your Spirit and testifies to your Son.

We thank you that every time we open it, you have something to say to us. You have some word of comfort, some word of challenge, some word of correction. And Father, I pray especially for this message and for texts like this, that your Spirit would be at work doing all three of those, comforting and challenging and, if need be, correcting, and all for your glory.

Father, it's our custom to pray every week for another area church. Father, we want to thank you for Creekside Bible Church, formerly Rogue Valley Community.

Church.

Thank you for the great unity there as they sought to change their name and have something more reflective of who they are. Thank you for Pastor Lucas Bradburn, Pastor Frank Matz, and all the eldership there at Creekside.

Pray that you would bless them in this new season, even as they've changed names, the mission remains the same, that we would know, love, and serve you more. We pray that for them and pray that for us, even now.

May your Word be at work in us, even as it's preached. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. Please be seated. I've said it before in our times here at Redeemer, and I'll say it again because I think it's always good for us to be reminded of this reality.

Jesus loves the church. It's only four words, but those are four words that are so pregnant with meaning. Jesus loves the church. He loves the church because the Father chose the church as a love gift to the Son.

He loves the church so much that He gave up His life for her. He loves the church so much that He orders all things for her benefit, and He continues to intercede for her before His Father's throne. Jesus loves the church.

And since Jesus loves the church, that means He loves local churches, all of them. And that means He loves Redeemer Bible Fellowship. In His love for the church, Christ has a glorious purpose, not just for our church, but for every local church.

And yet, can we be honest and say that not every local church lives up to that glorious.

Purpose?

It's a sad reality of life that as much as Jesus loves every single local church and He sustains every single local church, can we all agree that there are some local churches that for various reasons don't always partake in God's glorious purpose for the church?

I mean, there are all kinds of reasons why that is sadly the case, but it does happen. It's very much a possibility for churches to end up being a pale reflection of Jesus's grand design for the church that He truly loves.

That danger is real for all local churches. I always tell people, theologically I'm Reformed in my view of things, and yet I always tell people I'm not so Reformed as to think that God does everything and we sit around and do nothing.

There is a sense in which there is a danger we can fail in being a part of God's grand and glorious purpose, and that danger is all too real for all local churches, and it's especially real in the churches young and are still developing as ours.

As I said, on a Sunday like this where we are going to think about the direction and goals for our church in not just this year but the years ahead, I think a text like this is highly appropriate. I believe that what Paul has to say to us here in Ephesians chapter 3 is helpful for us as we think about what exactly is God's purpose for not just the church at large but for our local church, and how can we play our part as the people of God in that grand.

Purpose.

If Jesus does indeed have a glorious purpose for His church, if He indeed does have a plan for not just the church at large but for every local church, well the question becomes how does that purpose move from just an idea, just the theoretical as it were, to reality?

Since I'm speaking to this body, allow me to get more specific. If Jesus has a glorious purpose for Redeemer Bible fellowship, how does that purpose move from just an idea and just the theoretical to reality?

Well, that's what I want to consider this afternoon as we come to Ephesians and chapter number 3. Here's my big idea for this message. We—and when I say we, as in this body—we realize God's purpose for the church as we pray and seek the Spirit's power for the glory of God.

Let me say that again.

We realize God's purpose for the church as we pray and seek the Spirit's power for the glory of God. The reality is—I'm going to reemphasize this later on in the message—we can't do this by ourselves.

Any church that thinks that they can realize God's purpose for them by themselves has totally missed the point of why the church exists. No, we cannot do this by ourselves, but even as we can't do this by ourselves, we recognize that there is a role that we need to play in this.

So really my aim in this message is as we come to this State of the Fellowship Sunday this year, I want us to think very carefully about our role in God's purpose for this local.

Body.

With that in mind, I want to consider three realities from this text that will help us to realize God's purpose for Redeemer Bible fellowship. If God indeed has a purpose for Redeemer Bible fellowship, then how do we get from just the idea of that purpose to a reality?

I think Paul has that in mind, maybe not specifically to us—obviously we are not the church at Ephesus—but I think this passage helps us to realize how it is a body of believers who have come together in one place, which is what a local church is, how it is that a local church can realize God's purpose.

Responding to God’s Purpose with Prayer

If we're going to be a part of what God designs to do in and through Redeemer, then first of all, we're going to have to respond to God's purpose with prayer. We're going to have to respond to God's purpose with prayer, verses 14 and 15 of our text.

Now as we come to Ephesians chapter 3, we are diving headlong into the flow of this.

Letter.

This is actually just before the midpoint of this book. Ephesians is six chapters long. Chapter 4 basically forms the midpoint of this book. So we are really jumping into the context of this book a little bit, and so we need to take a few moments and kind of reconstruct what Paul has said up to this point so that everything he prays here will make some sense.

So look at verse 14. Do you know how it starts there, for this reason? Well, that's important. He's clearly building on something he said previously. Now if you look at this and you say, well, okay, that means it's the verses before, right?

Not so fast. Let's do some quick work here. Look at chapter 3 in verse 1. So we're in 14. Jump up to verse 1. It says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles.

Now in most of your translations, do you see that there is a dash after that word Gentiles?

You see that there?

That's showing you that everything Paul's about to say is a diversion from his topic. Paul starts a theme. He starts actually to pray. And then verses 2 through 13 are a spirit-inspired diversion, as it were, where Paul takes a step back for a moment and he reflects on the grand purpose of God as he is creating this new body, this thing that didn't previously exist but now exists.

He describes it as a mystery, something that was hidden before but now has been made known. This reality that Jew and Gentile would be in one body, that they would be not just one body, but that Christ would dwell and indwell this people.

Paul says it was a mystery. It wasn't known in previous ages, but now it's been made known. So it can't be verses 2 to 13 that he says, for this reason, in verse 14, because that's a diversion from his point.

That's why he starts again in verse 14 and says, for this reason, I bow my knees or I kneel before the Father. He kind of, as it were, regathers himself and says, let me get back on topic. So the question is, if it's not chapter 3 or the opening part of chapter 3, what is the reason that Paul prays?

For that, you need to go back to the end of chapter 2. So you can see chapter 3 there, maybe in your Bibles like mine, it's just across the page, but turn back to chapter 2 in verse 19 for a moment. Chapter 2 in verse 19, and read what Paul says here.

After talking about the fact that God has created this one new man, that we were dead spiritually and he made us alive and he's brought Jew and Gentile together in one. Verse 19, he says, so then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

In him, the whole building, so again, what's this building he's talking about? Well, he goes on, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you are also being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit.

God has done this amazing thing in Christ. He has created this, what some translations will say, one new humanity, one new man, one new collective group, as it were, out of Jew and Gentile called the New Testament Church.

That body was created through the proclamation of the gospel, and as that body has been formed, it's been formed for the purpose, Paul says, twice in verses 21 and 22. It's been formed to be a temple for the Lord or a place where God dwells by his Spirit.

I wish I had time to walk through the Old Testament and show you this idea of God dwelling with his people that comes to an apex in the tabernacle in the temple. Don't have that time, but just trust me on this much.

The temple represented the presence of God with his people, that God was living among his people. Well, just as the temple in the Old Testament represented the presence of God with his people, now the church represents God's presence in the world as his people filled with his Spirit.

Let me say that again.

Just as the temple represented the presence of God with his people, now the church represents God's presence in the world as his people filled with his Spirit. Pause for just a moment with me. I know I need to kind of move quickly, but pause with me for just a moment.

That's quite a big deal if you stop and think about it, ain't it? Think about that. As we sit here in Medford, Oregon, we are part of a globe-spanning, time-spanning purpose of God to see his very presence extend through all the earth, that local churches don't exist for themselves.

They exist as the gathering of the presence of God, as it were, and as we gather, we then scatter to see that presence expand in all the earth as people proclaim the gospel, and those who are outside of this temple, so to speak, become living stones within it, as Peter says.

Now, I don't know about you, but I read that, and doesn't it sound kind of overwhelming? Doesn't it sound like something that might be just a little bit bigger than us? I mean, let's just be honest for a moment.

Doesn't that sound just a bit more profound than how we might be tempted to view the church? And let's be honest, does that kind of sound a little bit impossible? If it does, then I would argue you have a good idea of what Paul wants you to feel.

You see, this task is bigger than you.

It's bigger than me. It's bigger than all of us.

If you and I and this church are going to succeed in fulfilling God's grand purpose for us, then the reality is we're going to need some help. And I would argue that's why Paul, in light of that, starts in prayer.

I put it to you that corporate prayer ought to be the first step when it comes to the people of God being the people of God. Often, we can be tempted to think that, well, what we need if we're going to be the people of God is we need a kicking strategy.

We need to have a bunch of things that we know how to do, and we're going to do them.

Well.

Or for some people, they say, no, it's not kicking strategy. You need the right people, the right personnel. That will help us to do it. For other people, they're like, no, it's not the right strategy.

It's not the right personnel. You need the right amount of marketing, you know, like razzle-dazzle people. That will make them wonder. Like, we kind of can be tempted to think that way. But can I put it to you that actually the first place in which we should start is with prayer, and corporate prayer especially, as the people of God?

If you're tempted to disagree with me, for a few moments, I want us to do something. I want to walk you through a number of passages in the New Testament. We need to see them with your own eyes. And I want you to, for a moment, to observe what I call the apostolic view of prayer.

How is it that the apostles, those who were sent out by the Lord Jesus, the sort of forward movement of the early church, as it were, the people who were the ground zero of this thing, how did they understand the importance of prayer?

I'm going to have you look at a bunch of passages. Let's start in Romans chapter 15. Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 15. I want to show you something there. We'll start there. Romans chapter 15, as we're jumping into it, Paul is talking about his desire to go where Christ has not been preached yet, and he's basically asking the church in Rome for their help.

Well, pick it up with me in verse 30. Romans chapter 15 and verse 30. Look what Paul says.

He says,.

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in fervent prayer to God on my behalf. In fact, I misread that.

It's fervent prayers, in the plural, to God on my behalf. Note that Paul says, Beloved, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, I'm appealing to you.

I'm urging you.

Strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. Paul doesn't just say, Well, God is sovereign and He will take care of it.

He says,.

Yes, God is indeed sovereign. He's the same one who wrote Romans chapter 9, by the way. So he clearly understands the sovereignty of God. And yet he says, Listen, strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf.

Turn a couple of books over. Second Corinthians chapter 1. Second Corinthians in chapter 1. Second Corinthians 1. Paul is laying out some of the tribulations and trials that he experienced in his gospel ministry.

And as he is laying out these trials and tribulations in verses 3 through 9, he picks up in verse 10. That's where I want us to look. Verse 10. Listen to what Paul says. He has delivered us, referring to God the Father.

He has delivered us from such a terrible death and He will deliver us. We have put our hope in Him that He will deliver us again. Verse 11 is where I want us to go. While you join in helping us by your prayers.

Again, the you here is plural and prayers are in the plural. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift. And I would argue the gift is the deliverance that he's praying for. Many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us.

How did the gift come, Paul says? Through the prayers of many. So Paul says, yes, we believe God will deliver us. But you know how he's going to deliver us? Through your prayers. Ephesians 6. A couple more books over.

We'll skip Galatians.

Ephesians 6. We all know this is the armor of God passage. We preach this passage here at Redeemer. Ephesians chapter 6. I want to draw your attention to verse 18. As Paul describes the warfare of the Christian and actually the warfare of the church.

Because again, this is a church letter. It's not just written to individuals. As he describes the warfare of the people of God, both personal and individual. Look at what he says in verse 18. He says in verse 18, pray at all times in the spirit.

And I need to pause for a moment. I love the Christian Standard Bible. It's a translation I preach from. But I'm going to disagree with their translation here. Because actually, this isn't a verb. It's a participle.

You all know how much I love participles. If you don't, a participle is one of my favorite parts of Greek grammar. All it simply means is, it's explaining how you do an action. How is it that we put on the armor of God?

Verse 18. You can translate it like this.

Praying.

And some of your Bibles might do that actually. Praying at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request. And stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Paul says, listen, the way in which we engage in our warfare as the people of God. Is in an attitude of constant prayer.

And again, he's writing this to a church. A couple more verses. We'll skip a couple. We'll skip another book. Go to Colossians. Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4 and verse 2. Ladies, you'll be familiar with this.

Because you've been going through Colossians in your women's Bible study. Paul is again talking about how it is that the people of God witness. And he starts verse 2. Devote yourselves to prayer. Stay alert in it with thanksgiving.

Again, yourselves here is in the plural. That the church should be characterized by a devotion to prayer. I want to have you turn there.

I skipped it actually.

I shouldn't have. But in Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. That little section, that little verse there. Where it describes what the priorities of the local church were. Remember what it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42.

It says that they devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine. To fellowship. And then what's the next thing? To the—our English translations say prayer. But again, it's in the plural in the original language.

To the prayers. That they were characterized by a devotion to continual and corporate prayer. I want to make just a few observations. And then from that, make some or consider some implications. A few observations.

Number one. First of all, this was just a sampling. I had to skip a bunch of these verses. I just picked a few of them. But as you read the New Testament. You get the sense the New Testament is very, very, very, very concerned with corporate prayer.

In fact, there's very little teaching in the New Testament on personal prayer. If you read the New Testament closely.

Yes, there is.

So let me not tell lies. Matthew chapter 6, 5 through 13. Jesus gives the disciples instructions on how to pray. But even in the, you know, the so-called Lord's Prayer. Which isn't actually the Lord's Prayer.

It's the disciples prayer. But that's a sermon for another time. Matthew 6, 9 through 13. Some of you grew up in traditions where you quoted this all the time.

And rightfully so.

Remember how that prayer even starts? It doesn't say, my father who is in heaven. He says, our father.

It's not that.

And when I say that. I'm not saying that our personal times of prayer are unimportant. No, they are actually very important. But it's just interesting to note that when you read your New Testament. The majority of the time that prayer is mentioned.

It's in the context of churches praying. And it's almost universally churches praying together for God's mission. My second observation from this. The language in all of those texts. Commend to us a specific posture in prayer.

And when I say posture. I don't mean a physical posture necessarily. I mean the posture of our hearts. Did you catch in all of these verses a sense of urgency? Did you catch in all of these verses the sense that.

Unless this happens. Things won't happen. Did you kind of catch that as you read these verses? As I was putting this together. Two words I'm writing in my notes.

Seriousness.

And dependence. My third observation from all of these texts. Is that prayer and the purposes of God. I've kind of said this already. But they explicitly tie together again and again. While God is indeed sovereign.

And while his will is indeed not contingent. In other words. It's not grounded in what we do. Or how much or how hard we pray.

The reality is.

Without prayer. In the wonderful providence of God. He has so set it up. That without prayer. We will not see his purposes come to fruition.

Kofi.

Why are you hammering this point? I thought you needed to be quick today.

I do.

And the next two points will be very quick. Much more quicker. Excuse me. But I labor this point. Because if these observations hold. If what I've just pointed out. Is true from these passages. And I think these observations hold.

If these observations hold. Then that should lead us to some pretty big implications. For one thing. I would argue. We need to recover the apostolic practice. Of regular sustained and corporate prayer.

Pastor John.

When he was here a couple of weeks ago.

Talked about this. Individualistic. Me and Jesus. Hyper personalized view of Christianity. That Western Christians have. And quite frankly. We need to. This isn't John saying it.

This is me now.

So don't be upset with him.

Be upset with me.

But.

We need to grow up.

Quite frankly.

And grow out of that. This idea that. My Christianity is just me and Jesus. As long as. My personal relationship with Jesus is good. I don't need to think about a corporate relationship.

No. No. No.

And I'm going to say again.

No.

It's not an either or.

It's a both and.

Prayer is hard work. But it's hard work that ought to be done. Together as God's people. Since I'm already punching above my weight. To some degree this afternoon. Have you observed that in so many churches.

Prayer meetings are pretty much dead. I'm reading a book at the moment. Called A Praying Church. One of the chapters in that book is aptly called. Who Killed The Prayer Meeting. Pretty much doesn't happen in churches anymore.

And where they still happen. You have two types. You have those that are vibrant. And they're full of life. Because they're an active part of the church's life. And then you've got some prayer meetings.

Some of you maybe have been to them. Where they're barely attended. Unless it's convenient. And quite frankly. It's on life support. And just waiting for the day. Where someone will just put it out of its misery.

Beloved.

We need to view prayer as a matter of spiritual urgency.

Again.

I reaffirmed the line from our new elders.

Pastor John.

He said it to me the first time we spoke. And I've never forgotten it. A culture of prayer is a culture of dependence. Paul understood that. Come back to Ephesians 3. Paul understood that. And so he starts with prayer.

Knowing what God's purposes are. And in light of that. He begins with prayer. And ultimately. If we are going to see God's purposes fulfilled. In and through Redeemer. It's going to start with responding to God's purpose.

With prayer. I told you my next two points would move a lot quicker. The second reality that we need to understand out of this text. Flows out of that reality of prayer.

We pray.

So that point number two. We can be energized by the Spirit's power. We can be energized by the Spirit's power. Verses 16 through 19. Now we get to the content of Paul's prayer. If as we read this. You get the sense that it's a pretty connected all of this.

You have to kind of follow his logic a little bit. The CSB does a decent job of trying to clean this up. So that it reads like better English. But for example. When I looked this up this week. In the New American Standard Bible.

There's lots of that. And so that. And because. Because that's how Paul writes this. It's one long intricate sentence. But if you just take the time. And kind of read through it slowly and carefully. Paul is really only praying for two things here.

And there's some overlap between the two things that he prays. But both are connected to the empowerment of the Spirit. And I'm going to argue that. If we are going to see God's purpose realized. For Redeemer Bible Fellowship.

Then Paul's prayers need to be our prayers. So what exactly does Paul pray for? Well first of all. And these are kind of long. So feel free to copy them off the screen there.

Number one.

We need to pray that the Spirit would strengthen us. For the task of being a dwelling place for God through Christ. We need to pray that the Spirit would strengthen us. For the task for being.

Excuse me.

It should be of being a dwelling place for God through Christ. So verses 16 and 17. I pray that He, being God the Father. May grant you according to the riches of His glory. To be strengthened with power in your inner being through His Spirit.

And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So remember what Paul said about this? Desire of God to build a dwelling place for Himself. Through His Spirit in the church. Well if that's going to happen.

The only way that the church can be this dwelling place for God. Is when the church is strengthened by the Spirit. It doesn't happen when the church is powerful in itself. But when the church is powerful in the Spirit's power.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about the person. And the work of the Holy Spirit. So much so that early on in the life of our church. I took several months to preach a sermon series. Called Spirit and Truth.

Spirit and Truth was a lengthy series that I did. On the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Trying to answer some of the confusion that exists.

For the benefit of our time.

I can't obviously re-preach all 18 messages from that series. That really wouldn't work out well for us. Let me give you my postcard version. You can summarize that whole series in three words. Person, presence, and power.

Person, presence, and power. Number one, the Holy Spirit's a person. He's meant to be known, understood, and loved. If you don't start there with the fact that he is a person. Everything else you think about the Holy Spirit.

Will get thrown off center. He's a person. But not only is he a person. But he is present secondly. Person, presence. The Holy Spirit is meant to be the presence of Jesus. With the people of God. While Jesus is away.

I wish I had time. John 16 7. Jesus tells the disciples. I'm telling you the truth. It's to your benefit. I grew up on the King James Version. It says, it is to your advantage that I go away. Because if I don't go away, the counselor won't come to you.

I simply pause and note that Jesus thought it was so important that the Spirit come. He said, it's to your advantage that I'm not here. Remember who he's saying that to, by the way. His disciples who lived with him for three years.

And he's telling them, listen. The best thing for you is not that I'm here. Because if I'm here, he can't come. So person, presence, and finally power.

Power.

This is where people start to get nervous or weirded out. We're kind of happy for the Spirit to be a person. We'll stretch to his presence for sure. But when we start talking about power. Then we start thinking.

Well, this is those weird folks who basically go shouting, should have brought a Honda to the universe. I don't know about all that there. You know, he makes those folks down in that weird city, Redding, do weird stuff.

I don't know.

I don't know if I really want to be talking about his power. But it's interesting. Our fathers in faith didn't have this problem.

Listen to this.

It's actually, I won't tell you who it's from yet.

Listen to this.

Quote, it is a mistake to imagine that the Spirit can be obtained without obtaining Christ. And it is equally foolish and absurd to dream that we can receive Christ without the Spirit. Both must be believed.

We are partakers of the Holy Spirit in proportion to the intercourse which we maintain with Christ. For the Spirit will be found nowhere but in Christ, on whom he has said on that account to have rested.

For he himself says by the prophet Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. But neither can Christ be separated from his Spirit. For then he would have been said to be dead and to have lost all his power.

You know who said that? John Calvin. You know, the guy we all think is just about predestination. Actually, you know the nickname that Calvin has in the theological world? He's a theologian of the Spirit because he talks so much about the Spirit's work.