Praying for the Church (Part 2)

Introduction
What is this?

Would you like to take a guess? I'm sure almost all of you, if not all the people in this room have seen this before. You just don't realize what it is.

Why is this? You've seen it before. A lot of people are generally familiar with this thing. So why is it that it's hard to tell what it is?

Because it is zoomed in. We could only see a tiny fraction of the whole picture. We needed to see the big picture.

Sometimes Christians can get a shrunken perspective. We fail to see the big picture of what God is trying to accomplish in Christ.

In fact, a big picture view of God's purposes causes Paul to respond with the prayer that we are looking at today.

"Paul says For This Reason..." This beautiful, and lofty prayer, with its focus on Gods mighty strength, Christs vast love, and the fullness of God has specific purpose.

What is it that Paul sees in this big picture that becomes the reason for this prayer?

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Throughout this section of chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul glories in what God has done in Jesus, the reconciliation that God provides in Christ. But notice where this contemplation on the work of Christ takes Paul.

Jesus by His righteous life and atoning death provides eternal and abundant life for us, His people. He brings us into right standing before God because He exchanges His favor with God for the sin of those who repent and depend upon Him. And so we are reconciled to God. We are given a renewed relationship with Him.

All of this is glorious. It's something we can't fully comprehend. It's miraculous. But I think if we are careful, we might start looking at this picture of Jesus' reconciling work like the tiny fragment of the Mona Lisa.

You see where did Paul finish His teaching in Chapter 2? Not just in the individual impact of the Gospel, but in the collective consequences.

The church is central to God’s plan for His people.
Jesus worked to bring people together with God, but also together with each other. And Paul thinks that is awesome! For him, his part in the fellowship of the mystery makes all of the suffering he has endured worth it.

“The major lesson taught by this first half of Ephesians 3 is the biblical centrality of the church.” - John Stott

My prayer that this sermon series on the church has helped you in some small way to start seeing and feeling the weight of this big picture.

As Paul reflected on it, he began to pray, and our goal today is to understand that prayer for the church.

Christ followers urgently pray when they understand God’s purpose in the church.
So what was it about the church and Christ's work that would cause Paul to pray?

The Glory of Reconciliation
The first reason that they pray is the glory of reconciliation. We see how amazing it is that "we who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13

Why were we far off? Because we had rebelled against God. We were like the rebellious teenager that just can't stand to be around that authority that won't let him have his way, so we storm out. We had rejected God, and in doing so, we had made ourselves unworthy. Unclean. Unable to be close to the One Who made us for fellowship with Him.

Yet, Jesus' blood brings us near. He brings us to where God is so that we may know Him. And not only that, He doesn't just do something and take the time to help us. Even further, it is not just that His own blood is the payment for our redemption. It is that HE HIMSELF is our peace. It is through His blood and by His Holy Spirit that we have Christ in us that reconciles us to God and reconciles us together. This is what it means for Brookdale to be the body of Christ. We are all in Him, together. Not just individually, but corporately, we are His dwelling place. Not in some physical sense, but because Christ is in us spiritually, Brookdale is his body.

Paul is glorying, not just in the beauty of the process and effects of what Jesus has done, but even more, in Jesus Himself. How awesome is it that God the Son is what brings us together as a church!

And so thinking of what Jesus means to us, and how great and generous God is to do and be all these things for us, Paul begins to pray that we would fully experience Who God is, and know Christ's love. But in the background, there is another almost unspoken reason for Paul's prayer.

The Weakness of Fallen Humanity
Think of all God wants to accomplish in this new household of faith. All that He desires for this new, reconciled and unified people. There is only one problem. It is made up of people.

And all too often, I think we experience the need for God's help in our normal interactions in the church. People fail to live up to the glory of the church. We let one another down. We hurt each other because we are weak. We choose to believe lies and prioritize ourselves over others. We consume things and people for our own pleasure rather than using our lives for the kingdom of God.

Though we stand righteous before God, we do not always lives righteously. We battle against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the spirit, and the pride of life. And sometimes we lose. Paul knows this. He described the same dynamic in his own life in his letters.
And so I believe that Paul has in the back of his mind that because we are so weak and sinful, we need God's help to live up to the glory of God's purpose in the church. And he believe

In fact, let's look at the first thing for which Paul prays.

We need to pray for inner strength.
We like to feel strong, don’t we?  I’m learning it’s not just little boys that love it when they pick up heavy  things or do something difficult. My girls love to talk about how strong they are. And I think we share some aspect of this with children. We like to feel like we are capable and competent. Like we can live life and take care of our responsibilities on our own. Don’t we? It makes us feel good that we rely on our own grit and ability to get our things done! Needing help is weak and embarrassing!

There is some virtue in that kind of strength, but this is not the kind of strength that Paul describes here. This is strength that comes by the Holy Spirit to the inner man. This is the strength that is made perfect in weakness. Many experience this strength from God especially in times of great personal weakness. Physically and emotionally, God strips away our external strength. People begin to see the chinks in our armor. And in these moments, we are forced to rely on God. In those moments, we begin to feel the nearness of Christ abiding in us. As Paul says in verse 16, Christ dwells in our hearts, not because we perform well and are exceptionally responsible, but because we actually believe Him in the situations of daily life.

We do not need to wait for some tragedy or sickness to make us weak, but thinking about how God’s strengthening works helps us to see that God does not strengthen those who are self-reliant. He strengthens those who depend upon Him in obedience. And the words Paul uses to express this strengthening from God make one thing abundantly clear, God gives plenty of strength to live for Him. It is according to His riches, and mighty strength that Paul asks from God.

It is this strength, that God does not give to impress others. That would be external strength. This strength in the inner man is the ability to depend upon God, regardless of how strong you may appear to others. We must pray that God would give this group of brothers and sisters strength so that Christ would be truly present in our lives as we live out our faith.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. John 15:10

Paul follows the same progression of thought that Jesus did here. Faithful obedience leads to experiencing the love of Christ.

We need to pray for our understanding of the love of Christ.
First of all, we need to be rooted and grounded in love. These two words (rooted and grounded) together emphasize one thing: love must be the basis of our lives in Christ. Love is the oxygen of life following Jesus.

A popular term in modern psychology and especially psychotherapy is “self-love.” Every aspect of therapy is not bad, but what a moronic oxymoron. How can you “love” yourself? Spoiler alert: you cannot love yourself. It is impossible. That is not love, because all love is directed outward.

Yes, we need to be loved. What our soul needs is the acceptance and security of being loved unconditionally. But the only love deep enough to satisfy our need is the love of Christ that He showed when He bled and died for us on the cross. Any “love” I can give for myself will never be what my soul hungers for. “Self-love” is a lie and a counterfeit forged by those who reject the love that Jesus offers them. The love of Christ comes from outside of us, and then works out from there.

The life rooted and grounded in love has first experienced God’s love for them in Christ and then overflows out of us onto others. Our identity and lifestyle is fully grounded both in the love that Christ gives to us and in the love that we give to others. In order for me to comprehend, “to get,” the love of Christ, the fabric of my life must be loving others.

Furthermore, Paul says “with all the saints.” These are not fluff words Paul uses here because they sound church-y and deep. Paul has not stopped talking about the same topic he was earlier in chapter 3, and even before in chapter 2. That is the church.

I probably sound like a broken record. Here goes Pastor Will ranting about the church again. First of all, this is a series on the church. But my point is that I am only pointing out that God repeatedly brings this up in the Scriptures.

Here is the point that I want to drive home: grasping the love of Christ, its vastness and full meaning will never happen for you alone. It’s not a project you can accomplish on your own!

Do you remember group projects in school? A lot of us probably would not have chosen to be assigned a group project. Most of us would probably prefer to just be given the assigned work and left to get our things done on our own. Group projects are difficult because on top of getting the project done, you have to deal with people. You have to communicate. You have to make compromises. People let you down. But so much of life in Jesus is a group project. Yes, in the church, you have all the “downsides” of a group project. The sluggishness of collaboration, the frustration of it, the tediousness of communication.

All of these cons are actually a pro. Through denying ourselves in these ways, we begin to experience the love of Christ in a way that we otherwise would not.

And here is the truth: The love of Jesus is too wide for you to be able to understand it on your own. It is too long for any one person. It is too deep for you to handle it by yourself. You cannot mine the depths of Jesus’ love without help. You need the church to know the love of Christ. The love of Christ goes beyond knowledge that we can mine for ourselves through personal Bible study. It is passed  knowledge. It can only be comprehended through experience. And that takes all the saints.

We need to pray for our being filled with the fullness of God.
Finally, the dwelling of Christ in our hearts by the Spirit, and coming face to face with His enormous love in the church leads to being filled with the fullness of God.

The fullness of God. What a request! That we would experience the fullness of God! Paul has asked for all these things that we might experience and know God but now He comes to ask for God Himself. He uses some interesting language to do so. What is this emphasis on filling? Well, for you students of the Old Testament, what might we think of when we talk about the fullness of God filling something?

I’ll give you a hint because I believe Paul has made it clear what he is referring to.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, Ephesians 2:19–21

By all means, we should pray that we would experience as much of God as we can in our personal devotional lives. We want to truly know God and walk with Him. I want to have as much of God as possible as often as possible. I want to know Him!

But when Paul prays for God to fill with all of His fullness, He is asking God to make the church like the temple. We want what happens in this church, when we do it together, to be full of you God. We want it to have as much of God as it can. We want it to look, feel, taste, smell, and sound like the divine. We want people to see that there is something supernatural to this church. No, not that we need to have miraculous healings or weird things. But our love should be like God’s love. We must pray that we would have the strength to follow Jesus in our daily lives, and that we would not settle for going through the motions. We need God’s help so that we would be filled with His fullness.

God is central to everything for the church and her members.
Paul’s prayer for the church launches him into this vivid doxology. His heart overflows in praise to this wonderful amazing God who gives this boundless immeasurable love.
He able to do anything! His power is infinite! We could not dream of all that God could do. What would it mean for Brookdale to be a church that reflects this glory?

Our care for one another. Our generosity. Our making disciples. Our proclamation of the Gospel. Our singing and worship. Our building one another up in the Word. Our communion.

We could go on and on with all the application we could make. In fact, I would struggle with what to choose to say to you to help you be a part of being the church that God wants to Brookdale to be. But I do not need to because Paul already did that. And so in conclusion, I want to read for you how the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell the Ephesians how to be a church that is filled with God’s fullness.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:1–6

This is what it means to truly know God for Who He is. Brookdale, let us be a church filled with the fullness of God.

Discussion Questions

• The sermon highlighted Paul’s response to a big picture perspective of God’s purposes. What are some specific examples of “little picture” perspectives that can distract us from seeing things from God’s perspective?
  • What are some practical ways to maintain a “big picture” perspective that views everything through the lens of God’s purposes?
• How does a collective kind of Christianity, rather than an individualistic kind, make us more like Christ?
• What is it that unifies the church members together and joins as together as “one new man?” (As Ephesians 2:15 puts it.)
• What kind of strength does Paul ask God to give to the Ephesians? How is this different from how we normally think about strength?
• What does it mean for our lives to be “rooted and grounded in love?”
• What are some practical ways that we can establish a culture of glorifying God in practicing Ephesians 4:1-6?