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Paul’s Prayers For The Ephesians: For More Knowledge About God; For More Knowledge About The Hope Of Our Inheritance; For More Knowledge About The Power Available To Us

At the beginning of this letter, Paul addressed the Ephesians as holy people, joined to the Messiah and faithful to Him. Now, the Lord’s divinely inspired representative builds on that thought. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Yeshua and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

The Messianic Jews and Christians in Ephesus had faith in the Lord Yeshua. What is faith in the Lord Yeshua? Faith involves information. It involves knowing things. Messiah’s Community of call-out ones in Ephesus knew that Yeshua is the Lord – the Mighty Ruler of all things, Adonai, Immanuel, God With Us, fully God and fully man, the Son of God who came to us in human form. They knew Yeshua is Lord.

Faith involves information, knowing something, but it involves more than just obtaining information. Faith means acting on that information so that one is faithful to that information. The Ephesian Christians and Messianic Jews knew that Yeshua was the Lord, and they acted on that information. They became faithful to that knowledge. They became faithful to Messiah and to His teachings. They were faithful to His priorities. They changed their priorities to reflect His priorities. They had faith in the Lord Yeshua. How about you? Are you faithful to Him, loyal to the Son of God?

They also had love for all of God’s people. Love is one of the greatest of the virtues. What is love? It’s the opposite of selfishness. Love is the desire to do good for others; to see them reach their maximum potential; to give to them rather than take from them. Messiah’s Community at Ephesus was characterized by love for all of God’s people.

Notice that their love was concentrated on their own community first. Love starts at home. They were concerned about their spiritual brothers and sisters, the members of Messiah’s Community – all the members – Jew and Gentile, men and women, old and young, rich and poor. They cared about each other, tried to help one another with their physical needs and with their spiritual needs. How about you? Can it be said of you: He loves all God’s people? She loves all God’s people?

Their faithfulness to the Messiah and their love for all of God’s people brought them to the attention of great Rabbi Paul. It’s a tremendous thing to have an apostle notice you and pray for you and write to you to help you even more. That tells us that a life characterized by holiness, faithfulness and love can cause great men and women to notice us, give thanks for us, pray for us and help us in ways they may otherwise not. That should give us extra incentive to be faithful and holy and loving to all of God’s people.

Paul was impressed by the faithfulness and love of the Ephesians. He prayed for them – frequently. And he thanked God for them – frequently. I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. This is a good lesson for us about prayer – that our prayers need to be interspersed with a lot of giving thanks. I suspect that most of us do not give enough thanks to God when we are praying; that we think of praying more as asking God for things we don’t have rather than thanking Him for the many things we do have, especially His rich spiritual blessings.

This great man of God lets them know that in his prayers, he has been asking God to give them more knowledge in three areas: more knowledge about God; more knowledge about the hope He has given them; and more knowledge about the power that is available to them. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Messiah from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, His called out Community, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

First, Paul prayed for them to know God better: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. It’s good to grow in knowledge. It’s a good thing to study math, science, engineering, art, literature, music, politics, history, economics and other academic disciplines. Each area of study adds to a person’s knowledge, and knowledge brings benefits. But there is no greater knowledge than the knowledge of God! And knowing God brings the greatest benefits!

Think about it. If knowledge brings power – and it does; if good comes from growing in knowledge about the world around us – and it does, then what about growing in our knowledge of the Creator? To know the Creator, who is superior to the creation, has to be superior knowledge than knowing the creation.

Paul prayed for them to know God better: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. The way that Paul prayed, itself helps us to know God better. In his prayer, the Rabbi from Tarsus mentions the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Yeshua is a person. A real person. He is a real human being – Yeshua, who grew up in Nazareth, the son of Mary and the step-son of Joseph. He is a real human being. He is fully man. And Yeshua is the Messiah – the ultimate prophet, priest, king and savior. He is the ultimate Prophet, who speaks the words of God; the ultimate Priest who brings God closer to humans and brings humans closer to God; the ultimate King who will rule over redeemed humanity; and the ultimate Savior who will help humanity with our greatest needs.

But Yeshua the Messiah is also the Lord. He is Adonai. He is before all things and the Creator of all things and the all-powerful Ruler of all things. Yeshua is Lord – not Lord with a small “l” but Lord with a capital “L”. God the Father and Messiah Yeshua the Lord are separate Persons but equal in nature – Adonai, Lord, God, fully divine, uncreated, eternal. But, there is a hierarchy of authority. The glorious Father is also the God of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Just as a human father is greater than his son in authority in the family (the son is to honor and obey his father), so the Father is greater than the Son in position and in authority. The Father sends the Son. The Son never sends the Father. The Father orders the Son. The Son never orders the Father. The Father sits on the main throne of Heaven, as the High King. The Son sits at the Father’s right hand as a King, but the Son of the High King.

A simple way to understand the Trinity: There is a distinction of Persons; an equality of nature; and a hierarchy of authority.

Paul prayed for them to know God better. The way that Paul prayed, itself helps us to know God better. The God of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah is the glorious Father. He is a Father. Not all fathers are good. Some are involved merely in reproduction and never father their children beyond that. Some fathers are uninvolved. Some are  mean, impatient, abusive. But not this Father. He is a good Father, an honorable Father. He produces and then lovingly cares for creatures made in His image who, through the Good News, become His sons and daughters. He is a glorious Father who is worthy of the love, respect and obedience of His sons and daughters.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians to know God better. I keep asking that you may know Him better. We may think we know God, and we might – to a degree, but God is so great that there will always be more to know about Him – a lot more. The better we know Him, the more we can honor Him. The more we know Him, the better off we, and others, and the whole universe, will be.

Paul prayed for them to know God better. Second, he also prayed for them to know to know their hope better. Faith deals with the past, the present or the future. Hope deals exclusively with the future. Hope is the assurance that something good will happen in the future. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people. We need to know that God has some amazing things in store for us. The Lord’s representative wants us to know, at a very deep level, at the center of our innermost being, what those amazing things are. He wants the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened. He is asking for truth and wisdom and revelation and understanding to be ours at the very core of who we are – about our hope, about the good things God has for us, about the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people.

This can be understood in two ways, and both are true. First, that the Lord has given His holy people, the ones He set apart for His purposes, a rich and glorious inheritance to enjoy – things like eternal life; an eternal home in an eternal city with an eternal God; power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and dominion forever and ever!

The second way that the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people can be understood is that we – Christians and Messianic Jews, are the Lord’s inheritance. The Son of God will receive a great inheritance, and we are part of His inheritance. Generally an inheritance is given and received after someone dies. The Son of God died and purchased us at great cost from the satanic slave-market of sin and death. We belong to Him now and we will belong to Him in the future.

There is coming a time when all Christians, all Messianic Jews, will be holy and blameless and perfect. And God the Father will make sure that His glorious sons and daughters are given to the Son of God, as part of His inheritance, for Messiah to enjoy forever and ever. Just as a man may feel blessed if he has many sons and daughters, so the Lord, although He is perfect and complete, and needs nothing to make Him perfect and complete, nevertheless considers Himself to be richer because of us – because of our creation in His image; because of our redemption; and because of our sonship. What an amazing thought! That we are valuable to the Creator. We are one of His most precious treasures.

If God feels this way about us, shouldn’t we feel the same way about each other? That every Christian, every Messianic Jew, is valuable, precious, significant, worthy of our thoughts, prayers, love? If we, at the center of our being, really understand that God’s called out people are a priceless treasure that God will receive and enjoy, how can this not cause us to highly value ourselves and the other sons and daughters of God? If we, at the very core of who we are, really know that God has some amazing things in store for us, and that we will really receive our great and eternal inheritance, how can this hope not free us from falling into the trap of materialism, and loving the things of the world and pouring our time and energies into  gaining wealth on Earth?

The first thing that Paul prayed for was for more knowledge about God. The second thing he prayed for was for more knowledge of their tremendous hope. The third thing Paul prayed for was that the Ephesians would know the power that was available to them. I pray that … you may know … His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Messiah from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, His called out Community, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

Power, if used properly, is good. Power moves things, changes things, builds things, grows things, destroys bad things. God has graciously made power available to us who believe. What kind of power is it? God has made available to us the kind of power that can take the tortured and crucified and dead body of a Jewish carpenter-turned-rabbi and bring it back to life! That power is the same as the mighty strength God the Father exerted when He raised Messiah from the dead.

What kind of power is available to us? The kind of power that can vindicate and elevate a Jewish man who was rejected by the leaders of His people. That power is the same as the mighty strength God the Father exerted when He raised Messiah from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. If you were alive after Yeshua was arrested, put on trial, humiliated, beaten, stripped naked, whipped, tortured and crucified, and you saw His dead body – could you believe a time would come when He would be alive again, and vindicated, and honored above the leaders of the Chosen People who rejected Him and did these things to Him? Not only honored more than they, but elevated to the place of highest honor in the universe – the right hand of God the Father, who rules the universe? And elevated not just above the leaders of the Chosen People, but more honored than the greatest leaders of all peoples and nations who ever have lived or ever will live? And not just exalted above the greatest human leaders, but also the greatest angelic beings – the mighty angels and glorious archangels? And not just honored this way for a limited time so that the honor ends, but honored right now, in the present age, and also in the eternal age that is to come?

That same power – that can take a seemingly failed life; the power that can resurrect a dead body and raise that body and elevate that person to the highest place forever and ever – that same power is available for you – right now! We need that power – power to live for God, not for self; power to live for God and not the world; power to resist sin; power to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil; power to be holy; power to be righteous; power to live a successful, God-honoring life in a fallen world; power to declare the Good News to the Jewish people first, and also to the Gentiles; power to practice the spiritual disciplines so that we get close to God and stay close to God; power to carry our crosses and endure our sufferings with a good attitude; power to love others; power to reject the world’s corrupt values and power to embrace God’s values; power to be faithful to God, faithful to the Good News, faithful to Messiah’s Community, faithful to the Word of God, faithful our commitments to our family. We need power for these things. The Lord’s divinely inspired representatives prays that the Ephesians, and us, will know that not only a little power, but God’s incomparably great power is available for us who believe.

The Lord’s divinely inspired representative prays that we will know that not only power is available for us, but the Father’s incomparably great power is available for us who believe – who know the Three-In-One God, and who have transferred their loyalties to the Father, Son and Spirit.

We have the great power of God the Father available to help us. Not only that, we also have the Son of God – alive, powerful, exalted over all things, aware of us, loving us, concerned about us, focusing His great mind, power and authority on us. God placed all things under Messiah’s feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, His called out Community, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

God the Father raised His Son and vindicated His Son and exalted His Son. And He rewarded His Son. He gave Him everything. He gave Him the right to rule David’s throne. He give Him the right to rule the nations; the right to rule all of planet Earth; the right to rule the universe. The right to rule the angels. The right to rule this age; the right to rule all the ages to come. God the Father gave God the Son everytime and everyone and everything, including us – God’s called-out people. Messiah is the head over everything, everyone and every time.

And what does Messiah use His leadership for? His ability to fill everything in every way? His ability to be everywhere and everywhen over everything? For us. For the benefit of the Church, His called out Community of Jews and Gentiles, His body of which He is the head. He is the Head that leads and directs. We are the body, connected to our Head, our Living Leader, through whom He lives and acts. We are the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. The Son of God has chosen to live in us, to extend Himself through us, to work through us; to advance the plans and adventures of God through us.

Messiah uses His ability to rule all things, and fill all things for us. To bless us. To help us. To enable us to become all that God intended us to be – friends of God, sons and daughters of God, joint-heirs with the Messiah, helping Him rule all things for all time. Wow!

What an amazing prayer! I keep asking that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Messiah from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, His called out Community, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

May we learn how to pray better, to pray more like this. Amayn? And may Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians apply to each one of us, that we would really understand more about God; that we would grasp the hope of God’s glorious inheritance in His holy people; that we would understand the amazing power that is available to us and we would access that power – for successful living, followed by eternal life, and the praise and honor of our glorious God. Amayn?