Praying for Knowledge

A Prayer to Pray When We Lose Heart

Our aim in this summer series is to look at what the Apostle Paul prays for different churches in the New Testament, so that we can learn from him how to pray — for our church, for one another, for Christians around the world, and for ourselves.

Tonight we're thinking about what Paul prays here in Ephesians, and why he prays it.

"For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened..." (Ephesians 1:15–18)

When Might We Pray This Prayer?

Each prayer we'll think about over the summer, Paul prayed for a specific group of Christians at a specific time. So what do we need to know about the Ephesians?

In verse 15, Paul knows of their faith and their love towards all the saints. As we read Ephesians, there is no hint of any major problem in this church. This is a prayer for a church that is doing well.

But it's not how they feel. In chapter 3:13, Paul asks them not to lose heart because he is now in prison. Imagine, in a year's time at our church plant, Trinity Church Westminster, trying to share Jesus in the corridors of power — and Luke gets arrested for preaching a controversial sermon. It would be easy to lose heart with your friend in prison. I know I would feel that way.

There are many other things that can cause us to lose heart today: opposition, more general suffering, or perhaps personal battles with sin that we lose.

A Prayer for When Life Feels Mundane

This is also a prayer for when the Christian life feels mundane. In Acts 19, when Paul first came to Ephesus — maybe seven or eight years before — the city had been turned upside down by his ministry. Miraculous signs authenticated his ministry. People came from miles around. Millions of pounds of magic books were burned as people turned their backs on pagan practices. There was even a riot, because Paul was seen as a threat to the city's economy.

Christianity looked powerful. But that was in the past. Life had returned to normal. The city was no longer in uproar. Life was mundane for these Christians — unimpressive.

Maybe when you, or someone you know, became a Christian, it seemed like life was turned upside down for a time. Everything changed. But now the Christian life, church, just feels mundane. Is this it?

This is a prayer particularly for Christians who are doing well, but don't feel that way — who are losing heart when life feels mundane. And yet it is very broadly applicable; we could pray it for Christians at lots of other times.

Paul Begins with Thanksgiving

Before we get to Paul's requests, notice how he begins. It's so easy to skip over verse 16: he is full of thanksgiving. He praises God for them.

This is a recurring theme this summer — how full of praise the Apostle Paul is for God's work in people's lives. There is so much we can look back on and praise God for this year.

First Request: Pray We Would Know God Better

Paul's first prayer request, in verse 17, is that the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation would be at work in us so that we would know God better.

Notice how Paul layers up words for knowing:

• Wisdom is about right living in creation — which we can only do if we know our Creator.
• Revelation is needed because God must show himself to us.
• Knowledge of him points to the relationship with God that Paul wants to nurture in us.
• The eyes of our heart point to where the change needs to happen.

The request is simple: pray we'd know God better. And it is of incredible importance. In Don Carson's book A Call to Spiritual Reformation — which you could read alongside Summerlink this year — he says that a moment's reflection shows there is nothing more important in God's universe, in time and eternity, than knowing God better.

Only God Can Open Our Spiritual Eyes

This is something we must ask God for, because we cannot know God by ourselves. Knowing God is only possible if God enables us to see with the eyes of our heart.

The Bible says we have four eyes: the physical eyes through which we see the world, and a far more important set — spiritual eyes, the eyes of our heart — which can only be opened by God.

Spiritual sight works like physical sight in two ways. First, sight is a yes or no thing: I either see or I don't. In spiritual terms, I either see or I don't see Jesus. We either believe in him as Lord or we don't. The Holy Spirit, given to us when we believed, enables us to see Jesus.

The Ephesian Christians already know Jesus and see him — that is not what Paul is praying for here. Just as I can see some things in more or less detail, Paul is praying for better spiritual sight — an ever deeper knowledge of our heavenly Father, the Father of glory.

Paul in this chapter has been pouring out praise to God for how glorious he is — for his love, his grace, his wisdom, his fatherly care, his lavishness, his greatness. What a glorious Father we have to get to know better. This is an exciting request to pray.

Knowing God Is Not the Same as Knowing Facts

It's worth saying that the spiritual sight Paul prays for is not the same as understanding. As a church, we're clear that we come to know God through the Son revealed to us in the Bible. But spiritual sight is not the same as knowing facts about God.

At the end of tonight, I could set you an Ephesians 1 exam, and you might pass — but that isn't the same as spiritual sight. You could have a PhD in theology, or have written a commentary on Ephesians, and still be spiritually blind.

Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts would be opened. In the Bible, the heart is the control centre of who we are — the place that shapes how we look on the world, that drives our decisions and thoughts. What our spiritual eyes see impacts the trajectory of our whole lives: our priorities, our convictions, our loves, longings and ambitions. Knowing God better will totally transform us.

So We Must Pray, Not Just Read

It's not enough just to read our Bibles. We must pray. How often I approach God's word and don't pray to know God better. Sometimes I presume God wants me to know him, or assume it's automatic, without asking for God's help.

Carson asks: "If we fail to pray for it, will we betray our cool reflection in really knowing God better? Do we want it?"

Maybe for some of us, praying to know God is brand new. For others, we've heard it before — we know we need to, but we forget to pray, or forget how great and glorious God is, and get into a negative spiral. We think he's not that great, so we don't pray; and because we don't pray, we keep thinking he's not that great. We forget he can deliver on this request.

I hope we've had the joy this year of growing to know God better and seeing him change others. But we must keep praying for it.

"We'll never grow in knowledge of God the way we ought if we do not ask God for such things as these. They are fundamental to all Christian experience and maturation." (Don Carson)

Paul thinks knowing God is the antidote to losing heart. Maybe that's not what we think the solution is. But if we're weary at the end of this year, this is an essential prayer to pray.

Second Request: Pray We Know How Blessed We Are in Christ

Paul now makes a collection of three requests under one headline: that we would know how blessed we are in Christ.

Paul opened this letter praising God that Christians have every spiritual blessing in Christ. We lack nothing. Our spiritual bank accounts are full. It is beyond our comprehension how much God has done for us — and so Paul prays we would know it is true.

1. Know the Hope to Which We've Been Called

Hope is the certain future that God has prepared for us. We've been called to belong to God's family, adopted as his children, predestined for a glorious future.

Of course, we cannot see that future — it's an unseen spiritual reality. So Paul prays that we would know it is true. We all act now based on what we expect to happen in the future. Paul prays that our spiritual eyes would see our future — more certain than anything else, more glorious than anything we could ever dream of — so that it would transform how we live today.

2. Know the Riches of His Glorious Inheritance in the Saints

Paul speaks about inheritance in two ways in verses 11–14. There's the inheritance we get — the glorious future God has prepared for us. But here the focus is the other way round: we, the church, are Jesus's inheritance.

Just as Israel in the Exodus were described as God's treasured possession, so we, the church — because we belong to Jesus — are his treasured possession. We are so loved by him.

So often, though, we don't feel like those God loves. Our sin makes us doubt it. The hardship and hostility we face make us disbelieve it. We look no different to those around us in our city. Life is mundane, and we lose heart.

But Paul says we are the people in this city God cherishes, on whom God has lavished his kindness, a people he is jealous for. Pray God would open our eyes so we know how precious we are to God — the most blessed people, his inheritance.

3. Know God's Power Is at Work in Us

Paul's third request is that we would know God's mighty power is for us. This then opens into a much bigger explanation of who Jesus is — how Jesus is Lord of all. As we know better that Jesus is Lord of all, we'll understand what it means for God's power to be for us.

Third Request: Pray We Would Know Jesus Is Lord of All

Notice how Paul layers up words about God's power: immeasurable greatness, power, the working of his great might. He takes us to the decisive display of God's power in history — when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him on the highest throne in the universe, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

Paul is giving us a window into history and into heaven, which the eyes of our heart need to be opened to see.

Look Back: The Resurrection

As we look back, we see God raised Jesus from the dead — a fact of history. Death has been defeated. At best, today, people who die can be resuscitated, but they will die again. Jesus has been raised to indestructible life, never to die again.

Look Back: The Throne

We look back to when Jesus sat down on the throne, and every power, rule, authority and dominion was put under his feet. Those words particularly refer to spiritual powers — powers the Ephesians would know were at work in their city. But Jesus rules over them all. Even if most of us aren't obviously aware of the spiritual powers at work in the world, every power in our world is under Jesus's feet.

Look Up: He Reigns Now

He is on the throne now in heaven. Again, it needs spiritual eyes to see Jesus as this powerful — that his power is unmatched, that there is none above him in the universe. He rules now and forever. There's no undo button. Eternity is all about him.

How Jesus's Rule Is for the Church

Paul wants us to know that Jesus's rule is for us, the church (verse 22). These next few minutes might be a little stretching — don't worry if you don't understand it all. The key thing to remember is Paul's big request: knowing that Jesus is Lord of all.

In verses 19–23, Paul refers to two key psalms:

• Psalm 110 — all about Jesus's rule at God's right hand as priest-king forever.
• Psalm 8 — all about humanity's unique place in creation, ruling creation under God. That rule was ruined by our rebellion at the fall. But now Jesus, a man, is seated on the throne, ruling over creation as God always intended.

Verse 22 quotes Psalm 8: "all things are under his feet." But notice the rest of the verse — Jesus has been given "as head over all things to the church, which is his body." Jesus is head over all things, but he has a unique relationship with his church, his body. And through the church he is doing something extraordinary: Jesus advances his rule in the world through the church.

Filling the Earth

In Genesis 1, humanity was to fill the earth and subdue it. We were image-bearers, made to make God's rule known across the world. Notice the same filling or fullness language in verse 23 as in Genesis 1: the church is his fullness, where Jesus fills.

We are a people made alive by Jesus's resurrection life-giving power — as Paul will explain in chapter 2:1–10. We now live under his rule. And now Jesus works through us, the church, to "fill all in all."

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at God's right hand as Lord of all continues to be at work now, through the church, so all might see that Jesus is Lord. Jesus's resurrection was like a dam bursting — death defeated, life gushing out. And that life-giving power is now channelled through the church into the world.

Don't Live an "Under the Stairs" Christian Life

We need to know this is what God is committed to today, where his power works in the world — because it doesn't look like Jesus is Lord. So we can easily lose heart. Our church looks big tonight, but out in the world we look unimpressive, weak. In Ephesus, like London, Christians were spiritual minnows.

We need the eyes of our hearts opened to see that Jesus is Lord of all, restoring God's rule in the world through us. It is such a privilege that as we live and speak for the Lord Jesus, his life-giving power is at work through us in this city.

Think of the start of the Harry Potter series. Harry lives under the stairs at Privet Drive. He only has a feeling that he's different, but his life is miserable. Then the letters start to arrive, and Hagrid appears with that famous line: "You're a wizard, Harry." He always had been — but he didn't have eyes to see. Then his whole life changes.

Imagine if his eyes had never been opened — a wizard locked under the stairs. There's a danger we live an under the stairs Christian life: not asking for help, not knowing our Father better, not knowing who we are.

Who Are We?

We are St Helen's Bishopsgate. We are:

• God's precious people, his treasured possession.
• Part of the most blessed people in the universe, with a glorious future to look forward to.
• A spiritual powerhouse, where God's life-giving power is at work for us and through us, so that more might come to receive the life of Jesus.

So we must pray. This is an essential prayer:

1. Pray we know God better.
2. Pray we know how blessed we are in Christ.
3. Pray we know that Jesus is Lord of all.