Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 1:15-23 | Date: June 15, 2014 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

To it, to give us both a father and a mother. I give honor today to God, our Father, and I’m thankful for the father that he gave me. He taught me of Christ. He taught me the way of salvation, and I owe so much to him. Father’s Day changes over the years. My father’s gone, and of course, one of my children is gone as well, and I don’t want to talk too much more about that or end up like I did last week. But we trust you’ll have a good day today and your families. A reminder that we will not have an evening service today because of the Father’s Day holiday. Hope you have a good time with your families together.

Ephesians chapter 1, we continue our series of expositions through this wonderful epistle. We have already read our passage for this morning, but I would like to take the time to read it again before we begin to work our way through it. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning verse 15:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward 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, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this portion of your word. We pray that you will use it to accomplish in us today that to which you’ve called us. Teach us to pray. Teach us how to pray. Teach us to know God. Teach us so that we are deeply persuaded and expectant of great things you have planned for us. We pray that your Spirit would minister your word to us today, in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

The Apostle Paul records for us here a summary of the prayer that he offers to God on behalf of the people, the believers at the church at Ephesus. We have here something then of a model of how to pray. Several years ago, you might remember, we worked through, on our Sunday evening messages, Paul’s prayers, trying to learn from him how to pray. We’ll look at that a little bit today. That won’t be our main emphasis. Our emphasis will simply be to work through this prayer and see what it is he is praying for. But through it, again, we will learn better, and I trust it will be a help to all of us to learn how better to pray for one another.

What’s first interesting here, I think, is Paul explains to us the reason for his prayer, or what gives rise to his prayer. What is it that prompts Paul to pray, and what is it that prompts him to pray like this? Notice he says in verse 15, the first words, “For this reason, for this reason, because I’ve heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

Now this “for this reason,” first of all, points back to what he’s just been discussing. And that’s verses 3 through 14, where he highlights the great blessings that have been given to us as a result of the outworking of God’s eternal purpose. We have here explored in verses 3 through 14 the high points of Christian theology: that God has planned our salvation from eternity past. He has worked it out in every detail in the present and will so in the future bring it to culmination. He has chosen us. He’s predestined us. He’s made us his sons in Christ. He has sent Christ to be our Redeemer. Through his blood, we have forgiveness of sins. He has given us a book, and He’s given us His Spirit to understand this great purpose of redemption. He’s revealed it to us so that we might revel in it. And He has sent us His Spirit, who opens our heart, bringing us to faith in Christ, and seals us unto that great day of redemption when God’s great purpose for us is brought to culmination. All this he’s given to us, and we’ve seen that over the last couple of weeks.

And now Paul says, this is the reason that I pray. But that’s not all. He says, “For this reason,” looking back, but then he also adds, “For this reason, because I’ve heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints.” That is, understanding something of the eternal purpose of God, and understanding now of your faith—that is, that you have been included in this great eternal saving purpose of God—I pray. Understanding the big picture, and now seeing your inclusion in that big picture, that’s what prompts me to pray. God has a great purpose of redemption. I hear now of your faith and your love, and because of all of this, I bow to pray. And in fact, when I pray, I don’t forget to pray for you because you are always on my mind. All right then, that’s the way he introduces the prayer.

He Gives Thanks

Now, what is it that he prays for exactly? First of all, he gives thanks. And then we’ll see, beginning in verse 17, that he also makes petition or prayer requests. But first of all, he gives thanks to God.

Verse 15: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Now he speaks here first of their faith that they have in the Lord Jesus. Faith, as you know, is simply a resting in Christ, trusting in Him. It is dependence, reliance upon Christ. Faith is what is left when all self-reliance has been removed. Faith is the channel through which we receive Christ, and in that sense, faith is the means for how we become, how we come to be involved in the saving plan of redemption.

And notice he’s specific: “your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Because we are fallen sinners, our faith, to be saving faith, does not terminate immediately on God. Our faith terminates immediately on Jesus, the mediator, who, as the God-man, has accomplished redemption for us. And so saving faith is focused, first of all, on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I hear of your faith in Christ, that you have come to God by means of Jesus Christ, recognizing his redemptive work on the cross, and you now have approached God on the basis of Christ and are saved.

Now, what’s interesting in all of that is that Paul here—notice it carefully—thanks God for their faith. He thanks God for their faith. Now that’s, in many churches—not at RBC, but in many churches—that would be an odd thing. Why does he thank God that they have believed? Now it is of course their faith. They did in fact believe. And in some sense it was an exercise of their will. But why thank God for their faith? And the answer, of course, is that because you’re not capable of that on your own.

And this is reflective of what Paul teaches us everywhere, that faith is a gift of God, that we are naturally bound in our sins. And bound in our sins, we have this aversion to God. And so who else is there to thank for our faith but God? The fact that you believe, he says, is evidence that God has been at work. Again, looking back over this large picture, the purpose of God that he has set out for us in Christ, it is clear that we have been included in it because we have come to faith. And seeing that faith, he turns and thanks God that he has made us believers.

I don’t know if it ever struck you this way, but if you believe, it is incumbent upon you to thank God for it. We have no space, we have no right, we have no room at all to reach back and pat ourselves on the back and say, “Well, at least I had the sense to believe in Jesus. I know I couldn’t save myself, but at least I could do that.” Paul says, no. The fact that you are believers is just further reason to give praise to God that he has included us in this way and has brought us to faith in Christ. Whenever there’s a conversion, whenever there’s a gospel advance in a church, in a nation, it is reason then to give thanks to God.

Used to be the practice in the church where I grew up at least—I don’t know if this was universally, but in the church where I grew up—when we had testimony services, every time, every time, every time, there would be someone—at least one, usually several—who would stand up and say, “I would just like to thank God for saving me. I would like to thank God for bringing me to faith in Jesus Christ.” And this is what Paul is doing here.

But if faith is our duty to God, then notice he mentions also, verse 15, our love which is our duty to one another. “I’ve heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the saints.” Now that is a huge theme in Paul’s writings. It crops up here and there all the time. But it’s also a huge topic that he takes up, sometimes at length, but always with some perceptive observations about it, recognizing the fundamental character and the fundamental importance of what love is.

Love is the distinguishing mark of a believer. Love is an immensely important virtue for believers because it is reflective of the love that we have received from God in Jesus Christ. In the next chapter, Ephesians chapter 2, Paul will expound at some length the kind of love that we ought to have for one another because of the unity that he has brought together in Christ, that he has reconciled men and women from all kinds of deep divisions, brought them together in Christ. And in Christ we share a love that we have received from him, and this then becomes a determining virtue of believers.

Jesus said, “By this people will know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another.” The Apostle John will take it up: “This is how you know you’re a believer. You have love for God’s people.” And again then, Paul says, “I’ve heard of your faith in Christ, I’ve heard of your love for one another, and so I thank God for it.” Again, he thanks God for their love. Why? Because we’re not too good at it on our own. Because this is evidence that God has worked deeply in us to transform our hearts so that there is this affection instinctively, this affection for the people of God.

This is, after all, the fruit of the Spirit—love—worked in us by the Spirit of God. So again, Paul’s theology shapes his prayer. When he hears of their faith, he hears of their love, what he sees is a deep and powerful working of the Spirit of God in the lives of these people. This is evidence that God has been savingly at work, and so he turns to give thanks to God for it. If I could speak anachronistically, this what we call Calvinistic theology was for Paul not reason for some party spirit. But it was something that was profoundly humbling, recognizing that the faith and the love that we have are simply and directly the result of God at work in us.

So he says in verse 16, “I don’t cease, I don’t stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Now everybody knows that preachers are never content with their people. They’re always wanting to push them forward, do a little more, get a little further into this thing. And we see that with the Apostle Paul here also. He doesn’t stop with thanksgiving. It might be enough to say, “Thank you for being at work in them,” but Paul’s not done.

Recognizing that God is sovereign, recognizing that God has worked sovereignly and powerfully in bringing these people to faith and transforming their hearts so that they love, Paul recognizes that God is still sovereign and powerful to do further work in them and to cultivate more deeply his work in them. And so next, verses 17 through the end of this paragraph, he makes petition, requests to God that he will do yet more in the lives and the experience of his people. And we’ll notice three different statements that he makes. Three prayer requests. We could break it into four, but I think two of them are combined very easily. But three requests that he makes.

That They Will Know God Better

Number one, he prays, verse 17, that they will know God better. Verse 17: He doesn’t stop remembering them in their 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.”

He prays that God, 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. Now clearly when he speaks of the knowledge of God here, he’s not simply saying knowledge about God, although that’s basic to it—it’s at least that—but he’s speaking in terms of a deeper acquaintance with God, a deeper, more personal relationship with God, personal dealings with God. And he prays here that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened for this, that God would be at work to make himself known to his people. Very simply, he prays, “God, make yourself known to your people.”

Did you know that the knowledge of God is a matter of grace too? He sees their faith. He sees their love. This is evidence of God at work. And so he gives God thanks. And now he prays, “God, keep going to work for these people and make yourself fully known to them.”

Now, this is not just a body of truth about God that we know, learning your Bible, although it is at least that. We might say that knowing God is much more than just knowing your Bible. But it’s at least that, right? Because this is the means God uses to reveal himself. He has spoken in his word. That’s the great privilege of having his word. And yet it is not just that. Just having the Word is not enough. There must be the Spirit of God at work.

And “give us,” he prays, “the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” I think in the New International Version you have the word Spirit capitalized. I think that’s probably best. I think that’s the sense here. We end up at the same place in either case because it’s the Spirit of God revealing. I think that’s the point here: that he will give us the spirit of revelation, the spirit of wisdom in the revelation of the knowledge of him, that the Spirit of God would open our minds to know God through his word, yes, but now in an experiential sense, coming to know God personally and deeply.

This is a great theme that we find in the epistles, this is a great theme that we find in Reformed theology as well, that it is never the Spirit working alone, it is not the Word by itself working alone, but it is the Word and the Spirit, the Word and the Spirit, the Word and the Spirit, the Spirit working through the Word to reveal God to his people and to make himself known.

And I think it’s interesting, it’s significant, how he phrases this request: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” that the Father of glory will make us to know something of his glory through his Spirit. Well, is there anything you want more than that? You remember the prophet Jeremiah speaking about this: “Don’t let the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the mighty man boast in his strength, or the wealthy man boast that he has lots of money. Let him that glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows me.” And here Paul is picking up on that, that this is our highest joy that could ever be brought to the experience of any individual. And he prays then that God would reveal himself further and make himself known to his people so that they may glory in him and find full satisfaction in him. So his first prayer request, verse 17, is that they would know God better.

The Hope of God’s Call

Next, he prays that we will know something more. Verse 18: “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened”—here’s more of the work of God—”having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know,” here’s our second one, “what is the hope to which he has called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?”

So he prays that we will know the hope of God’s call, that we will know the hope of God’s call. Do you know that you’re a Christian because God called you? If you are a Christian, it is because God has called you. Paul speaks of this famously throughout his epistles in many ways, so does Peter, so does Jude. We find this in a fascinating array of statements throughout the epistles.

You might be more accustomed to thinking that you are saved because you have called upon God. And of course, that’s the first step from our own vantage point. But what we find is that the reality is that our call to God was but our response to his call to us. Now there is a sense in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament for that matter, where there’s a general call that goes out to all: “Look unto me, all ye the ends of the earth, and be saved.” That God calls to all.

But everywhere in Paul’s epistles, I think without exception, in Paul’s epistles where he speaks of God’s calling, it is not a general call to the lost. It is a specific call to his elect, which actually brings them into faith and into relationship with Christ. Check it out through Paul. Wherever you find this calling—called, God calls us, this kind of language—consistently it speaks of an effectual call by which God brings us to faith in Jesus Christ.

So, for example, Romans chapter 8, verses 28 through 30, where we have that five-link chain: Those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. Clearly, the word “called” in the middle of that chain has an effectual sense to it, because all those who are called are justified. And all those predestined were called. And so clearly Paul speaks of it in an effectual sense, and that’s why in Paul, and in Peter, and in Jude, we find this term, “the called,” as a reference, sort of a name for Christians. Who are the Christians? They’re ones who have been called. We are the called, according to his purpose, and so on.

So this is the initial step in our experience of salvation. God calls us to himself, that call gives life, and we respond in faith and come to Jesus and we are saved. What Paul is saying here then is that with that call comes a new hope. Help them to know what is the hope of their calling. And clearly again here he’s speaking of the goal of our salvation. Salvation consummated, as we saw in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 1, sealed with the Spirit until that day of redemption, the culminating point of God’s work in us. And here he is saying, “God, open their minds so that they see and understand this great hope to which you have called them.”

Now, hope in the New Testament, I think just about every time you could just translate it to help you understand it: expectation. We use the word hope in a wide range of meanings. So we could say, “Boy, I hope it doesn’t rain next week at VBS,” and we have no clue whether it’s going to rain or not. Or, in a school setting, “You’re going to graduate?” “I hope to graduate in May.” Well, hope there very clearly has some idea of certainty with it, some idea of expectation. It’s more than just a wish. There’s an expectation that it will come about. Well, that’s the sense of hope in the New Testament, only with more a sense of certainty in it, because it’s grounded in God’s promise.

So when it’s speaking of our hope to come, it’s not just a wish and I don’t have any idea whether it’s going to happen, but I’m looking forward to anticipating this great thing that God has purposed for me and has promised that I will realize. Hope in that sense, in a sense of anticipation and certainty.

Now in verse 18, Paul expands on that a bit. He says, with the eyes of your heart being enlightened, he’s praying that we will know “what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?” This is where I say we could make it a second request. It’s kind of worded that way, but it seems to be an expansion of the first: The hope of our calling, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

Now there’s some question. His inheritance. His inheritance. What does that mean? Something God inherits? Christ inherits? We inherit? My answer to that very confidently is, I don’t know. But I suspect that the bottom-line difference is very little. Because at the end of the day, what he’s saying and speaking of here is the glory that we will realize in our shared glory with Christ in the consummation of that day. The final inheritance of which Paul spoke in verses 13 and 14, of which the Holy Spirit is the first installment. Remember, He’s the first fruit. He’s the down payment of an inheritance that will come.

Here he prays that we will come to a full grasp of what that inheritance will be. That is something that we find spoken of often in the New Testament: the Christian’s great hope, the great inheritance that is to come to us in Christ. Peter speaks of it as the inheritance that will never perish, never spoil, reserved and kept for us in heaven until that day. Paul speaks of it in a fascinating way in Romans 8, verse 17. Remember how he reasons there? We’re in Christ and so we’re sons. If we’re sons, then we’re heirs of God. No, wait. We’re sons because we’re in Christ. We’re not only heirs of God, we’re joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That is, we will share in the glory that will be his. The mediator comes, he accomplished the work, God promises him all the glory and all the nations in response to, because of the successful work that he has done. And he says, we will share in the glory of Christ in that day.

We find it described in the book of Revelation with those “no mores”: no more crying, no more pain, no more curse, no more sin. And he says this inheritance will be something that will be experienced, he says, among the saints. “The riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,” or “in the saints.” And I take that to mean something like, this is not going to be a private party. This is going to be a day when the saints of God gather together in great joy that God has accomplished not only the redemption of certain individuals, but he has redeemed for himself a people for his praise.

What Paul is praying here then is that we will come to know—having been called, we will come to grasp by the work of the Spirit of God working in us powerfully, not only to bring us to faith, not only to make us love, but he will be working in us to make God known better and that he will make us to know more deeply the hope of that inheritance to which we’ve been called. Paul prays that we’ll notice the riches of his glorious inheritance. The riches of the inheritance. Or, if I could read this very literally, the riches of the glory of the inheritance. He’s piling up the words to make us see the glory of that day to come.

Hope. Hope in Christ’s return, hope of that day when he will come. One of my favorite passages in this regard is 2 Thessalonians 1, where the Apostle Paul speaks of us marveling at Christ in the day of his coming. Don’t you love the suggestiveness of that? Marveling at Christ, the saints wondering at him when he comes. This is the hope to which we’ve been called.

There’s nothing quite like the power of hope. We read of it with POWs. So long as there’s that hope, it makes all the difference. Once that hope is shattered—no hope of release, no hope of ever getting home—it’s devastating. You hear of it sometimes in the context of a bad marriage; so long as there’s hope of improvement, it makes all the difference. We’ve seen it in our home when hope, hope of healing, finally was gone. Devastating. The power of hope is an amazing thing.

Paul’s prayer is that God will give them deep insight, an understanding of the coming glory, and a deep persuasion of the certainty of it so that it will animate every step of the Christian life, recognizing what lies ahead. The Apostle Paul prays—some of you may have noticed I posted this on Facebook this week—in Romans 15 verse 13: “May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” So Paul is praying that he’ll give them a deeper insight, a deeper understanding of the coming glory and a deeper persuasion of the certainty of it, so that it will animate every part of their Christian life.

Often this is the striking difference between an elderly believer and an elderly person in the world. The elderly person in the world, at their best, at their best, at their best, can look back with wonderful memories, happy memories, feelings of satisfaction. But an elderly believer—you ever notice how so often it’s marked by this anticipation, this hope of something to come? This was part of the frustration of the persecutors of Christians in the early centuries and even since. But the martyrs—how do you threaten somebody who deeply believes that to die is gain?

This is why the Christian church has been marked through all of the centuries as having this blessed hope. In the early church, they had a greeting. It’s reflected a couple of times in the New Testament: Maranatha, Maranatha, the Lord comes. He comes. He comes. It’d be a good greeting, wouldn’t it? We’d get in the habit of that. He’s coming. He’s coming. Be encouraged. He’s coming. This is part of what has been, I think, such the downside of the eschatological controversies of our last generation or two or three. When it comes to the subject of future things, we tend to argue about details more than glory in the hope that we share with one another.

This has been marked in Christian hymnody as well: singing of the coming glory, singing of the coming of Christ, singing of the glories of heaven. It is meant for us to be encouraged with the riches of the glory of the inheritance that will be ours in that day. And Paul prays that God would be powerfully at work in the hearts of his people, through the word, yes, but that God would be powerfully at work in the hearts of his people to make them know and be deeply persuaded of the great things that God has in store for us yet in Christ.

God’s Power

And it is very fitting then in verses 19 through the end that Paul prays for one more thing, and that is he prays for God’s power. God’s power. He prays, verse 19, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power”—that we will know what is the greatness, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might. Here’s where Paul spends most of his attention. He unpacks this throughout the rest of the verses.

Our time is getting away this morning, but we will try to hurry through it. He’s not satisfied with a brand of Christianity that professes something but doesn’t feel and experience the power of it. God promises in salvation in Christ, not only to grant us forgiveness in Christ, but he promises to transform us. Transform us by the knowledge of himself. Transform us by the knowledge of this inheritance that waits for us. And what is needed for that kind of transformation? Well, it is simply the power of God.

And Paul is persuaded that the power of God is plenty up to that task, that it can bring us to a knowledge of these things. What is able to bring us to a knowledge of the hope of our calling? Answer, verse 19 again, and here he piles up the terminology. In the original it’s kind of fun to read it, but it’s reflected something in the English as well. It’s something like the hyperbolic mega-dynamic greatness of God’s power. Something like that. It’s just piling up the terminology here to push the idea that the power at work in us is a great kind of power.

And to illustrate, in case you don’t believe that, or just to persuade you more deeply of it, to illustrate just how powerful the power of God is, He tells us. He wants us to know “the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father.” Now that’s power, raising the dead. It’s one of the great truths of the Christian faith. It’s one of the foundational ones. It rests on it, that the power of God was at work to raise Jesus from the dead. And he’s saying here that same power is at work in us who believe. The very power of raising Christ from the dead has, in fact, raised us from the dead in a sense, raised us spiritually, brought us to faith, and is continually at work in us to transform us.

And this power of God at work is with a view to our good, and so he prays that we will realize more of it. Not only in raising him from the dead, but in enthroning him as well: “seated him at the right hand in heavenly places,” the theme of Christ’s exaltation and enthronement. And then he expands on that in verses 20 and 21, that he rules far above. “Seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come.” That is, every power that is out there, every intelligent creature, everything that is—various levels of spiritual authority I think are reflected here: demonic authorities, angelic authorities. Over them all Christ has been exalted.

And he says this for the church, that he has been placed above all things so that he will in fact bring to consummation what he has purposed for the church. Verse 22: his headship over all things and putting all things under his feet to make him head for the sake of the church. This power, verse 19—this is the power, he says, that is at work toward us. Regeneration. Did you know that every Christian, every Christian is a walking miracle? Nothing less than the Spirit of God, powerfully, supernaturally at work, raising us out of spiritual death and transforming us. And that same power Paul prays for that will be working in us deeply to make us realize the great things that God has done and will do for his people.

Well, this is how Paul prays. He prays, first of all, with thanksgiving: “Thank you for their faith. This great purpose of redemption that you’ve told us about—it’s not just a story. It’s something we see at work in God’s people. Thank you for their faith. Thank you for their love.” Praise to God for their faith and love. And then he prays further with petition that God would make them know him better, that God would reveal himself powerfully and deeply and make them to know more deeply, with more deep persuasion, the greatness of the inheritance that awaits them, that this power of God would be at work deeply in them to that end.

All right then, three, just three general observations about all of this before we close.

Number one: What we need, according to this prayer, what we need first is knowledge. You know what he prays? He prays that we will know. He prays that we will know God better. He prays that we will know the inheritance better. That we’ll know the power of God better. What we need first is knowledge. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed before, but Paul places a high premium on knowledge. Knowledge is essential. It’s indispensable to spiritual growth. Knowledge in experience is what we want, of course, but knowledge nonetheless. You’ll often hear it pitted one against the other, but it can’t be. They’re brought together in Paul all the time. Knowledge of God cannot be reduced to simple knowledge of the Bible, of course, but knowledge of God is at least that, at least the knowledge of the Bible. And he’s praying that we will know—this is where God has revealed himself.

Knowledge is indispensable to spiritual growth, but what we find here is, number two, what we need not only is progress in knowledge, but for progress in this knowledge, we are entirely dependent upon God. He doesn’t just say, read your Bible. He prays that God would be at work, opening their eyes, giving them enlightenment to know these things. I tell my theology students at the beginning of every semester, the opening lecture in theology: Don’t ever approach the study of theology as though you are up to the task. What an arrogant thing—John Owen said this on the Puritans—what an arrogant thing it would be to approach the study of God without praying, as though we were up to the task. And I remind my students all the time, anytime we approach the study of God, we’re in over our heads and we better know it. So what we need is progress in knowledge, but for progress in this knowledge, we are entirely dependent upon God.

And that brings us to the third observation: Therefore, our role in this progress is not only to study, but to pray. Without prayer, it is just a mechanical game. And so we’re back to where we began. The theology that we understand ought to prompt us to pray. Do we really believe that God is at work doing these things? Do we really think that our faith, our salvation rests in God’s hands? That ought to prompt us to pray with thanksgiving and with petition that these great truths would be experienced more deeply in the lives of God’s people.

There’s more than enough here to enrich our prayer life this week for ourselves and for others. Praise and thanksgiving for all that we have, casting ourselves on God’s mercy for the further enjoyment of what he’s given us in Christ. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we thank you for this prayer. We thank you for the reminder that all that we have is from you. We’re thankful for the evidence already that you are powerfully at work in us. This great transformation of our hearts and our minds and our souls we realize could not have come from anything but the great power of God himself. We thank you that you’ve joined us to Christ. We pray with the Apostle that you would continue that work and perfect it in us until that great day when Jesus comes again for us. How we long for that. In his name we pray. Amen.