What do you need when you live in a culture that largely opposes or ignores Christ? What do you need when you find yourself discouraged with your own growth in gace, you own progress in the Christian life? What do you need when you are tempted to fall back into an ungodly way of living? Those may be relevant questions for you, but they were also questions for the church in Ephesus. For both them and you, it helps to have people praying for you. In Ephesians 1:15–23, Paul describes his prayer for the church in Ephesus. Paul may not be praying for you, but other believers are. At the heart of Paul’s prayer is Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead.
See with the eyes of your heart. Know the hope of your calling. Pray for the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, verse 17. Yet his focus is not on himself, but on your Savior.
“The impact of the ‘enlightenment’ that Paul wishes for his audience is a little diminished in the modern world. Today we rarely experience life without street lamps or even the ambient light of a city affecting even rural areas. In Paul’s day, where torches or bonfires were the biggest lights available, normal illumination was provided by the tiny, flickering flames of lamps. Dep darkness was the norm at night. In such a world, Paul prays that God would cast his piercing spotlight for the Ephesians’ mind’s eyes and then would rise the messianic morning star in their hearts (2 Pet 1:9; cf. Amos 5:8; Matt 4:16; Acts 26:18; 2 Cor 4:6; Heb 10:32).”
S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, p. 118
Hope is not an empty wish, but the solid confidence based on the covenantal faithfulness of God. It grows out of the certainty that Christ has been raised, and that with him you have been raised to new life. Even Job, Old Testament saint that he was, with only a vague view of what God was going to do to redeem his people, connected his hope with the resurrection, Job. 19:25, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”
“Job’s triumphant assertion of his unshaken confidence in God…. exalts the patriarch of Uz to a level with the patriarch of Ur, the acknowledged father of the faithful, and marks Job as no less conspicuously an example and a pattern of faith than Abraham,—the one as distinguished and heroic in his constancy in suffering as the other in his unswerving obedience.”
William Henry Green, The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded, p. 181
Appreciate the riches of his inheritance in the saints. Paul’s startling thought is that God’s inheritance is in the saints. You, God’s people, are the reward with which he graces the risen Lord. God lives in fellowship with you! You are his and he is yours. You have been raised with Christ, and have the privilege of calling God, “Father.”
See his incomparably great power. God’s power is incomparably great. It is directed on your behalf as you trust in Jesus Christ. You cannot see God’s power, riches, or hope with your physical eyes. You need the light of the Spirit so that the eyes of your heart can perceive the reality of the working of the invisible God. Until the Spirit works in your heart you are as hopeless as the women on the way to the tomb. But he give you the grace to see that God does work, even in the difficult times of your life, even in the mundane details.
Live in the power of the resurrection! Appreciate the power of God displayed in the resurrection. Paul piles up language to describe the power of God: “incomparably great power . . . working of his mighty strength . . . he exerted. . . .” verses 19, 20. That power comes to its richest expression, not in the spectacular events of creation, not in the incredibly complex providential sustaining of the universe, but in the raising of Christ from the dead. The power of the resurrection continues in the ascension and session of the Savior. Christ is exalted above everything in this age and in the age to come. The emphasis on rule, authority, power and dominion emphasizes how much greater Christ is than the magical powers in which the Ephesians used to trust, see Acts 19:17–20.
Live united with your risen Lord. Although Paul is talking about the power of God displayed in the redemptive work of Christ, that power is connected with and in you who believe. You are united with your Savior in his resurrection, Ephesians 2:6. That not only means that you will be raised up and changed in the last day, it also means that your present life has been transformed. God’s infinite resurrection power is what reached down when you were dead in sin and raised you up to a new life.
“The origin of the believer’s faith does not lie in himself but in the calling of God, which in its irrevocable efficacy and power is life-giving and creative (Rom. 4:17; 11:29; Eph. 1:18-20, II Tim. 1:9). Yet this calling only realizes its enlivening function in the act of establishing fellowship with Christ (I Cor. 1:9), the life-giving Spirit….”
Richard B. Gaffin Jr., The Centrality of the Resurrection, p. 142
That resurrection power gives you the strength to face the temptations that Satan will use this week to try to distract you from your Lord. That power gives you the confidence to move forward trusting in your sovereign God (notice the emphasis on faith, verses 15, 19) when your world seems ready to collapse. That power gives you the strength to grieve, and yet go on living in the hope of the resurrection. The contrast in verse 21 between the present age and the age to come bears on your situation. You live in the present evil age. But you have been raised up with Christ. You have been united with him who is seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies. Paul emphasizes that you, the church, are Christ’s body, not just a captive with his foot on your neck, but you are truly connected with him. In a real sense, the age to come has already become a reality for you. The power of the resurrection is at work in you. Paul is summarizing his prayer. Pray does something because it connects you with the risen, exalted Lord!
Today is a day for celebration, for the Lord is risen indeed. No, the problems have not suddenly vanished from your life. But the power of God in raising his Son is at work in you, supporting, strengthening, protecting, shaping you in preparation for the great day when that power will be displayed to all.