The Epistle to the Ephesians
Lesson 4
Learning How to Pray
Ephesians 1:15-23

Introduction
In Luke 11:1, we see Christ praying. His disciples waited nearby. They were watching and listening. When Christ concluded His prayer, one disciple immediately asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” It would do the text no harm to add, “like that.” The disciples yearned to be able to pray as Jesus prayed.

My father was a great teacher and preacher of the WORD. He was also a man of prayer. People drove for miles just to hear his Sunday morning prayer for the church. As a boy, I often listened to him as he prayed and poured out his soul in his study. It has always been the desire of my heart, even to this day, to be able to pray like that.

In this lesson, you will be listening to the first of two remarkable prayers uttered by the Apostle Paul. Many professors and Bible teachers think that this prayer contains some of the deepest truths in all of Scripture. I trust that when you complete this lesson you will say, “Lord, help me to pray like that.”

Importance of this Lesson

• When praying, millions of Christians say, “God bless so-and-so” or “God bless this-and-that” without ever asking God to bless in a particular way or with a particular blessing. Most of the praying I hear today is for God to meet certain personal, financial, or physical needs. These are certainly reasonable concerns but you will notice in the text that the Apostle Paul says nothing about such needs. His greater concern for the Ephesians, and for you, is that you have wisdom, understanding and power.
• This lesson is important in that it will deepen and broaden your prayer life and enrich your heart and mind.

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The Lesson

I. Ephesians 1:15-16 “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.”

1. wherefore – Whenever you come to a “wherefore” or a “therefore,” especially in the writings of the Apostle Paul, you should immediately review what he wrote. In this case, Paul had just instructed the Ephesians about the great spiritual blessings they possessed “in the heavenlies” “in Christ.” They were CHOSEN, PREDESTINATED, ACCEPTED, REDEEMED, ENLIGHTENED, ENRICHED and SEALED. Paul was thankful for these great blessings they had received.
2. wherefore I also – Note the “also.” Paul gave thanks for these believers because they had received great spiritual blessings. Paul also gave thanks for them because of the wonderful things he had heard about them. He was thankful to hear of their faith in the Lord Jesus. He was thankful that they showed their faith by their “love unto all the saints” (Ephesians 1:15).
3. faith – What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, and the evidence (confidence in) of things not seen.” Faith is the willingness and the ability to trust God without question with everything and for everything. Faith never doubts.
   1. By faith God saved us – Ephesians 2:8.
   2. By faith God justified us – Romans 5:1.
   3. By faith Christ lives in our hearts – Ephesians 3:17.
   4. By faith we defeat Satan – Ephesians 6:16.
   5. By faith God keeps us by His power – 1 Peter 1:5.
   6. By faith we overcome the world – 1 John 5:4.
      We could add much more here, but we only wish to emphasize the importance and cost of real faith. Paul was thankful that these early Christians had such a remarkable faith.
4. and love unto all the saints – We need to understand that love for the children of God is the first and normal answer of real faith in Christ. Galatians 5:6 says, “faith worketh by love.” The fact that these Ephesian Christians loved each other was a sign to Paul of their real faith. “We know we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death” (1 John 3:14). (Read also 1 John 2:9-11, 4:8.)
5. saints – A special word needs to be said about saints. People do not become saints because a church says so. They are not saints because a church makes them saints. The Bible clearly states that God considers every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ as a saint. Believers are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called (to be) saints...” (1 Corinthians 1:2). The words “to be,” were inserted by editors as noted before. It is better to omit these words. The meaning is not that we are going to be saints someday, but that we are saints now by the call of God (Ephesians 1:1; Romans 1:7). The first word for “saint” in the Bible talks about a person God sets apart for His service. 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, “we are sanctified in Christ Jesus” and 1 Corinthians 1:30 clearly says that Christ is our sanctification. Christ sets us apart with His own blood (Hebrews 13:12). Christ sets us apart through the sacrifice of His own body ONCE AND FOR ALL (Hebrews 10:10). This is POSITIONAL sanctification because it shows that we are “in Christ.” The Holy Spirit and the Word of God set us apart (Romans 15:16; Ephesians 5:26). Since God sets all believers apart for Himself, God sees us as holy in Christ, we are indeed SAINTS OF GOD! Amen!
6. Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers
   A child of God should give thanks to God all the time. This is as normal for a child of God as breathing.
   In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we are told to give thanks in everything “for this is the will of God.” In Philippians 4:6, Paul writes, “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” It is easy to be thankful when we can pay the bills, when our health is good, and when everything goes well. But a real born again Christian gives thanks through his tears, when sickness come, when he has pain all the time, and when sorrows pile up like waves on the sea. If you are God’s child, He knows your needs and no matter what the situation is, He is working out His plan for your life. Keep on praising and praying!
   1. I …cease not” A similar thought is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”
      These phrases do not mean that Paul prayed on his knees all the time. It does not mean that Paul
      prayed out loud all the time.
   2. To “pray without ceasing” can be understood in these ways:
      1. “Making mention of you in my prayers” means every time I pray I remember you. It also means that every time you pray you mention those you promised to pray for.
      2. In addition prayer is the cry of the heart for the blessing of Heaven. God knows the desires and cries of our hearts when we cannot put them into words (Romans 8:26).

II. Ephesians 1:17 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” Paul made special requests in his remarkable prayer on behalf of the Ephesians and for us as members of the body of Christ, the Church.

1. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ – That may sound strange to you. Is Christ God? Indeed He is! “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God…” “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1,14). In Christ, God showed Himself in physical body. He took upon Himself the body of a man (1 Timothy 3:16; Philippians 2:7-8). This means He was born of a virgin. This means that Christ was a real person. Space does not allow us to give the complete teaching of the glorious details of the virgin birth, but it is most important to remember the God of the Bible is a Three-in-one-God. He is One God, but shows Himself in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person has special work. Each person acts in agreement with the other two persons as One God. Christ came to earth as a perfect man, and “as a man he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). He came to earth to do the will of the Father (Hebrews 10:7-8). Because this is true, it is perfectly right to refer to God the Father as “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. The Father of glory – Glory is the basic nature and quality of God. He is the source of all glory. Heaven is full of His glory, the brightness and beauty of His perfect purity and holiness. Christ shared God’s glory equally from eternity until he was “made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-8). In John 17:5, Jesus prayed, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
3. may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him – This does not refer to the Holy Spirit. It means that the believer should be humble before God and worship Him. The believer should desire to know God closely. The Holy Spirit is a Teacher who is willing to teach us about God and all spiritual things.
   1. John 16:13 “When he, the Holy Spirit is come, he will guide you into all truth….”
   2. John 14:26 “But the comforter who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things….”

III. Ephesians 1:18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints...”

1. Paul prays that God will teach them. Many Christians do not understand some very basic and simple truths. I pray that you will study the WORD and let the Holy Spirit teach you the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10).
2. Paul prays that God will teach the Ephesians and every believer everywhere about three particular things. We can easily remember them as “The Three Whats.”
   *(Memorize these three “whats”.)
   1. WHAT IS THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING
   2. WHAT ARE THE RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE
   3. WHAT IS THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF HIS POWER
3. Let’s take a look at all three.
   1. What Is the Hope of His Calling?
      1. We are Christians because God has called us and we answered to that call (2 Timothy 1:9; Romans 8:28).
      2. In Philippians 3:14, Paul writes, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
         The award included in the “high calling of God” is a hope of many things:
         (Hope in the Bible is the assurance of something that is not seen yet but will surely come.)
         1. The hope of the resurrection and immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
         2. The hope of eternal life (Titus 3:7).
         3. The hope of glory (Colossians 1:27; Romans 8:18).
         4. The hope that when Christ shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as he is (1John 3:2).
         5. The hope That God will share the overflowing riches of His grace in the ages that are still coming (Ephesians 2:7).
         6. The hope that we will receive a glorious inheritance when we, as inheritors together with Christ, are privileged to share His glory and all the riches of heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4;
            Ephesians 1:11-12; Romans 8:17-18).
         7. The truly “blessed hope”’ –“Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
            (Know the texts that go with each of the above for the exam.)
            • We could add much more to this list but this is enough to give you a hunger to search the Scriptures for more verses about “the hope of His calling.”
   2. What Are the Riches of the Glory of His Inheritance in the Saints
      1. Note that Paul talks about to the Lord’s inheritance here! The amazing and wonderful thing is that as Christians, we have our inheritance in Christ. Christ also has His inheritance in us.
      2. Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27).
      3. It will be a glorious time for Christ when the believers are gathered home to heaven. At that time Christ will see that large crowd which He changed and which cannot be numbered. It will be the crowd which He “bought with his own blood”
         (Acts 20:28). That will be His inheritance.
   3. What Is the Exceeding Greatness of His Power
      1. God sends His power to every believer. He sends it so the believer can use that power. God sends this power to help the believer. God shares his power with the believer.
      2. The power of God is greater than any other power. This power is greater than any power made by man. God’s power is greater than any other power on earth. Man can produce enough power to send heavy rockets into space. Volcanoes are powerful enough to blow molten rocks and mountainsides hundreds of feet into the air. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods have great power. They can twist metal, blow down trees, and bring cities to a standstill. But the power of God is greater than anything produced by man or nature. Paul mentions three things that show God’s power:
         1. He raised Christ from the dead.
         2. He seated Christ at His own right hand far above every realm and power and might and every name that is named.
         3. He put all things under Christ’s feet and made Him to be “head over all things to the church.”
      3. Let us take a look at all three:
         1. He raised Christ from the dead – Eyewitnesses have proved the resurrection of Christ better than any other event in history. All of the apostles preached about the truth of this event. The main idea here is not that Christ was raised from the dead, but the power it took to do that. That power is greater than any other power. With all of man’s wisdom, no man has ever been able to raise the dead. As Christians we are going to experience and share in the greatness of that power. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive”
            (1 Corinthians 15:22). (Read also 1 Corinthians 15:1-5.)
         2. He seated (honored) Christ at his own right hand far above all spiritual kingdoms and rulers and power and every name that is named.
            1. THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD is a place of honor and power.
               We see the mighty power of God in the resurrection of Christ, but we also see it when God brought Him back to Heaven and seated Him at His own right hand. In this way God exalted Him far above all spiritual kingdoms and rulers and power and reigns, and every name that is named. In our great universe Satan controls spiritual kingdoms and rulers. Satan is the god and prince of this world
               (2 Corinthians 4:4), and the prince of demons (Matthew 12:24; Ephesians 6:12). In Colossians 1:16, Paul writes, “For by him (God) were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or realms, or spiritual kingdoms or powers.” We can all rejoice in this: at the cross Christ won over every spiritual kingdom and power. In Colossians 2:15, the Apostle Paul wrote, “and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
            2. AND EVERY NAME THAT WAS NAMED – Think of the great men whose names fill the pages of history. Think of the great heads of government and military leaders, philosophers and scientists, artists and writers. Their names melt away and become as nothing compared to that name which is above every name, Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:9-10). That blessed name will be praised forever in the ages to come.
         3. He hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be “the head over all things to the church” (Ephesians 1:22). There are millions of human beings and world leaders who are not now obedient to Christ or “under His feet.” Know assuredly, the hour will come when every knee in heaven and earth will bow to Christ and every tongue will agree that He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). Christ will soon return and “smite the nations and shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Revelation 19:15). Then “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ” (Revelation 11:15).
            (A future lesson will be devoted entirely to the study of the Church as seen in Ephesians.)

Examination

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