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­­­­LSB Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

My brother in law, along about 1975 or so, some of you weren't born, bought a special vehicle. It was my favorite brand. Ford. It was a Ford Ranchero, a 1970 model, as fancy as could be ordered at that time, and it had 56,000 miles on it when he bought it.

What made it special was the power plant. The engine. Otherwise it was what we called a sleeper. It had been ordered with faux wood paneling on the sides. A strange throwback to wooden station wagons. Probably the last vehicle on earth that someone in the sales and styling department would say, we should put fake vinyl wood grain panels on the Ranchero and that will make people want one. Seems almost bizarre to us.

But that's how it got ordered, and among all the sporty racier looking Fairlane Torino's, this unique looking little car body with a pickup bed behind the bench front seat. It was light. The Fairlane was nothing but an expanded glorified Falcon. It shared lots of platform running elements with Mustang and Falcons.

But the story goes that the lady who ordered it from the dealer wanted a car like platform, low to the ground with all the comforts of a car, but she had horses and wanted to be able to tow her horse trailer.

So she went to the Ford dealer to order this vehicle and as they were filling out the order form, they got to engine size, and she said, I want the big motor. And the Ford dealer cautioned her, lady, you really don't want the biggest engine option. But she insisted.

It was a 1970 model, ordered probably in late 1969, the pinnacle of the big detroit horsepower and performance muscle car era, just before smog requirements from the Government killed everything. We had 115 octane gasoline available at the pumps in those days. And 11.5:1 compression ratios.

So the car was delivered with a 435 horsepower 429 cubic inch pre smog ultra high compression drag race engine, and the poor lady was terrified of it the whole 56000 miles she had it, until she sold it to John.

John had a gas station and the joke was you could send a kid after parts in that thing, and if he forgot to put the tailgate up, none of the parts would still be in it when he got back. The acceleration could unload the pickup bed. It really was a lot of fun. I'm a gear head, but I've never had anything close to the power of that Ranchero.

My story has a point. Most christians, real ones, are like that lady that bought that truck. When they understand, if they ever really do, the power that they have available, on tap and ready, they're like that lady. It frightens them and they never use more than a tiny percent of what's waiting and ready.

It's like we've got a 435 HP spiritual engine, but, thanks but no thanks, I'm happy to unplug 7 of the spark plugs and putt putt putt to the grocery store and coast back home and only use about 5 of those horsepower. That suits me. That's all I really wanted. The potential power available scares us. Or worse.

Paul, in this letter to the Ephesians, has been telling them about the magnitude of who they are in Christ. The riches of the inheritance. So much of the riches and power of God, poured into His called out ones, that we saw last week, the entire unseen spiritual universe is watching us to see what we're going to do with all that we've been given, IN Christ.

Unfathomable powers and resources and wealth are ours! What will we do with all the resources. All of creation, in the heavenlies is watching to see what we're going to do with all of that potential. It must be a boring show, folks. Let me show you what at least one person is going to do.

Rev. 3:16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of My mouth.

Those are Jesus words about an age of the church, just before the rapture, that sickens Him and He vomits them out of His mouth. They think they're rich, think they're doing big things, and He tells them;

17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked.

The whole spiritual universe is watching the church, potentially the most powerful entity in all of the universes because of all of the wealth and gifts available to her, and Jesus says, of one iteration of the church, the luke warm church, you make me want to puke.

FWIW I believe that spewing, that vomiting of the luke warm church occurs at the rapture. Jesus calls the real christians home and they meet Him in the air, and the phony baloney church meets the following week as if nothing even happened.

There's a huge religious revival after the rapture. Some guy that claims to be Jesus and does miracles is bringing world peace, and all the phony christians that stayed behind will throng to that guy. Huge revival that ends up following the anti-christ into perdition.

We don't want to be that church. First Mega Chruch of the Tares. What Paul prays here for the saints at Ephesus, and by extension, every christian in all of the centuries who have this epistle and believe these truths, is the division point between real, and fake. Wheat and tares. Fruit bearing branches and barren branches. Paul prayed this prayer for you and me, in 2024.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

What reason, Paul? Everything he has stated about the believer in what he has written so far. In chapter 1 Paul prays that we would know who we are. He prays for the knowledge of the riches to sink in, to be understood.

In this prayer he prays that we will not just know about our wealth, but that we'll turn knowledge into action.

In chapters 1 and 2 we read about the 435 horsepower motor. In chapter 3, Paul gives us the keys and says for goodness sakes, start that thing up, mash the gas pedal to the floor, and hold on for dear life.

It's one thing to read all the brochures and understand in our head what the possibilities are. It's another thing to put the riches and the power and the wealth in action.

So when Paul says 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
he means;

⦁ since we've been called out of Satan's kingdom into God's,
⦁ since our sins have been paid for and we've been purchased by the Saviour's blood,
⦁ since every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places has been given to us,
⦁ since we've become adopted brothers to the Son of God,
⦁ since we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God and have all of the power of God to move whatever mountains God has designed for us to move,
⦁ since we have been quickened to life from the dead,
⦁ since the entire spiritual realm in the heavenlies is looking on to see what God will accomplish through all that He has poured into us,
⦁ for that reason, Paul is going to pray for what he prays for.

It's time to turn potential energy into kinetic energy. This is how rich you are. What are you going to do with all of the wealth and power God has freely given to you? God has given us gifts to spend in order to purchase glory for Him. It's exactly what Jesus spoke of in the parable of the talents. Matt. 25

14 “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and handed over his possessions to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

16 Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. 17 In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. 18 But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed five talents over to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

22 “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you handed two talents over to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 Therefore, you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.

28 Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 And throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Notice, not all of the slaves received equal gifts to work with. That's true in practice. God has given me gifts to invest in His kingdom, but I'm no John MacArthur. He gave them gifts each according to their ability.

The first two guys had a return to give to the Master from His investment. But the third guy was too busy living for himself to be bothered with making a return for someone else. He has no interest in the Master, or His kingdom, in fact, the Master's talent is something of an inconvenience to him.

This is my life. And I'm going to squeeze every drop out of it, for me. Don't bother me with some requirement to invest your money to make a return for you. And he's almost belligerent about it. Where do you get off asking me to work for your benefit. Here's your gift back. I put it in a safe place and here it is. I couldn't be bothered making a profit for you. In fact I think you're a hard man who is trying to profit from other peoples efforts on your behalf.

Note one more small thing in the parable, because it will come up again for us in vs.20 later on in what Paul prays and says on our behalf. The guy who began with 5 talents that didn't originate with Him, they were the Masters wealth, in the end, how many did he get to keep? 10 plus one more.

Paul has spent chapters 1 and 2 dumping the load of wealth that God has given to his elect. Ch. 1 and 2, the wealth defined. Chapters 3 he tells us we're so critically important in God's plan on earth that all the heavenlies are watching what will happen through the church. What will we accomplish with all the wealth that has been bestowed upon us?

Then in this prayer, Paul tells us it's time to get to work investing what He has given to you. He prays for God to effectually use the church for His glory.

It's a prayer for the church to assume her powers and do God's bidding on earth. But since the church is actually a collection of individuals, Paul prays this prayer as if he were praying for me, and for you, individually to take our place in the grand plan of God's church in this world. He's speaking directly to me in this prayer, and to you.

Let me read it again in it's entirety and then we'll unpack it phrase by phrase.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Our introduction was based on Paul's phrase, for this reason, so we won't say anything else about that. We'll pick it up in 14b with the words,

the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

Which Father. The one from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. What does he mean.

He's speaking about all who are holy. All who have been adopted and made sons to the Father. Both in heaven and on earth. All of the old testament hero's and saints, now in heaven, and all of those on earth, purchased with the blood of Jesus. We all have the same Father in heaven.

As opposed to everyone else. All who are locked down in sin and death have a different Father. You'll recall in John chapter 8 the religious fanatic jews who were plotting Jesus death, claimed that Abraham was their father. And Jesus corrected them and told them their father was Satan. Your father is the devil.

All of the unredeemed have Satan as their father, whether they know it or not. The family of God, both in heaven and on earth have one Father. God. One Father of one family. All who are redeemed are a common family with a single common father and source. God.

Why here. Why does Paul mention that here. Because he's in the middle of this fight trying to get the church to recognize that gentiles and jews are equals when they become christians. Still important for us today.

Oh, you're a jewish christian. Who's your Father? God. Oh you're a gentile christian with no jewish heritage at all. Who's your Father? God. Oh, you're a christian from the black church? Who's your Father. God. Oh you're a previously gay christian, past tense. Who's your Father. God.

The church isn't divided up into a thousand different identity groups. There's a single Father for all the multiples of ethnicities that the Father purchases His church out of. We are a family. Of course there's differences. Many ethnicities, one family, one Father.

In the greek there is a little play on words. In vs 14 Father is patera. In vs 15 the word family is patria. Same root word. One is the source and the other is the produce of the source. The family of God is the issue of God. As opposed to the family of Adam who rebelled against God and became ruined and trapped in sin.

God calls people out of every possible ethnicity and culture on earth, vastly different from each other, and brings them into one common family. He is Father, we are all brothers. Called out of diversity and into unity.

And the family line for the heavenly family is through Jesus. The obedient Son. We are IN Christ. In Romans Paul makes the distinction of being IN Adam as opposed to being IN Christ. We are patria. Little ones who belong to the Patera, the Father, in Christ. That's who Paul is praying for. If you have not been adopted into that family, this prayer is not for you.

16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

You know it's almost as if Paul began by writing a phrase and then he goes back and edits what he writes. Maybe not. Just because I do that a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean Paul did.

But here's how it might have been written.

16 that He would give you power through His Spirit in the inner man,
And then he thought about it and said, I need to add strengthened. Strong power. Stronger than my limited powers. So he adds the word strenthened.

16 that He would give you, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
And then he thinks about it again and says, the source of power outside ourselves is limitless. I need to add in some sense of the bottomless riches of the power source, since we're drawing on power outside ourselves. And so he changes it again to reflect the limitless source of that power.

16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

The words according to are carefully chosen also. Paul doesn't say, 16 that He would give you, (out of) the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

That would be a one time apportionment. A scholarship that is gone when it's spent. A portion out of the riches of His glory. Paul carefully says according to the riches of His glory.

The difference would be a kid that someone gives an allotment of funds one time to help him, say like a scholarship for college maybe. A one time gift that gets used up and it's gone. According to has the idea that the kid is adopted into the rich family and the source never quits. He's a son with a rich father.

Paul chose every word so that we would understand that whatever this is he's asking for us to have, in this prayer, the source is limitless and the increase is continuous.

What Paul asks for is inner strength. Inner strength with power. dunamis. Dynamite. Inner strength with dynamic power, outside myself. The strength and the power comes through His Spirit.

This is God in me, strengthening my inner man, with Spiritual power that He supplies according to His limitless riches. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

Again, it's almost as if Paul wrote out his thoughts and then keeps adding defining words. to be strengthened in the inner man,
wait, that's not enough. to be strengthened with power in the inner man,
super strength in the inner man. Add some dynamite. But, wait, that's still not enough; to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

I'm a hopeless weakling. If the power source isn't outside of me, we all know, there isn't going to be any dynamite. Only through His indwelling Spirit is this prayer even remotely possible.

There is a spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. Our eyes can't see it, but more and more people keep saying, it seems like we're in a war and evil is more prevalent than ever before. Non christian people are saying this out loud. Some unseen force for evil is at work, unseen, in the world.

Paul talks about the christians warfare, here and now, in the spiritual realms. All of heaven is looking on. Christians are singularly the only salt and light holding back present unseen evil. Evil doesn't go to war against evil. We're it, people.

In 2 Cor. 10 Paul says; 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds,

I'm adopted into a family of limitless wealth, and my Father has given me a dynamite power source to strengthen my inner man according to His riches, through His Holy Spirit. OK, why, Paul. vs. 17

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love,

Paul is a person who builds an argument, piece upon piece, with perfect logic. So we're building this argument in this prayer to get to a final end game. One piece at a time. dynamite power in the inner man being built up by the Spirit according to limitless potential and possibility, our Father is loaded, and we're adopted sons,

So we've got the Spirit and the dynamite and the inner man, and the strength, and the wealth, and we're building to a conclusion. Paul keeps saying so that, so that, so that . . . We're on our way somewhere. Those are purpose clauses moving us towards an end goal. So that, so that, so that . . .

vs 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love,

So that Christ may dwell. In your hearts. The key word in the original language that we might miss in our translations is the word dwell.

If my heart was a vacation rental, Christ might visit and stay there for a long weekend. That's not this word. This word dwell is more like a cat that moved in and now it's his house, and he's just letting you live there.

This word might be best illustrated by a marriage. You bring her home and it takes about a year, but you find out, it's her house, and she's throwing some of your old junk out. My wife would never do that. But she lets me know.

Some of those houses with all the neat junk taking up every square inch of available space, the whole house is a man cave, porcelain signs and old gas pumps, and cigar store indians, and we look at each other and both conclude, this guy is a bachelor. Right.

You know what I mean. Christ has moved into your house, and the honeymoon is over, and it's not your house any more, it's HIS. That's what this word dwell means in the greek. You can't keep all the old junk that you had before He got there. Most of the old "loves" have gotta go.

You used to love to sit in a dirty filthy room and smoke cigars until the whole room was full of smoke. Well, Christ doesn't like cigars, and He doesn't like smoke, and He won't tolerate filth. Sorry dude. It's not your house any more.

Now if you don't know Christ intimately, you might read that last paragraph and say, well, if He takes over and it's like that, why would you invite Him in in the first place. Lose all your freedom when He moves in and rules your heart. And honestly, many folks get to just that threshold and they say, nope, I like my cigars and my filth, and I don't want Christ taking over. Pretty common. Very common.

But the reason we do is in the next part of the prayer.
vs 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love,

Once you know Him, His love is irresistable. And you'll gladly clean up the old messes, one at a time, if need be, in order to have Him. Love motivates. Love compels. In 2 Cor 5:14 Paul says, for the love of Christ constraineth us. in perfect King James english. The love of Christ compels us to change.

He moves in and we change. We love Him and His love for us is so compelling, we want to throw out all that old junk so we can be pleasing to Him. Sweet fellowship comes with real change. The cigars and the squalor have to go, or our new love doesn't like to be with us.

That's why I often look at someone who claims to be a christian, but nothing inside has ever happened. No change. No growth away from our old filthy squalor person towards a spiritually classy clean well dressed orderly person.

I'm talking about spiritual things inside. You know that. Don't come to my garage and judge me. Jesus doesn't seem to mind that my garage is a mess. But He doesn't tolerate a filthy mess inside me. Love for Him compels me to be a different person. Strengthened in the inner man, by His Spirit, compelled by His love for me and my love for Him.

Paul is praying for us to be sanctified. Sanctification. There it is. 5 syllables. And it means inner change over a lifetime from my old fleshy self to a new person who is more and more like Christ over time.

It's a long drawn out lifetime battle. Some of us are slow movers. Incremental change. Sometimes I wonder, if I could see where my life would have ended up, without Christ in me compelling me, I might be in prison. I think road rage would probably get me. Or something similar. It's a frightening thought. Incremental change. Frustratingly slow.

Paul is praying for inner change. Sanctification. Compelled by a love relationship with the Saviour, who lives inside us, and who is reforming us into His image. Actual change. From Adam to Christ. I was born into Adam's family but I've been purchased out of that family and adopted into the Father's family, and little by little Christ is conforming the old me into a new me who looks more like Christ than Adam.

If the Spirit dwells in you, that WILL happen. If nothing is happening, at all, maybe you're not a christian. Sanctification is not optional. Change inside you from the old fallen sinful you to a different you that looks more and more every day, every year, like the image of Christ.

Well, there's more in this prayer, but not less. Next week if God allows, we'll finish Paul's prayer about putting our wealth and resources to work for the glory of our Father.