Ephesians 3:14-17 “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”
How can we make our heart where Jesus can be at home? Pastor Herk explores that question in his sermon last Sunday, as he continued in his series through the Epistle of Ephesians. In these verses, the Apostle Paul is describing how God is carrying out His eternal purpose and He is doing iot through the body of Believers called the church.
Do you ever think about why we pray or why it is necessary? God is sovereign - Supreme in power; possessing supreme dominion; as a sovereign ruler of the universe. God is the sovereign good of all who love and obey Him. It is God who chooses us. It is God who predestines us to become part of His family and citizens in the kingdom of Heaven. It is God who redeems us and guarantees that we will one day the inheritance that He has promised us. If we have trusting faith in the fact that God is going to do what He says, then why should we pray? The Apostle answers that in this passage, when he says: “for this reason”. Is it for the welfare of those reading, or desire for them to enter fully into the privileges with Christ, or because of the reconciling work of Jesus? The immediate context implies that God’s children have been brought together into the church body for the purpose of making God’s manifold wisdom evident here on earth. Praying allows us to be the vessels that we need to be in order to carry out God’s sovereign plan.
Apostle Paul writes that he bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea of bowing our knee is a picture of submission, reverence and awe in coming before the King of the kingdom of Heaven. The point that the Apostle is making here is that when we come before God to pray, we need to come with the “right” heart. We can come boldly to the throne because our access to God and audience with the King is guaranteed through Christ Jesus. But, we also need to come in humility and reverence. We cannot forget that this is the God of all creation; our almighty Maker. He wants us to come before Him, to have presence with us and hear what we have to say. But, we cannot forget that He is God.
Paul writes that God is the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. There is a reference here to God’s creation and that all created beings owe their existence to God; their Creator. Paul is emphasizing the idea that in Christ’s church, we all have the same Father. There is only one race; the human race created by God whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Due to the fall of man in Sin and God’s plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ, there are unsaved and saved. John 1:9-13 explains that Jesus Christ “was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.”
That is why John 3:16-19 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. Those who repent of their sin, seek forgiveness in contrition, believe in Jesus’ atoning death on the Cross to pay the debt of their sin, accept God’s free offer and receive His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, receive eternal salvation, the regeneration of their spirit, a new heart indwelt by the Holy Spirit to see that which is spiritually discerned, adoption into the family of God, reconciliation with God for direct access to the throne as a beloved child, citizenship in the kingdom of Heaven, and coheirs with Christ. The born-again Christians are children of God and God loves all His children equally.
Let's continue Pastor Herk message on the heart that Jesus makes His home in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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