Paul's Powerful Prayers (#2)

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

I like the story about the husband and wife that were having a disagreement and she proceeded to tell him, “According to scripture, you have to love me as your wife. If you can’t do that, you have to love me as your sister in Christ. If you can’t do that, you have to love me as your neighbor. If you can’t do that, you have to love me as your enemy. But, one way or another, you have to love me.”

I think most of us can agree that at times it is difficult to love some people. By loving, I don’t mean having warm, fuzzy feelings about a person. I mean loving them in the biblical sense of the word...a self-sacrificing, self-giving love that is primarily characterized by actions more than feelings (1 Corinthians 13). It is a love that is modeled after Christ’s love for us that caused Him to leave Heaven’s glory to come to us that we might have God’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life.

In studying the prayers of the Apostle Paul we learn that one of the things he prayed for other believers was that they would “increase and abound” in love for one another (1 Thessalonians 3:9-11). That is a prayer worthy of praying on behalf of others when we are interceding for them, as well as for ourselves.

Paul had come to Thessalonica after a traumatic experience of persecution in Philippi (cf. Acts 16). In that city he was beaten and thrown into prison for preaching Christ, only to be miraculously delivered. This all resulted in the Philippian jailer and his family coming to faith in Christ.

Paul travelled from there to Thessalonica (Acts 17) and for at least three weeks (or more), reasoned and preached about Christ. Paul again met with stiff opposition and had to quickly leave the city. Because of his sudden departure, all that he wanted to accomplish in grounding these believers in the faith was not completed. As a result, the new believers and this young church weighed heavily on his heart and mind. He was concerned about them continuing with Christ in the face of their ever present opposition and persecution. He desperately wanted to get back to them to further the work God had begun in them and it is the reason he prayed so fervently (3:10) for them, as well.

Soon after leaving Thessalonica, Paul was so concerned about these young believers that he sent Timothy back to the city to check on them and gratefully, he returned to Paul with a positive report that they are continuing to follow Christ (1 Thessalonians 3:2). When he hears this report he rejoices (1:2; 2:13; 3:9) that they have been faithful to Christ. However, he also knows that there are still things “lacking” (needing further development) in their faith (3:10).

Paul prays earnestly that God will allow him the opportunity to return to them, though heretofore he has been hindered from doing so (2:18). And, it will be several years before he is able to return to Thessalonica in person. But, through Paul’s prayers, letters and love for them, he still seeks to confirm them in their faith and provide further spiritual grounding.

In addition to praying that God might allow him to return to Thessalonica, he also asks specifically that they will be filled to overflowing with love for one another and even for their persecutors (3:12b). He knows that people facing great trials need each other, as well as God’s help to not become bitter. The kind of love Paul is praying for them to experience transcends natural, human love and is only produced in the hearts of believers supernaturally by God (3:12a).

Love amongst the people of God is a primary identifier that distinguishes Jesus' disciples (John 13:35). It is not always easy to love some people, but God is the One that can enable us to do so.

Paul spoke about the kind of love that we should be demonstrating in 1 Corinthians 13. Each of the statements in this passage about love relate primarily to actions, not feelings. God wants us to be able to act in “loving ways,” even if when we don’t have “loving feelings” in our hearts.

Obviously, this kind of love can only happen as God enables us and that is why Paul is praying for these believers. He wants them to be able to show love to one another in spite of their present suffering...because they need each other. It is also the remedy for bitterness toward their persecutors.

It is in this environment of love among the brethren that we can be “established...blameless in holiness” (3:13). This holiness is not positional (once for all established at conversion), but progressive (always growing and developing in our spiritual journey) throughout our lives.

Ultimately, as we learn to love one another, we advance in holiness (practically speaking) and become prepared to stand before Christ at His coming as “blameless.” This is when we will hear the commendation of our Lord for having served Him well and for allowing Him to love others through us.

Bring your prayer life to a greater level of maturity by asking...

1. That believers may be strengthened with God’s power on the inner man. (Eph. 3:16)

2. That believers may better grasp the immensity of the love of God. (Eph. 3:17)

3. That believers would mature to the place of Christlikeness. (Eph. 3:19)

4. That God might enable believers to love others as they should. (1 Thess. 3:12-13)

Paul's Powerful Prayers (#1)

Ephesians 3:14-21

It’s important that we avail ourselves of the most wonderful privilege God has given us in opening the way for us to pray to Him. He stands ready to hear our requests and to answer according to His will.

The trouble for me is that I too often pray selfish and/or temporal prayers. I spend more time asking for things that matter today, than for ones that have eternal value. I think many of us do this and it is why in this series of messages we will be looking at Paul’s Powerful Prayers and learning how he prayed.

The first prayer we are studying is found in Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul has just finished speaking about how Christ brings Jews and Gentiles together into one body (the church) through Christ Jesus. All of the blessings of this new relationship we enjoy with one another is because of His magnanimous grace that redeems us from our sins and places us in Christ. “For this reason” or because of these special blessings, Paul says he prayed for the Ephesian believers that three specific things would be granted to them.

Each of the three things Paul asks of God is really a stepping stone to the next thing he asks. In other words, His third request is dependent on his second one. And, his second request is dependent on his first one. Consequently, the thing Paul wants God to grant to these believers more than anything else is that they would be “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

The “inner man” is that part of us that is alive to God (cf. Ephesians 2:1) and constitutes our new nature received when we trusted Christ for salvation. This “inner man” delights in the Law of God (Romans 7:22) and is renewed every day (2 Corinthians 4:16). This strengthening for which he prays is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in us and it is “according to the riches of His glory.”

When followers of Christ are strengthened by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, Christ then “dwells” in their hearts. This does not mean that He takes up residence only at that time and in response to this request (Christ takes up residence the moment we become His children). It means that He is to be “at home” in our hearts as our Lord. We should want our lives such that Christ has freedom to enter any “room” of our hearts and to make Himself always welcome to assess our motives, thoughts and deeds.

The second request is that we would grasp the immensity of the love of God for us, though it is truly beyond total comprehension. Paul uses four directional words that have one definite article governing them. He wasn’t trying to use these four directions separately, as if to use one as distinct from the others. If he had done that it would have sounded something like: God’s love is wide enough to encompass every human being, long enough to stretch from eternity to eternity, deep enough to reach to the lowest hell, and high enough to take us into the very presence of God.

However, Paul’s purpose was to gather these four words into one statement, illustrating the vastness and immensity of God’s love for all mankind. Of course, this love has its highest display in the sacrifice of His Son on Calvary for our sins.

Even though Paul had repeatedly spoken of the saints in Ephesus as being “in Christ,” this particular request of Paul assumes that they still do not have a full appreciation of God’s love for them. Consequently, as Christ makes them strong through His indwelling presence, he desires for them to grasp just how much they have been loved by the Creator of the universe.

He makes one final request before breaking into a doxology of praise to God. He asks that they would be filled with the “fullness of God.” This is a difficult expression to explain because only Jesus is capable of being filled with all the fullness of God (cf. Colossians 1:19).

What Paul means here is that God’s fullness is the level up to which we should desire to be filled. No one achieves this in this life or even in the life to come. If we possessed ALL the fullness of God, then we would be God ourselves. This is a prayer asking that these believers come to a place of greater spiritual maturity in their lives.

When you read these three requests by Paul, you realize that he is asking a lot from God on their behalf. Can God do all these things? In a definitive way that is hard to explain in writing, Paul says, “YES!”

Ephesians 1:20 could be read like this: Now to Him that is able. Now to Him that is able to do. Now to Him that is able to do above. Now to Him that is able to do above all. Now to Him that is able to do above all that we ask. Now to Him that is able to do above all that we ask or think. Now to Him that is able to do above all that we ask or think exceedingly. Now to Him that is able to do above all that we ask or think...exceedingly abundantly.

Those final two words are the translation of a unique Greek word that is a superlative meaning “immeasurably more!” In other words, there is no difficulty with God granting these requests made by Paul because He can do immeasurably more than we can even ask or think.

He closes his prayer and doxology by reminding us that praise is to be given through Christ to God by the church. It’s important to notice two things from this passage in relationship to the church: 1. “With the saints” is the way we recognize the love of God. It does not say “by the saints,” as if to say, “by each individual saint separately.” This might seem like a small point, but Paul recognizes that it is impossible to fully recognize the immensity of God’s love when you live in isolation from other believers. Participation in the church opens your understanding of the greatest of God’s love as you see its operation in other people’s lives. 2. Praise to God is to be given, “in the church,” not just by individual church members. We certainly should praise God individually when we are alone. But, the request of Paul is that both Jews and Gentiles, who have been graciously made children of God and placed into Christ, lift their voices corporately in praise to Him. Neglecting God’s church hinders your ability to see the vast immensity of God’s love, as well as quiets the collective voice of His people in praise to Him.

Use these three requests to bring your prayer life to a greater level of maturity.

1. That believers may be strengthened with God’s power on the inner man.

2. That believers may better grasp the immensity of the love of God.

3. That believers would mature to the place of Christlikeness.