“Growing in the Greatness of God”

(Ephesians 3:14-21)

Series: Christ and the Church [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

February 14, 2021

The Passage

Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. 16 I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Introductory Comments:

How many of you remember what happened last week with Paul? He got totally sidetracked! He started to talk about something and then he took a beautiful detour to talk about the mystery of Christ. Now, he comes back to where he started. 

Look, if you will, at Ephesians 3:1, which we covered last week. It says, “For this reason . . .” Now, look at verse 14, which we’ll cover this week. It says, “For this reason . . .” It’s the same reason! Paul never finished his thought! So, let’s look at that reason again this week.

Before we go any further, let’s go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to speak to us. 

(prayer)

Paul is now back on track and his intention is to share with the Ephesians a prayer that he prays for them. Finally, this passage will conclude with one of the most beautiful doxologies in all of the Bible. 

As we look at Paul’s prayer, we can see three steps that we should take when we come to God. 

First, . . .

I. Be humble before God (vv. 14-15) [on screen]

In Ephesians, Paul has spoken about God’s sovereign choice of people to salvation, he’s spoken about God’s adoption of us as His children, he’s spoken about the tearing down of the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, he’s spoken about the mystery of Christ, and he’s spoken about the fact that he is a prisoner of Christ. 

After speaking about all of that, Paul speaks of a humble posture that he takes as he comes to God in prayer. Let’s read about it. Look at verses 14 and 15:

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

Most of us probably know that there are several different stances that we can take when it comes to prayer. 

We can stand with our hands lifted up. We can simply bow our heads and close our eyes, we can sit with our head bowed, we can lie prostrate on the ground with our face in the floor, or we can kneel before God. 

Kneeling before God in prayer seems to communicate humility and loyalty to God.

As subjects will often kneel in the presence of kings or queens, so also Paul chose to kneel before God in prayer. Although we are free to take any stance we would like before God in prayer, we should definitely do so in humility, understanding who God is and who we are in relationship to God. 

Don’t forget that we are saved by grace, this is not from ourselves. We did not earn our relationship with God. We are in Christ, before God, and we have come to God only by His magnificent love and grace. So, we should be humble before God. 

Remember Paul says at the beginning of verse 14, “For this reason . . .” For all the reasons that are listed in Ephesians 1:1-3:13; for all the reasons that Paul has already spoken about the work of God, we should come to God with a posture of humility and reverence. Let us come humbly before Him. 

Not only should we come before Him humbly because He is king, but also