Redeemer Church of Waterford

The priority of Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is not their material needs, but rather that they might be "strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man." What is "the inner man" and what are the means which the Spirit of God uses to strengthen it?

We apologize for the quality of this recording.

The Apostle Paul prays that his people might come to comprehend and to know the love of Christ which "passes knowledge" in four dimensions: breadth, length, depth, and height.

This is the second of Paul's Pastoral Prayers in his letter to the Ephesians (the first being Ephesians 1:15-23). Both prayers reflect the passion of every true pastor's heart: that the people whom God has given him to shepherd might have enlightened eyes to see all of what is theirs in the unsearchable riches of Christ.

God's eternal purpose is to redeem a people for Himself whom He has promised to the Son as an inheritance of nations who for all eternity will be to the praise of His glory.

God's eternal purpose takes place in two spheres: in the eternal counsel of the Holy Trinity (Ephesians 1:11) wherein God chose a people to the praise of His glory for eternity ("before the foundation of the world - 1:4; and "in the ages to come" 2:10) and in time (2:2-3, 11-13; Galatians 4:4) where Christ purchases God's redeemed people and secures them to the Father for all eternity by the Holy Spirit (1:7; 1:13-14).

God never intended for you and me to live the Christian life alone and isolation from others in the church. In Ephesians 3:6, Paul gives the identifying characteristics of those who belong to the Fellowship of the Mystery: "fellowheirs, of the same body, partakers of God's promises in Christ by the gospel."

You and I were saved to be a part of a community, a fellowship. The Apostle Paul calls this community, "The Fellowship of the Mystery" in Ephesians 3:9.

In the context around Ephesians 3:9, the Apostle Paul discloses four agents that participate together in placing unregenerate sinners into the fellowship of the mystery: by the Spirit (v. 5), by the Gospel (vv. 7-9), by the Church (vv. 10-11), and by the Faith of Jesus Christ (v. 12).