Christians Pray (Ephesians 6:18-20

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:10.189 Well, please remain standing and let's turn our attention to Ephesians, Paul's letter 2 00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:17.190 to the Church in Ephesus. We are coming very close to the end now 3 00:00:17.269 --> 00:00:23.780 of this book. Tonight I'm going to be preaching from Ephesians six, eighteen 4 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:27.339 through twenty, but I'm going to read a little bit more than that, 5 00:00:27.379 --> 00:00:32.780 as I have been doing in this section. I hope that is not vain 6 00:00:32.899 --> 00:00:41.090 repetitions, but blessing to you as you memorize God's word and in treasure it. 7 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:47.250 If Fusians six ten through, well, I'll just go to the end. 8 00:00:47.289 --> 00:00:51.039 We're so close. I'll start it verse ten. Let's hear God's word. 9 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:55.920 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 10 00:00:56.920 --> 00:00:59.920 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand 11 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:04.349 against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and 12 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:10.829 blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers 13 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:17.109 over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 14 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:21.739 Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able 15 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:26.659 to withstand in the evil day and, having done all to stand firm, 16 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:32.379 stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the 17 00:01:32.459 --> 00:01:36.969 breastplate of righteousness and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the 18 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:42.049 readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the 19 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:46.329 shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the 20 00:01:46.450 --> 00:01:49.680 evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, 21 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.200 which is the word of God. Praying at all time, is in 22 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.879 the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert, 23 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:04.310 with all perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints and also for me, 24 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.310 that the word, that words, may be given to me, in 25 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:14.389 opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel for which I am 26 00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:19.979 an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to 27 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:23.740 speak, so that you also may know how I am doing and what I 28 00:02:23.780 --> 00:02:27.539 am doing. Ticcus, the beloved brother and Faithful Minister in the Lord, 29 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:30.490 will tell you everything. I have sent to him to you for this very 30 00:02:30.569 --> 00:02:35.289 purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your 31 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:38.689 hearts. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God, the 32 00:02:38.770 --> 00:02:44.289 Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord 33 00:02:44.319 --> 00:03:05.189 Jesus Christ, with love incorruptible. He may be seated well, as we've 34 00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:09.150 come to the end of Ephesians, having considered the many blessings that God gives 35 00:03:09.189 --> 00:03:14.819 to us in Christ, blessings which are given in love, blessings which are 36 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:21.219 given to us in a love that is predestined and planned even before the foundations 37 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:24.500 of the world, that God is established a new creation and New People, 38 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:30.849 a temple in which we are being built up upon the foundation of Jesus and 39 00:03:30.009 --> 00:03:35.409 Apostles and the Prophets. As he has given US instructions for how we ought 40 00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:38.770 to live in the world, he now comes to the end of this book, 41 00:03:38.729 --> 00:03:44.159 of this letter, and gives us instructions on how we are to persevere, 42 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:49.000 on how we are to remain strong in what truly is a battle. 43 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:58.349 We cannot forget this fact that the Lord is has placed us are in a 44 00:03:58.469 --> 00:04:01.389 situation in which we are called to fight, to be watchful, to be 45 00:04:01.509 --> 00:04:05.270 alert. If this weren't the case, he wouldn't say so and he wouldn't 46 00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:12.699 use all of this language of weapons and shields and armor, etc. The 47 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:20.019 the our enemy, the devil as against us. He has plans against us, 48 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:26.209 and we are to be a prepared, we are to stand strong. 49 00:04:27.689 --> 00:04:30.290 But as we have been learning and considering these various aspects of what we call 50 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:36.970 the armor of God, we've been learning that this armor is essentially to stand 51 00:04:38.170 --> 00:04:43.319 in union with Christ himself. To put on the armor of God is to 52 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:48.480 be in Jesus Christ his this, these various aspects of his armor, I've 53 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:54.350 been referring to as the strengths. These are the strengths that God gives to 54 00:04:54.470 --> 00:04:59.189 us for the fight, strengths which are not separate that we somehow go out 55 00:04:59.269 --> 00:05:02.910 and collect apart from our union with Christ, but the strengths that we receive 56 00:05:03.149 --> 00:05:08.660 in our union with Christ. To remind you of that, I'd like to 57 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:13.379 read to you a verse we sang earlier, from be Thou my vision, 58 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:18.819 verse three. This is exactly the point we've been making. Be Thou my 59 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:24.490 battle shield, sword from my fight. Be Thou my dignity, Thou my 60 00:05:24.689 --> 00:05:29.649 delight, Thou my soul shelter, Thou my high tower raised, Thou me 61 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:33.209 heavenward, Oh power of my power. You See, there it is, 62 00:05:33.329 --> 00:05:38.399 and what we've Sung and what we hear here in our text, our power, 63 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:44.120 our strength, our shield, our salvation is God himself, God as 64 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:49.000 he comes to us and has revealed himself to us in Christ. We've been 65 00:05:49.029 --> 00:05:55.910 been considering how Christ protects us with his righteousness, his peace of faith, 66 00:05:56.110 --> 00:06:00.550 with truth, and how we go about putting on these things so that we 67 00:06:00.589 --> 00:06:05.139 might be ready for war. Now, having thought about these various aspects of 68 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:09.779 the arm, of these very strengths in which God gives to us, Paul 69 00:06:09.899 --> 00:06:14.939 now speaks about one of the most important activities that we take on as we 70 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:20.689 stand strong in Christ. Here's how Chrisostom put it. See how clever this 71 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:26.850 blessed author is. He has armed them with utmost protection. So now what 72 00:06:27.050 --> 00:06:30.810 remains? Only to call on the king and urge him to extend his hand. 73 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:35.800 What remains, after knowing the strength that we have in Christ, it 74 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:42.199 is to pray to God and ask for his help to stand strong to receive 75 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:46.709 these blessings. And so is we look at this passage, I'm thinking particularly 76 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:54.149 of verses eighteen through twenty, we find an exhortation, a very clear exhortation, 77 00:06:54.790 --> 00:07:00.550 to pray. Paul tells us to pray all kinds of prayers, prayers 78 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:05.100 and supplications, he says, and he connects prayer with a kind of alertness 79 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:11.019 and perseverance, as we encourage one another along the way, and he even 80 00:07:11.060 --> 00:07:15.569 asked the Ephesians directly for their praying of for him, he says, and 81 00:07:15.689 --> 00:07:19.889 pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my 82 00:07:20.050 --> 00:07:26.850 mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel. Here we have, at 83 00:07:26.889 --> 00:07:30.360 the ending, a reminder that Paul writes this letter as a prisoner. He 84 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:35.120 writes this letter as one who is in chains and as one who doesn't want 85 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:40.600 to give up. That's not typical of emissaries and ambassadors to be people in 86 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.709 chains. Usually these are people that receive diplomatic immunity, these are people that 87 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:51.029 receive special favors. They they are not put in jail. Nevertheless, Paul 88 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:57.389 is a very special ambassador, a very special emissary. He is the ambassador 89 00:07:57.470 --> 00:08:01.019 and emissary of God, of Christ, who has called him to be an 90 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:05.899 apostle. Now, of course, this would you would think that this would 91 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:11.220 elevate him above all others, other all other offices in this world. But, 92 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:16.009 as is the way of Christ and all of his servants, we take 93 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:20.129 up our cross and we follow him. And so Paul is here and chains 94 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:26.639 being an ambassador of the Gospel and Ambassador of Christ and his word. But 95 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:31.759 he's not going to give up, though his his body is chained. He 96 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.960 does not want the Gospel to be chained. He wants it to go forth 97 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:41.429 freely and boldly. He's looking for an opportunity. It doesn't want them to 98 00:08:41.470 --> 00:08:46.590 be scared or overly depressed. Tells them that Ticke Akus is coming, that 99 00:08:46.750 --> 00:08:52.549 the barrel of this beloved brother and Faithful and Minister in Christ will let them 100 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:58.659 know how he and his companions are, that he may encourage your hearts. 101 00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:07.899 Nevertheless, Paul wants them to pray, not only for him but for all 102 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:13.129 the saints, he says, and this is the essential message of the pastor 103 00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:20.769 it's pretty straightforward. Pray, pray at all times, pray all kinds of 104 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:24.679 prayers and pray for all the saints. This is how we act as those 105 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:28.200 who are in Christ. This is what we do when we put on the 106 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:37.120 armor of God in this battle, that we fight well, rather than simply 107 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.190 ending there, which I don't think would be all bad. I do think 108 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:46.029 it's worth spending a little time thinking a little bit more about this, maybe 109 00:09:46.149 --> 00:09:50.870 answering just some simple questions, but questions that we all have and we all 110 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:56.860 ought to be able to answer about what prayer is and and what we're called 111 00:09:58.539 --> 00:10:01.700 to do in it. In answering some of those questions, I would like 112 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:09.769 to use our larger catechism and which gives biblical expressions and answers to some of 113 00:10:09.809 --> 00:10:13.850 these basic questions about what is prayer and how do we pray in these kinds 114 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:16.090 of things. If you want to follow and read along with me and some 115 00:10:16.210 --> 00:10:20.250 of these questions, you can turn to page nine hundred and sixty four in 116 00:10:20.330 --> 00:10:26.519 your hymnals, nine hundred and sixty four and nine hundred and sixty five. 117 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.799 We won't be reading all of this, but I hope it will give you 118 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:41.429 an encouragement to study and and and and learn our catechism as you see these 119 00:10:41.509 --> 00:10:48.429 biblical expressions of our faith in it. The first question, as we do 120 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:52.940 a little teaching tonight, that I want to answer simply, what is prayer? 121 00:10:54.740 --> 00:11:00.179 The catechism answers this in question one hundred and seventy eight. Prayer is 122 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:05.049 an offering up of our desires under God in the name of Christ by the 123 00:11:05.169 --> 00:11:09.929 help of his spirit, with confessions of our confession of our sins and thankful 124 00:11:09.929 --> 00:11:16.649 acknowledgement of his mercies. That's what prayer is. Prayer is not a wish. 125 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:28.519 Prayer is not self reflection. Prayer is not simply being quiet. Martin, 126 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.360 Martin bootser, there are former in Strasburg. Put it this way. 127 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.870 You said prayer is a deep conversation of the mind with God, and I'm 128 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:37.669 sure he means not only the mind, but