In his previous article, Bob Thomas encouraged us to preach with single-mindedness, focused on the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this article, Bob walks us through an example of how this might be done when preaching from Ephesians 2:8-10 and 3:14-20, bringing a gospel shape to a sermon.
Scripture: Ephesians 2.8-10: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 3.14- 20:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Introduction:
In one sense God works in many ways to bring His people to Himself:
Sometimes He works over a long period of time, such as with those people who grow up in a Christian home, where ‘Christ is the Head of the house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener at every conversation’. Such people have been dedicated to God in baptism as Covenant children and grow into Christ under the prayerful example of their parents.
Sometimes God brings people to Himself with a sudden flash, as with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.
Sometimes God brings people to Himself by bringing them to their senses in the far country, as illustrated in the parable of the Prodigal Son, when after a troubled and struggling journey they come back to Him.
Often He brings them to Himself in response to ongoing prayer for them by His people.
But all these ways have much in common and are interwoven, as Paul sets before us in Ephesians 3.14-20.
1. God calls His people to pray – humbly and in awe of Himself, who is our gracious God (3.14,15).
Here we see Apostle Paul engaging in fervent, ongoing prayer both for the saved and the not-yet-saved, and outlining a sometimes lengthy process by which God works in peoples’ hearts.
Who are you praying for? Someone has said that not everyone might be as gifted as Peter in preaching, but that everyone can be like Andrew, praying and bringing others to Jesus.
Is there someone near and dear to you who is far from the Lord? A mother? A father? A brother? A sister? A son? A daughter? A dear friend? A sworn enemy?
Pray for them.
One of the heaviest burdens many earnest Christians carry is a burden for their unsaved loved ones, friends and enemies. Knowing for themselves the blessings which abound when Jesus reigns in our hearts, they yearn for others to know it too.
I know what a deep and abiding burden that is, having prayed over and over again, decade after decade for my father. Participation in World War 2 had left him with a hard and bitter heart.
In the end, sitting by his bed as he was dying, I asked if I could pray for him. He said yes, so I prayed, as putting myself in his shoes. At the end he said ‘That was nice, son’, and slipped away. I hope to see him in Heaven.
Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo long ago, wasn’t always a saint. But as we know, every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future, and to the praise of God’s glorious grace, Augustine had a believing, praying mother named Monica.
Although Augustine had moved far away from her (to Rome, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea) and even further from God, Monica never stopped praying for him.
One day he heard a child saying ‘Take and read! Take and read!’ Eventually he took up the reading of the Bible and by and by came back to the Lord. In later years he confessed: ‘You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.’
So we must pray for the salvation of souls, rejoicing when God answers our prayers positively, content in His wisdom when He answers them negatively.
2. God reaches down deeply to His people, working from inside out (3.16). Sin has reached into the very core of our being and we’re thoroughly within its grasp, well and truly ‘lost and dead in our trespasses and sins’.
We were infected with worldly things, worldly ways, and worldly thoughts. Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, has just one word as its motto: ‘Worldly’. That says it all, really.
Indeed we are ‘lost and dead in our trespasses and sins’ (Ephesians 2.1), but God breathes life into the dead; we are poor in spirit, but He is rich in mercy; we are weak but He is strong, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’.
3. God takes up residence in our hearts (v.17a). Faith is planted by God and then it blooms and grows. True biblical faith doesn’t wither and die; it keeps on growing and growing until the Lord call us Home.
4. God’s love takes hold of our hearts (v.17b). ‘But God shows His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Romans 5.8). Sin thrusts us onto the horns of a dilemma: will we think too little of sin and fool ourselves into thinking that it’s not so bad and God in His love will overlook it, or will we see it for the enormity which it is in the eyes of the One who ‘is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity’ (Habakkuk 1.13) and who truly shows us His love in the atoning, substitutionary death of His belovéd Son?
5. God builds us up as we come to know more and more of His love (3.18). Reading His Word, praying our way through life, discerning His guiding hand, striving to please Him – these things all work together in ‘building us up in our most holy faith’ (Jude 20,21).
6. God draws us into the fellowship of the saints (3.18b). The church is at its finest when it is truly ‘the pillar and bulwark of the truth, the family and household of faith’, and the fellowship we enjoy with other believers gives us encouragement and spiritual enrichment.
7. God fills us with His fullness (v.19)
The Rev Dr Leonard Small, who was minister for many years at Saint Cuthbert’s Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, was once asked: ‘How could you ever be a minister for such a long period of time in one place?’
Somewhat taken aback, Dr Small replied: ‘Because I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ!’
Christ’s riches really are great and more than we can ever know in a lifetime and we find that ‘the longer we serve Him the sweeter He grows’.
8. God does far more with us than we probably ever thought possible (3.20).
For example, there might be someone who feels the Lord calling him to the ministry, but he keeps on putting it off.
He might be thinking: ‘I’m not a very good scholar’ or ‘I don’t have the personality for it’ or ‘I’m too old to start now’ or ‘I’m too young’.
Dear Brother, when the Lord calls us into His service, he makes us able to serve Him. ‘Ask the Saviour to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you; He is willing to aid you, He will carry you through.’
9. God fills us with wonder, love and praise as He brings us to see Him in all His glory (v.21).
Conclusion: So, where do we find ourselves on this spectrum of grace?
Have we come to a conscious faith in and knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord? If so, let’s thank Him; if not, let’s look to Him in earnest prayer.
Are we growing in Him?
Is He preparing us more and more for abundant, eternal life?
Do we know that, having begun a good work in us, He will keep us and guard us all the way to Glory, until ‘we cast our crowns before Him, lost in wonder, love and praise’?
Let us pray:
O Lord our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, draw us to Yourself by Your saving power and because Your Dear Son loved us and gave Himself for us on Calvary’s Cross.
There on the Cross, ‘He who knew no sin became sin for us’ and paid the penalty that was due to us so that we would not die but live forever with You in Heaven.
Forgive us all our sin for His sake, we pray, and raise us up from the death of sin to the life of Righteousness – His Righteousness – and continually build us up in our most holy faith until You call us Home to be with You forever in Glory Everlasting.
In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen.