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Sermon preached on Ephesians 3: 14-19 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/22/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Paul has already blessed us with so much rich teaching about how the Ephesians, and we with them, are saved by grace through faith. Now, he shares with us how he was richly praying for the Ephesians. Rich doctrine gives rise to rich prayers! Paul gives this glorious Trinitarian prayer, asking that God would continue to grow them. This teaches us something important about the Christian life. Though Paul has emphasized the great saving blessings that we already enjoy in Christ, this prayer shows that we can come to further enjoy the fulness of those blessings. This prayer implies that God is still working in our hearts, to grow us in Christ. We call that sanctification. Ephesians so again beautifully shows us the already and not yet of our salvation. This prayer then is a model for our Christian lives. We need to be praying for this ongoing sanctification, for ourselves and others. May today’s message teach us something of prayer that we can gladly put it into practice.
I mentioned this prayer has a very Trinitarian structure to it, so I will organize our three points in that way, drawing from the order of the passage. First, we’ll consider how this is a prayer to the God the Father, verses 14-15. Second, we’ll see how this is a prayer to request for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with power, verse 16. Third, we’ll see how this requests that Christ Jesus would dwell in our hearts, growing us in the knowledge of Christ’s love for us, verses 17-19.
Let us begin then in our first point, to see how Paul here prays to God the Father in verses 14-15. That begins with the words, “For this reason.” That tells us of the motivation of Paul’s prayer. He used the same words in verse 1, “For this reason.” Likely, this whole chapter three is Paul working out what he wrote in the first two chapters. He had begun in the first chapter and a half by telling the Ephesians of their glorious salvation they had come into by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Then in the middle of chapter 2 he explained how God was saving both Jews and Gentiles together into one new covenant church. So, chapter 3 began referencing all that, saying that “for that reason” Paul was made an apostle to the gentiles and was suffering for their sake, so they could become saved. Likewise, for that reason, he now prays for their ongoing growth. Because the Ephesians had become Christians with all the other saints, he is praying for their growth.
Now when Paul mentions he is praying to the Father, he goes on to describe that it is from the Father that every family in heaven and on earth is named. Those two words “Father” and “family” are being connected here. The two Greek words sound very similar, inviting a comparison. And, Paul explicitly makes a connection when he says that every family finds its name from the Father. Now there is a translation and interpretation question here. Many translations translate this as “from whom every family… is named” but some translate it as “from whom the whole family… is named”. Is it “every family” or the “whole family”? Some who translate this as “every family” interpret this as referring to each and every single human family, Christian or not. If that is what Paul meant, then this would be a generic reference to God’s fatherhood of all humanity as their creator. While that is taught elsewhere, I don’t think that’s what Paul has in mind here. Those who instead propose that the translation should be the “whole family” instead of “every family”, think Paul has in mind the one big, united family that Christians are together. This would, then, be describing how God is the adopted Father of all Christians. I like that thought, but I’m not convinced that translation is grammatically tenable here. So then, I do think this should be translated as “every family”, however I would argue that the context would limit its application to Christians, not every human family. Paul surely still has on his mind that God has done this wonderful thing to bring Jews and Gentiles together into one united church. He’s already said that we are together brought into God’s household and family. This includes peoples from various earthly families. For this reason, he then prays for the Ephesians, and he’s making the point that the Father of the Jewish Christians is the same Father of the Gentile Christians. From all the families of the earth that know God through Jesus Christ, they now call upon him together as their one Heavenly Father. And he mentions families in heaven, too, which is to say that all Christians alive today also have the same Heavenly Father as the departed saints of old who are already in heaven. Let us appreciate then, that this reference to Father and family is to help situate Paul’s prayer in the context of what he’s been talking about so far in this letter. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians all pray to the same God together.
With that context established, we then see then Paul introduce his prayer request at the start of verse 16. Paul says, “That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you…” So, Paul’s asking God the Father to grant a specific request according to the riches of his glory. The gloriously exalted God-over-all certainly has the riches of his glory to draw from in answer Paul’s prayer. The rest of these verses then spell out the prayer request. Likely, we should understand this as really one big prayer request, instead of several different ones. Yes, it would be a multifaceted prayer request, but I think we can see that he’s really asking for one main thing. He’s asking for Christ by the Holy Spirit to fully live within these Ephesian Christians in such a way that they would grow in their relationship with the Lord, even unto the fullness of God filling them. I’ll help us see that as we work through our last two points.
That leads us then to our second point and see the Holy Spirit’s role here. Verse 16 goes on to pray that the Ephesians would be “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” So, the nuance of what is being asked for here is God’s strengthening with power. Back in chapter 1, verse 19, Paul already mentioned the power that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him on high is the same power already at work in us Christians. Paul again spoke of power earlier in this chapter regarding his spiritual gift of grace that called him to be an apostle. Paul spoke of how that grace was given to him by the working of God’s power. So, as we dig into Paul’s prayer request here, we are already seeing some of that already and not yet. God already has worked his power in our lives when we became Christian. None of us would ever turn and believed in Jesus, if he had not powerfully conquered our hard heart first. His power rose up our spiritually dead self, making us alive in Jesus. But just as Paul continued to receive God’s power at work in him even through his calling as an apostle, so to this is something all Christians continue to need. Paul acknowledges that when he prays for strengthening with power for the Ephesians. We need God to continue to empower us that we would be growing and living for him.
Now the specific agent of this strengthening with power is the Holy Spirit. To clarify, verse 16 speaks of “his Spirit.” The “his” there is God the Father. So, this Spirit is the Spirit of God the Father, who is most properly named the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. This sort of language and connection is common, which is part of why we can say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. (We’ll talk about how he also proceeds from the Son in a moment.)
So then, verse 16 explains that this strengthening power of the Holy Spirit specifically happens to our inner beings. That’s that language there, our “inner being”. This is a another way of referring to our inward, immaterial self, what Scripture also calls the heart. While the Holy Spirit has the power to work on our physical self, if he so pleased, the common work of the Spirit is that internal work that touches deeper than the flesh. It was in our inner being that we were already born again by the Holy Spirit. And it is in the inner being that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work to renew us more fully in the image of God, to make us a person that hates wickedness and loves righteousness. Paul prays that the Holy Spirit would so work inside us to be making us increasingly like God as image bearers. God made us to be like him as imager bearers, but our sin marred that image. Paul’s prayer is that God would powerfully minister to our hearts so that we live a life that pleases God.
Let’s turn now to our third point to consider Christ’s role in this. This is the longest part of the prayer. It begins with verse 17, with Paul praying, “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts.” Notice how closely this parallels the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul just prayed for the Holy Spirit’s work in our inner being. Now, Paul prays for Christ’s dwelling in our hearts. The heart and the inner being are describing that same inner self. This closely equates the Holy Spirit and Christ. This is not to say that Paul is saying they are identical. Rather, the way Christ Jesus dwells in our hearts is through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, this is why elsewhere the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. So, it is fitting to call the Holy Spirit both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. It’s why we say the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Now do you see why this prayer is essentially one prayer request? Paul first prays for the Spirit to work in our souls and then immediately prays for Christ to dwell in our hearts. These are essentially praying for the same thing, with appropriate nuance. Christ will dwell in our hearts through the Holy Spirit ministering to our souls.
Again, I love the already and the not yet here. Already, Christ entered our hearts when we first became a Christian. Yet, we can and should pray for Christ to dwell in our hearts. This can be explained with a reference to Galatians 4:19. There, Paul speaks of Christ being formed in believers. The idea is that while Christ immediately comes into our hearts when we become saved, yet we can also think about the progressive way in which Christ’s presence is increasingly formed in us. As Christ is formed within us, we will see Christ increasingly governing our life, informing our desires, and directing our ways. Verse 17 also describes the ongoing role of faith in this. We are to not only pray for Christ’s growing presence in our hearts, but believe that he will be working inside us.
This section regarding Christ dwelling in us then goes into more detail. It’s like Paul takes a breath and expands on the request. He goes on praying, “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” So, this begins and ends with love. Paul acknowledges that they have already been rooted and grounded in love. It speaks of us beginning in love but also coming to know love. The second reference specifically identifies this as the love of Christ. Likely that is also what is in mind in the first reference. In other words, having already come to know Christ’s love for us when we first became saved, Paul prays that from that foundation we would grow to more fully know and understand the full extent of Christ’s love for us.
Consider how Paul explains this. He prays that we would comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth. Surely, based on context, he’s still talking about Christ’s love here. Paul uses these four terms that describe dimension and measurement. It doesn’t come out and say it, but I believe the context implies that Christ’s love for us is immeasurable. That as we begin to think of how long, how wide, how high, how deep, we realize that we can’t constrain his love to just one place or time. Oh, how deep, deep, deep is the love of Jesus for us. This love is unbounded, yet Paul prays for us to know it. Likewise, Paul prays that we would know this love, yet verse 19 says it surpasses knowledge. Paul prays that we would know the unknowable love. I don’t think Paul is praying for something completely unattainable. Rather, he is praying that as much as we finite creatures can, that we would have a true knowledge and appreciation for the infinite love Christ has for us. While we won’t know such love exhaustively, Paul prays that we would nonetheless know it truly.
I love how Paul, in the midst of this glorious prayer request to know Christ’s love as he dwells within us, that he mentioned again our connection with all the saints. Paul’s prayer in verse 18 prays that we would comprehend this love with “all the saints”. Again, this reminds us of context of Jew and Gentile being brought together with God’s people of all time into one church. Together, we are all growing to more fully know God and his love for us in Christ Jesus.
Having walked through these three points, and see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit referenced in this prayer, I want you to notice how the prayer ends. Verse 19 closes with Paul saying, “That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” This is Paul summing up everything he has been praying about. It again confirms that his prayer request is ultimately one main, wonderful request. He prays that the Father through the Spirit would powerfully strengthen our souls. He prays that Christ through the Spirit would come to our hearts and teach us of his love. What is the ultimate result of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit coming into our hearts? It is the fullness of God filling us. This is nothing less than full communion with the life and glory of the Triune God, not that we become divine, but that we are brought into the fullness of fellowship with Father, Son, and Spirit, in a way perfectly suited to finite creatures. This Paul prays for. When we first become a Christian, we start to enjoy this. As we pray and grow as a Christian, we come to increasingly know the fullness of God. One day, when we go to God in glory, he will finish his work in our hearts, and indeed we will be fully filled with all the fullness of God.
I think of how Jesus called us to be perfect as God is perfect. None of us will attain that in this life. Nor will we attain that by our own effort. The law calls us to perfection, but that will only be realized by grace. And it will only be realized as our hearts are fundamentally changed, renewed and renovated as a fit home for the Spirit of the Triune God. That is why Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He died not only to forgive us, but to make the way for him to enter into our hearts to recreate us after his own glorious image. This same language of fulness is used back in chapter 1:23 to speak of the fulness of Christ filling us as the body of Christ. Chapter 4, verse 13 will speak of how as we grow in our spiritual maturity in Christ, that we will ultimately attain to the full stature of Christ’s fullness. So then, when we are finally perfected in glory, then will enjoy the full filling of the Triune God in our glorified state.
Take heart then, when you hear this prayer for God to powerfully live and work in your hearts. Maybe you don’t think you are fit for God to come to your heart, and on your own you would be right. But look to Jesus, the very fullness of God in bodily form. This Jesus died for you, so you can have God’s fullness fill you. You might wonder why Jesus would die for you, and the answer is his love. This is what we have begun to believe. But this prayer reminds us we have yet room to grow in truly knowing God’s fullness in you, including the fullness of his love for you. Trusting in Jesus, let us then say amen to Paul’s prayer and join with him in praying for this.
There are many earthly and material needs that often fill our prayers. But here, Paul teaches us to pray to the Father for the fullness of God to fill you as Christ comes to you by the Holy Spirit. Let us delight to pray this prayer. Pray it for yourself. And pray it for others. What a gift we have to be able to pray for God’s fullness, that we would truly know him, and his love for us. Let us each take the application to pray for this more regularly. For as we pray, we will find all the more that his love has no breadth, no length, no height, no depth. Praise be to God!
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
