Paul’s (Second) Prayer for the Church in Ephesus

Paul’s (Second) Prayer for the Church in Ephesus

The Joy of Following Jesus

John 17 contains Jesus’s longest prayer, known as the high priestly prayer, which He prays after the upper room discourse, after telling the disciples to not let their hearts be troubled because He is going away and they cannot come.

Jesus prays this prayer with the agony of the cross before Him. We are reminded by Jesus that no matter the fearful circumstance, we can always turn to the Father in prayer.

How Jesus Describes A True Disciple

John 17 contains Jesus’s longest prayer, known as the high priestly prayer, which He prays after the upper room discourse, after telling the disciples to not let their hearts be troubled because He is going away and they cannot come. Jesus prays this prayer with the agony of the cross before Him.

Prayer Points to the Purposes of the God.

John 17 contains Jesus’s longest prayer, known as the high priestly prayer. Jesus is the perfect priest. Jesus prays this right after the upper room discourse, after telling the disciples to not let their hearts be troubled because He is going away and they cannot come. Jesus is praying this prayer with the agony of the cross before Him.

Each believer desperately needs this prayer which has been recorded for our instruction and growth. We need to know and understand the heart of Jesus, properly responding when our hearts are troubled and turning first to Jesus who knows us best.

What It Means to Abide in Jesus.

Jesus gives us a beautiful illustration in John 15. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will have life and bear fruit.

Principles of Prayer:

Jesus is going to depart, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled (John 14:1).” While the disciples had Jesus physically present, they did not need to pray to Him, making the instructions given by Him in John 14:12-15 to pray in Jesus’s name new information.

Prayer is a tool given to Christ’s disciples to encourage their belief in Him. We cannot grow in our faith without prayer. Believers must rightly understand and exercise prayer in agreement with the Word of God.

Jesus Will Be Glorified through Suffering.

In John 12:27-36, we come to the end of Jesus’ public ministry. We’ve already talked about the curious Jew worshiping Jesus, the marvelous worshipper Mary, and covetous Judas. As we look at these groups and their responses to Jesus, hopefully we aren’t interested in just calculating what we can get from Jesus like Judas did. Instead, let’s elaborate on how the seed has to die in order to bear fruit.

Jesus' Ministry to His Disciples.

Last week, we studied Jesus' human love for the family of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. This week, we will look at how He ministered to His 12 disciples during this crisis.

Our 75th Anniversary Celebrating God's Faithfulness.

The Person, Posture, and Patience of Jesus.

John writes his gospel with the purpose of proving that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might believe, and in believing, that we might have life through His name. John places a discourse of teaching before or after each of the miracles he writes about. John 6:16-21 includes two of four miracles that occur in this account. Other details, including the other two miracles, are found in the parallel accounts in Matthew 14 and Mark 6. In both the feeding of the 5,000 and this passage of John 6:16-21, we see that God is Provider, providing food and safety to His people. Jesus is Jehovah-Jireh in the flesh (John 6:35).

The Providence of God, Part 2.

God’s providence is always active and moving in and through our lives. If we have any hope of flourishing as God intends, which is growing in holiness toward Christlikeness, we must discipline our inner man to the powerful impact of the fact of God’s providence. Flourishing is the property of those whose lives are lived according to the interest, values, and concerns that exist in heaven.

God’s Grace in Difficult Times

The majority of the New Testament writings begin and end with the mention of help from heaven in the form of grace that comes to us by the Spirit of God. Grace saves us, and it is grace that consistently changes us through the glorious agony of sanctification as we live our everyday lives. When grace is our tutor unto Christlikeness, whether things are good or bad, we are pressed to forget those things which are behind and to move forward unto the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We pursue Christ, allowing His grace to mold us into His image.

Natural and Unnatural Affection

Why do senseless killings happen? What does God’s Word say we can do as believers?

The worst calamity is to be suffering and not to know why.

By Job 2:10, Satan has done his worst to Job and retreated from his life. God is silent and doesn’t make sense, and Job is alone.

Three of Job’s friends come to commiserate with him in Job 2:11-12. They respect his agony and sit with him in silence for 7 days.

In chapter 3, Job speaks. He asks the question “Why?” twenty times in this book, and a few are in this chapter. He asks why he was born (Job 3:3-10), why he is still alive (Job 3:11-19), and why he can’t die now (Job 3:20-26).

Defending the Value of Spiritual Authority.

Unbelief seeks to undermine spiritual authority. Without integrity, authority undermines itself. In 2 Corinthians 13, Paul continues to write about what Spirit-filled authority with integrity is and does.

The Doctrine of the Church.

There are many sources of pressure in our lives. Job, school, deadlines, finances, expectations, marriage, family, singleness, success, athletics – all these can exert pressure on us in ordinary life. Cultural circumstances and social situations can add more pressure on top of that. What do God's people focus on prioritizing when living under intense pressure?

The Christian Prayer of Lament.

Did you know that one-third of the Psalms are laments? These honest struggles with difficult circumstances were sung by the congregation of Israel in corporate worship. We don't often pray like that today, especially in a corporate setting. What can we learn from these prayers that were inspired and preserved for us in God's Word?

Jesus, as the predicted Messiah, fills out infinitely and eternally all human suffering in order to eradicate it!

At Christmas time, it is fitting to turn our minds to prophetic truths concerning Jesus the Messiah. The books of the prophets are usually the first to come to mind, and the literal fulfillment of the circumstantial facts they predicted hundreds of years prior to Jesus’ coming is nothing short of miraculous. Another prophetic witness is found in the Messianic Psalms. In total, twenty-five different psalms (one out of six) include at least one Messianic prophecy. Messianic psalms are quoted in eleven New Testament books.

These psalms are prophetic in a special way: in the words and feelings of the Psalmist were found the very words and feelings of the Messiah. (See Hebrews 2:12.) The Psalmist knew that the coming Messiah would “fill out” the emotional and physical suffering he was experiencing by experiencing them in a way he never could. The pain he spoke of figuratively, the Messiah would know literally.

If God would hear your prayer, then He must hear your praise!

We are familiar with Psalm 66:18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." We need to understand it in its context. Often, this verse makes us question whether God hears our prayers; however, the following verses show that the psalmist had assurance that God heard his prayer because he was not one who cherished sin in his heart. The main emphasis of this psalm is the need to give praise to God. In fact, 14 different ways to praise God are mentioned in this psalm. We can be assured that if God would hear our prayer, then He must hear our praise.