Prayer as a Means of Grace | Ephesians 3:14-21 | Fletch Matlack
Prayer as a Means of Grace
Ephesians 3:14-21
Immanuel – 1/5/25
We have a tradition here at Immanuel: the first Sunday of every year we take some time to focus on prayer. This isn’t the only time we focus on prayer, but is there a better way to start the year than by spending time considering prayer one of the most powerful means of grace that God has given to us?
That is precisely the focus of today’s sermon: Prayer as a means of grace. What do I mean by “means of grace?”
First, let’s get a working definition of grace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards you. God’s favor is God’s love, His blessings, forgiveness and righteousness and joy and peace, everlasting life, and all of heaven’s treasures. Grace is heaven poured out unto you.
But grace is also something that you do not deserve. Your sins earn you God’s wrath, and you deserve punishment. That is why grace is God’s unmerited favor towards you. As Paul writes earlier in Ephesians,
[You] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:3-5,8-9
You cannot earn grace, the moment it becomes a work you do, it ceases to be grace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards you.
Now, let’s define a means of grace – or more technically, ordinary means of grace. For centuries the church has defined “means of grace,” or media gratia, as the channels by which God works His grace into our hearts.1
Imagine that heaven has this immeasurable ocean of grace, vast beyond comprehension, and completely at God’s disposal. A means of grace is like a pipeline, one end is at the bottom of that ocean and the other end is affixed to your heart. God has installed the pipeline. We choose when we use the pipeline. God chooses how much and how powerful is the flow. But no matter what, whenever we employ a means of grace, God promises that there will always be a transforming flow of grace into our hearts.
What are examples of a means of grace? Reading the Bible is a means of grace.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. -2 Timothy 3:16-17
We chose when we read the Bible, and when we do, God promises to pour graces into our hearts. It’s why I, and the Elders, would love to see everyone in the church reading Scripture. It’s why we are doing the M’Cheyne Reading Plan together. Today we are in Genesis 5, Ezra 5, Matthew 5, and Acts 5. Join with Immanuel in reading Scripture together and receive blessing from God through this powerful means of grace.
There are many other means of grace too; each has Scripture to back them up, but I am just going to list rather than provide proofs. Going to church, participating in the Lord’s Supper, serving others, fasting, these and more are means of grace. We do not earn grace when we do these things, but we experience His grace when we practice these means of grace.
Of course, I left a major one out: Prayer is a means of grace, a powerful means of grace. I’m going to use Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 to show you just how powerful a means of grace it is. Though there are other texts I could use, Ephesians 3:14-21 is incredibly special. I trust you’ll see what I mean.
Here’s my plan: first, I’m going to dissect Paul’s prayer to give you a clear picture of what he is praying for. Second, I want you to see what is behind Paul’s prayer – what he expects to happen and how He expects it to happen. Finally, we are going to practice this means of grace.
Read vs 14-21
Verses 14 and 15 are an introduction, a set-up for what comes next. Verses 20-21 are the doxology, Paul’s praises for how he expects God to respond to his prayer. And if you hadn’t guessed it, verses 16-19 are the meat of Paul’s prayer.
Paul writes and prays from a prison in Rome, not too long before he was martyred. On earth he is in chains and powerless to help the Ephesian church. But as an adopted son of God, he has access to tremendous power. Thus, he writes,
Read vs 14-15
Then Paul prays for three things. This is hard to see in the English, but the Greek brings clarity. In verses 16-19, the Greek the word hina introduces each new thing. In English, hina is often translated as “that,” but not always– like in this passage. The word “that” is also translated from other words, sometimes it’s simply inferred. Confusing? Just know that all of this is because translators are interpreting Paul’s Greek sentences into our English understanding of grammar.
None-the-less, there are three hinas in verses 16-19, each indicating a new thing Paul is asking God to give to the Ephesians. Let me show you.
Part 1: Verse 16. That (hina) according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, (vs 17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love…
Part 2: Verse 18. May have (hina) strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (vs 19) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…
Part 3: Verse 19. That (hina) you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Those are the three parts, the three things that Paul is asking God to give to the Ephesians. I’ll briefly explain them.
Part 1: Spiritual Invigoration. Paul is praying that something powerful would happen in your inner being. Inner being is another way of saying spirit. Paul wants there to be transformative power in the Ephesian spirit. In other words, he is praying for spiritual invigoration.
Notice how profoundly Trinitarian is Paul’s prayer. He is asking the Father to make the Son more fully present in the heart, and the Spirit is the person applying these graces to the human heart. In so doing, our spirits are empowered, enlivened, invigorated; to what end? That the saints would be rooted and grounded in love.
Part 2: Spiritual Education. Paul prays for strength to understand, power to comprehend, a dynamic knowing. In human terms, this knowledge surpasses human comprehension: meaning, it cannot be understood. But Paul prays contrary to human limitations. He prays for God would reveal that which is otherwise hidden: the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ. This is love without measure, overflowing, poured out upon all the saints – even you and me.
This is not merely an intellectual understanding – though that is part of it. Paul is praying for a dynamic knowing, something we experience, something we feel, a love from Christ that informs our every motivation. Another way to think of this, Paul is praying that we would know the unfiltered, deeply loving presence of Jesus Christ. This is a prayer for spiritual education in the knowledge-surpassing love of Jesus Christ’s presence.
Part 3: Spiritual Saturation. Here Paul prays that our hearts would be so flooded with God’s love that His fullness would burst from us. Honestly, can we even understand what Paul is praying for? Does it surpass knowledge?
Imagine it: The fullness of God dwelling in the saints, filling our hearts with the immensity of His love! How can the infinite be pressed into the finite? But this is just what Paul prays for. For us saints, this is the preeminence of spiritual saturation.
Truly, Paul’s prayer absolutely soars, reaching right to heaven’s highest heights. It makes me wonder, has God given Paul the very love which he prays would be given to the saints? For it is with a heart brimming with love that Paul bows his knees before the Father and prays that God would give the saints spiritual invigoration, spiritual education, and spiritual saturation.
I have dissected Paul’s prayer, and hopefully you are able to clearly see what he is praying for in its three distinct parts. Now, let’s take a look behind Paul’s prayer – what he expects to happen and how he expects it to happen.
I’ll start with how Paul expects His prayer to be answered. Remember, Paul is praying to the Father. And he is praying that the Father would give the saints – the people of the church – spiritual power, a greater understanding of the love of Christ, a fullness of Christ.
In other words, Paul is asking the Father to drain that vast ocean of heaven’s grace into human hearts. Remember what Jesus said? “How much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).Verse 16 says that these things would happen through the Spirit. If the means of grace is the pipe connecting God’s grace to human hearts, then the Spirit is the one controlling the flow – it’s volume and content and intensity.
The Holy Spirit takes the things of heaven and powerfully pours them into our hearts! The Spirit is recreating us from one degree of glory to another, flooding us with the love of God, revealing truth, filling us with all the fullness of God – as he applies the graces of God to our hearts, particularly through prayer as a means of grace.
So, how does Paul expect the prayer to be answered? The Father, in His benevolent love, sends the Holy Spirit to take heaven’s graces and apply them to us. So that by grace, more and more of Jesus fills us. And all of this is coming through a conduit, a channel, a means of grace: prayer.
Don’t miss this! Prayer is a means of grace that floods you – the one praying – with grace. Isn’t Paul radiating glory and love as he is praying. It is a means of grace for him!
And prayer is also a means of grace that floods them – the ones you are praying for – with grace. For if Paul’s prayer is answered – and why wouldn’t God answer it – then glory and love floods the saints. Prayer is a means of grace for the ones prayed for!
There is a conduit from heaven’s ocean to your heart, then from your heart to other hearts. So that the graces flooding your heart immediately rush out and fills others. Isn’t this an incredible picture we see in Ephesians 3, of prayer as a means of grace!
But we are not yet finished. What is it that Paul expects to happen? Isn’t it obvious? He expects his prayer to be answered, so much so that he wrote it down and sent it to the church in Ephesus!
And consider the confident language that Paul uses to express this expectation. Verse 16: According to the riches of His glory. How rich is God in glory? Infinitely rich! Paul is praying, “According to that inexhaustible wealth of glory, grant my prayer!”
You see, Paul understands that when God answers the prayer, God will only be magnifying His own glory! For when God grants Paul’s prayer – according to the riches of His glory – and we receive spiritual invigoration, spiritual education, and spiritual saturation; will we not erupt with worship for the Blessed giver of all grace?! We will! He is worthy!
The doxology to this prayer is where Paul’s real expectations are expressed.
Read vs 20-21
God is able to answer Paul’s prayer, and God will answer the prayer. But God will not supply a bare-minimum answer to the prayer. Because of the love of Christ that Paul understands, he knows God will answer with such overwhelming generosity of grace that Paul hasn’t even asked for everything that God will give. Even if he tried, his mind couldn’t possibly imagine the flood of glorious graces that God will lavish upon the saints in response to this seven-verse prayer. (Perhaps, what is happening in this very room, 2,000 years later, is an example of that.)
As Paul writes elsewhere:
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
-2 Corinthians 9:8-9
God is able to make all grace abound to you. And He will! And of His many ways of making grace abound to you, do you know that He has empowered you to tap into that grace? He has given you means of grace – like prayer – to tap into his abounding grace.
Now imagine there is an IV drip with an unlimited supply of liquid grace tapped into your vein, a direct line to your heart. A button you hold will release more grace every time you push it. You can press it as often as you like. That button represents the ordinary means of grace – such as prayer.
Prayer is a means of grace, a conduit through which flows grace. When you pray the Father sends the Holy Spirit to take heaven’s graces and apply them to you and others; so that by grace, more and more of Jesus fills your heart and the heart of those you pray for.
Let me ask a question. What would have happened if Paul never prayed the magnificent prayer of Ephesians 3? Would God still spiritually invigorate the saints, spiritually educate and spiritually saturate us? I’m sure He would. But that is not what He has chosen. He has chosen to work through Paul’s prayer.
Though He is limitless, beholden to no man, needing nothing from us, He chooses to work through the prayers of His people. God has chosen to empower us, help us comprehend of love of Christ, and fill us with His fullness – in part – as a response to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3. What has God done because you have prayed? In what awesome way will the Alpha and Omega work because you have prayed, because you have employed the means of grace that is prayer?
If God promises, through Paul’s inspired words, that He will do more than you ask or imagine, doesn’t that imply that He wants you to ask, that He wants you to imagine; and then to trust Him with those requests.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards you: blessing, love, everlasting life, righteousness, joy, and peace. God’s grace is like a bottomless ocean, all available to the children of God. So God gives us means of grace, like prayer, that channels His grace directly into our hearts.
How foolish it would be to neglect prayer as a means of grace, to live like we don’t need it, to spiritually wither while our souls thirst for God’s graces. Pray and see the heavens open. Pray and receive spiritual invigoration, spiritual education, and spiritual saturation. Pray and see God do more than you can ask or imagine.
And on that note, let’s practice prayer as a means of grace. For the next 5 to 10 minutes, grab some people nearby and pray for them. Do not ask people what they need prayer for. Pray following Paul’s model, using your own words. Pray for each other’s spiritual invigoration, spiritual education, and spiritual saturation. Then trust that God will flood each other with the ocean of heaven’s graces.
1York, B. (2023, December 8) Why Is Prayer a Means of Grace? Ligonier. https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/means-of-grace-prayer.
