I Bow My Knees — Part One (Part 1 of 2)

What do your prayers reveal about you? When the Apostle Paul was in prison in Rome, he prayed constantly, not necessarily about the things you'd expect. Today on Truth for Life, we'll explore the pattern and priority of Paul's prayers in his letter to the Ephesians.

Alistair Begg is teaching a message he's titled, I Bow My Knee. Ephesians 3 verse 14. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family or the whole family, in heaven and on earth, is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, 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, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Now Father, as we turn to the Bible again, we acknowledge our entire dependence upon the work of the Holy Spirit to illumine the page to us, to clarify our thinking, to instill within us a genuine hunger for your Word, the ability to understand and believe and obey it. And we pray humbly in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, we pick up our studies here at the fourteenth verse and turn to the second of Paul's prayers that is contained here in this letter to the Ephesians. If it's true to say—and I think it is—that our conversation with others in public declares what is on our minds, then I think it's also true to say that our conversation with God in private almost inevitably reveals what is on our hearts. So we listen to ourselves talk, or we listen to others talk, and we get an inkling of, at least, the kind of thinking that is going on. When we hear ourselves pray, or when we are in the company of others who lead us in prayer, then not only do we understand what is taking place in their minds intellectually, but also something of what is going on in the very center of their being. Because remember, when the Bible speaks about our hearts, it's not talking simply in emotional terms, but rather our hearts as the seat of our mind and of our emotions and of our will. And I begin that way because in the way that our money and our time and its use reveals something of our priorities, so too do our prayers. And that is certainly true when we read the prayers that are contained for us in the Bible, and not least of all the prayers of Paul.

Back in chapter 1, he had already prayed, beginning in verse 16 and 17, concerning those who were under his care, that they would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that their eyes would be enlightened, and so on. And once again, we're taken, as it were, behind the scenes. The context of Paul writing this letter is confinement in Rome. He may well have been chained to a soldier. He was in a form of house arrest.

But nevertheless, he wasn't free to come and go. And it's almost as if we have been able to look in on him, not as he is up on his feet, as it were, going about the activities of the day, but rather as he now bows his knees before the Father. Now the phrase with which verse 14 begins, you will perhaps recall—and you can see, if you look—that it is the same phrase with which the chapter begins, For this reason. Chapter 3 began, For this reason. And if you have remembered our study then, you will recall the fact that we said it is as though Paul, about to go on and finish his thought, diverts himself, caught up with the wonder of the subject matter and caught up with the wonder of not only God's amazing work of reconciliation in making one man out of two, but also the wonder of God's revelation both to him and through him. And we said on that occasion that this diversion, or this parentheses, this section in the brackets, as it were, is the overflow of his heart as he begins. And now he comes back, as it were, to what he had started but never finished at the beginning of the chapter, For this reason.

Now, the reason lies in all that he has said in chapters 1 and 2, and particularly the way in which chapter 2 had concluded. So if your Bible is open, you just look at the end of chapter 2, where Paul is providing this wonderful picture of the family of God. He is writing here to those who have heard the gospel of their salvation, they have believed it, they have been placed into Christ, they are members now of the family of God. And at the end of chapter 2, you will recall, he describes the believer as a citizen in God's kingdom, as a member of God's family, and as a stone in the construction of God's building. And we said then—and it's worth rehearsing it now—that the privilege of our citizenship within any earthly kingdom takes a second place to our citizenship in the heavenly kingdom, and that God's great concern is that our concern should be for his kingdom, your kingdom come, and your will be done in earth. That the issues of our physical family life, our relationships, our siblings, and so on, are remarkably and yet truly subservient to the fact that we are made members of the family of God, and that we have brothers and sisters throughout the whole world from different places and backgrounds and colors and shades and political persuasions and so on, and that matter is a matter of great wonder.

And instead of becoming preoccupied with buildings, whether they're in Cleveland or whether they're in Jerusalem, with temples that are made with plans, he says, you actually are the stones that are being built in to the very temple of God. And having affirmed these things, he then says, For this reason I… Then he breaks off with a wonder of it all and comes back to it, and here we are on verse 14, For this reason I bow my knees. If you like, having taught them what is true of them, he now prays that it may be experienced by them.

Okay? In his first prayer, the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you might know the power of God, that you might understand the mystery of its God's purposes. And now, as he comes to the second prayer, he says, Now the things that I've prayed that you might understand, if you like, come to grasp that you might be grasped by them, that you might live in the reality of the truth which we've already considered. So it is that he prays. In fact, I gave us a heading for our study this morning, simply that phrase, four words, I bow my knees. I bow my knees.

And I'd like to consider it along three lines. The first is to notice that the prayer is selfless—is selfless. That almost goes without saying, doesn't it? Because prayer is essentially selfless. If a self-assured person is not going to pray, there's no need to.

We've got it covered. A self-righteous person is not going to pray, particularly prayers of confession. But the person who knows their heart before God, who knows the depth of their need before God, when they bow their knees before God, it is an expression of selflessness. And what Paul is doing here is he is tying his instruction with intercession. So he provides this information, and then he prays at home. He provides more information, and then he prays at home.

Why? Because he recognizes the direct link between preaching and praying. He is aware of the fact that, as the psalmist put it, unless the Lord build the house, the builders labor in vain.

In the words of the hymn writer, all that we do is nothing worth unless God blesses the deed. Veinly we hope for the harvest time unless the Lord gives life to the seed. And this undergirds Paul of Paul's thinking.

One plants and another waters. Only God can make it grow, he says to the Corinthians. And in this respect, he follows the pattern of the Lord Jesus. When we read the Gospels, we realize that Jesus is praying to the Father all the time—far more than is ever recorded for us, surely. And after giving to his disciples what we refer to as the upper-room discourse, which in John's Gospel runs through chapter 13, 14, he's telling them, Don't let your hearts be troubled, you believe in God. He then tells them, I am the true vine. He tells them, The world will hate you. He explains to them the work of the Holy Spirit, and so on. All of those—13, 14, 15, 16—instruction by Jesus. You come to the first verse of chapter 17. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father… Father, I want now—and this is his great high priestly prayer in 17—Father, I'm praying now that the things that I have instructed these fellows about, that they have come to understand as a result of my teaching, may actually be their experience as they go out into the world. There's tremendous challenge in this, isn't there?

It's a two-sided challenge. I have found it so… As I've studied this week, I've found this a rather uncomfortable passage in this regard. Because of things that I've already said to you, I've said to myself that my use of time and money and my prayers reveal my priorities. Whither I pray, how much I pray, about what I pray.

And I can only assume that you must face the same challenge yourself. If Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher in the world, followed up his instruction by prayer, what of us? If Paul, enabled by the Spirit of God to do as he does, bows down in the custody of Roman imprisonment and prays to God, what of us? It's the standard apostolic pattern. Remember, in Acts chapter 6, when the fledgling church, with all of its necessities and opportunities for the material needs of people, was in full flow, it becomes necessary to delegate roles, but the apostles said, We will not actually engage in that—not because it is unimportant, but because we have something far more important to do.

And do you remember what it was? We will give ourselves to two things—to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. We will preach, and we will pray.

There are other people who can do these things, and we'll do them gladly and very effectively. But our role is to preach, and it is to pray. And Paul follows that pattern.

Charles Simeon, who was a minister in Holy Trinity for a long time, fifty-four years in Cambridge, had in his congregation for a while Henry Martin—Henry Martin, who was an early missionary in India. Martin, on one occasion having listened to Simeon preach, wrote in his diary, Mr. Simeon, in his excellent sermon tonight, observed that it was easier for a minister to preach and study five hours than to pray for his people for one half-hour. It's true.

It's true. Haven't you found that it is far easier to talk to others than to talk to God? Haven't you found it far easier to be engaged in busy activity, to get the study done, to get the material prepared, to be the wrong side of the duel in the Martha Mary encounter?

Let's be honest. So, for effective teaching and preaching of the Bible, two things are absolutely crucial. You have to have pastors that pray in private before they preach in public. And you have to have a congregation that prays in private before the preaching. The way in which we come to the study of the Bible, both in terms of the preparation for the Lord's Day, the final moments before we engage in the praise of God and in the prayers and in the preaching of the Bible, it actually matters.

And it actually matters how you finish. You teach your children, don't you? Don't just walk away from the table. Ask to be excused. Say thank you before you get down.

That's fair. Loved ones, that is the basis for my strange predilection about sitting down after the benediction. You see, it's an acknowledgment of the fact that you don't just finish the meal and run for your car. You finish the meal, and you ask to get down. You say thank you, Father, for the food.

It may not have been served the way I like it. It may not have ministered to me in the entirety of my expectation. But I believe the pastor, whoever he was, prayerfully prepared, delivered as best as he could, and I thank you for providing for me.

And I want to thank you before I head out. When you read Calvin's prayers—Calvin's prayers both before he preaches and after he preaches—in fact, his prayer after he preaches is more significant than the one before he preaches. And if ever you've been involved in the Anglican Communion, you will know that the vestry prayers not only precede the preaching but they follow the preaching. So that the vicar will process out, he will pronounce the benediction out in the vestibule.

You won't then see him. Why? Because he returns to the vestry. To do what? To have a coffee?

No! To pray. Lord, I did my best. Please bless your Word. Paul writes this immense letter, speaks of the glories and the wonders of God, and we look in on his bedroom, and where do we find him?

On his knees. Selfless. Selfless. Because he is actually declaring his own helplessness. When you and I pray, that's really what we're saying. It's selfless not only in terms of that obvious expression of dependence, but the selflessness is seen in his posture.

I think that's why he mentions it. For this reason, I bow my knees. Jewish men prayed standing up, by and large. You remember, in the temple precincts, they stood to pray? I thank you that I'm not as other men are than the other men stood to pray. And Paul bows his knees.

He lures himself physically, not as an expression of formal routine but in awareness of the fact that it is entirely appropriate. Isaiah the prophet anticipates the day when every knee—this is Isaiah 45 23—when one day every knee will bow. Paul picks that up in Philippians 2, remember? He says, And one day at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. And we look in upon him in Rome, and he's getting a head start on things as he bows his knees.

His posture is an expression of the wonder and the awe that he feels before God and his earnestness in seeking God. Well, you say, Now, is this something you're going to introduce now? Now, we have to rearrange the seats again and get kneelers in here. How are we going to do this? No, no, no.

No, Don, let's get carried away. The posture of our hearts is the issue. I find it helpful. We kneel as elders as we pray in the prayer room before the services. We kneel together. We can sit, we can stand, we can do whatever we want. But we kneel as an expression of our dependence upon God. It's good to do. It gives me the opportunity as well to read my favorite little poem on posture in prayer. And those of you who know it, you're excited now, because you were saying to yourself, I hope you'll read that again.

And since I have no self-control, that's all, I am going to read it again. The proper way for man to pray, said Deacon Lemuel Keyes, and the only proper attitude is down upon his knees. No, I should say the way to pray, said Reverend Dr. Wise, is standing straight with outstretched arms with wrapped and upturned eyes.

Oh, no, no, no, said Elder Snow. Such posture is too proud. A man should pray with eyes fast closed and head contritely bowed. It seems to me one's hand should be austerely clasped in front, with both thumbs pointed toward the ground, said Reverend Dr. Blunt.

Last year I fell in Higgins Well headfirst, said Pastor Brown, with both my heels a-sticking up and my head a-pointing down. And I done prayed right there and then. Best prayer I ever said. The prayinest prayer I ever prayed, standing on my head. So just to make sure that none of you start to write notes about posture in prayer.

But that is not to take from anything that we've said. It is selfless in this expression of dependence, it is selfless as displayed in posture, and it is selfless also in its focus. Its focus. He's not praying about himself. You'll notice that as you follow through in the prayer. He's praying that you may be strengthened, verse 16, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, in verse 19, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We live in the age of the selfie, don't we? And the preoccupation with ourselves. To the extent that my prayers reveal my priorities and my preoccupations, if someone can listen in on my prayers, then they'll find out where the focus is. And we listen in on Paul, and we realize that his focus is on those who have become the objects of his concern and of his affection. He says elsewhere that he is burdened, he is overwhelmed to the point of longing that Christ may be formed in them, that all that God has for them may be granted to them, and that they might live in the benefit of it.

We see that here. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg showing us the incredible selflessness of the Apostle Paul has revealed in his prayers.

We'll hear more tomorrow. If studying Paul's prayers inspires you to pray more effectively, let me recommend a book written by Alistair titled Pray Big. This is a book that takes a closer look at how impassioned the Apostle Paul was about prayer and about the things for which he routinely prayed. This is a book that will inspire you to pray like Paul prayed. You'll learn that Paul prayed big prayers to a big God whose ability to respond to our requests is boundless.

Look for Pray Big in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. And when you support the ministry of Truth for Life today, we want to invite you to request a copy of a book titled Knowable Word. This is a book that presents a simple three-step approach for how to read and interpret scripture correctly. Specifically, you'll learn how to ascertain exactly what the text is teaching and how to draw the right understanding without having to rely on commentaries or online research or other materials.

This is a tested method. The author has been teaching it to audiences as young as middle school students as well as long-time believers and Bible teachers for many years. Request your copy of the book Knowable Word when you donate to Truth for Life today. You can give a one-time gift at truthforlife.org slash donate or you can arrange to set up an automatic monthly donation when you visit truthforlife.org slash truthpartner. I'm Bob Lapine. Join us again tomorrow when we'll find out how it's possible to have absolutely nothing even though you have everything. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.