This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. What was in accordance with the eternal purpose that God the Father carried out through Messiah Yeshua, His Son and our Lord?

The all-wise God is a Personal Being. He has a infinitely great mind. He makes plans, has goals, sets agendas. He is not a God of chaos, but a God of order, design, goals, agendas, plans and purposes.

God the Father has a great master plan. He is working toward a great goal. Everything He is doing is done with the purpose to attain that goal, to bring His great plan too completion.

The eternal God has a purpose, and that purpose is an eternal purpose. His purpose involves time and eternity. The Lord God made plans in what we may call “eternity past.” These plans involve human beings in time and in eternity. These plans will continue into “eternity future.” Praise the Lord, God’s eternal purpose is to establish His plans involving human beings throughout eternity.

Our Lord, Messiah Yeshua is absolutely central to these eternal plans. The mystery that Paul had been describing, and its implementation, are part of God’s eternal purpose. The mystery, this new revelation that was not understood by human beings from previous generations, was that the Messiah would come into this world, die and come back to life and ascend back to Heaven, and be at the right hand of God. Only a remnant of Israel would recognize who the Messiah is, and follow Him, and be saved. The message about Israel’s Messiah would also be proclaimed to the other nations, and a remnant from those nations would believe in Messiah.

The Spirit of Messiah would be given to the faithful remnant of Israel and the saved remnant from the nations. The Spirit joins us to the Father, and to the Son, and to one another.

Messianic Jews, who remain Jews, and Christians from the other nations who remain part of their peoples, together come together in love and form one new man, a new humanity with the division between Jew and Gentile gone. Messiah’s New Covenant Community would be like a body with Messiah as the head, and the rest of us members of the Body. This new humanity would be the eternal sons and daughters of God, friends and companions of the ever-living God, and enjoy Him and be enjoyed by Him forever and ever!

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Messiah Yeshua our Lord in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

Because of our faith in, and our knowledge of, and trust in, and confidence in Messiah Yeshua our Lord, we have boldness and confident access – boldness with other human beings, and boldness with God, along with confident access to God.

I can’t understand pastors who won’t speak out about the great issues of the day, Christians who won’t witness because they cave into fear, and won’t tell the world the truth, that the world is perishing, dead in trespasses and sins, headed to Hell, without God, without hope apart from hearing about, knowing and believing the Good News about Messiah Yeshua. We are bold with men, because we trust the One who told us not to fear human beings who can merely kill our bodies, knowing that our death will be followed by resurrection and everlasting life.

Because of Messiah Yeshua our Lord we have boldness with God the Father. We can talk to Him, pray to Him, bring our requests to Him at any time, in any circumstance. Because of Messiah Yeshua our Lord we have confidence access to God the Father. We have a new access that we know is now available, greater than the access that the High Priest of Israel had before the coming of the Messiah. When Messiah died, the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom, showing that those who are joined to the Messiah are reconciled to God, and are in a right relationship with the Father, and able with confidence approach His presence through prayer.

Are you in Messiah Yeshua our Lord? Do you know who He is? Messiah – the ultimate prophet, the ultimate source of truth? Our High Priest, the One and only mediator between God and man, who brings us closer to God, and God closer to us? The King who is our leader, our Lord who rules over us, and will rule Israel and the nations. Yeshua, the one and only source of salvation, who alone can save people from their worst problems – their sins?

Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Leaders are to take the lead in leadership, but also in the areas of danger, of persecution, of suffering. Paul’s troubles came because of his boldness in proclaiming the truth to the Gentiles. But, his troubles, his arrest, his imprisonment shouldn’t be a source of shame or discouragement to the Ephesian Christians, but the opposite – a badge of honor. It’s an honorable thing to be persecuted by human beings, and arrested by the authorities, for declaring the truth about God, salvation, righteousness.

It shows we are being bold, being like the prophets, the apostles, and the blessed Messiah.

It shows that we are honoring God and putting Him first.

It shows that we are making an impact.

Paul continues with a prayer for the Ephesians holy ones, who are set apart to accomplish God’s eternal purposes; human beings who are precious to the Almighty. For this reason (for what reason? The reason Paul began in verse 1, which is a continuation of the idea in chapter 2, that because of the grace of God, Jews and Gentiles have been united in one body, and make up the family of God). For this reason I bow my knees (to bow the knees is the definition of a barucha – a blessing. Knee is berech. To bow the knee is to bless, to acknowledge the superiority of the one who is superior to you).

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in Heaven and on Earth derives its name. “God is not only Father, but He is also the One from whom alone all the fatherhood that there is derives its meaning and inspiration… Every father-headed group derives its existence and concept and experience of fatherhood… To such a Father, Father of all, the One in whom alone fatherhood is seen in perfection, men come when they come to pray” (Foulkes, The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians).

Do you know God as your Father, as Someone who is older and greater and wise than you, who brought you into being, who watches over you, cares for you, loves you, provides for you, teaches you, listens to you, corrects you, and so as to bring you to maturity? Isn’t it wonderful to know God like this, and be able to come to Him, and pray to Him – not only as one would come and pray to a great King, or to a vast intellect, but also as to a loving father?

Paul’s prayer continues: that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory (God’s glorious riches – His riches are glorious because of their source – the Magnificent and Honored God; His riches are glorious because of their magnitude – which is infinitely vast; the Father’s riches are glorious because of the manner in which they are given – willingly and graciously; God’s riches are glorious because of the way in which they are used, producing glorious things in us – to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

Out of His infinitely vast treasury, the Lord takes some of His power and He gives it to His children. God’s Spirit applies God’s power to us, not on the surface level, where it may have only temporary effects, but in our inner being, way down deep at the core of who were are. That gives us strength.

God wants to give us strength so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. Through faith – faith is based on knowledge, and then acting on that knowledge. The more we know and believe and take to heart the truths about God and Messiah, the more the Spirit is able to strengthen us, and make Messiah live at the core of our being, transforming us into His likeness.

God the Father wants to give us strength so that Messiah may live in us. Not Messiah Himself, but His Spirit, the Spirit of Messiah, who is also the Spirit of God.

God wants to give us strength so that we don’t have a shallow knowledge of Messiah, like so many have, but way down deep, at the very core of who we are, we have a profound knowledge of Messiah – of His mind and will and ways and values, so that we become more and more like Him in character, in godliness, in courage, in boldness; so that like Messiah, we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, so that like Messiah, we want to please God above all else; so that like Messiah, we have greater love for God and man; so that like Messiah, we have His willingness to sacrifice Himself for the well-being of the rest of us; strength so that we have a great relationship with the Father like Yeshua, continually cultivated by the discipline of prayer; strength in our inner being, so that like Messiah, we love the truth.

The Father wants to give us strength way down deep inside us, so that Messiah’s character and goals and agenda may be ours, Messiah’s attitudes, values, especially the virtue of love, will become ours.

Out of this vast treasury of wealth, riches and power, the great Rabbi from Tarsus prays that God the Father would direct His Spirit to enable us to excel in love.

Love is very important, and most of us don’t give it the place in our lives and character that it deserves. What is love? Love caring for someone else, wanting to see good done to that person, even being willing to sacrifice your good so that they might be blessed.

Truth is essential to love. To really love someone we must know what is good, and do what is good for them.

God is love. Love is part of the essential nature of God. Love is so important for us to have, and for us to be. The problem is that love does not come naturally or easily to human beings.

So, Paul prays for two things for the saints regarding love. First, that you, being rooted and grounded in love. Since love does not always come easily to us, Paul prays that we would be rooted in love, like an oak tree sinks its roots deep into the earth, giving support and strength and stability and health and live to that tree; that we would be grounded in love – that love would be the firm foundation of our lives – that our lives and character would be built on love – love for the community of Believers, love for man and love for God.

Second, Gamliel’s greatest disciple prays that we would know how much love Messiah has for us. It is not easy to understand how much love Messiah has for us. We will go through trials, tribulations, hard times, challenging circumstances, and the tendency during those times is to doubt how much Messiah really loves us. Paul wants us to be sure of Messiah’s love for us, and so he prays that you, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge.

Paul wants us to know the extent of His love for us – how deep, how high, how long, how far we are loved by the Son of God. It’s not just a little love, but supremely great love, love that knew what we most needed; loved that was willing to do what was best for us; love that came at a great cost to Himself; love that made Yeshua willing to leave the comforts and honor of Heaven, make Himself a weak, vulnerable human being; live among us (which must have been a trial in itself), then suffer rejection, torture and a horrible death.

It was love that operated in eternity past, love that worked in time, love that is active in the present, and love that will extend throughout eternity future. It is love that is present here on Earth, and anywhere in the universe we may go, and love that will be present throughout the new Heaven and new Earth and New Jerusalem, and anywhere we may go in our travels and explorations there.

The infinite love of Immanuel, who said, “Before Abraham was, I am” will be there for us, surrounding us, enveloping us, support us, comforting us. Knowing Messiah’s infinite love for us gives us peace. Knowing Messiah’s great love for us will keep us stable and strong and of a sound mind.

Without Messiah, without the Spirit living in us, and transforming us from within, and without love, we will never reach our potential. But by being filled with the Spirit, and being rooted and grounded in love, having love as an essential part of our character and thinking, and having an inkling how much Messiah loves us will help us will enable us to become all that the Lord wants us to become: that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

God’s emissary to the nations concludes his prayer: Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (and we can ask and thing a lot! But God is so great, so powerful, so infinite, that He is able do beyond, He is able to do abundantly beyond, to do more abundantly beyond, He is able to do far more abundantly beyond anything that we are capable of asking Him to do, or even conceiving Him of being able to do!

And, this great ability is not far away, not a myth, but something that is real, something that is present right now, ability and power that is even at work among us! Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think , according to the power that works within us – that’s power that is close, that’s ability that is available to help us in the way God knows best for us, and that should encourage us to pray, and stay close to God.

And all the victories what we will achieve, each success, all the good we will ever receive, all the blessings, the wealth, the honor, the comforts, the encouragements, in time and throughout eternity, ultimately give honor to God the Father, who is the source of all these good things. And so to Him be the glory in the Church – those who are the called out ones and in Messiah Yeshua – those who are joined to the Son of God by having been chosen, and heard the Good News, and responded to it, and placed their faith and trust and confidence and believe in Messiah, not just now, but to all generations forever and ever.

Amen. So be it! May this be a faithful prayer that God will hear and answer, for us in our day, as He did for our brother Ephesians 2,000 years ago!