Ephesians 3 v 14 thru 19

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Really has spent the first half of Ephesians unfolding the glories of our redemption, what God has done for us, who uh Christ has made us, what we have in Christ, who we are in Christ. And he's shown us the eternal election of God the Father. He's shown us the redemption that is made possible through the blood of the Son and the fact that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And he's shown that Jew and Gentile are unified in one body in Christ. He has unveiled the mystery of the truth of the gospel that has been hidden for ages, but is now revealed in Christ. Um and now, beginning in verse 14, Paul stops and he prays for the believers in Ephesus. And in Paul's writings, doctrine always leads to doxology for him. It always leads to him turning to God in prayer and in praise. And so theology becomes prayer. The truth he's conveying becomes worship. And the deeper he goes into God's purposes in his writings, the more Paul is driven to his knees. And so this prayer is really not a prayer that we would tend to pray that is for external circumstances. But I mean, Paul, he's not praying here for wealth, he's not praying for health, he's not praying for their safety or their earthly comfort or any of those things. He's praying for their spiritual strength, that they would have a deeper communion with Christ and a fuller understanding of his divine love, and that they would conform themselves more and more to the nature of God. Um, and it's really one of the loftiest prayers in all of Scripture. Um, John Calvin said, No prayer can be offered more suitably than when the soul rises above all earthly considerations and fixes its eye on the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Um the central truth of this passage is that God strengthens his people inwardly so that we may increasingly know his immeasurable love and the immeasurable love of Christ, and to be filled with the fullness of Christ. Let's look beginning in verse 14. It says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every 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 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word again today. Lord, we pray that you would calm our minds and our spirits that we might focus on you and your word and what it says to us today, what it implies and what it applies to our lives, that we might be more like Christ, for your glory in his name. Amen. So we have the posture of prayer in the first couple of verses here. Paul says, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. He begins for this reason. He's pointing back to everything that he has said about God's saving purpose in Christ. Because God has redeemed sinners and he has united them into one body, Jew and Gentile together. Paul prays, I bow my knees. He says, in Jewish culture, um, it it the reality is it was it was often uh we we have in historical writings that they would often pray in a standing posture, normally with their hands outstretched and their eyes looking toward heaven. What do we tend to do? We teach kids to fold their hands and close their eyes and bow their head, and and you know, I've heard during the 47 verses of just as I am, no one looking around, you know, all of those things. And it's it's because kneeling signified for them an intensity and a humility and a reverence in their prayer. So they're normal, just normal everyday going through life prayers. They were usually standing, eyes looking heavenward, talking to God. But when it came time for them to surrender and submit themselves, then they would kneel. And so Paul here is overwhelmed by the grace of God, by all that God has done for believers. And so his posture reflects humility before the majesty of God Himself. And he is giving us a picture of someone who understands who they are in Christ, but also understands who they are in relation to a perfectly holy, righteous God. And it's a position of humility. And uh Augustine wrote the bending of the knee signifies the humility of the heart. It is an act of surrender, submission. Uh the external posture, though, really doesn't matter a whole lot unless there's inward submission. But bodily reverence, the position we assume in our prayers, often reflect spiritual reality. Um scripture repeatedly associates kneeling with earnest worship. We see that with Solomon at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 6. Daniel, when he's in exile, he's kneeling before God in Daniel 6. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane left Peter, James, and John and went away from them and knelt and prayed in Luke 22. And Stephen, before he is martyred in Acts 7, kneels and he says, God, don't hold this against them. Um Paul bows because he knows who it is that he is addressing. He understands he's not talking to Barnabas or John Mark or any of his other traveling companions. He's talking to God. And he says, I bow where? Before the Father. And Paul gives us a picture of a truly Trinitarian prayer here. Why? Because he prays to the Father, he prays through the Spirit for the indwelling of Christ. So we have the Trinity right there. The entire Trinity is active in a believer's prayer life. The term Father reminds us of adoption. He talked about that back in chapter one. He said, in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ in chapter one, verse five. Believers do not approach God as criminals before a judge, but we approach him as children before a father. So, yes, there's humility there, but there is no fear. There is no condemnation. Because if we are in Christ, we are robed in his righteousness. In him, we become the righteousness of God. So we we we understand the words of the great Puritan preacher Richard Baxter. He said, The Father's love is the fountain from which salvation flows. How do we know that? What's the verse you always at least used to see at every football game, NFL football game? John 3 16, right? For God so loved the world. What did it do? It caused him to send his only son, so that literally all the believing ones might not perish but have eternal life, everlasting. So then he says that we we we we pray to God from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. The word that he uses there for family is the word patria, and it's closely related to the word pater, which is father. Um Paul is emphasizing that all fatherhood flows from God, that he is the example. God is the supreme father and source of every created order that exists. Some interpret this as referring to the church triumphant already in heaven and the church militant on earth. But the reality is together, those who have already passed and gone on to heaven and those of us who remain here on earth, we all form one household because we are all, as Paul wrote in Romans 8, given the spirit of adoption through which we cry out, Abba, Father. So we we have this picture of being unified with all believers throughout history, and um I don't know why, I keep seeing all these things pop up whenever I'm scrolling on social media, and and it's the the latest thing is I'm seeing all these Eastern Orthodox posts, and it's like, hmm, Facebook's not listening to conversations at all. Um but uh I I I heard an Eastern Orthodox priest this week say, everyone who died before the cross went to hell. And I thought, you don't understand the Bible. If they all went to hell, what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration? I mean, did Elijah get a get out of hell free for five minutes card or something? I I I don't understand. They were looking ahead to the cross, we look back to the cross. So this idea that because you happen to be born at the wrong time, you are doomed to hell because you were born after Christ was crucified, I think is a terrible understanding. It's a complete misunderstanding of Scripture. But but the reality is that we are members of the household of God. Chapter 2, verse 19 says that. I didn't come up with that on my own. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. So Hebrews 12 doubles down on that and refers to the assembly of saints in heaven and earth united together. We all become one body, one family in Christ. John Chrysostom said he is the Father not by creation only, but by grace also. He's not just God the Father who created all things, but he's God the Father who created all things and desired relationship with his creation, so that by his grace he sent his son, so that that relationship might be possible. And then verse 16, he he kind of turns toward this idea of power for the inner man, the inner person, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. This is really the first petition, and he uses that phrase we've talked about before, according to the riches of his glory. And it's important that we notice Paul doesn't say out of, but according to his riches. Because another way to think of this is a a millionaire may give a dollar out of his riches that came out of his account, but it wasn't given according to, in relation to. That means I don't know. There's a crazy verse somewhere that says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Where would such a verse be found? Oh, yeah, that's Ephesians 1. We looked at it just a few weeks ago. Ephesians 1 3. Okay? So Paul is continuing this. There's no break here, there's no confusion, there's no lapse in what he's talking about. This is all talking about God and what he's given, and out of his storehouse he gives according to how much he has to give. What does that mean? That means, chapter 2, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. But then go down to verse 4. That's 2, verse 1. Verse 4 says, But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with him in Christ. So he took us, not only does he give us blessings in a spiritual sense, but he gave us life when we were spiritually dead. So this millionaire may give a dollar out of his riches, but God blesses us according to his riches. That means it's infinitely greater than what that millionaire offered. It also means, as I said before, that his giving according to doesn't diminish his ability or his supply to bless us because it is ever more than sufficient. He gives lavishly because his resources are infinite, they are endless. And uh John Calvin wrote, God is never exhausted by giving. There's always more. And then he says, to be strengthened, to be strengthened. The Greek word there is kratio. What does that mean? It means to make strong, to empower, or to fortify inwardly, to make us strong inside, not physically muscular strong, but in our character, in our person to be strengthened. It's a continuous spiritual empowerment that God gives us because we can't live the Christian life in our natural strength. Don't believe that? Give it a shot. Matter of fact, text me when you fall on your face, you won't get out of the parking lot. Neither would I. No exception. That spiritual life cannot be lived with our own natural human strength. We must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us. Because the Christian life is supernatural from beginning to end. It's not anything we can conjure up or whip up within ourselves. It's not even folks dancing all over the place and getting all emotionally stirred up, and then they walk out the door, and what happens? Somebody pulls out in front of them. Those things are not the point. It's not about how we feel, it's about what we know and what we understand, thereby affecting how we live. So Jesus said, apart from me, you can do. Anybody know the next word? Say it out loud. Nothing! John 15, 5, if you want to check me. Apart from me, you can do nothing. We have zero spiritual strength apart from Christ. In fact, we're not even concerned with spiritual things because we're dead spiritually apart from Christ. He says, to be strengthened with what? With power. This is the word denamis, and it refers to a divine, miraculous power. It's the same power that, according to chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, raised Christ from the dead. It's the same power that now strengthens believers internally. It is not self-improvement, it's not some self-help book, it's not living your best life now. It's divine empowerment. It's God doing the work in us. And how does he do that? Through his Holy Spirit is the next phrase. The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification, if you will. The Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity that indwells us, and who, I don't know, Jesus said in John 14, I believe it was. And so He illuminates our mind. Romans 12 comes to mind. Be therefore transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Holy Spirit does that. He strengthens our faith. And he conforms us into the image of Christ. R. C. Sprohl said the Christian life is impossible apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. So we get with power. Where? From the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, where? In our inner being. In our inner being. It refers to that phrase in the Greek refers to the inward man, to the to the heart, the soul, the mind, every aspect of our spiritual life. That power comes from the Holy Spirit. And while our outer body may decay, I mentioned it in Sunday school this morning. Can't wait to get my glorified body where I don't have arthritis in my knees. And every time I stand up or squat, had to had to do some extra training at work on Friday and had to get down on my knees on a concrete floor. That feels great when you have arthritic knees. Didn't feel great before I had arthritis in my knees. Now it really stinks. But I won't have to worry about that. We won't have to worry about aging. We won't have to worry about pain and suffering and tears and crying and any of that. So we have this outer man that is decaying, but the inner being is renewed. We are renewed. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 16, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Day after day. Continually. The world obsesses over outward appearance. Oh, they're not tall enough. They're not thin enough. They're not they're too skinny. Oh, they've got this wrong with their face. They've got that wrong with oh, look at the size of those feet. My goodness. The world obsesses over those things. But the reality is God is concerned with our inward transformation. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds. So Paul's prayer really exposes shallow Christianity. There are people who desire external blessings, but they refuse any thoughts of inward holiness. Don't believe me? Turn on again Christian television. Vending machine Jesus all over the place. If you'll give this, God's gonna give you that. If you'll do this, God's gonna give you that. If you'll say this, God will give you that. That's not how this works. We don't give to get. We give, and we often do get, and we receive blessings when we do that. But that's not the purpose. That's not our impetus. I love that word. It's one of my favorite English words. That and ubiquitous. Anybody know what ubiquitous means? I saw one person. Ubiquitous, I'll put it this way. Here, maybe this will give you a definition. Oxygen is ubiquitous. During the day, on a hot summer day, sunlight is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. That's what that word means. But you have this concept that we are receiving strength in our souls. That's what Paul is praying for. He's not praying for external things. He's not praying for things that we see people desiring. What I've heard I heard, I think it was John MacArthur said this one time. He said, the things that the prosperity gospel promises you are the things my flesh desired when it was unredeemed. To be healthy, to be wealthy, to never have any problems. See, the problem is we take the word prosper when it's mentioned in scripture, and we instantly, not we, some people want to instantly turn that into, oh, that's financial. We gotta check, let's check in with the apostles. All those rich apostles who relied on the churches, and we know Paul was a tent maker. Several of them were fishermen. So they'd go and fish and then sell the fish, and Paul would make a tent and sell the tent, and that's how he was able to survive and to live. That doesn't sound very rich financially to me. Those are the things I wanted before I came to Christ, and that's what's promised in those circles. And then he prays for the presence of Christ in the heart at the beginning of verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. At first glance, this seems maybe a little bit confusing because are believers not already indwelt by Christ? I mean, if you are genuinely born again, you are indwelt by Christ, by his spirit. Every believer possesses Christ in a saving way. So what does Paul mean? Well, the word dwell, it's the word katoikeo, and it means to settle down, to make oneself at home, or to reside permanently. Paul is not merely praying for Christ's presence, but for Christ's reigning, governing influence in the lives of his people. It's about communion with him and it's about his lordship. Romans 10. If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. For with a heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So it is about his lordship. It is about him being in charge. John MacArthur said Paul is speaking of Christ being at home in the believer's life. Christ being at home in the believer's life. So every room, if you will, if you if you think of your heart as a home, a house, every room in our hearts are to be open to Christ. Our ambitions, our thoughts, our desires, our relationships, our habits, our entertainment, our speech, all of those things should be honoring to Christ. And too many Christians give Christ partial access and preserve hidden chambers of sin in their own hearts. But Christ does not intend to be a guest. We're the guests in his family, at his feast. He is not a guest, he intends to rule the house. Lord, Kitios, master, is what that word, that's the most direct translation to English, is He is our master. And how does he do that? Through faith. Faith is not just a doorway into Christianity, it is the continual means of our communion with Christ. We had faith given to us as a gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, at the point we came to salvation, but we continue to have faith. By grace are you saved through faith, that that of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. So all of that is a gift of God, and that is spoken of in the perfect present tense. That means at some point we receive faith and we continue to have that faith. In fact, scripture talks about that a true repentance or a true faith in God, a true faith in Christ, is not to be repented of. So when someone says, Well, I used to be a Christian, but I'm not anymore, no, you never were. You never were. First John. They came out from among us so that it might be clear they were never part of us. It's just what Scripture teaches. And so faith is that continual means of communion with Christ. Our life begins and continues by faith. Our life in Christ. Colatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Colossians 2.6, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. As you received him, continue that way. Continue to receive him. Charles Spurgeon said, Faith is the conduit pipe through which the grace of God flows into the soul. So it is a continual, ongoing concept in the life of a believer. Then we have the perception of Christ's love. Paul says 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. Now Paul moves on to this great climax of our experience in our Christian lives. Rooted and grounded, Paul uses two metaphors here. The word rooted, it's an agricultural imagery. It's the word rezu, and it means that believers will draw nourishment from divine love like a tree does from the soil. And then he says grounded, the male. This is architectural. It refers to the fact that love is the foundation upon which Christ is our Lord and upon which our Christian life stands. We're going to see later on in this letter that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, where he talks about that it's built, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. So without understanding divine love in our lives, any sense of spiritual stability will collapse because we don't have the foundation. The love here is first God's love for us before our love for him. 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us. He made the first step. He moved upon our hearts. He says that rooted and grounded in love that we may have strength to comprehend. Notice our Christian life requires strength. It requires a spiritual strength. Because natural man cannot grasp spiritual realities. The cross is foolish. Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. The Greek word that he uses here, katalambano. Long word. It means to seize, to grasp, or to lay hold of, to hold on for dear life. And Paul prays that believers would increasingly apprehend the magnitude of Christ's love. Then he says, with all the saints, no Christian fully comprehends God's love alone. We don't do it by ourselves. The church collectively experiences and testifies to the love of God. And so this destroys the idea of isolated Christianity. Well, I love Christ, but I hate the church. Then you don't love Christ. You love an idol, maybe, that you've invented in your own mind. But Jesus said the church is his bride. Now you may have bad feelings toward false professors of faith who treat people poorly, who show no fruit, but that doesn't mean they're Christians. That doesn't mean they're part of the church. Because God grows believers in a community. We talked about in Sunday school this morning. We need one another. We encourage each other. We lift up each other. We fellowship together. Iron sharpens iron. And then he says that we may comprehend the breadth and the length and height and depth. Paul is piling up these dimensions here. And he's doing that to describe how immeasurably vast the love of Christ is. A lot of commentators really kind of back away from assigning any kind of meaning to these terms that he uses here. But the reality is, Paul is talking about how immense the love of Christ is. It is broad enough to encompass every nation. It's long enough to last eternally. It's deep enough to reach the vilest of sinners, and it's high enough to raise believers to glory. Romans 8, 38, and 39. A verse that we probably don't know the address. But I think you probably are familiar with the verse or the verses. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So what did Paul say there to the church in Rome was able to separate us from the love of God? Nothing. Not a thing in this entire universe. How do we know? Because he listed classes of angels, principalities, powers. And then he said, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing. Just in case you thought maybe I left something out, nothing else is going to separate you from the love of God. Paul is really seeking to, John Chrysostom said, Paul seeks by multiplied dimensions to show that the love of Christ is boundless. We just sang a song. O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Talked about how we can't understand, we can't truly fully comprehend God's grace, but that he saved my ruined life. Paul prays that we would know what we can't fully know. It's kind of a paradox. To know the love of Christ, if you stop there, that would be, yeah, that surpasses knowledge. That means we can't fully comprehend it this side of heaven. We can understand it to a certain degree. But this is more than just an intellectual awareness. It's more than just an acknowledgement of facts or information. A man may understand theology academically while remaining cold toward Christ. You may have all the head knowledge in the world. I've told you all before there's a Southern Gospel trio. There are two sisters and a brother named the Martins. They're from a little tiny town way down in South Arkansas called Hamburg, Arkansas. And I heard Joyce Meyer, Joyce Meyer, Joyce Martin. I didn't hear Joyce Meyer, trust me. Whoa. Yikes. I don't know where that came from. Don't listen to Joyce Meyer. Anyway, uh, that was free. But Joyce Martin says a lot of people are going to miss heaven by about 18 inches. It's roughly the distance between knowing Christ and knowing Christ. And that's the problem. We can have all the head knowledge in the world, but Paul prays that we would have that experiential communion of the love of Christ in our lives. The love of Christ surpasses knowledge. Why? Because it's eternal, because it's infinite, it is sovereign, it is sacrificial, it is incomprehensible in its magnitude. I mean, think about the cross of Christ. You have the sinless one who is dying for the guilty. You have the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep. You have the judge who is condemned in the place of rebels. We're at enmity with God until we come to faith in Christ. We're fighting, striving. John Calvin wrote the measure of Christ's love is without measure. He essentially says exactly what Paul said, that we might know the love of Christ that we can't really comprehend. Romans 5.8, God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And 1 John 4.10, and this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. To pay the price fully. Then he prays for the fullness of God and the believer, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. This language is staggering if you give it any thought at all. Paul is not saying that believers become divine. Okay, there are lots of people on Christian television who would tell you, you are little gods. Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, the whole lot will tell you, you are little gods. If you're in Christ, you are little gods because the Holy Spirit's dwelling in you. Can I just tell you that's idolatry? And it is satanic. Because if you think you're God, wait till somebody makes you mad. Wait till something doesn't go your way. And let me know if you react, how God reacts. Because I'll tell you, you don't. How do I know? I have a mirror. I know people. Because I know me. So the reality is that Paul tells us that believers are increasingly filled with the moral likeness, holiness, joy, and character of God. It means we become more and more like Christ. It really refers to a complete abundance, and it is reaching toward maturity in Christ. God desires his people to reflect his character. Later in Ephesians in chapter 4, it says Paul writes that we should grow to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So the Christian life is not merely avoiding sin, it is being filled with God. It is becoming more and more like Christ as we empty ourselves more and more of our old self. So the great medical doctor Martin Lloyd Jones, who was a great preacher, said the ultimate object of salvation is that we might be filled with the fullness of God. That's the reality. How can we sum up Paul's prayer? That we would be strengthened with divine power, overwhelmed by Christ's love, and filled with all the fullness of God. That's Paul's prayer in essence, summed up in a really small nutshell. That that is who we as believers in Christ would be if you pray. Father, thank you again for your word.