Ephesians 3:14-19 | Richfield Bible Church

Intro / Set the Stage:

This is perhaps the grandest and loftiest language of all Pauline prayers, and what he asks for here is nothing short of a miracle. To be filled with all the fullness of God. The language Paul uses here may catch us off guard. Have any of us ever experienced God in such a way? What is Paul talking about? What kind of experience is he referring to?

‌Illustration:

Imagine with me that you go out for lunch after church and you run into a friend who attends another church. You ask them how their service was, and their reply takes you aback - "It was wonderful. The Spirit empowered us. Christ dwelt in our hearts. And we were all filled with all the fulness of God." What comes to mind when you hear this?

Bridge the Gap:

If you’re like me, you picture charismatic chaos — tongues being spoken and lengthy prophecies being proclaimed. We may picture emotional music and healings and maybe even the raising of the dead. And perhaps by the time the pastor comes to the pulpit to preach, he simply says, "I guess there isn't time for my sermon this week."

If you are anything like me, you’d be concerned about your friend and might wonder if you should help him find another church. If you’re anything like me, the last thing you’d think he meant is what Paul has in mind when he uses those exact words in our text.

Explanation:

What is Paul praying for in these verses? In verse 19, he prays that we would “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Paul is praying that the Ephesian believers would understand deeply the love that Jesus has for them.

Why does he pray for this? Because while Paul was a great theologian, he was also a good pastor, and he knew that is easy for us to know the truths of the gospel without feeling and experiencing the truths of the gospel, for the wonderful realities of the gospel in Ephesians 1-3 to go into our heads without ever making their way into our hearts.

That is why, after Paul spends three chapters diving deeply into the theology of the gospel, he ends with a prayer for meaningful experiences of truly knowing and feeling Christ's love for us. Why is that? Because the gospel reaches its full intended effect in our lives, not when we have mastered it, but when it has mastered us, when it has so overcome us that we not only know the wonderful truths of the gospel, but are fully convinced of the truths of the gospel.

Example 1:

Because It is possible to know that we are adopted by God, but still not feel fully loved and accepted as his children.

Example 2:

And It is possible to know that God has given us the righteousness of Christ, but still feel the need to earn his favor.

Example 3:

And, in our text this morning, it’s possible to know that Jesus loves us without feeling that Jesus loves us – to say with our mouths that Jesus loves while still harboring doubts in our hearts.

What about when we sin? Does he grow tired of us?

What about when we suffer? Is he judging us?

What about when we feel alone and like everyone has abandoned us? Has our Lord left us too?

And what about those dark moments when we’ve questioned Jesus or even thought unkind things of Jesus in our hearts — does he think unkind things back?

Prop Package:

In our text this morning, Paul prays that the theological truths of the gospel become our experiential realities. And more specifically, Paul prays that we would feel perfectly and wholly secure in the love of Jesus because God’s great desire is that we not only would know that Jesus loves us but that we would feel that Jesus loves us.

Sermon Outline:

As we consider Paul’s prayer together this morning, first, we’ll consider the wonderful reality of Jesus’ love. Second, we’ll see that God desires that we would feel the wonderful reality of Jesus’ love. And then we’ll end the sermon by looking at practical ways we can pursue experiences of feeling Jesus’ love.

MP1: The Wonderful Reality of Jesus’ Love

Transition:

While Paul does pray for deep experiences of feeling that Jesus loves us in this text, we must be careful to first consider the objective reality of Jesus' love. Because whether we feel it or not, Jesus loves every member of his church fully and completely.

Explanation:

In verse 17, Paul uses two word-pictures to describe us as secure in Jesus’ love.

First, he says we're "rooted" in Jesus' love. The picture is of a plant, maybe a tree, whose roots sink into the soil. The tree is strong; it's steady. And because of the roots, that tree isn't shaken when the storms come and the winds blow.

Second, Paul says that we're grounded in Jesus' love. The picture changes from a plant to a building whose foundation is the love of Jesus. Like the roots of a tree, the foundation of a building keeps it standing when floods come, and the dirt beneath the building becomes unstable.

Application:

My dear friends, the point is this: we are secure in Jesus' love. We're firmly held. We won't be uprooted. The building won't collapse. We're not going anywhere because Jesus’ love is the surest reality in the universe.

When life's storms and difficulties seek to shake us, what keeps us standing? Not our resolution to stand strong. Not an uncertain hope for things to get better. Not just pushing through. What keeps us standing is the unshakable love of Jesus. We can put all of our confidence in it.

Explanation:

And while these comforting truths are clear in the English, they are even more pronounced in the original. We could translate it like this, you have been rooted in love, and you have been grounded in love.

Illustration:

Trees don’t plant themselves. Buildings don’t pay their own foundation, and the same is true of us: we have been rooted in Jesus’ love by another.

Application:

We didn’t plant ourselves in the love of Christ. We were taken, and we were planted by sovereign love.

Before we ever knew Jesus, he knew us.

Before we ever chose Jesus, he chose us.

Before we ever loved Jesus, he loved us.

And if Jesus loved us first, then we could not be more secure in his love, because none of it depends on us; it all rests on him.

He loves us not for who we once were or for things we once did.

He loves us, not for who we now are or ways we’re presently growing in holiness.

He loves us, not for who we will be or what we will do.

He loves us because he loves us.

Explanation/Application:

This means that Jesus isn’t disappointed in us, and there aren’t unmet expectations. Jesus Christ - who is the same yesterday, today, and forever - loves us yesterday, today, and forever. And we can be confident of this because he rooted us and grounded us — he made us secure in his love.

Explanation/Application:

And when did he do that? When He left His throne in heaven, became man, and died in our place. In the gospel, he rooted us and grounded us in His love, to never let us go. Do you remember Paul’s words in Ephesians 5?

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Dear friends, if we ever find ourselves tempted to doubt the love of Jesus, let us look no further than the cross. How do we know that Jesus loves us? Because he died so that we would live. He didn’t die for us because we were holy and without blemish; he died to make us holy and without blemish. He didn’t die for us because we were lovely in his sight – he for the ungodly. He died for his enemies to make them his friends – more than that; he died for his enemies to make them his bride!

Which means that he loves us fully. He loves us completely. He loves us more faithfully than any spouse, parent, or friend. And his love will never let us go.

Transition:

Although our understanding of Jesus' love may fluctuate, the reality of His love remains constant. Paul is not praying for Jesus to love us more, nor is he praying for us to be rooted in Jesus' love. Rather, he prays that we may know Jesus' love more fully, for we are already rooted in it.

There is a difference between the extent of Jesus' love for us and our perception of it, so that it is possible to not feel Jesus' care for us, yet still be securely kept in His heart. Our circumstances and emotions may change, but the cross stands as a constant reminder of Jesus' everlasting love for us.

In our darkest nights, biggest failures, and toughest trials, the cross stands above it all and declares to us:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love."

and

"Having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them to the end."

Our understanding of Jesus' love can never exhaust the depths of it; there is always more to be discovered, known and felt. That is why Paul prays this prayer. God’s great desire is that we would not only know that Jesus loves us, but we would also feel that Jesus loves us.

MP2: God Desires That We Would Feel the Wonderful Reality of Jesus’ Love.

Transition/Explanation:

Look back with me at verse 19. Paul prays that we would,

“Know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”

Explanation:

These are odd words, aren’t they? Paul prays that we would know what can’t be known – the love of Jesus that is so grand that it is beyond all explanation and knowledge; that we could never get our minds around it; that we could spend every moment of our lives meditating on it and we still wouldn’t even have scratched the surface. This means that whatever knowledge we have of Jesus' love today, there are always more marvelous depths to explore and experience, and 100 billion years into the future, we will still be exploring more of the great love of Christ. That is what Paul prays that we would know, this unknowable love.

That is why Paul is praying for here is not intellectual knowledge of the love of Jesus: he’s using the language of experience — that we would know what can’t be known. He wants us to know deep down that Jesus loves us.

Explanation:

When Paul prays for more profound experiences of intimacy with Jesus and more awareness of his love, this is the language he uses,

That the Spirit would strengthen us in the inner man.

That Christ would dwell in our hearts.

And that we would be filled with all the fulness of God.

Argumentation:

We might hear this language and say, "Yes, but aren't we already united to Christ? Doesn't God already dwell in us? Hasn't the Spirit already empowered us? Haven't all of these things happened to us in our conversion?" That's true. But do you remember who Paul is praying for in this prayer? This is how Paul prays for believers, not unbelievers.

So, he's not praying for union with Christ but for experiential communion with Christ. He prays that we would not just be positionally full of God as his New Covenant temple, but that we would be experientially filled with God so that we are deeply aware of his presence, goodness, and affection.

Illustration:

I love telling my daughter, Lily, that I love her. I tell her when she wakes up in the morning and when she goes to sleep at night. I even go to her sometimes and tell her that I have a secret to tell her that I've never told anyone else, only to whisper to her that I love her again. Sometimes we play a game together where I'll tell her, "Hey, Lily, you know what? I love uuuuu-unicycles. No, that's not it. I love uuuuu-ukuleles. No, that's wrong. I love uuuuu-you." As the anticipation builds, she loves to wonder if the next time I'm going to say what she is excited to hear, that I love her.

But what if I stopped telling her I love her just because I had said it years ago? She would feel insecure and unsure of my love. Not because I had never told her that I love her, but because she wants to be freshly reminded of my love.

This is true of our human relationships and it is also true of our relationship with God. Yes, God has shown us his love in the greatest possible way through the death of his Son, and no act of love can surpass that, but he desires to come to us again and again to affirm his love for us in our experience.

Illustration:

Charles Spurgeon, once wrote,

'Oh, for a higher experience [of knowing the love of Christ]!... It is one thing to hear the outward sound of love; it is another thing to feel an inward sense of it. It is pleasant to hear the rippling of the brook; but if you are dying of thirst that silver music will not refresh you if you are unable to drink of the stream. Come, Holy Spirit, come! We beseech thee, take of the things of Christ, and glorify him by revealing them to our inmost souls!'

And that is precisely what Paul is praying for in his letter to the Ephesians. He is praying for an awareness of the love of Jesus that is not just something we've heard of, but something we know. That it not just be a stream we've heard from a distance, but one we swim in, splash in, and dance in, until it's soaked us down to the bone.

That we would feel deeply with Paul that,

'Christ loved me and gave himself for me.' (Gal 2:20)

Transition/Explanation:

As Paul tries to further describe this indescribable love in verse 18, he stretches human language to the breaking point. He prays that we would,

“Have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.”

Explanation:

‌He uses language as if he is looking at an incomprehensibly large object, and what is he measuring? The love of Jesus that is grander than we could ever know.

Explanation/Application:

The love of Christ that is so deep that no matter how low we’ve sunk, his divine love reaches down and loves us still.

The love of Christ that is so long that no matter how far we’ve run, Jesus reaches out and loves us still.

The love of Christ that is so high and so wide that its patience can never be exhausted or extinguished.

Explanation/Illustration:

He prays that our hearts would be wholly convinced of this love so that we might be able to sing with deep assurance,

O, the deep, deep love of Jesus Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.

Transition/Explanation:

But there is a temptation here though, I think, to believe that Paul is praying for simply a feeling in this text as we look back at the text, we see that Paul prays for something greater than mere feelings or emotions. He isn't simply praying for us to feel the love of Jesus as if it were distant and impersonal, but for the person of Jesus himself to dwell within us in an experiencial way.

Explanation:

Look back at verse 17, he prays,

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

Paul is not seeking giddy feelings or fluttering hearts. He prays that Jesus would come and dwell in our hearts, so that we would know deeply that he loves us.

Paul is praying that we would not just know about Jesus, but that we would know and experience Jesus. Just as there is a difference between knowing the truths of the gospel and knowing the gospel, there is a difference between knowing the doctrine of Christ and knowing Christ. When we come to the gospel, we're not coming merely to a set of propositional truths and historical facts; we come to a living, breathing person.

Illustration:

As Charles Spurgeon put it

"It is a blessed privilege to know Christ doctrinally, but it is only the beginning, the stepping-stone to something better, to intimacy with our Lord."

Explanation:

Paul says this very thing in Philippians 3:10 when he cries out,

“Oh, that I may know him!”

My friends, if anyone knew the doctrine of Christ, it was our brother Paul, but he wanted more. He wanted Jesus in his mind, but not just in his mind; he wanted Jesus in his heart – he wanted not only to know of Jesus Christ but to know Christ – to feel his very heartbeat in the depths of his soul.

Application:

Oh, that we might know Christ! That we might be so caught up in the splendid reality of his goodness and his love towards us that all other joys seem small in comparison.

And oh, that we might be so aware that he has taken the great burden of our sin and nailed it to the cross so that all other burdens seem to lose their weight.

Oh, that we might be so enraptured with the glories of his excellent beauty that sin seems so worthless and ugly compared to our Lord.

And oh, that we would feel so deeply that he will never leave us nor forsake us that we can withstand the waves of rejection and slander of others because we have Christ.

Oh, that we might know him and his deep, unending, never failing, ever faithful love for us, his bride.

Oh, that we might know Christ!

Transition:

This prayer inspires us and arouses our affection for Him, does it not? We all desire this intimacy with our Lord, but how do we attain it? To our joy, our text answers that question. Because God doesn’t want to leave us directionless in our pursuit of nearness to him, he desires intimacy with us as well, and he’s given us the means of pursuing him. Our text answers this question by giving us one overarching principle and second by giving us three means of pursuing our Lord.

MP3: The Practicals

Sub-Point 1: Meditation on the Gospel

First, we pursue deeper experiences of Jesus' love by meditating on the gospel.

Explanation:

Do you see how Paul starts his prayer here?

“For this reason.”

What is the reason? It is all the wonderful realities of the gospel in the first three chapters. We have been chosen, adopted, resurrected and eternally loved by God. These gospel truths are the foundation of understanding Jesus' affection for us. If we desire to truly know and experience Jesus' love in the gospel, we must first understand the gospel. For our awareness of Jesus' love will never outgrow our knowledge of Jesus' love. If we desire to feel God's love for us, we must first understand how God has loved us.

Application:

If you want to start studying the depths of the gospel, might I suggest you read Ephesians 1-3 slowly and write down the glories of our salvation, and for you to pray through and meditate on later.‌ Come in faith, and ask God to meet you. Turn over the ways that Jesus has loved you in the gospel in your mind again and again.

“He has forgiven me wholly and completely. Everything. Even that sin I’m most ashamed of. Even for those words, I wish I could take back. Even that sin that no one else has forgiven me for. He’s forgiven me. Thank you.”

And do that again with the kindness of Christ, the patience of Christ, and the joy that Christ finds in you. In this, we pursue nearness to God the same way he pursued nearness to us, through the gospel.

Sub-Point 2: Prayer

Second, we pursue more profound experiences of Jesus' love through prayer.

Explanation:

That’s precisely what Paul is doing here in Ephesians 3:14-19. As we meditate on the gospel, we pray that the Spirit would empower us to know the deep love of Christ in our meditation.

Application:

Do we pray like this? Perhaps one of the reasons we often feel so distant from God because we don’t pray big enough prayers – I’m preaching to myself here. Do we pray this for ourselves? Do we pray this for our spouses? Do we pray this for our children? Do we pray this for our church? What would happen if we did?

Yes, we should pray for our daily needs, and we should pray for victory over sin, but when was the last time we got down on our knees and, like Paul, prayed that Christ would fill us? And prayed like Isaiah,

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.” (Isaiah 64:1)

What might God do if we regularly prayed for ourselves and one another that the Spirit would come and cause us to know the love of Christ?

Sub-Point 3: Community

Third, we pursue more profound experiences of Jesus’ love through community.

Look again with me at verse 18. Paul prays that we,

“May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth—”‌

Explanation/Application:

Paul prays that we – together – would know and understand the love of Jesus. Not separately but corporately. And within the context of Ephesians, it especially happens when we pursue Christ with believers who are different than us. And perhaps for you, the pursuit of experiencing nearness to Jesus begins by having lunch with another church member after the service.

We pursue Christ when we fellowship with our friends and talk of the ways Jesus has met with us. We do it with our spouses and children in family worship and late-night conversations. In all this, we seek to know God and experience God together.

Application

What Paul is praying for here is a miracle. And while we can say that Jesus equally loves all Christians, we know from experience that not all Christians equally feel the love of Jesus. I’m aware that there are people here who have wanted this for years, but instead of intimacy with Christ, you’ve been experiencing a lengthy spiritual winter. May I encourage you that this gift of the church and community is especially for you?

Let me encourage you, the church is a safe place to share that you often feel numb to the things of God and that you need help. No one will judge you – in fact, I think that most of us here would relate more to those feelings than you realize. There’s no shame because the church is full of broken people who need help, not fixed people who have it all together.

Conclusion

And for all of us, as we continue to pursue deeper intimacy with Christ – our Lord whom, though we have never seen, we love – our great hope is not in present experiences of knowing the love of Christ. No, our great hope is in a future experience, a future experience that we all will have – of seeing Jesus face to face – one day, the cry from Revelation 21 will be heard:

‌“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. They will see his face.”

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