Rich in Love

Intro:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Spirit of God at work in you! Go ahead and open your Bibles to Ephesians 3:14.

While you do that, just a quick update on Cody and Praetorian Project. This past week, pastors from across the Praetorian Project, including Cody, met at their annual summit. There were a couple of topics that took center stage

They spent time discussing how we would describe Praetorian Project churches, as we plan for the future. It may sound silly, but how we use language matters and it will help us be distinctively Praetorian Project churches (and include new churches) in the future with clarity.

They also spent time discussing the future of the Praetorian Project particularly as the project works to plant a church in Northwest Washington, and eventually more churches overseas.

With Cody and Lydia on vacation, I have the opportunity to bring the message this morning.

Brief reminder of structure of Pauline Epistle

As readers of the New Testament, we stand on the belief that what we have recorded was written for our benefit just as it was for the benefit of the initial audience as we can relate to their cultural position. The task of hermeneutics is to translate not just the words but also the cultural context so that we can rightly apply the scriptures to our lives. So sometimes I’ll refer to Paul’s readers as they or I might refer to them as us or we.

We have many benefits to having the Bible at our fingertips. One of the challenges we face, though, is that having the Bible at our fingertips has encouraged us to read it differently than the authors intended. This is definitely the case as it pertains to how we teach the Bible. For example, we are systematically working through what we call the book of Ephesians over the course of several months. However, the book is actually a letter to a group of people intended to be read all at once. There is great benefit to studying the letter as we are doing it, but we must remember to keep in mind the fact that the original hearers heard it all at once and when it was read, it wasn’t read in chunks. Our passage today is a great example of why having the letter as a whole in mind is important. If you look at Ephesians 3:14, you see that it begins, “for this reason.” Now if we’re not paying attention, we could assume that this is a continuation of the verses that came immediately beforehand and that assumption would be incorrect. If you remember back to last week, Cody talked about how 3:1-13 were a very personal touch in this letter to the Ephesians. If you look at verse 1 you also see, “for this reason.” starting in verse 2 Paul went on a tangent to relate his personal experience. Verse 14 is tied to verse 1, which points back to the arguments from chapter 2.

Summarize Ephesians to this point

We have to go back a couple of weeks to remember what Paul is referencing, but most notably chapter 2 verses 11-22 are talking about the unity that occurs in Christ. Those of us who are Gentiles have been brought close. The dividing wall of hostility has been torn down. Christ has created one humanity in the place of two bringing peace. Paul is talking about unity of the diverse types of people within the Christian community. He finishes that section with these words

Ephesians 2:19–22 CSB

So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

With that in mind, let’s read today’s passage.

Ephesians 3:14–21 CSB

For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Paul has broken out in prayer for the Ephesian church. In this prayer Paul is reflecting on what Christ has done in laying the groundwork for unity and praying for the tools that the church in Ephesus needs to see it through. Just like the Ephesians, we are a fractured people. Even within denominations of churches we have factions that often become enemies; us versus them. It is easy to turn those people who disagree with us or are different than us into "others" who are not on our team. Instead “other-ing” them, we have the invitation to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and be filled with the love of Christ in order to come into unity.

Main idea:

God empowers us to unity within the church by strengthening our Spirit and showing us love beyond what we can imagine because God is abundant with the riches of his glory.

The prayer itself is broken up into two sections of the prayer; a request and a doxology or a blessing of praise to God. The request is verses 16-19 and the doxology is verses 20-21.

Paul reorients his readers into recalling what we call the end of chapter 2, by making a broad statement about God’s fatherhood of all creation. He uses a wordplay to do it. The idea here is that as God has brought together all nations into one people, they all take the name of the one Father. It’s a greek play on words as the Greek word for father (pater) is the root for the Greek word for family (patria). This introduction to the prayer reminds us that it is God’s work that has brought creation into existence and God’s work that has reconciled the world to himself. God is the main actor in this. And so Paul petitions God to do the work that only he can do to bring about the unity of the body of Christ.

Request:

The request is made up of three main clauses according to the Greek. Each of the clauses is marked by the Greek word “hina” which means “so that.”

Most of our translations will include something like: I pray that; however, the word for prayer is not used. The Translation committees are filling in the implication that Paul is praying and doing it in a way that helps organize a rather complicated sentence. So rather than saying that he’s praying, Paul talks about the posture he’s using in order to imply the prayer itself. It was not customary for Jews to kneel in prayer, the typical posture is standing. Kneeling usually indicates exceptional passion or humility. Paul is bowing his knee to the Father in humble and urgent prayer so that . . . and these are the three clauses:

(16-17a) God may grant y’all to be strengthened with power (Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith)

(17b-19a) y’all would comprehend the love of God (Christ's love that surpasses knowledge)

(19b) Y’all would be filled with all the fullness of God

Strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, Christ dwelling in you hearts through faith (16-17a)

Let’s look at the first clause or petition

Ephesians 3:16–17 “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...

The first petition that Paul makes is qualified by the phrase “according to the riches of his glory.” There is a difference between giving from riches and giving according to riches. “According to” suggests abundance, “from” suggests stinginess. It’s said that

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Giving)

Givers can be divided into three types: the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. Some givers are like a piece of flint—to get anything out of it you must hammer it, and even then you only get chips and sparks. Others are like a sponge—to get anything out of a sponge you must squeeze it and squeeze it hard, because the more you squeeze a sponge, the more you get. But others are like a honeycomb—which just overflows with its own sweetness. That is how God gives to us...

The honeycomb of God’s glory overflowing into our lives is what Paul is after. And through this glory Paul makes a two-sided petition: that his readers would be strengthened with power in their inner being through God’s Spirit and that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith.

Paul sees that the strengthening through spirit is in parallel with Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith. In other words, the presence of Christ in the believer is another way to talk about empowerment of the Spirit. The strengthening that happens in us is something that happens to us, we are passive in that we receive that action. We do not create strength within ourselves by name it and claim it types of faith, instead God empowers us by his Spirit. God must do it in us. Just as Paul said earlier in the letter, what we receive, we receive as a gift not of works that we do. The same is true of the strength that Paul is praying for his readers, it is something that God will do in them.

Ephesians–Philemon Ephesians 3:16–17a

The result of being strengthened by God is “that Christ may dwell in your hearts” (Eph. 3:17). Since Christ dwells in the hearts of believers from the moment of conversion, this must refer to living under the indwelling influence and continual presence of Christ. The verb “dwell” (katoikeō) indicates a permanent indwelling rather than a temporary residence

A biblical illustration might be helpful: after the Exodus out of Egypt, Israel came to Mount Sinai where they received the covenantal terms of their relationship to God. Part of the terms was a tent that would travel around with them and be the place of God’s residence. The stories of the wilderness wanderings recount that they didn’t stay anywhere very long, God’s residence moved. Some generations later, Solomon built a Temple in Jerusalem that was modeled after the tabernacle of the wilderness to become the permanent home of the presence of God. From that temple God’s presence dwelt for many centuries.

In the same way, the Ephesians become the dweling place of the Lord, the permanent residence of the Lord. Paul’s praying for the strength and power to bring about unity, and uses dwelling imagery to convey that.

Something that I think often gets in the way of our understanding of a phrase like “Christ dwelling in your hearts” is that our modern western view of the heart is different than the Hebrew/Greek view of the heart.

When we think of the heart, we generally conceive of it as the seat of our emotional self. We think with our mind, we feel with our hearts. That’s why when someone says they’re trusting their heart regarding a decision, we likely think something like, “they’re making an emotional decision.” So for us, Christ dwelling in our hearts sounds like an emotional thing.

Faithlife Study Bible Ephesians 3:17

The heart in ancient Greek and Jewish thought represents the essential aspects of existence and identity: the inner being, will, and intelligence.

When a first-century reader of Paul hear’s about Christ dwelling in their hearts, it is so much more than emotions. It’s Christ dwelling in their inner being, will and intelligence. What the Greek and Jewish thought conceives of as the heart, it seems, that we conceive of as the mind. So, maybe a better way for us to think of it would be that Christ would dwell in your minds. Paul is praying that God would strengthen us by increasing our awareness of Christ in our minds. Christ truly present with us, not just in a warm fuzzy way, but in way that affects our intellect and will too.

Paul prays that his readers would be granted to be strengthened by the Spirit in their inner being as Christ dwells in their hearts through faith and goes on to pray that they would comprehend Christ’s love and know it in a way that surpasses knowledge.

comprehend Christ’s love and know that which surpasses knowledge (17b-19a)

The second petition is this

Ephesians 3:17b–19a “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge...”

In this second petition, the main clause is that Paul prays that we would first comprehend God’s love. Some translations go with grasp, which helps provide a slightly fuller picture. The Greek there can be translated comprehend in English, but it doesn’t quite capture that activity. Comprehend sounds passive, but the verb here is active. Grasp is a better way to think of this. Less understand, more come to realization or Aha!

Paul wants us to grasp the vastness of God’s love.

Ephesians—The Mystery of the Body of Christ Ephesians 3:17

these dimensions can be said to suggest:

1) A love which is wide enough to embrace the world. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

2) A love which is long enough to last forever (1 Corinthians 13:8). As Spurgeon said, “It is so long that your old age cannot wear it out, so long your continual tribulation cannot exhaust it, your successive temptations shall not drain it dry; like eternity itself it knows no bounds.”

3) A love which is high enough to take sinners to Heaven (1 John 3:1, 2).

4) A love which is deep enough to take Christ to the very depths to reach the lowest sinner (Philippians 2:8).

Because Paul wants us to be connected to God’s love according to these dimensions, he uses the idea of being rooted and grounded or established.

Paul mixes metaphors here in order to make sure his point comes across.

Ephesians—The Mystery of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 3:17)

“[R]ooted” is agricultural, and “established” (literally, founded) is architectural, but their significance is perfectly parallel. Like trees, our lives are to send down roots deep and wide into the soil of love. Like buildings, the edifices of our lives here on earth are to have deep, solid foundations of love. If we are properly rooted and properly constructed on a foundation of love, nothing will be able to shake us.

As it turns out, gardening is a tool that God uses to help us understand our place in the world and it can provide some help in understanding his word too.

We have been blessed with a decent back yard on post. I had grown some cherry tomatoes last summer, but I wanted to expand our garden and try some different products. So this year, bought some more pots because I only had the four that I used last year, and I was planning on several more options than four. We bought some seedling tomatoes, orange and yellow peppers, and some zucchini squash. I decided to put the zucchini in the pots that I had used the year before for cherry tomatoes. Initially they grew great, there were beautiful yellow flowers, but no zucchini, no fruit. After a few weeks I realized that the growth was hindered by the size of the pot that I had put them in. They didn’t have enough space for the roots to grow, nor were there enough nutrients in the soil to provide a habitat for the zucchini to bear any fruit.

After consulting with some neighbors, I borrowed a post-hole digger and dug up some space in the ground for them and replanted them. When they had access to a soil that allowed for deeper roots and more nutrients to draw from, they began to grow and flourish again, I saw some zucchini grow.

Similarly, if our view of God’s love doesn’t provide the place for us to dig deep roots, we will be stunted. Our ability to love others will only grow if we have a view of God’s love that is long, wide, high and deep. When we have this type of love we can rejoice with John as he says in his letter in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.” When we begin to see God’s love for the breadth and length, and height and depth that it has we can also begin to grow and flourish. It is this love that will overflow into lives of loving others.

Paul wants our roots to run deep, but he also wants us to know Christ’s love which is beyond knowledge.

Ephesians–Philemon (Ephesians 3:17b–19a)

Paul is not trying to discourage his readers from attempting to comprehend the incomprehensible but rather to encourage them to meditate on the love of Christ that is so vast that they could never fully comprehend it.

This is an instinct-level, experiential knowledge that Paul’s getting at here.

There’s a difference between knowing about something and knowing something. This time of year is full of football. I imagine there are some of you even who might look forward to watching a game this afternoon, or enjoyed a game or two yesterday. Some people who watched games yesterday and will watch more today know about the game of football. They can describe schemes, know the stats of important players, maybe even predict the plays that a coach will call, but they’ve never been on the field playing a single snap. They know a lot about the game, but if they were to strap on the pads go out and take a couple snaps, their knowledge would fall short because of their lack of experience. But someone who has played the game their entire life has a different knowledge. It’s experiential. It’s beyond what you can simply know by studying tape and stats. It brings a different appreciation for those who are playing the game.

In the same way, we can do word studies in the Bible about God’s love. We can study God’s character. We can have all the doctrinal answers; we can know about God. But when we know God, when we know the love of Jesus for us. When we are able to recognize the sacrifice of setting aside his power and glory to take on flesh. When we see the life he lived as an example of what is possible when we partner with God in everything; when we see his cruel death on the cross at the hands of the men he came to forgive; then we can begin to know his love. In his resurrection, we are given access to his life and love in a unique way. He offers us forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God; he offers to come dwell in our hearts and be our guide in life; he offers us a new identity and a new purpose in life. He offers us his love and through his love we have the opportunity to share that love with others. Paul wants us to have that kind of knowledge of God’s love in Christ.

Paul wants God’s love to so permeate our minds and hearts that our instincts are in line with God’s love. Paul is praying that we would be so deep in our experiential knowledge of God that it goes beyond what we can explain or describe.

If Paul’s main purpose of this prayer is to pray for the tools to bring about unity in the church, love is one of the primary tools required! It is God’s love for us that provides the basis and motivation that enables Christians to love others, it’s what allows us to love toward unity.

Paul prays that we would be strengthened in our inner being by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, then he prays that we would have an experience of Christ’s love that is beyond knowledge, and finally that we would be filled with the fullness of God.

Filled with the fullness of God (19b)

The rest of Ephesians 3:19 says “... so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The Greek there uses the same root word in both the verb and noun forms in order to make a point. Filled to the fullness. Its a phrase about abundance. It’s not just full, its brimming over. It reminds me of Psalm 23:5–6 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.” David’s cup was filled to the fullness. Paul is praying that we’d be filled to the fullness of God.

I think it might be helpful to take a peak at other ways Paul uses this phrase in order to gain a better understanding of what he’s saying.

What is the fullness of God? In Colossians, a letter written in a similar time of Paul’s life, Paul mentions God’s fullness in two places. The first place is Colossians 1:19 in a poem about Jesus, in that poem Paul says Colossians 1:18–20 “He [Jesus] is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” In this passage it seems that Jesus is the one in whom is all the fullness of God. Paul doubles down in Colossians 2:9–10 “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

The fullness of God is Jesus and he is the one who fills us. To be filled with all the fullness of God seems to mean that we are filled with Jesus. This is the hinge on which the letter to the Ephesians turns. It is the fullness of God, that is Christ, in us that will strengthen us with power and help us experience Christ’s love so that we can live in unity with those around us. The rest of the book will be practical instructions on how to do that, but first he praises God in a doxology.

Doxology (20-21)

Paul’s conclusion of this prayer is typical of Jewish prayers, they both end in a blessing or praise to God.

Paul uses several Greek terms related to power and work in Ephesians, including dynamis (“power”) and its related verb dynamai, and ergon (“work”) and its related verb energeō. In this verse, Paul praises God both as “the one who is able” (tō dynamenō) and as the “power” (dynamis) that is “working” (energeō) in believers (Eph 3:20).

In other words, the power that is required to accomplish what Paul has prayed for is only ours because God grants it to us. We don’t have the power to accomplish any of it, it is only God’s power at work in us that we can do that. Paul is also aware that God’s power is able to do more than we could imagine.

Ephesians–Philemon Ephesians 3:20–21

He adds that God is able to do “far more abundantly” than what we could even imagine. Here Paul uses a rare adjective (hyperekperissou) that means “quite beyond all measure” and communicates “the highest form of comparison imaginable.”

Notice again, that Paul says that God will work according to the power, not from the power. There is the idea of abundance again! The power that God has placed in us is given to us in abundance and is able to accomplish more than we can imagine. It is according to God’s glory that he’s going to strengthen us, and according to his power that works in us that he is going to accomplish his ends.

Paul then turns and gives glory to God, as it comes through the Church and Jesus.

Ephesians–Philemon Ephesians 3:20–21

Specifically, this “glory” is said to be “in the church” and “in Christ Jesus.” God’s glory is seen in the church through its identity as a multiracial community of Jews and Gentiles (2:11–22), which testifies of God’s manifold wisdom (3:10). In addition, God’s glory is revealed in Christ Jesus. The mention of Christ after reference to the church demonstrates their close connection (1:3–14, 22–23; 2:13, 14–17, 18–19, 20–22): God’s glory in Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his glory revealed in the church.

In Paul’s mind, the church is not separated from Christ. In other words, what the church does reflects on Christ.

Ephesians–Philemon (Ephesians 3:14–21)

Earlier Paul explained that both Jew and Gentile believers are “a holy temple in the Lord” (2:21; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16–17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16). Paul also prayed that “Christ may dwell in your hearts” (Eph. 3:17). God now resides in and with us. We have immediate access, for he is always present. . . In order to be filled with God’s fullness and to experience his power and love, we must be a holy habitation for him to indwell.

We are a new temple, filled with his glory and returning glory to God the Father.

That means that what the church does reflects glory to the Father. Does that make you uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable. If you have ever looked into the history of the church, you know that the last 2000 years are replete with examples of the church marring the glory of God. Paul says that the church is to be something that gives glory to God. May we be a church that does that and partners with other churches to do the same.

Application

So where does the rubber meet the road?

First, respond to the good news of Jesus. It is his love at work to save the lost and his kingdom that is coming whether you like it or not. Turn your allegiance to him today.

Transplant your roots, meditate on God’s power and love. It is only in the vastness of God’s love that we will be able to have the roots deep enough to love others beyond our disagreements so that we can walk in unity. Do you have an experience of God’s love in your life? Spend some time reflecting on that this week and increase your awareness of God’s love in your life. Do you struggle to find an experience like that in your own walk? Come talk to me after service and we can talk about how we might help you understand God’s love for you in a personal way that touches your experience. Trying to live the Christian life without the love of God as your source is like trying to grow zucchini in a pot that’s too small, you’ll quickly run out of nutrients and not bear any fruit.

Pray this prayer for your family, friends, and your church. What a way to bless those in your family, who doesn’t need strengthened inner beings by the Spirit, to know the love of Christ, and be filled with the fullness of God?! I would also encourage you to pray this for your enemies. It’s hard to hold a grudge against someone you are praying to be filled with the fullness of God. But you can start with those you love. Let’s pray

. . .

Ephesians 3:16–21 “I pray that you may grant ______, according to the riches of you glory, to be strengthened with power in their inner being through your Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in ______ hearts through faith. I pray that ______, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that ______ may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”