The Fullness of God
Notes
Transcript
This evening I want to give you a brief word from God about the church. As I was studying I came across a word found in Ephesians 3 different times. The word is fullness.
The Greek word for Fullness is pleroma. It means that which is or has been filled. So, let’s look at each of the instances where this word is mentioned in Ephesians. Go to Ephesians 1:22-23
22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
In this passage Paul is talking about Jesus being placed over the church. As the church, we have the potential to take part in and benefit from all that Jesus is, all that he has accomplished and all that he possesses. As we do this we continue His ministry and mission in the world.
The second time the word fullness is mentioned is in Ephesians 3:16-21
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
This passage is a prayer from Paul for the church at Ephesus. Paul is praying for the church to reach its fullness in Christ.
And the third time that the word fullness is mentioned is in Ephesians 4:11-16
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
In this passage, Paul is explaining to us that the church is on a journey toward spiritual maturity “until” it reaches its full potential of “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” in life, ministry, and mission.
God wants the church to reach it’s full potential. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is a perfect image of the church reaching its potential. He gives us a formula that we should use to become all the church is supposed to become in Christ.
Jesus was placed over the church. The church, us, is the bride of Christ. Christ loves His bride and He wants to take care of His bride. He has entrusting the bride to us to help to build it well.
And the question becomes do we fully understand just how much Jesus loves His church. Jesus loves the church so much that He was willing to go to the cross and die for His church. Ephesians 3:18
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
The width of Christ’s love is the world. John 3:16
16 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.
The length of Christ’s love is forever.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
The Depth of Christ’s love goes all the way to the cross.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
The Height of Christ’s love goes all the way to Heaven.
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Jesus loves the church, which is us, so much and He goes to great lengths to make sure that we have everything at our hands to be the church that He has called us to be.
And that is the culmination of what Ephesians 4:11-16
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
So, we have a business meeting each year to talk about our plans for that year. And we work within the parameters of what God gives us to become the church that God is calling us to become. This is why we do everything that we do to become what God wants us to become.
Let’s Pray