Complete in all the Fullness of God

Ephesians 3:14-19. pg. 977

Introduction

Love is woefully misunderstood today.

The steadfast love of Psalm 136 has no place

Both by the secular world, but also by many Christians. Sometimes the way that the pagans view love and the way that soft evangelicals view love are indistinguishable.

Love is always being nice, it means never disagreeing with anyone about their life choices.

Love is this feeling you get that makes you really happy. And that feeling supersedes any responsibility, duty, truth, or law.

Love is love. And anything that disparages what I call love is hate.

This modern notion of love is obviously wrong, but one of the most lamentable things about this prevalent view is that it causes many Christians to overreact against it.

We can be tempted to think that love really is not that important. After all, its just a feeling.

And in an attempt to avoid sentimentality we disregard love as nothing more than a nice add on to the Christian life.

Truth is what is really important. Obedience is what we should really be interested in.

Leave that sentimental love garbage to the bleeding heart liberals.

But this is a worse error than the first, because love is primary and love is central to the Christian religion and the Christian life.

In fact, if we do not see love as supreme, we will fall into a dead, lifeless, legalistic, soul-destroying perversion of Christianity and we will not have the power or strength to live the way we are called to live or endure the trials we are sure to face.

The apostle Paul makes this all abundantly clear in our text this morning.

Text: Ephesians 3:14-19.

Thesis: The immense love of Christ strengthens us and makes us like Him.

We are Strengthened by Christ’s love to comprehend Christ’s love to be completed by Christ’s love

Strengthened

Enlightened

Completed

Context

We are jumping right into the middle of one of Paul’s letters. So we need to understand a little bit of the context of what is going on here

He kneels before the Father. No mention of prayer is made, yet it is clearly implied.

For This Reason

For what reason is he praying?

For 3 reasons

1. The manifold wisdom of God and The Mystery of Christ is now revealed in this generation by the Spirit (vv. 4-6)

That is, God is saving sinners and bringing Jew and Gentile together in His Son Jesus Christ

2. Because Paul himself is a minister of that gospel truth. It is his responsibility to proclaim that gospel and to pray that it would take root (vv. 7-10)

3. Paul desires that the Ephesians be strengthened and not lose heart at his own sufferings on their behalf. (v. 13)

Father from whom all beings are named

So He prays to the Father for their strength

It is interesting that Paul names God as the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (v. 15)

What does this mean?

Is he advocating for the universal fatherhood of God?

No. I think perhaps a better word for family here would be fatherhood.

You will even see this alternate translation in the footnote of your Bible if you are reading from the ESV

“I bow my knees,” says Paul, “to the Father after whom all fatherhood takes its name.” That is to say, every species of fatherhood in the universe is derived from the original, archetypal fatherhood of God: his is the only underived fatherhood. -F.F. Bruce

That is, God is the Father, and every other father in all of creation is merely a reflection of the fatherhood of God

Paul is recognizing God in His greatness as the Father after whom all fatherness is patterned

Strengthened

Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians first that they may be strengthened

Ephesians 3:16 “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,”

The assumption here is that they needed strength for some reason or another

And of course we know that all Christians need strength

Strength to endure trials, strength to mortify sin, strength to resist temptation, strength to believe when doubt seems the only option

Paul asks for what every believer is in desperate need of. Strength

With Power

But it’s clear that he’s not simply praying that they would have strength to resist because he asks that they would be strengthened with power

Power implies a moving, not stationary status.

It implies an active strength, not merely a passive strength

Power implies accomplishment, moving forward, pushing against, not simply standing firm

In other words, Paul is praying that the Ephesians would have the strength to do what God has called them to do with power

In the Inner Being

It’s not a superhero power, like Spiderman or Thanos

It’s not an external power or strength at all because Paul asks that it would be granted to them in the inner being

Literally the inner man.

The soul

That corporeal and immaterial part of us that will never die. The most important part of who we are.

It is a prayer that Christians would be fortified from the inside out

This is a power that is available to every Christian

As your body continues to decay, your spirit is being renewed with power

The Christian’s spirit continues to march forward in spite of every adversity and every snare of the devil, always growing in holiness and faith and joy, despite setbacks

By the Holy Spirit

How does it happen? By the Spirit of God Himself dwelling in us

God is the source of our power, we are not.

The Spirit grants us strength, we do not have it on our own

In Accordance with His Glory

Paul asks for a specific measure of strength.

According to the riches of God’s glory

Strength from Glory

The strength and power dispensed to the Christian is commensurate with God’s glory

The same glory that Moses saw on the mountain which made Him so radiant that he was terrifying for the nation of Israel to behold

The same glory that the three disciples saw on the mount of transfiguration which caused them to fall on their faces, terrified

The same blinding glory that Paul saw on the road to Damascus which empowered him to suffer greatly for the sake of Christ

The same infinite glory which Paul calls inaccessible light in 1 Tim. 6

No Excuses

We’re so good at making excuses for ourselves. I can’t overcome this sin or that sin because of this valid reason or that valid reason

In Romans 8:11 Paul tells us that “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you

Here in Ephesians we learn that He grants us power according to the immense riches of God’s glory

And you’re gonna sit there and claim that you can’t overcome your sin?

It’s not that you can’t, you have all the strength you need

It’s that you won’t

You’re not a bitter complaining Christian because that’s just your personality

You’re a bitter complaining Christian because you want to be and because you love your sin

You’re not addicted to pornography because it’s just too hard a habit to break

You have yet to take hold of the grace and power that is yours by the spirit

Do You Need Strength?

Do you need strength to stand in this evil day? Do you need endurance to hold on in trial?

Do you need power to continue to push forward into godliness?

Are you struggling to hold on in faith in the midst of great trial?

Strength and power are yours in abundance.

Rooted and Grounded in Love

Similar to praying for strength, Paul prays, in v. 18, that the Ephesians would be rooted and grounded in love

Grounded

The word Grounded comes from the same word for foundation

Paul is presenting the picture of a strong and stable building

This is the picture of a Christian who takes hold of the strength provided by the Spirit

Rooted

Rooted like a tree

Firmly rooted, made steadfast

With your roots growing out wide to take in all the nutrients you can

Growing deep to provide you with stability and strength

With your tap root penetrating far beneath the surface to provide water even in times of draught

Love

But Christians are rooted and grounded in something, and this is the vital point.

Rooted and grounded in love.

This isn’t just some amorphous ideal of love. Love as love.

We will see from the context, this is the love of Christ.

The Love of Christ is the source of our nourishment and the cause of our growth

The Love of Christ is the bedrock upon which our foundation has been laid. It grants us stability and integrity

Christ’s love provides the Christian with the nourishment and stability we need to weather storms and to grow

That is, Christ’s love is the source of our strength

He Proved His love

We don’t need to wonder if Christ truly loves us. He proved His love

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

The life and death, the sufferings of Christ are the proof.

In love, God the Son condescended to us by enduring the humiliation of becoming one of us

In Love, Jesus Christ, God’s Son was unjustly accused, beaten, and crucified

In love, He suffered the very wrath of God so that you and I would not

This is true love. This is the deepest love

Hurricanes

Living in FL we understand the importance of a sure foundation and strong buildings

I used to think that concrete houses were really ugly and unnecessary

We know it’s important for a tree to have a healthy root system, so that it can withstand the 140 mph winds that it is likely to have to endure

We, like a firmly rooted tree and a surely grounded building must be so established in love that we cannot be shaken

We ourselves go through hurricanes in our lives, sometimes quite literally.

Next week it will be 2 years since we went through the devastation of hurricane Ian and some of you are still not back into your homes.

Sometimes the hurricanes are figurative and they come in the form of cancer or bankruptcy or divorce or abuse or death

In those times of immense trial, we will either grow further into godliness or we will be embittered and broken and lose faith

But strength is there for those who are loved by God, a strength more powerful than any hurricane

Because Christ Dwells in You

We are rooted and we are grounded in love, and we have power and strength because Christ dwells in us (v. 17)

The Word Dwell carries with it the sense of settling in or colonizing in a permanent way

It is a progressive action which has a beginning and increases over time.

Christ has taken up residence in you and is colonizing you.

The more He does so, the more strength you will have in the inner being.

Do you know this love?

Have you grasped it?

If not, you can.

It is available to all who would turn to God in fear and love and faith

If you do not turn to God you will never know this love, but you will know the wrath, displeasure and terror of an angry God

Asking Jesus into your Heart

It has been popular, among evangelicals, for the past century, to talk about asking Jesus into your heart.

How are you saved? You pray a pray to ask Jesus to come into your heart.

This is not a biblical teaching.

Certainly, we see in this text that Jesus does dwell in our hearts.

But it is not because we prayed a special prayer and we asked him or invited Him into our hearts.

The text is quite clear that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, not by permission.

That is, when God allows you to trust in His Son for forgiveness and salvation, at that moment, Christ begins to dwell in your heart.

I don’t mean to imply that if you’ve prayed a prayer to ask Jesus into your heart that you are not saved

Simply that this is not a particularly accurate way to think about how God has saved you

It can be misleading and damaging.

It implies that we are the ones who take the initiative in our own salvation.

As if Jesus really wants to save us, He really wants to dwell in us, but He is unable because we haven’t invited him in.

Christ grants us faith, enables us to trust in Him, then He, by His Spirit, dwells in us by faith, thus strengthening rooting and establishing us

Enlightened

Paul prays that the Ephesian believers would be strengthened, rooted, and established in the love of Christ

And then he prays that they would be enlightened by the love of Christ

V. 18. “May you have strength to comprehend”

Some things are hard to comprehend

Some things take a lot of hard mental work to understand.

My students are currently studying the philosophy of Parmenides at the Fletcher School

By the look of their faces at the end of each class, it looks like their brains just ran a marathon

Intellectual strength is required to comprehend the deepest things

So Paul prays that the Ephesians would have the strength to comprehend

When was the last time you exerted effort to understand something?

Most people assume that if they have a hard time comprehending a deep esoteric concept then it must not be important

That is the height of arrogance

God requires us to think hard thoughts

What did we think He meant when He commanded us to love Him with all of our minds?

We are to contemplate the deep things of God.

Push your intellect past what it is currently capable of

It will pay dividends

Pray that the Lord would strengthen you to contemplate and speculate and meditate beyond what is mentally comfortable

So that you will know him more deeply

The Love of Christ

What is it that the Ephesian Christians are to comprehend?

It is that source of strength, that object into which and around which the roots of our souls are to grow

V. 19 The Love of Christ

Christian, Jesus loves you

Before the creation of the World, He knew you and He loved you

And though you made yourself unloveable and unworthy and wretched, like Hosea’s prostitute of a wife, Gomer

He cleansed you and redeemed you from all of your guilt

He made you the worthy object of His love

The Love of God for us is, in the Bible, described as that of a Father for a son and that of a husband for his bride

It is the kind of love that gives and sacrifices and leads and disciplines and delights in the beloved

Because of His love for you, God grants you gifts commensurate with His glory

God the Son sacrifices of Himself for your welfare

He, like a husband, father, king leads you through the valley of the shadow of death and beside still waters, directing you when you don’t know which way to go

Like a good Father, he disciplines you for your growth in happiness and holiness

Christian, you are loved by Christ.

He delights in you.

And there is no end to His delight in you

Not because of your great worth, but because of His great work

He has made you lovely

Breadth, Length, Height, Depth

So Paul prays that the Ephesians would be able to comprehend this love in all of its breadth, length, height and depth.

Paul is using the Analogy of Spacial Dimensions to communicate the love of Christ

The one who comprehends the love of Christ sees it wherever he looks and wherever he goes

The implication is that the love of Christ is magnificent in its dimensions

Half-Dome in Yosemite

You see pictures and are impressed. But when you get there, see it in the distance, drive to its base, hike to surrounding mountains and cliffs to see it from new angles

You are not able to see the height and the depth and the length and the breadth, but the magnitude is hard to take in

This is what the magnitude of the love of Christ is

When you first think about it, it seems impressive

But when you are given supernatural ability by the Spirit of Christ to contemplate and comprehend it, it is staggering

Always comprehending more, never able to take it all in

This is the love of Christ

“The love of Christ is held out to us as the subject which ought to occupy our daily and nightly meditations, and in which we ought to be wholly plunged. He who is in possession of this alone has enough.” -John Calvin

Surpassing Knowledge

Paul says this love surpasses knowledge in v. 19

In the Greek it literally says, “to know that which goes beyond knowledge.”

Somehow, the Christian is able to know that which is unknowable

He uses similar language in Phil.

Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Peace and love beyond our frail human comprehension is available to us in Christ

The Love of Christ is infinite

The reason that it is beyond our comprehension is that it is infinite

To be infinite is to be without limit or boundary.

It is to be in every sense and not not be in any sense.

The Person of the Son is infinite, without limit or boundary.

All things concerning Him are without limit, including His love

This is what makes it surpassing all knowledge.

The love of Christ for you will never end because it never began. It has simply always been

It is as eternal as the God who loves you

With all the saints

Paul inserts this curious phrase here in v. 18

“with all the saints.”

Comprehending the love of Christ is a corporate affair

As Christianity is a corporate religion

Corporate Worship

It is at times like this, when the people of God gather together for worship that we are best able to comprehend that infinite love which has been bestowed on us

It is when we are gathered together that we become the temple of the living God

It is when we are together that we partake of the ordinary means of grace, which are constant reminders to us of Christ’s love

The love of Christ is preached

We sing of His love

We confess His love

We thank Him for His love

We partake of the Lord’s Supper, the proclamation of Christ’s death, the surety of God’s love

Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together.

In so doing, you rob yourself of your best opportunity of comprehending the Love of Christ

Completed

Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be strengthened and that they would comprehend the Love of Christ for the purpose that they would be complete in the fullness of God

Or as the ESV says, full of the fullness of God

Strengthened, Established, Enlightened to be complete

Full in all the Fullness of God

What does he mean that we would be filled with the fullness of God?

In Col. Paul tells us that Christ is the fullness of God

Colossians 1:19 “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,”

What he is praying for here is that Christ would so dwell in the hearts of the Ephesians that they would become like Him

And so we see the logic of Paul’s prayer.

He asks that the the Father would strengthen the Ephesians in the love of Christ by the power of the Spirit so that Christ would take up residence in them.

With Christ dwelling in them by the Spirit they will have the strength to comprehend ever more deeply the immensity of the love of Christ for them

And as they comprehend the love of Christ, Christ will continue to colonize their hearts, as it were, until they are so filled with Him that they are transformed to be like Him

The Love of Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of our redemption

It is by His love that we are strengthened, and by that strength we are able to appreciate that love better, as we grasp that love we are transformed and changed to be like the one who has loved us so well.

The great hope of the Christian is that one day we will see Christ in all of His glory.

And in so seeing Him we will be satisfied

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Beatific Vision

In Love God has created us, in Love He has Redeemed us, in Love He will glorify us and we will be satisfied as we dwell in that love forever

Because God is Love

This is glory, this is the true life that Christ has promised.

Do you want a taste of that life now in the present?

Contemplate the love of Christ, meditate on it, take hold of it.

The word for ‘comprehend’ in v. 18 could perhaps more literally be translated ‘grasp’

Grasp the love of Christ. Seek to grasp more of it everyday through the ordinary means of grace

In so doing, God will change you, He will strengthen you, He will fill you with Himself so that you will be like Him.

You will be complete in the fullness of God