Getting Rich!

Introduction

Ephesians 3:14–21 KJV 1900

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

This passage is the second of two prayers recorded in the book of Ephesians, the first one being found in Ephesians 1:15-23.

In the first prayer, the emphasis is on enlightenment; but in this prayer, the emphasis in on enablement.

It is not so much a matter of knowing as being—laying our hands on what God has for us and by faith making it a vital part of our lives.

Paul is saying, “I want you to get your hands on these riches, realize how vast it is, and start to use it.”

It is worth noting that both of these prayers, as well as the other prison prayers, deal with the spiritual condition of the inner man, and not the material needs of the body.

Certainly it is not wrong to pray for physical and material needs, but the emphasis in these petitions is on the spiritual.

Paul knew that if the inner man is what he ought to be, the outer man will be taken care of in due time.

Too many of our prayers focus only on physical and material needs and fail to lay hold of the deeper inner needs of the heart.

It would do us good to use these prison prayers as our own, and ask God to help us in our inner person.

That is where the greatest needs are.

Sermon

I. THE INVOCATION

Ephesians 3:14–15 KJV 1900

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

The first thing that strikes us is Paul’s posture: “I bow my knees.”

This must have been quite an experience for the Roman soldier chained to Paul.

The Bible nowhere commands any special posture for prayer.

Abraham stood before the Lord when he prayed for Sodom.

Solomon stood when he prayed to dedicate the temple.

David “sat before the Lord” when he prayed about the future of his kingdom.

And Jesus “fell on His face” when He prayed in Gethsemane.

You have noticed, no doubt, the emphasis on spiritual posture in Ephesians.

As lost sinners, we were buried in the graveyard.

But when we trusted Christ, He raised us from the dead and seated us with Christ in the heavenlies.

Because we are seated with Christ, we can walk so as to please Him; and we can stand against the devil.

But the posture that links “sitting” and “walking” and “standing” is “bowing the knee.”

It is through prayer that we lay hold of God’s riches that enable us to behave like Christians and battle like Christians.

Whether we actually bow our knees is not the important thing; that we bow our hearts and will to the Lord and ask Him for what we need is the vital matter.

Paul’s prayer was addresses to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the Bible, prayer is addressed to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit.

This is the usual pattern, though you do find petitions addressed to the Son, and possibly the Spirit.

In Ephesians 1:3, Paul calls the Father “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He was the “God…of our Lord Jesus Christ” when Jesus was here on earth, for as man, Jesus lived in total dependence on God.

This title reminds us of Christ’s humanity.

But God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” because Jesus Christ is eternal God; so this title reminds us of His deity.

There is a sense, however, in which all men in general, and Christians in particular, share in the fatherhood of God.

Paul states that “the whole family in heaven and earth is named” after the divine Father.

That word family can be translated “fatherhood.”

Every fatherhood in heaven and on earth gets its origin and name from the Father.

He is the great Original; every other fatherhood is but a copy.

Adam is called “the son of God,” referring to his creation.

Believers are the “sons of God” by rebirth.

All men are not children of God by nature.

Instead they are children of disobedience and children of wrath.

As Creator, God is the Father of each man; but as Savior, He is only the Father of those who believe.

There is no such thing in Scripture as the universal fatherhood of God that saves all man.

John 3:7 KJV 1900

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

II. THE PETITION

Ephesians 3:16–19 KJV 1900

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

There are four requests in Paul’s prayer, but they must not be looked on as isolated, individual petitions.

These four requests are more like four parts of a telescope.

One requests leads into the next one, and so on.

He prays that the inner man might have spiritual strength, which will, in turn, lead to a deeper experience with Christ.

This deeper experience will enable them to “apprehend” God’s great love, which will result in their being “filled unto all the fullness of God.”

So, then, Paul is praying for strength, depth, apprehension, and fullness.

Strength (v. 16)

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the life of evidence of salvation; but the power of the Spirit is enablement for Christian living, and it is the power that Paul desires for his readers.

Acts 1:8 KJV 1900

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Jesus performed His ministry on earth in the power of the Spirit, and this is the only resource we have for Christian living today.

As you read the book of Acts, you see the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, for there are some fifty-nine reference to the Spirit in the book, or one-fourth of the total references found in the New Testament.

Someone has said, “If God took the Holy Spirit out of this world, most of what we Christians are doing would go right on—and nobody would know the difference!”

Sad, but true.

The power of the Spirit is given to us “according to the riches of His glory.”

Christ returned to glory and sent the Spirit from heaven to indwell and empower His people.

It is not necessary for us to “work something up.”

The power has to be sent down.

How marvelous that God does not give the Spirit’s power to us “out of His riches” but “according to”—which is a far greater thing.

If I am a billionaire and I give you ten dollars, I have given you out of my riches; but if I give you a million dollars, I have given you according to my riches.

The first is a portion; the second is a proportion.

This power is available for “the inner man.”

This means the spiritual part of man where God dwells and works.

The inner man of the lost sinner is dead, but it becomes alive when Christ is invited in.

The inner man can see, hear, taste, and feel; and he must be “exercised.”

He also must be cleansed and fed.

The outer man is perishing, but the inner man can be renewed spiritually in spite of outward physical deca.

It is this inner power that makes him succeed.

What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit empower the inner man?

It means that our spiritual faculties are controlled by God, and we are exercising them and growing in the Word.

It is only when we yield to the Spirit and let Him control the inner man that we succeed in living to the glory of God.

This means feeding the inner man the Word of God, praying and worshipping, keeping clean, and exercising the senses by loving obedience.

Depth (v. 17)

Paul uses three pictures here to convey this idea of spiritual depth, and the three pictures are hidden in the three verbs: “dwell,” “rooted,” and “grounded.”

The verb dwell literally means “to settle down and feel at home.”

Certainly Christ was already in the hearts of the Ephesians, or else Paul would not have addressed them as “saints” in Ephesians 1:1.

What Paul is praying for is a deeper experience between Christ and His people.

He yearns for Christ to settle down and feel at home in their hearts—not a surface relationship, but an ever-deepening fellowship.

Abraham’s life is an illustration of this truth.

God was going to bless Abraham with a son, so the Lord Himself came down and visited Abraham’s tent, and He brought two angels with Him.

They came o the tent, they talked with Abraham, and they even ate a meal with him.

They felt very much at home, because Abraham was a man of faith and obedience.

But the three guests had another task.

They had to investigate the sins of Sodom because God planned to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot, a believer, was living in Sodom, and God wanted to warm him to get out before the judgment could fall.

But the Lord Himself did not go to Sodom.

He sent the two angels.

The Lord did not feel at home in Lot’s house the way He felt at home in Abraham’s tent.

The verb rooted moves us into the plant world.

The tree must get its roots deep into the soil if it is to have both nourishment and stability, and the Christian must have his spiritual roots deep into the love of God.

Psalm 1:1-3 is a perfect description of this word, and Jeremiah 17:5-8 is a good commentary on it.

One of the most important questions a Christian can ask himself is, “From what do I draw my nourishment and my stability?”

If there is to be power in the Christian life, then there must be depth.

The roots must go deeper and deeper into the love of Christ.

Grounded is an architectural term; it refers to the foundations on which we build.

There is a story that a pastor tells about his first two churches that he pastored.

He was blessed to construct new buildings in each church.

He said that it seemed that neither project seemed to get out of the ground.

He mentioned that in the second one, they had to spend several thousands of dollars testing the soil because they were building the church over an old lake bed.

For weeks, they men of the church were laying out and pouring the footers for the new building.

One day he complained to the architect about how long it was taking, and the architect replied, “Pastor, the most important part of this building is the foundation. If you don’t go deep, you can’t go high.”

That is a sermon in one sentence.

The trials of life test the depth of our experience.

If two roommates in college have a falling out, they may seek new roommates, for after all, living with a roommate is a passing experience.

But if a husband and wife, who love each other, have a disagreement, the trial only deepens their love as they seek to solve their differences.

The storm that blows reveals the strength of the roots.

Jesus told the story about the two builders, one of whom did not go deep enough for his foundation.

Paul prayed that the believers might have a deeper experience with Christ, because only a deep experience could sustain them during the severe trials of life.

Apprehension (vs. 18-19)

The English words comprehend and apprehend both stem from the Latin word prehendere which means “to grasp.”

We say that a monkey has a “prehensile tail.”

That is, its tail is able to grasp a tree limb and hold on.

Our word comprehend carries the idea of mentally grasping something; while apprehend suggests laying hold of it for yourself.

In other words, it is possible to understand something but not really make it your own.

Paul’s concern was that we lay hold of the vast expanses of the love of God.

He wanted us to live in four dimensions.

When God gave the land to Abraham, He told him to “walk through the land in the length of it and the breadth of it.”

Abraham had to step out by faith and claim his inheritance.

But we today have an inheritance in four dimensions:

Breadth

Length

Depth

Height

God’s fourth dimension is love!

But there is a paradox here.

Paul wanted us to know personally the love of Christ “which passeth knowledge.”

There are dimensions, but they cannot be measured.

Ephesians 3:8 KJV 1900

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

We are so rich in Christ that our riches cannot be calculated even with the most sophisticated computer.