God's Love for Us
Notes
Transcript
ME
Brothers and sisters and friends, we made it! It’s 2021! Unfortunately we made it into a stay at home order, a U.S. capitol hill riot, and a Pfizer vaccine delay. For a split second even I bought into the thinking 2021 is flipping a page from 2020 of COVID and lockdowns to joy, hope, and prosperity. Okay, I never truly believed that was going to happen, but it seems there’s more drama in January already than all the netflix, Apple + and K-drama and J-drama combined!
WE
I really appreciated Pastor Edward Ho and brother Tim Vang, our senior pastor and youth director for starting off the year with two important messages on moving away from a pastor-centered ministry to an all hands on deck, build one another up ministry, followed by exhorting us to build the church as it is our devotion, our calling, and our discipleship.
So as I was thinking about what to share for the first message of 2021, with all the looming drama and motivation from our previous weeks on being the church, I’d thought I would take a detour, though it’s not so much a detour as it is actually a raison d’etre, the reason for the how and the why. I want to even take a step further to move away from the how and just focus on not the why but the who. Lord knows I need to focus on the who, and ask myself this question:
God, do you love me?
God do you love us?
You see, I believe if we don’t get that sorted out, we will not be able to have the right why and the right how. So I just want to unpack this truth for the remaining time we have.
GOD
At first I went to search for passages on God’s love and landed on Mark 12:28-34, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, right… but I realize it’s about our love for God. But it’s difficult, at least to me, to love God if I don’t first know God loves me. Eventually I was torn between 1 John 4:7-11 and today’s passage. 1 John 4 is as simple as it gets: God is love. But John is hard to exegete sometimes because he gets repetitive. So then there’s today’s passage, Ephesians 3:14-21.
I paused and chuckled, because I haven’t preached this passage for so long. Yes, I have preached it once, before I became a pastor at my old church in a fellowship retreat, and I manage to preach it for 1 and a half hours. So it’s a bit of a steep hill to try to tackle it all in 23 minutes, but this I shall try. A bit about Ephesians.
Ephesians is a letter most likely circulated around Asia Minor, including Ephesus of course, sent by Paul to the Gentiles, specifically Roman new believers around 62 A.D. (I am taking the position it was written during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome which we know briefly about from Acts 28) Unlike other letters with very targeted issues as we see in other letters, Paul writes this letter in broad strokes to remind his readers of their inclusion into the people of God through the saving grace of the birth, death, and resurrection and acension of our Lord Jesus Christ to become God’s children in all areas of life, identity formation, marriage, who they are and whose they are.
And if I were to give one thought for us to hold on to it is this:
God loves us through his abiding power and his unlimited love in Jesus through the Spirit.
So if you have a bible turn or scroll to Epheisans 3:14-21.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
I love how Paul postures himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles, in prayer. In fact, Ephesians is one of those letters where Paul interrupts his prayer in 1:17-19, expounds some truths, is about to pray again, and expounds on some more truth. Paul begins in chapter 3, verse 1 like this:
1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
and when you see that em dash, you can see that Paul goes on a tangent on how he is a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles and goes on for 10 verses explaining what that means. So the “for this reason” in verse 12 refers to the reason in verse 1, which means it’s in the end of chapter 2 which we find the reason. Confusing enough? Blame Paul!
And the reason is Gentiles are a part of the people of God through the work of Christ on the cross, ending the hostility and division from the Jewish believers, bringing peace to relationship with God and with others. That’s the reason Paul is praying, and on his knees, a sign of humility and submission to “the Father,” which is not just a name or title but a person who gave us life through creating us and therefore has authority over our life, and loves us, that Father, whom Jesus knows intimately, is the One who every family, in heaven and on earth derives from; every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every people group, this is Jesus’ father, but also Paul’s father, and our father. Especially knowing God is Father and source of all heavenly beings reassures me even if there are demonic forces (for if there are heavenly angels and archangels, there sure will be demons and fallen beings) at work in this pandemic, in all the chaos and confusion, hatred and violence in our world, God remains creator and author over them. It doesn’t explain why there’s a pandemic, but it gives us peace of mind God will always be the last word.
So how does God love us?
I. God loves us by giving us strength through his indwelling Spirit (16-17)
I. God loves us by giving us strength through his indwelling Spirit (16-17)
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, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
I don’t know about you, but whenever I read these passages, there’s a feeling of immensity, weightiness, richness and fullness in the words chosen by Paul inspired by the Spirit. That God the Father who names all the families in heaven and on earth would supply us from his limitless resources [just think of all that God has created, that points to him as a powerful creator, count all the stars, look to the furthest horizon, gaze down from the top of the mountain, watch a rushing down of penguins from a snowy slope (except for the first one, they are actually all background images from my laptop)] but when you experience it yourself in person (when lockdown is over)... and then to look at us human beings, how every part of us is intricately connected, how every limb, every joint, every organ, every cell, every strand of hair, all from the riches of his glory, giving us life, and breath, and existence, and yet he still pours out more of that riches now in order for us to be strengthened with power etc. etc… this creative, all-encompassing and sustaining power, though I find this so hard to explain, because there doesn’t seem to be an object, or reason for strengthening us so richly. But we come back to “for this reason” to give us the reason, and can alongside of other passages figure out what is this strengthening power for.
Contextually, this strengthening power is for living into the reality of their new identity as God’s people, to refrain from sin, to no longer live as they did when they were idol worshippers, fighting over power, greed, tempted over lust to find their next temple prostitute. God saw that debased life they had lived and not only did he not destroy them but gave them salvation through Paul’s mission to know the true God who loves them and forgives them through Jesus Christ’ unconditonal love and acceptance.
Everytime I think about who I was before I met Jesus, or how often from time to time I still stumble in my faith, and God’s response is love, fatherly love that doesn’t excuse the sin but neither does he condemn but patiently pulls us out, even though I thought I can live life even as a Christian on my own, he patiently waits for me to realize I need my heavenly Father and there’s nothing to boast about, I am once again reminded of his love for me, sinful, lost and scared me. He created me, and you, and gave you and I purpose, breath, life, family, friends, a place called home, food on the table, I realize the riches of his glory isn’t in the extravagant, though he can give extravagance (he created everything), but the simple abundance we enjoy, highlighted by these lockdowns, stripping away the excess to simple pleasures of life. Our posture of thankfulness and gratefulness is our only response and brings him worship and glory, because everything we are, everything we have, is because of his benevolence, and not because of our futile striving.
And He gave us his Spirit, the indwelling Christ, to live in fallible, corruptible human temples like us, made holy because of the sacifice of Jesus washing these temples with blood, to be our guide in confusion, our comforter in sorrow, our hope in despair, forming our character to be more and more like him. I think of David’s cry:
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
(pause)
Verse 17 again:
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
(show slide)
You can see a parallel of your inner being with your hearts, Christ parallels with his Spirit, but then we see through faith, that is trust is the only thing needed. Not how much you’ve done for the church, or ministries you are involved in, not how many people you shared the gospel with, though all those things are great, it is through faith, a simple trust in God, a yes to his gift of salvation with no strings attached (afterall, what can we give him that he doesn’t already possess), and he now lives in us, the precious, incomparable gift of his forever with-us.
It’s here Paul than uses two images, one from agriculture and one from construction. Rooted and grounded in love. And he ties these images to our second point:
II. God loves us by giving us spiritual experience of Christ’s love
II. God loves us by giving us spiritual experience of Christ’s love
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If God were to describe his love for us, rooted and grounded would be great images. Lately, Shannon and I are trying at our house to regrow green onion, something my dad told us you can do. Apparently if you cut the end tip of it and put it in a glass of water, you can get a second plant of green onion. So we got all excited like little kids a few days after when sure enough little white tiny strands of roots started to extend outwards, and as a result the green onion sprouted higher. How much more when we ever look at a tree, we already admire its beauty and flourishing above the soil, but all that is only possible because of an intricate interwoven system of roots that seeps into the ground to obtain nutrients and supports other roots, this is the image of a people loved by God, his love for us makes the tree sturdy, safe, and secure.
We love to see things we put effort in grow, how much more does the Father enjoys seeing our love grow because he loves us first.
Now we get our exercise by taking walks near our condo on parkway forest road, we would see this before our eyes, from just a flat construction sites to raising up beams with large cranes, then concrete poured and walls erected, windows fixed, and the shape of the structure emerges. But the key are deep pillars of metal planted to hold the structure down.Now if it’s done right, such a structure is unshakable, again not because what’s above it, but what’s underneath, a firm foundation, able to withstand wind and rain and Canadians snowy weather. How much more is our grounding in God’s love assured because it’s our heavenly Father who builds and our Lord Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone!
But here lies the mystery in verse 18, what does Paul mean needing strength to comprehend with all the saints (that is the church, the gathering of believers)? Isn’t it obvious God’s love for us is immense? Well, that may be because we have been Christians for a long time. We don’t remember anymore when God’s love for us feels opaque, far, uncertain or we don’t even know there’s a God who loves us, or if we do, we don’t want anything to do with him! And for some of us God’s love, even as we are the church, the saints, the obedient followers of Jesus, we have grown cold and walked away from his love, we need to be reminded from time to time to pause long enough and ask him to show us more of his love. I love how Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 18:
Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!
It also reminds me about Paul’s description of God’s love in Romans 8
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s deep and searching love covers us in every facet of life, every major decision, every trial. There’s nothing it can’t penetrate, nothing can separate us from Him! He promises his presence (the indwelling Spirit) when we are on the edge of despair and giving up, and this pandemic has proven to be a mighty force of oppression, sucking the life out of every conversation, every encounter, every news cycle, but God’s love is far greater. That’s what Paul is asking for all of us, and we should be asking for each other, so that we would be filled, continuously filled with the fulness of God to maturity.
YOU
What’s the only response we can have?
God is love. God loves you, collectively each and every one of us, his church, his bride, his temple. Our only response is to receive His love without a shadow of doubt. He is for us, and not against us. He will never stop loving us. We are his beloved children. Embrace that identity. Experience his love, again.
WE
What a powerful picture of God’s love as Father, creator of all, including you and me, demonstrates his love for us uttermost by sending His son Jesus to redeem us from a life and trajectory of sin through his sacrifice and death upon the Roman cross, and sending the indwelling Spirit to empower one experience after another of his loving immeasurable and limitless presence as we gather as brothers and sisters, as a community, loving and praying for one another.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Then, and only then, are we to be instruments of his work, a work that does not rely on our ability, beyond our ability, but by his power working within us, a work not limited by our constraints, but out of the riches of his glory, so that many people would be blessed and the Father, Son, and Spirit would be glorified and made known to be the reason why MCBC exists, to love and serve one another and the community, to the ends of the world together!
Amen!
