Ephesians 3:14-21 Rooted and Grounded in Love

Review

Chapter 1:

Choosing: The Plan of the Father Ephesians 1:4-6 The Eternal Plan

Redeeming: The Work of the Son Ephesians 1:7-10 The Present Grace

Blessing: Ephesians 1:11-12 The Future Hope

Sealing: Ephesians 1:13-14 The Current Proof

Note the attitude behind all that God has done for us!

-Chosen “in love”

-Adopted into His family according to the “kind intention of his will

-Grace Lavished on us Abundently

Paul’s expressed his desire, that his prayer to God for them, was that God would give them a deeper knowledge of Himself so that they would have a greater appreciation of their Salvation, that they would understand the hope of God’s calling them, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and the surpassing greatness of His power toward them as believers.

Chapter 2

He began chapter 2 by pointing to the Work of God the Father in Salvation. They, Jew and Gentile alike, were dead in their sins and God made them alive together with Christ. They were not only resurrected but also exalted. God made them His workmanship, created them in Christ Jesus for Good works. The purpose was still the same, they were to bring glory to God as He displayed His Grace in kindness towards them in Christ Jesus.

Unity of Salvation

Same Need of Salvation - dead in trespasses and sins

Same Way of Salvation - made alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

Same Goal of Salvation - put the grace of God on display; created for good works, which God prepared beforehand

Ephesians 2:11-22

Emphasis shifts from the work of the Father to the Work of the Son, from what God did Spiritually to what Christ did physically to obtain the spiritual blessings

The Work of Christ: Unity - brought about a reconciliation with God and a reconciliation between bitter enemies, Jews and Gentiles.

The Past Separation vs 11-12,

The Reconciliation in Christ vs 13-18

The Holy Temple: The Church in verses 19-22.

Chapter 3

Paul began chapter three desiring to pray for them but took a detour to explain his Imprisonment on their behalf.

Paul’s Stewardship and the Mystery of Christ:

Mystery: Unity of Jew and Gentile in the Church

Revealed to Paul and the Holy Apostles and Prophets

Proclaimed to the Gentiles

Purpose: Put the Manifold wisdom of God on Display before the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly Places

Introduction

Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3. We will be covering verses 14-21 where Paul will finally express the prayer for the Ephesians that he began in Ephesians 3:1. As Paul expresses this prayer it causes him to reflect on the great power and love of God which leads him to doxology, to praise God. And that is the way that he will end this chapter.

Paul’s Attitude of Prayer in verses 14-15.

Content of his Prayer in verses 16-19

The Doxology (Praise of God) in verses 20-21

Ephesians 3:14–21 NASB95

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Return from the Detour: For this Reason

In our text this morning, Paul repeats the words “For this reason” which he had already stated in Ephesians 3:1. He had begun to express his concern for them but as he mentioned the fact that he was a prisoner on their account, he apparently felt the need to make it clear that his imprisonment was part of the purpose and plan of God; his imprisonment was for God’s glory and their good.

Having established that the mystery of the unity of Jew and Gentile in the church was revealed according to God’s purpose and timing, Paul now returns to the prayer that he began in Ephesians 3:1. And as Paul expresses this prayer we learn of Paul’s attitude as he approached the Father.

Paul’s Attitude in Prayer vs 14-15

Ephesians 3:14 NASB95

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

What does it mean when Paul’s says, “I bow my knees”

Bend the Knee: To bow the knee means to bend the knee.

Kneel for Prayer: Not that they were to get on their knees in prayer as if being on his knees somehow made the prayer effective.

With Reverance: When Paul says that he bowed the knee before the Father he is expressing his attitude in prayer for them. He approached God with great reverence. Paul did not approach God demanding his own way as if he was entitled to what he was asking for but instead with an attitude of humility and submission.

As a Son: But at the same time that Paul came before God with great reverence he also came as a son. For his prayer was directed to the Father. Paul could approach this great and mighty God because he had been redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Balance in Prayer:

Confidence & Boldness Eph 3:12: We see a balance here that Paul understood. As he had just taught the Ephesians, they could approach God with great confidence and boldness because they had been given access to Him.

Reference and Love: But this was still the all powerful God of the universe. So he must be approached with both reverence and love.

Ephesians 3:15 NASB95

from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

What does it mean that every family derives its name from the Father?

As we consider this verse I must admit that it is somewhat difficult. We have here multiple families, families that are in both heaven and on earth who are from the same father.

Father of all created beings: (No)

Is Paul referring to the universal fatherhood of God over all that He has created? Is God the Father of both unbelievers and believers, fallen angels and holy angels?

It would certainly seem strange in the context of the passage for Paul to make such a statement. What would be the purpose? What comes before and what follows after this passage has to do with the unity of Jew and Gentile in the church. And throughout the letter, when Paul uses the term Father in respect to God, he is speaking of God as the Father of believers.

Father of all believers: (Yes)

Paul is not speaking of God as the Father of all created beings, but as the Father of all believers.

Whole Family:

The King James version expresses the verse as, “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”

According to this reading, it is not every family but the whole family who derives it’s name from the Father.

Every person that has been redeemed by the blood of Christ is a member of the Family of God whether they are still alive here on earth or have already passed from this life to the next.

Every Family:

And even if the reading, “Every Family” is accepted the meaning is not significantly different.

It does not matter if a person is a descendent of Abraham and therefore a Jew or if they are descended from a Gentile, as Christians they now have the same Spiritual Father.

Unity of Jew and Gentile:

Paul is reminding the Ephesians as he begins this prayer that it is in response to the truth of the Unity of Jew and Gentile in the Church. Paul wants the Ephesians to fully grasp this truth and all the implications of it. And so he continues and reveals to them what it is that he asks God on their behalf.

Content of Paul’s Prayer vs 16-19

Ephesians 3:16 NASB95

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

Prayer for Strengthening with Power

Paul desired that God would strengthen the believers to whom he was writing.

How would they be strengthened?

By God

And notice that they would not be strengthened from their own effort. Paul’s prayer was that God (He would grant…) would strengthen them with power.

According to Riches

But not only would it come from God but Paul requested that the power would be according to the riches of His Glory. Paul wanted them to receive great power that would come from the treasure house of God’s very character, His glory. Paul is requesting that God strengthen them substantially.

Through the Spirit

And as we have seen over and over, what God desires to do, he has a way of doing. The way that the strength would be delivered to them was through the His Spirit. Paul wanted God to grant them strength through the Spirit who lived in each of them individually.

In the Inner Man

And we must also understand what this strength was for. It was not that they would be physically healthy or strong but spiritually strengthened. It was strengthening for the “inner man”.

Purpose of the Strengthening with Power

Ephesians 3:17 NASB95

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Who is Paul speaking to in this verse?

Paul’s prayer is for those who are already believers. Christ is already dwelling in them through the Holy Spirit, the very one that would strengthen them.

Today this idea of Christ coming to live in our hearts is usually expressed to those who are not believers. We might tell someone to “ask Jesus to come into their heart”. And yet that is not what Paul is expressing here at all and this is actually the only place that Scripture explicitly speaks of Jesus dwelling in the heart. There are actually much better and more Biblical ways to call a person to salvation than to tell them to ask “Jesus into their heart”. But that is not the subject at hand, so let’s get back to the text and what Paul is actually speaking of here.

So what does Paul mean when he says, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”?

Permanent Residence

The word that Paul uses here that is translated as “dwell” is the Greek word that has to do with someone taking up permanent residence.

There are two Greek words to express this idea of living in a place. One refers to strangers living in a foreign land and the other, the one that Paul uses refers to someone who is taking up residence and making that place their home.

Inhabited and Controlled

Paul’s prayer is that the believers would be strengthened by God through the Spirit so that Christ, through faith, would be at home in the life of the believer. The idea is that they would be inhabited by and controlled by Christ.

Boice states it this way. He says, “The prayer is that Christ might settle down in our hearts and control them as the rightful owner.”

Rooted and Grounded in Love

Rooted: Picture of the roots of a tree going deep into the earth.

Grounded: Solid Foundation on which a building is erected.

Greater Stability: The point of both metaphors is that the more a believer is strengthened by the Spirit, the more Christ is the controlling factor of their life, the greater is their stability.

Tree: For a tree to remain standing, the roots must grow in proportion to the tree. The higher the tree grows up and the wider the limbs spread outwardly, the deeper the roots must go to both supply the nourishment for the growth and to keep the tree from falling over.

Building: A building can only be safely built as high as the foundation will support.

Prayer for Comprehension

Ephesians 3:18–19 NASB95

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Comprehension of: the Magnitude of the Love of Christ

The second part of the prayer that Paul expresses on behalf of those to whom he was writing was that they would grow in their understanding and even taking hold of the magnitude of the love of Christ. He began this second request at the end of verse 17 but gets to the point in verse 18 and 19.

Paul said, “and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints...”

Paul prayed that they would be able to comprehend, or understand the greatness of the love of Christ. That is what he means by the “breadth and length and height and depth”. Paul is not trying to point out four different aspects of the love of Christ but to express the greatness of it, it goes out in every direction.

And notice that the understanding of the love of Christ, while it is not automatic and must be prayed for and sought after, it is not something that is unique to a particular set of Christians. His desire was they they would comprehend this “with all the saints”.

Know the Unknowable Love

And in the first half of verse 19 Paul continues his thought on the subject of the love of Christ.

Paul says, “and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge...”

The Love of Christ is so great and so vast that it actually “surpasses knowledge”. Paul prays that they would know the love of Christ that is beyond knowing.

Surpasses Knowledge: The Love of Christ is infinite, it is without end. Paul’s prayer was that they would grab hold of, understand and know the absolute greatness of the Love of Christ.

They already have some knowledge of the love of Christ; for they have been redeemed. They have experienced that love first hand. But Paul desired that they would grow in their knowledge of that love and even more importantly that they would catch a vision of the magnitude of that love.

Analogy of hte Magnitude of the Love of Christ:

Like standing on the beach at the ocean. We can see that the ocean is vast and we understand that it is deep. But standing on that shore we can not see all of the ocean or it’s depths. We may only be able to see part of it, but we also see that it is vast, we see that it is great.

That is the vision that Paul wanted the Ephesians to have. He wanted them to realize the vastness, the magnitude of the love of Christ though it was beyond their knowledge. He wanted them to realize that they would never come to the point where they could say that fully understood it.

Prayer for Christlikeness

Paul continues at the end of verse 19 with the final request. His prayer is that they “may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Calvin says, “He who has Christ has everything necessary for being made perfect in God; for this is the meaning of the phrase, the fulness of God.”

The goal of the Christian life is to be like Christ. To be filled with all that He is, with all of his perfections.

Hodges states, “Absolute perfection is the standard which the believer is to attain. He is predestined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son of God (Romans 8:29). He is to be perfect as man, as God is perfect as God; and the perfection of man consists in his being full of God—God dwelling in him so as absolutely to control all his thoughts, feelings, and actions.”

Perfection is the Goal: This is difficult for us to grasp, for we know that we will never be God and in this life we will never be completely without sin. But we are admonished that perfection is to be the goal that we strive for even if we can not obtain it in this life.

MacArthur makes the point, “A person filled with rage is totally dominated by hatred. A person filled with happiness is totally dominated by joy. To be filled up to all the fulness of God therefore means to be totally dominated by Him, with nothing left of self or any part of the old man. By definition, then, to be filled with God is to be emptied of self. It is not to have much of God and little of self, but all of God and none of self.”

Power is from the Spirit: And we can not forget that Paul prayed that God would grant that they would be strengthened with power through His Spirit. The filling up to the fulness of God is not something we can accomplish in our own power. We must be strengthened by God.

Purpose of the Prayer

Ephesians 3:19 (NASB95)...that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Inner change leads to outward change: This prayer is directed at the inner man, the heart of the believer. Paul wanted them to be strengthened, rooted and grounded in love that they would comprehend the vastness of the love of Christ, that they might be filled with the fulness of God. But while the change is to be inward, the purpose is so that the believers outward lives will give glory to God.

Unity of Jew and Gentile: Specifically in this context, both before and after this passage, the unity of Jew and Gentile is in view. They will not be united as a church unless they are rooted and grounded in love.

Any outward effort that is not supported by inward change would be disastrous. They would only be united in love to one another as they continually fed on the truth of the greatness of the Love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, as they were filled to all the fulness of God.

The Doxology vs 20-21

Having expressed this prayer Paul now ends this section, the first half of this letter with doxology, with praise to God.

Ephesians 3:20–21 NASB95

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Instruction in Praise

These two verses are meant to give glory to God but even in the midst of Paul’s praise there was instruction for the Ephesian believers.

How much can God do?

Far more, far more abundantly, far more abudnently beyond....

Effectiveness of Paul’s Prayer: Notice that the glory is to go to God “who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,” Whatever the Ephesians could ask for, whatever they could think of, God could do more.

Greatness of God’s Power: It seems once again that Paul was just overflowing with praise, gratitude, that He was just in awe of the greatness of God. As Paul considered the strength that the Ephesians needed, as he considered the greatness of the love of Christ, he was reminded of the greatness of God’s power to accomplish what he has just prayed.

If the Ephesians had any doubt about the effectiveness of Paul’s prayer and his teaching on the unity of Jew and Gentile, their doubts would be removed by what Paul states here. And we can understand why they might doubt. Certainly God is all powerful, but it would be the actual people who would have to get along. It is one thing to know the truth, it is another thing to put it into practice.

How could that happen? How could they actually live in unity with one another?

Power to Answer Prayer: Spirit Paul makes it clear in verse 20. God could not only do more, but far more, not only far more, but far more abundantly than all they could ask or think. Not only that, but Paul says He would do it “according to the power that works within us.” The very power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, that made us alive together with Christ though we were dead in sin, is the same power that is now at work within us.

The Great Doxology

To this God, to this one who can do immeasurably more than we could ask or think, to this God who is powerfully working within us, Paul says, “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”!

From Paul’s Praise to Paul’s Call to Praise:: This is the great doxology of Paul. He exalts God and once again calls for Him to be glorified by the Church. Not only by the Church in Ephesus and not only in the entire church of his day, but in the Church then and in the future, for all of history and into eternity. Forever and ever. Amen.

Once again Paul expresses that the purpose of the church is to bring Glory to God. And they would have the power to bring him glory because He would give them that power through His indwelling Spirit.

Closing & Application

Paul’s Purpose in 1st Three Chapters:

God’s Greatness, Power and Love: Throughout this letter and certainly even in our text this morning, Paul has pointed the thoughts of the Ephesians to the greatness, power and love of God.

Full & Correct Understanding of Salvation: All of the truth that Paul has set forth in these first three chapters was meant to give the Ephesians a correct understanding of their salvation and their standing in the church. Foundation to Call to Action: And based upon the truths of chapters 1-3, Paul will call them to actually live accordingly. That is what we will find in chapters 4-6.

Application

But even as we consider what we have just studied this morning, there is application to be made in our own lives. This is a highly encouraging text and a great example of prayer that we should follow.

Encouraging Text: It is a great encouragement because we are reminded that we are strengthened as believers by the very power of God working in us through the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely true that we do not live this Christian life in our own strength.

More we know, More to Know: As we consider the text we were also reminded the greatness of the love of Christ. It is so vast that we will never be able to fully grasp it. But that is what is encouraging. The more we know of the love of Christ, the more there is to know. We will never exhaust the greatness of the love of God even throughout all eternity. What greater joy than knowing the love of Christ in an even greater way.

Is His love great enough to sustain you through temptation?

Is His love great enough to sustain you in your trial?

Is His love great enough to sustain you in ministry in your service for Him?

Is His love great enough to complete the work which He began in you?

Is His love great enough to transform you from a great sinner into a great saint?

The answer of course is YES!

Power of Prayer the Power of God: And what greater encouragement can there be than to know that we can not ask or think of anything that would be beyond God’s ability to accomplish in and through us. For it is His very own, infinite power that is at work in us!

Pray with Reverence, Boldness and Confidence: As we approach God in prayer, may we approach like Paul did, with great reverence and yet with great boldness and confidence. May we approach not only for our needs but more importantly for the needs of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Live in Unity in the Church: And in all we do as a church, may we do it in unity, in love, in confident reliance upon the power of God to accomplish it and may we do everything for the Glory of God!