Ephesians 3:14-21 (2)

Premise:

Paul prays to the Father, that the Saints would know and comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge to the glory of God forever.

Opening:

Introduction of the Text:

Reading of the Text:

Ephesians 3:14-21.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love,18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us,21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, the Word of God. Let’s pray.

Prayer:

Transition:

A Pastoral Prayer.

Premise:

Paul prays to the Father, that the Saints would know and comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge to the glory of God forever.

We See Paul’s Heart in This Text.

Paul is Closing Out This Section of His Letter With Prayer and Praise.

Application:

Pray For One Another in This Way.

Calvin, “His prayers for them are mentioned, not only to testify his regard for them, but likewise to excite them to pray in the same manner.”

I Pray For You.

Calvin, “Let pastors learn from Paul’s example, not only to admonish and exhort their people, but to entreat the Lord to bless their labours, that they may not be unfruitful. Nothing will be gained by their industry and toil,—all their study and application will be to no purpose, except so far as the Lord bestows his blessing.”

A Posture of Prayer. (v.14)

Ephesians 3:14. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Jews Prayed While Standing.

Rare Examples of Kneeling Prayer Symbolizing Humility and Urgency.

Ezra’s Prayer of Repentance during a time of great sin and intermarrying in Israel.

Ezra 9:5-6, But at the evening offering I arose from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; 6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied above our heads and our guilt has become great even to the heavens.”

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Luke 22:41, “41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray,”

Stephen Being Stoned.

Acts 7:59-60, “59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.”

Application:

Ought We to Kneel When We Pray?

Matthew Henry, “When we draw nigh to God, we should reverence him in our hearts, and express our reverence in the most suitable and becoming behaviour and gesture.”

A Family of Prayer. (v.15)

Ephesians 3:15. from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

Every Family, or The Whole Family.

Contexts Determines Meaning.

Paul Just Detailed the Jews and Gentiles One and United As One Family.

I Believe This is Referring to the Whole Family of Faith in Christ.

Argumentation:

“In Heaven” can only be believers since non-believers are in hell.

Four Requests in Prayer. (Matthew Henry) (v.16-19)

1. That God Would Strengthen You Through The Spirit in the Inner Man. (v.16)

Ephesians 3:16 “that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

The Riches of His Glory.

Strengthened With Power Through The Spirit.

Calvin, “Believers have never advanced so far as not to need farther growth. The highest perfection of the godly in this life is an earnest desire to make progress.”

Calvin, “The increase, as well as the commencement, of everything good in us, comes from the Holy Spirit.”

2. The Indwelling of Christ in their hearts. (v.17)

Ephesians 3:17, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love,

Christ Dwelling In Your Hearts.

Popular Christian Language.

Argumentation:

Only Time This Phrase is Used.

Nowhere in Scripture Do We Invite Jesus Into Our Hearts.

So What Does This Mean?

In Scripture, The Heart is the Center of the Human.

R.C. Sproul, “Christ should live, not at the periphery, but at the very centre of their life.”

Not An Invitation, But a Recognition of Lordship.

With Christ in Your Heart, You Are Rooted And Grounded in Love.

Rooted: “Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” Tolkien.

Grounded: Not flaky, not ethereal but grounded. Real.

3. A Comprehension of The Dimensions of Christ’s Love. (v.18)

Ephesians 3:18, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

Dimensional Language.

Have A Well Rounded Understanding of the Mystery of Christ’s Love.

Romans 8:35-39, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

R.C. Sproul, “He is praying that our understanding will be able to penetrate one of the great mysteries. It is not enough that we understand God to be loving, nor that we understand there to be a love that belongs to Christ. We need divine power to have a deeper understanding of the dimensions of the love of Christ.”

4. For their Knowledge of the Unknowable love of Jesus Christ. (v.19)

Ephesians 3:19, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

The Love Of Christ Surpasses Knowledge.

2 Corinthians 4:7-18, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;8 in every way afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.12 So death works in us, but life in you.13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak,14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.17 For our momentary, light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Only Through The Spirit of God Can We Understand This.

Calvin, “The increase, as well as the commencement, of everything good in us, comes from the Holy Spirit.”

Filled To The Fullness of God.

Application:

R.C. Sproul, “Do you want everything that God has for you, the full measure of his grace?”

God Does Not Want What You Want For You.

God Wants What is Truly Good.

We Want Merely What We Think is Good.

C.S. Lewis, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God's thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking. This is a prayer of contentment”

Let’s modify this slightly. “I would rather have what God chose to give me than to have the most wonderful things I could think of; for to have been given from God’s fulness of grace and sovereign plan is the dearest, grandest, and most precious gift in all creation. This is another prayer of contentment.” Me.

A Closing Praise. (v.20-21)

Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Paul Opened With a Doxology, He is Closing This Section With a Doxology.

Ephesians 1:3-14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love,5 by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight,9 making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him 10 for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him.11 In Him, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,12 to the end that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.13 In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

What do we notice about Paul’s Praises?

Paul’s Praises Are Packed With Theological Truths.

Application: Our Praise Ought To Be Theologically True.

Is It Sinful to Lie About God? Is It Sinful to Sing Lies About God?

We Mistakenly Think As Soon As Music is Applied, Lies And Misrepresentations Are No Longer Sinful.

God Can Do Far More Abundantly Beyond All We Ask or Understand.

Matthew Henry, “There is an inexhaustible fulness of grace and mercy in God, which the prayers of all the saints can never draw dry.”

The Power Working In Us, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

To God Be The Glory...

In The Church.

R.C. Sproul, “God will share his glory with no man, no institution, no para-church ministry. The Bride of Christ, however, will be so fully adorned with grace, beauty, truth, love, mercy and righteousness that her glory will be incomparable. To whom do you ascribe glory?”

The Invisible Church.

The Visible Church.

In Christ Jesus.

To All Generations, Forever and Ever.

The Endless Church.

Catholic.

Covenantal Succession.

Transition:

Application:

Pray For One Another in This Way.

Calvin, “His prayers for them are mentioned, not only to testify his regard for them, but likewise to excite them to pray in the same manner.”

Know That I Pray For You.

Want What God Wants For You, The Fullness of Him.

C.S. Lewis, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God's thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking. This is a prayer of contentment”

Application of First Three Chapters.

Love Sound Theology.

Theology is Not a Bad Word.

Theology is the Truth of Who God is and What He Says.

Desire and Strive to Know, Proclaim, Teach Your Children, Believe, Confess, Embrace, and Passionately Love the Truth of Who God is and What He Says.

Desire:

Strive:

Know:

Proclaim:

Teach Your Children:

Confess:

Confess the Christian Creeds.

The Apostle’s Creed.

I believe in God the Father, Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord;

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,

Born of the virgin Mary;

Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

Was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven;

And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;

The holy catholic* church; the communion of saints;

The forgiveness of sins;

The resurrection of the body;

And the life everlasting. Amen.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And we believe in one holy catholic* and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Embrace:

Passionately Love:

A Church That Does Not Deeply Love Theology and Sound Doctrine Will Either Die or Become a False Church.