LIVING IN CHRIST – Getting to Know God
Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
INTRODUCTION:
We have the opportunity to know God—He has made Himself know to us. Will we turn God a cold shoulder? Or will we rejoice that we are “Getting to know God. Getting to know all about God.”
Ephesians 3:19 NIV
And to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
We have the amazing opportunity to fall head over heals in love with God, and in loving Him to overflow with “the fullness of God.” How can we love God, let alone experience His fullness in our lives except that we get to know God—as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I. Getting to Know God Our Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15 NIV
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
1. We cannot overlook that we can know God as OUR FATHER.
a) Paul makes reference to God as Father 42 times, and 8 of these occur in Ephesians, more than any other of Paul’s letters. Outside of the Gospels only the epistle of 1 John refers to God as Father more than Ephesians. Yet the combined 18 references in Ephesians and 1 John to God as Father is more than the entire Old Testament combined!
o In all of the Old Testament there are only 16 possible references that refer to God as Father and 6 of these look to the coming of the Messiah—that is Jesus. (Deuteronomy 32:6; 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 17:13; 22:10; 28:6; 29:10; Psalm 2:7; 68:5; 89:26; Isaiah 9:6; 63:16; 64:8; Jeremiah 3:4, 19; Malachi 1:6; 2:10).
o The New Testament has 252 references to God as our Father and about 180 of these or roughly 2 out of every 3 are said by Jesus!
b) Jesus initiated a radical idea among His disciples and the Jews of His day that God could be known as FATHER. Specifically that God was His Father, and in turn that His followers could likewise know God as their Father. Remember when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray He told them to pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9; see also Luke 11:2).
c) Jesus claimed God as His Father!
John 5:17-18 NIV
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
d) Through Jesus unique relationship with God the Father, the Father could be known by us.
Matthew 11:27 NIV
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
e) Jesus makes God our Father!
John 20:17 NIV
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
f) Paul’s picks up Jesus’ usage of God as Father. First, in the unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son and secondly in that we can know God as OUR FATHER. Ephesians has been called “Paul’s Letter of the Father.”
Ephesians 1:2-3 NIV
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Ephesians 1:17 NIV
. . . the glorious Father.
Ephesians 2:18 NIV
For through Him we both have access to the Father
Ephesians 3:14-15 NIV
. . . I kneel before the Father.
Ephesians 4:6 NIV
One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 5:20 NIV
Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 6:23 NIV
Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. What does it mean for God to be known as “Our Father?”
a) The title “Father” has nothing to do with God being male. Our human fathers should NOT define the Fatherhood of God, rather the Fatherhood of God should help us to define what a we as fathers should be like. We need to help people understand once again what it means to call God FATHER.
b) What do we know about God? The Bible tells us that “God is Spirit” and “God is love” (John 4:24; 1 John 4:8, 16). So knowing God as our Father does not define God as male as if there should also be some female deity out there as well. We are made in God’s image. God is not made in our image.
3. The title Father has to do with ORIGIN, LOVE, SECURITY and CARE.
a) Our origin is from God. It is through the Father that we are born and have life—not simply physically; it is through the Father that we have life eternal.
1 Corinthians 8:6 NIV
. . . There is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live . . .
John 1:12-13 NIV
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
John 6:44 NIV
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
b) The Father God loves us. Because God is our Father we can enter into an intimate and loving relationship with God. The Father is not distant holding us away from Himself. God is love and the Father embraces us in His love for us.
1 John 3:1 NIV
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
John 14:21 NIV
He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
c) Our security is found in the Father; the Father will protect us and keep us safe from all harm.
John 17:11 NIV
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one.
d) The Father cares for us. Our Father God will meet our every need. We will lack nothing because the Father cares for us.
Matthew 6:31-33 NIV
31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
II. Getting to Know God the Son.
1. The mystery of the Trinity. God is ONE, but God has revealed Himself as being Father, Son and Holy Spirit—THREE IN ONE.
a) When Jesus called God “My Father,” He not only showed that He was equal with God, but Jesus also claimed absolute unity with God.
John 10:30 NIV
I and the Father are one.
b) Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be filled with all “the fullness of God” (vs. 19). Thus Paul’s prayer involved not just the work of the Father God. Paul’s request that God would work in the hearts of believers in ALL HIS FULLNESS—as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 3:14-17 NIV
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
b) Through the glorious riches of the Father we are strengthened with power by the Spirit in order that Christ Jesus will live within our hearts by faith. Paul’s request involves all three members of the Trinity—that’s why Paul concludes his prayer asking that we be filled with all “the fullness of God.”
2. Jesus is God in the Flesh—God incarnate.
John 1:1-2, 14 NIV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning . . . 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
a) Jesus is both fully God and fully human—God in the flesh. The prophets foretold Christ’s coming. Matthew describes Christ’s coming as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Matthew 1:23 NIV
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us."
b) Jesus came and lived His life to make it possible for you and I to have a relationship with God. This could only be done as God became human just like you and me—that’s what Jesus did.
Colossians 1:13-22 GW
13 God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. 14 His Son paid the price to free us, which means that our sins are forgiven.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they are kings or lords, rulers or powers—everything has been created through him and for him. 17 He existed before everything and holds everything together. 18 He is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, the first to come back to life so that he would have first place in everything.
19 God was pleased to have all of himself live in Christ. 20 God was also pleased to bring everything on earth and in heaven back to himself through Christ. He did this by making peace through Christ's blood sacrificed on the cross. 21 Once you were separated from God. The evil things you did showed your hostile attitude. 22 But now Christ has brought you back to God by dying in his physical body. He did this so that you could come into God's presence without sin, fault, or blame.
3. This same Jesus has promised to always be with us.
Matthew 28:20 NIV
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
III. Getting to Know God the Holy Spirit.
1. Put simply the Holy Spirit is the power of God living in you.
Ephesians 3:16 NIV
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
a) If you have placed your faith in Jesus and His death upon the cross for your sins then the Holy Spirit is living within your heart and life. It is the Spirit of God that makes us alive in Christ and enables us to live like Jesus. This is what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit.
John 14:16-20 NIV
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
b) Jesus had much more to say about the work of the Holy Spirit, but He also knew the limits of what the disciples could understand at that moment, just like I know we are reaching the limit of what you can take in today. Jesus said:
John 16:12-15 NIV
12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
c) Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, and my prayer for our church today is one and the same—THAT GOD WILL FILL US WITH THE FULLNESS OF GOD. We can see how God answers this prayer in what Jesus said. We could paraphrase it this way. I have come to make the Father known to you. As I return to the Father I will send the Holy Spirit to live within you. He will make me known to you.
2. Coming to the Lord’s Table to be filled today with the fullness of God.
a) Jesus said that when we partake of the bread and the juice we do it IN REMMEBERANCE OF HIM—we come to remember Jesus and what He has done for us at the cross. Jesus has made it possible for us to have our sins forgiven. We are alive in Christ and His Spirit lives in us because of what Jesus did for us at the cross.
b) I want us to think for a moment how the fullness of God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all at work together making what Jesus did at the cross possible. I believe that Jesus could not have done it alone but it took all three members of the Trinity to make it possible for our sins to be forgiven.
THE FATHER—God is absolutely holy. He is set apart from sin. As such His wrath is also poured out upon sin as judgment; the wages of sin is death. Yet the Father loved His creation, He loves you and me, and does not want to see us destroyed. That’s where Jesus steps in.
JESUS THE SON—God is love and so in response to His eternal love for the Father Jesus takes our place. He becomes God in the flesh in order that the Father may pour out His wrath upon the sin of man. Yet the only way this is possible is that Jesus must die—but how can you kill God? The sin of the world literally had to be put upon Jesus. It was not just the cross that caused His death; it was our sin. And when our sin was placed upon Jesus, the Father turned away and could no longer bear to look at His Son—That’s why Jesus said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.” Sin separated the Father and the Son, and as a result Jesus died upon the cross. But that is not the end of the story.
THE HOLY SPIRIT—Jesus was dead and buried—His body laid lifeless for three days in a tomb. Jesus was powerless to do anything about His situation because He was dead. The Father could do nothing to help His Son because He could not bear to look upon our sin that caused Jesus’ death. But the Spirit, because of His love for the Father and His love for the Son stepped into the tomb and tore the sin off Jesus’ lifeless body and resurrected Him back to life.
