Fullness of God’s Love
Ephesians 3:14-21
March 3, 2019
What kind of a Christ follower are you? How’s that for a loaded first question? In all sincerity, if you are a Christ follower, do people know that? Do they know it from the way you live your life? Do they know it from the words you speak? Do you gently tell people about Jesus?
You see, people have a great opportunity to get to know Jesus by the way we live our lives. If we’re not excited about who Jesus is in our lives, then will people really see Him at work in our lives?
For example, if you’re passionate about the Colts, people will know about it. You’ll dissect every game, every draft pick. If you’re into Marvel movies, then, people will know about it, they’ll know about it by what you wear and your conversations about those movies.
It makes sense that we talk and live and breath about what we’re into. We talk about our kids and our grand kids, don’t we? Why? Because we are passionately in love with them. We adore them. And when we can, we tactfully, right!! Talk about them.
Well, we’re in the final week of our look at the mission of the church, and for the past 3 weeks we’ve been looking at the love of God and our response to God. We’ve also been spending a lot of time in the book of Ephesians 3. Today will be our last day looking at this passage. This passage is filled with so much for us to take in that it’s actually taken us 4 weeks to look through these 8 verses.
Once again, let’s look at Ephesians 3, as we open our hearts and spirits to the Word of God. Paul wrote —
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
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,
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.
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. – Ephesians 3:14-21
Let me give you a 2 minute recap and then we can move forward ~
Paul humbly bowed before God praying that the people would be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s expectation is that God would take up a permanent and not a temporary residence in our heart and spirit.
The fact that God fills us should change us. We should no longer walk around like a bunch of grumpy, bitter, empty people, with no purpose. Instead whether we understood God’s plan in our lives or not, we would go into the world, as I said last week, when you were taking pictures of the screen - and you can do it again. Because this is really important - - - -
We are called to be PASSIONATE and CONTAGIOUS Christ followers who make a RELEVANT difference in the world!!
Now, to show I listen to your comments, someone told me I should change the order. It should be this instead ~
We are called to be CONTAGIOUS and PASSIONATE Christ followers who make a RELEVANT difference in the world!!
So, what’s the difference. It’s a subtle difference, but one which will help you remember this and use it in a way which makes even more sense. This now forms the acronym –
C - CONTAGIOUS
P - PASSIONATE
R - RELEVANT
Isn’t that great?! It’s a great way to remember this because what does CPR do for a person? It gives them life. And that’s exactly what Christ does for us. He gives us life. And then we go into the world and we give life to others through the power of Christ. We do spiritual CPR to others! So, if you can’t remember this phrase, remember CPR . . . be contagious, be passionate, be relevant!
You can even double this - -
Compassion / Contagious Power / Passion Real / Relevant
Well, we’ve talked about that and more over the past weeks. That’s a quick summary. Now, I want to lead us towards wrapping this up and starting next week, believe it or not, we’ll be starting a lent series, which will lead us to Easter!
OK, now I want to go over the final verses of this passage. Paul wrote –
18 may you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
I found that to be kind of a strange way to say something . . . May we have strength to comprehend something. We don’t usually talk like that.
The phrase MAY YOU HAVE STRENGTH means "to have aggressive strength, which fills a need or void." It’s "strength at work," such as overcoming difficulties in understanding something important. It’s the only time in the Bible this phrase is used.
Now, when Paul says TO COMPREHEND, it actually means – “to seize tightly, to arrest, catch, or capture something. To take hold of; to grasp something in a forceful or firm manner.”
That’s all in this little phrase. So, what Paul is getting at is this - - That we would take action, we should aggressively take hold of what God is offering us. We would be decisive in seizing His love!
Has anyone ever explained something to you and you have that glazed look on your face? You’re listening, but what they’re telling you - - just isn’t sinking in. Sometimes someone is telling us something that’s so far over our heads that we just don’t get it. Usually, we nod our heads, smile and pretend to understand.
That’s not what Paul wants us to do. When it comes to God’s love, he wants us to aggressively grab hold of it, so that we would not only understand, but we would fully believe in God’s love for us.
HERE’S THE POINT - - - - If we really grasp it, if we really get it, then that has to change us!! Doesn’t it? I mean if we really get it in our heart, spirit, mind and body . . . if we really believe God loves even me - - then shouldn’t I be more than a lukewarm Christian?
I mean, that’s really an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a lukewarm Christian! It’s almost sinful to say that, yet, if we’re to be really honest, most of us live that way!
Paul wants us to grasp or drink in the power of God’s love. Sometimes, that’s actually kind of difficult to do. Sometimes we think we’re not good enough, we haven’t done enough good things in life to merit God’s grace or we’ve done so many bad things - - God could never ever love us.
But that’s so far from the truth and that’s why Paul wants us to have this strength. He wants us to comprehend, to really take in the fact that God loves us. And in order to describe this for us, Paul tried to describe the amount of God’s love. So, he wrote that we would be able to take hold of the - -
breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love. Kent Hughes explained these dimensions this way - -
1) A love which is wide enough to embrace the world. John 3:16 tells us,
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
2) A love which is long enough to last forever. In 1 Corinthians 13:8, Paul said, “Love never ends.” Pastor Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century pastor, wrote, "God’s love is so long that your old age cannot wear it out, so long your continual tribulation cannot exhaust it, your successive temptations shall not drain it dry. It’s as if eternity itself it knows no bounds."
3) A love which is high enough to take people who are sinners, who as Paul said, were in sin, while Christ died for us. In 1 John 3:1 - - John tells us –
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. AND
4) It is a love which is deep enough to take Christ to the very depths of humanity to reach every sinner. Paul described Jesus this way in Philippians 2 –
Jesus emptied Himself, by becoming a servant, humbling Himself - and suffering an excruciating death so we would not have to.
That’s the love of God. It’s so high, so deep, so long, so wide that it never ever stops. There’s no ending point to God’s love. That the beauty and power of the circle. It’s a symbol for God’s never ending love and power. There’s no starting point and no ending point. It’s always there. It’s continuous.
It’s what Paul said in Romans 8:38-39 –
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. - Romans 8:38-39
This is a great way to describe what Paul was telling us about having the strength to comprehend God’s love.
Now, Paul tell us what he wants for us. Not only does he want us to have the strength to comprehend the limitless love of God, but also - -
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
He wants us to be able to aggressively take hold of the love of God in Christ, AND to know His love which surpasses our knowledge. We can never fully understand God’s love for us. Even as we draw closer to God and His love, there’s always going to be an element which is incomprehensible. And that’s OK.
Paul wanted believers to know God’s love for us is so profound, it’s so amazing that to try and describe it away doesn’t do it justice. That’s why His love surpasses all the wisdom we have.
And Paul prayed that believers would be filled with all the fullness of God.
That’s a staggering prayer! I don’t believe I’ve ever prayed for that. Very few if any of us have offered that prayer to God.
“Dear God, fill me with all of you! Fill me until I am so full of you, and then don’t stop filling me with all of you!”
It kind of sounds like a crazy prayer . . . But think about this. Think about what I said last week . . . that there’s so many empty people in this world. So many around Alexandria. So many people who are longing for more of life. Yet, what they’re really longing for is for God to fill their hearts and to fill their lives with the power of His presence. But we go about being filled in our own ways, which usually lead us away from God . . . not to God.
So, we chase after God by reading another self-help book - and we try these new techniques for awhile - - then we chase after the next way to find healing. Not that reading or conferences or anything else is bad, yet, we’re restless, never fully feeling filled. We’re on this great quest for God, and He’s already here!!
How many times have you thought or even said, “I just need more of God.” And yet - - God is already here! So, how do we find “more of God?”
You see, God doesn’t play hide and seek, bait and switch.
Paul hits the nail on the head, that’s what we want in life isn’t it? We want to experience the fullness of God! That's what we yearn for, that’s what we’re chasing, what we so desperately need! Wouldn't it be incredible to be filled with all the fullness of God?!?! And God is showing us the way to that fullness. Paul walks us through a progression - -
1. That God would strengthen us with power through His Spirit. That alone should change my life. But it’s only the beginning of this incredible progression.
2. Then, that Jesus might really dwell in our hearts. That we allow Him to take permanent residence in our hearts! We would be filled with the presence of Jesus!
3. That we might be rooted and grounded - - - Established in His love. As we recognize we are rooted and grounded in His love . . .
4. That we might have power to grasp the full height, depth, length, and breadth of Jesus's never ending love. Then . . .
5. Paul prays that we would KNOW this love, intimately, and personally. And that leads us to what Paul prays for in verse 19 . . .
6. That we might be filled with all the fullness of God!
I really believe this is a central key to our longings. It will not make sorrow and grief go away. It does not mean we won’t get sick or lose loved ones, or not get the job we wanted or not have problems in life. We will.
But in spite of the problems and temptations of life, we will be fully equipped to handle whatever comes our way because we believe and experience the fullness of God’s love.
We have no doubts about who Christ is in our lives. We believe He came for me! He came and suffered. He died - - the righteous for the unrighteous. The clean One for the dirty one, the sinless One for the sinful one. He came for me. We should be dancing and shouting and crying out hallelujah - - if we really got it.
That’s the treasure Paul is laying out for us. It’s God’s treasure. It’s God’s gift to you and I. It should change our lives. It should change the way we are. The way we live. It should change it. He’s laid out a path for us.
God wants us to find fullness in Him. What ultimately fills us is God. Maybe God will work through a friend, or a book or CD or conference. We must open our hearts to God in all we do.
So, I leave you with this . . . and admittedly I haven’t finished, but we’re stopping here. Because this is so vital for us.
I want you to start to try this . . . I’m going to. I would like to move in this direction as we move toward Easter. I want you to tell me - - YES! I’m going to pray this and try this and seek to move in this direction in my life.
I want you to say YES to more of God! I believe Paul has laid out a path for us to open our hearts, spirits, minds and bodies to experience more of the power of God’s love. This could be revolutionary! Real – it may be.
