Over the past few weeks, we've read about how God is now revealing to his church something that was a closely guarded secret for centuries. God had this hidden, master plan to bring all things together, in heaven and on earth. And what that looks like on earth, is that God is making one single, holy family who will live in peace with God and with each other. What God wants on earth, basically, is the church. The church is the earthly half of God's secret plan.
And God made the church, through Jesus.
It's through Jesus, that God rescued us from being slaves to satan and other demonic forces. God rescued us from slavery to sin. God raised us up into a new kind of life, where we can live as a clean and forgiven people, who are empowered by the Spirit to obey God. In the past, Paul could hold up a mirror to us, and we'd readily admit that we were an ugly people, who did ugly things. But now, God's expectation is that the mirror shows something quite different.
Now, there are times when God's people look in the mirror at their own lives, and they find themselves embarrassed, and ashamed, at how they live. There are times when they question whether they look any different at all. Where's the power, to live a clean and holy life? If Jesus makes such a difference, and if the Holy Spirit makes such a difference, then where is that difference? And why is it, on a very practical note, that we find it so hard sometimes to love each other, and get along with each other? Why does the church sometimes look like a hot mess? And if we find that this is us, what's the solution? How do we change the reflection?
If we read Ephesians 3:14-21 with the first part of chapter 4, we will see that there's a solution to all of this. This week, we'll see there are things that God is willing to do, to help us. And next week, in chapter 4, we will see that we have a responsibility as well.
So, when Paul looks at the Ephesian church, he sees that there is a gap between God's vision for his family, and what that church actually is. The mirror doesn't show what God wants to see. And so the first thing Paul does, is pray for them. God will help.
Now, if you compare my translation to most English Bibles, it's going to sound a bit different. You'll notice in the translation that I have an A, B, and C. Three times in this prayer, Paul uses the same word "hina," which can mean "that," or "in order that."
Do you see them?
So Paul has these three "that" or "in order that" things that he prays for the church. Think of these three things as three dominos.
And the question translators find themselves asking, is this: Is Paul is listing three separate prayer requests for the church, 1, 2, 3? Or are these dominoes in a chain, where one prayer request leads to two other things happening?
I could be wrong, but I think Paul is listing three distinct, but interconnected, prayer requests. And if you want to chew on this later, feel free. I might be wrong. But that's my take on it. So let's start with just the first prayer request, verses 14-17:
(14) For this reason I bend my knees toward the Father-- [The One] by whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
(16) (A) in order that He may give to you in accordance with the riches of his glory,
with power to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner person,
(17) so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith(fulness),
in love having been firmly rooted and established;
Our God is a wealthy God. He's rich in glory. In every picture and vision in the Bible that we see of God enthroned in the heavens, we are overwhelmed with his power, and majesty, and holiness. In Psalm 50, God talks about how He's wealthy by human standards, as well. Every wild animal of the forest belongs to God, the cattle on a thousand hills. God knows all the birds; everything that moves in the field is his. In fact, the entire world belongs to God. So God is just flat out rich, and He's rich in glory.
So the first thing Paul asks, in verse 16, is that God would give in a particular way-- in accordance with the riches of his glory.
Imagine that you're a close relative to Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk, and that it's your birthday. You'd hope, in that situation, that your close relative is going to give in accordance with his riches. If he does, the gift you open will be expensive, and extravagant. That relative loves you, and wants to bless you, and he's in a position to show that love and blessing in a big way.
Our God is fabulously rich. He doesn't need to be stingy, or consider what the credit card bill will look like. When God gives, He can simply give big.
Now, what specifically does Paul want God to give the Ephesians?
It's not money. Let's reread verses 16-17:
(16) (A) in order that He may give to you in accordance with the riches of his glory,
with power to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner person,
(17) so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith(fulness),
in love having been firmly rooted and established;
The wealth that Paul seeks for the church, basically, is more of the Holy Spirit. If God would give them more of his Spirit, they would be empowered, and strengthened in their inner being, and in their faithfulness to God. They'd become like an oak tree, firmly rooted, not easily moved. And Jesus would somehow live in their hearts in a bigger, and more complete way.
What we see in Paul's first prayer request, is that it's built on the same type of assumption that we saw in Paul's first prayer request for the Ephesians in chapter 1. There, Paul talks about his prayer for them, that God would send his Holy Spirit in a special way, so that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened, and they'd understand how God has blessed them. Basically, there's a light switch inside of you, that the Holy Spirit can turn on, so that you can see spiritual truths clearly.
The assumption in both prayers, is that God can give you more of his Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian, the Spirit
already lives in you. But you can have more. You can be filled more completely with the Holy Spirit. You can be controlled, more completely, by the Holy Spirit. And if God gives you this more, you'll find yourself empowered to live faithfully toward God, and toward each other.
The easiest way to explain this, is to cheat ahead in Ephesians, to where Paul says all of this a little bit more straightforwardly. Ephesians 5:18 (NIV no reason):
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
In Ephesians 1, when Paul talks about how he prays that God would give them the Spirit of revelation and understanding, it's a way of asking that God would fill them more completely with his Holy Spirit. And in Ephesians 3, when Paul talks about asking God for them to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner person, that that Christ would live in their hearts through faithfulness, it's a second way of talking about being more filled with the Holy Spirit. Basically, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will have a clearer understanding of God's plan, and you'll be empowered to be faithful.
My guess is that you're all familiar with the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. The idea with the fruit of the Spirit, is that it's fruit that comes from, or out of, a Holy Spirit-filled life. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, those good things naturally come out as fruit. And if you instead live in accordance with your flesh and mind, how you used to live, the fruit you'll produce is hatred, bitterness, envy, lust, and things like that.
So when we look at the fruit our lives produce, we can tell at a glance how filled we are with the Holy Spirit. Do you go through life irritable, and easily angered? Do you regularly snap at your kids, or your spouse? Do you find yourself needing to get your way in church, or at work? Are you struggling to let go of a past hurt, and forgive? When your life produces bad fruit, what you need, is to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. You need to be more filled. For me, the easiest way that I can tell something is off, and that I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit, is when two things happen: (1) when I find myself getting frustrated at work, and (2) when I find myself being upset with my wife for no reason. I'm sure my wife would prefer that she not be at the top of that list, but there you have it. When I experience those two things, I tend to pause, and catch myself, and realize that there's something off with my relationship with the Holy Spirit.
And then what? When you look at the fruit of your life, and you realize that something is off, and you lack love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, what's the solution? How do you fix that?
It's not simply a matter of trying harder. I've found that joy, in particular, isn't something that can be self-produced. Verse 16 says that what you need, is to be empowered, through the Holy Spirit. You need God to send the Holy Spirit, to empower you.
So if you want to start to change the fruit your life produces, the place to start is by getting on your knees before God, and asking God to send his Holy Spirit in greater measure. And if you ever find as a church that things are falling apart, and it becomes nothing but bickering, and arguing, you do the same thing, on behalf of the church. You fall on your knees, and you ask God to send his Holy Spirit to help. This is something you can ask for, for yourselves, and for the church as a whole.
You can be more or less filled with the Holy Spirit. This is something that can fluctuate, and change.
Now, some of our charismatic brothers and sisters tend to think of this filling as being a one-time separate event, and they want to connect it only to charismatic things like prophecy and speaking in tongues. What Paul is talking about here, is different than all of that. This is about the power to live faithfully toward God, and toward each other.
Now, in this church every week, we all say, "We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves." Maybe we live as though we are. But this is a choice. It's not something that has to be true. It's something that can be fixed.
I could be wrong, because I'm not the world's most Lutheran Christian. But I think this prayer is designed for the weeks when you've fallen hard spiritually. For when it's all you can do, to drag yourself through the front doors, and cry out to God for mercy, because you lived as a slave to sin all week. We've all had weeks where we've shown up at church, after living in sin all week, feeling exactly like that. "Lord have mercy on me, a sinner." But I don't think this prayer should be taken to mean, that this is how life has to work for us, week after week. We aren't supposed to live in bondage to Sin. We aren't supposed to crawl through the front doors, week after week. God has freed us from this slavery through Jesus. And God is happy to fill us with his Spirit, to empower us to live faithfully toward Him. We do sometimes sin, and we confess that. But we are not in bondage to Sin. It's a choice we make. And our hope, and our goal, is to reach the place as a church where we confess this: "We live as a Spirit-empowered family, who live faithfully toward God and each other." And if that's not the case, we get on our knees, and ask God to strengthen us by sending his Holy Spirit in greater measure. We ask that for ourselves. We ask that for each other.
When you sin, if you pray, not only for forgiveness, but for empowerment through the Holy Spirit, I think you'll really start to like what you see in the mirror. You'll really like the fruit that this produces. And so will everyone else around you. They'll notice a change. Good things happen, when God empowers you for faithfulness through his Holy Spirit.
With this, we come to the second "in order that" prayer request, in verse 18.
(18) (B) in order that you would be capable
of grasping with all of the holy ones what is the breadth and height and depth
(19) and of knowing Christ's love that goes beyond knowledge;
If you've grown up in the church, you've been told your entire life that Jesus loves you, in an unfathomable, and unmeasurable way. Every pastor and teacher who tells you this, and truly believes it, struggles to find the words to talk about it. You can never really understand the depth of Jesus' love, because it goes beyond knowledge. You can never adequately talk about it, because it goes beyond words.
Paul's prayer for the church, is that God would make them able to know the unknowable. That something would happen to you, on the inside, where it suddenly hits you just how much Jesus loves you, and you find yourself completely overwhelmed by Jesus' love, even as you know it's far greater than you know.
Some of you have perhaps had moments in your life like this, where it felt like something clicked inside of you, and for the first time you really grasped Jesus' love for you. Or maybe we all have stories. I'd love to hear them after the service-- so would everyone else. Jesus truly, fully, loves you.
So that's Paul's second prayer request. The third, is in the last half of verse 19:
(C) in order that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.
We read this, and we wonder what Paul even means. It sounds huge, and confusing. It also might sound familiar, because the language in this prayer echoes Paul's earlier prayer for the Ephesians in 1:22-23. Let's turn back there, and reread those two verses:
(22) And all things/beings God subjected under Jesus' feet,
and Jesus, God gave as head over all things for the church,
(23) which is his body--the fullness of the One filling all things in all ways.
These verses are even harder, and more confusing. But in both of these passages, we see this filling language. God wants the church to be filled up, and full. God is actively filling up the church, in some way, and God would like to fill it more.
This filling imagery is almost certainly rooted in the way the OT talks about the temple that Solomon built for God. We are used to the idea that God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. But throughout the Bible, God is more fully present in some places than others. And in the OT, the temple was the place where God put his name, and his glory. If you were an Israelite, that was the place you prayed toward for help, or forgiveness, or to praise God, because that's where God was most fully present.
Earlier in the letter, Ephesians 2:21, Paul talks about how we, the church, are being built up into becoming one holy temple in Jesus. God is making us into the place where He is most fully present on earth. God wants us to fill us, with himself. That's what God wants. But this filling language also shows us that this isn't automatic, or necessarily true, for us. God would like to fill us up completely, but we might not actually be filled with all the fullness of God. There might be more out there for us.
So let's think of ourselves for minute, as though we are a half-filled glass of water. God wants to top us off, so that we are full, or maybe even overflowing.
What does God want to fill us with, so that this happens?
I think if we approach it this way, we find that the filling language makes more sense.
We know, if we are God's holy ones, that we have received the Holy Spirit already. But God would love to give us more of his Spirit. It's through the Spirit, primarily, that God fills the church with himself. This is perhaps the key spiritual blessing that God wants to give his church. God wants to give us more of his Holy Spirit, so that our hearts can be enlightened, and we understand God's vision for world. God wants to give us more of his Holy Spirit, to empower us to live as freed people, who are not in bondage to sin, who live faithfully toward himself, and toward each other. God wants to give us more of his Holy Spirit, so that we can become a place, a people, where God fully dwells.
So part of what it means, that we would be filled with all the fullness from God, certainly has to do with the Holy Spirit.
Now, when we turn back to Paul's prayer, and look at verse 17, we see that what's true of the Holy Spirit, is also true of Jesus. Jesus can live in our hearts, in a more full way. Jesus already lives in our hearts, right? But there is somehow more, available to us. Jesus can live in our hearts, in a more filled way. And somehow, this seems to happen as we grow in faithfulness. As we walk in increased faithfulness to God, Jesus will come closer, and he will live more fully in our hearts.
We've also seen other ways that God would like to top off our glass. We can filled with knowledge of Jesus' love. We can be filled with the power to live faithfully.
All of this is at the heart of what Paul wants for the Ephesians. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. God is fabulously rich, and He's made the riches of his glory available to us. And Paul wants the Ephesians to come to a place where they understand these blessings, and then receive them. Paul wants the church to be filled with everything that God fills up a church with.
With this, we come to verse 20. Here, Paul leaves his prayer requests behind, and offers praise to our God, who is willing to give all these incredible gifts to his church:
(20) Now, to The One who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, in accordance with the power working in us-- to Him (be) glory through/in the church and through/in Christ Jesus for all generations forever and ever. Amen.
We see in verse 20, that there is often a gap between what God gives his church, and what He's willing to give. Between what God makes available to his church, and what his church actually receives. Paul closes off this section of his letter, by praising God, for being a God who is able to do far more than what we can ask. We might live as half-filled Christians, and as a half-filled church, but that's our choice. God, through his Holy Spirit, has given us access to this incredible power, so that we can be filled with all the fullness from God. We praise God, for holding all of this out to us as a possibility. Our powerful God, shares his power with his people. God works in us, and through us, and we are just scratching the surface of what God is willing to give.
So when we read Paul's prayer this morning, how does it leave us? What Paul wants for the church, is for it to be filled up completely, so that it's everything God wants it to be. God, I assume, wants the same thing. He wants to give out of his wealth, and give us more of his Holy Spirit, so that we understand his plan, and so that we are empowered to live faithfully toward Him and toward each other. He wants us to understand the depth of his love, and Jesus' love, for us.
What is it that we want?
There have been times in my own life when I've lived in bondage to sin, when there were particular sins that were like an anchor around my ankle. I confessed my sins over and over, but I never really turned from them. At least, I didn't turn successfully.
And there have been long periods in my life when I wasn't aware of the Holy Spirit or Jesus in me, at all. I wasn't really sure how much Jesus loved me. I wasn't sure if God would actually empower me, to be freed from bondage.
And there have been times in the past when I was the problem child at church. I was the one who struggled to get along with other Christians. If you had looked at the fruit of my life, you'd say I wasn't very filled with the Holy Spirit, or Jesus. I wasn't very empowered for anything.
For me, two things happened that radically changed me. The first, was when God miraculously healed me of my seasonal allergies, when a missionary laid hands on me, and prayed for me. I felt heat, and tingling, in my sinus cavities. I knew God healed me. And that was the first time in my life, I really felt like I came close to understanding God's love.
The second thing that happened that radically changed me, was when I started to chase the truths of this passage. If this passage teaches anything, it's that there is more out there, that God would like to give his people. God wants to enlighten us through his Holy Spirit to understand his plan. He wants to empower us through his Spirit so that we actually live as a faithful people. It's not that we never sin. But we are never slaves. We confess, we repent, and we walk on. There's more. There's a fullness, available.
So what I started doing, was asking God, multiple times a day, to fill me with his Holy Spirit. I wasn't seeking tongues, or charismatic things. I was seeking God. And after maybe a couple weeks of pressing in, and asking, God said "yes." God gave me more of his Holy Spirit. I don't know if I want to say if I was filled, or not, but I was certainly more filled. And that became part of my ordinary Christian walk. Every day, I'd ask God to fill me with his Holy Spirit, to empower me. And I found very quickly, that when I stayed in this place of being more filled with the Holy Spirit, that I sinned far less, and that I cared about people far more. My life started to produce a lot more fruit of the Spirit.
I'm not going to say I've figured everything out. I'm not going to say I always live in this place. And I'm open to the possibility that I can still be more filled with the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus can live more fully in my heart. But if I compare the 44 year old me, to the 34 year old me, I'm in a far better place now than I was. God's empowered me through his Spirit, so I understand his plan far better than I used to. And God's empowered me, so that I produce much better Spiritual fruit than I used to.
What I'd like to leave you with today, is an invitation to chase after the spiritual blessings that God holds out to his people. Our God is rich in glory, and powerful, and He loves to share that glory and power with his church-- with you. If you want to be empowered by God to live more faithfully, open yourself up to God, and ask Him to fill you with his Holy Spirit. Keep asking, and my guess is that pretty quickly God will do something for you, where you'll know that God said "yes." There is more out there, and God would love to fill you with that more.
Translation, Ephesians 3:14-21
(14) For this reason I bend my knees toward the Father-- [The One] by whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named--
(16) (A) that he may give to you in accordance with the riches of his glory,
with power to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner person,
(17) so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith(fulness),
in love having been firmly rooted and established;
(18) (B) that you would be capable
of grasping with all of the holy ones what is the breadth and height and depth
(19) and of knowing Christ's love that goes beyond knowledge;
(C) that you may be filled up with all the fullness of/from God.
(20) Now, to The One who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, in accordance with the power working in us-- to Him (be) glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations forever and ever. Amen.
