Ephesians 3:19-21

November 6, 2022

Filled with the Fullness of Christ

Part 1

God is not content to have partial fellowship with His redeemed children. He desires full communion and intimate fellowship.

So here in verse 19, Paul is going to finish up this fourth and final request the ultimate request that he lifts up. And as we've been talking about through these first three requests, all of these are prayed to be according to the glory of his riches. So God is not being asked here by Paul to bless out of his the riches of his glory, but instead, according to. So the depth of the blessing that Paul is seeking, we talked about this some Sundays ago, just this, according to the riches of his glory. We'll see that again in the doxology this morning. But then, these requests, we took a look at the structure of the grammatical structure that Paul's using, and he's using this structure, and this language that says was very plainly that the translation ‘so that’ is very accurate, and very faithful, because these requests are built one upon another. So that Paul asked for request A, so that God may do B, so that he may do C, so that he may do D. So each one rests upon the previous one, we can't even look at them out of order, because they're sort of stacked like that, that Paul's asking, I asked first for this, and then this and then, in granting that I asked for this. Now the first one that he asked for was this strengthening in their inner being with power through the Spirit. And so we took a look at how it is that the Spirit of God strengthens the believer. And we saw that God strengthens the believer in all kinds of ways; through His Word, through obedience to His Word, through the communion of the saints, lots of ways that God strengthens us. But the primary and the central and the most powerful way that God strengthens us, is by removing from us our sources of self-strength, by causing us to look to Christ to look to the spirit in reliance upon him, because in our weakness, he is strong. He is not strong in our strength, we are weak, and he is strong. As we look to the words of Paul to the Corinthian believers. And so by weakening us by lovingly and carefully and gently with great grace, taking from us those things that are spiritual or emotional crutches and causing us to look away from the idols of our life and look to Christ in faith alone, by that we are strengthened, we are not made stronger ourselves, but we are made in and of ourselves weaker, and by that we are strengthened. And then being strengthened in such a way, then we looked at the second request, Paul then says upon that, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And we looked at that, and we saw that the language the words that Paul is using there is literally to reach out and seize upon. In other words, Paul is not asking that Christ would indwell their hearts in a conversion sort of way. But instead, Christ is already in their hearts. And Paul is praying that Christ would really settle down and dwell intimately. He's praying for a greater fellowship, a greater communion, a real settling-down in their hearts. And then that being done, the next request that we looked at last week was so that they may have this supernatural comprehension. That they may comprehend the incomprehensible, which is to say, the, the height and the depth and the breadth and the width―in different order there―of the love of Christ for His people. This love of Christ, that we would know this with an experiential kind of knowing this, this love that surpasses the ability to know it by experience. So that we would truly really have this great grasp of the love of Christ for His people. And we looked last week at how it is that the Bible teaches us to think of God's love for us―not primarily in emotional ways that God has this great reservoir of emotional affection for us which he does. But instead, the Scriptures teach us to think of the measure of God's love for us as the cross. The cross is how the Scriptures teach us to think of the measure of God's love for us. And so the more that we comprehend what Christ became for us on the cross, the more we comprehend his love for us, because that is the measure of His love. And so then that leads us today into the fourth and final request, the ultimate request, as we'll see in just a little bit, there's another we'll talk about that as we go. But this fourth request of the prayer the lifts up is ‘so that you may be filled with all the fullness of Christ.’ So this being filled with the fullness of Christ, as we look at these words, filled, fullness, they're related in English, same thing in Greek, they're both the same word in different forms, filling, and fullness, and they mean just what it sounds like they mean. Filling means a supplying―to capacity and beyond capacity. Fullness just means having been supplied and filled to overflowing to, to a great capacity of fullness there. So they mean, what just what they mean on the surface there. So this being filled with the fullness of Christ is what we're gonna wrestle with, at least for the first part of our time together this morning. What does Paul mean? What is he asking that God would do when he asked that you may be filled with the fullness of Christ. So the first thing that comes to my mind is what Paul said at the end of chapter one, when he said, he called us as the church, the fullness of Christ here on Earth. Verse 22, of chapter one, and he put all things under his feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is the his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. And so if you'll think way, way back to when we were in chapter one, when we looked at that verse there at the end of chapter one, if you recall, we talked about how that is really a truth that is beyond our full understanding. All of Scripture is beyond our complete understanding. We know this, but this verse in particular, this―we as the church are the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all. And we talked about how we can understand some things about that. But there is a great amount of truth in that verse that we just, we sense, our spirits sense that there's more there that's beyond us. Now, as we come to this same phrase, of course, we can't help but to be reminded of what Paul says earlier about―that we as the church are the fullness of Christ. Now he prays that we may be filled to the fullness of Christ. So this, out of the gate, reminds me of a truth that the scriptures will bring to us repetitively, specifically, in the New Testament. The New Testament teaches us of this reality of our salvation that we, for lack of a better term, we call it the “already, but not yet.” So our scriptures are full of this kind of thing. In Christ, we already are something yet, we are not yet something. All right, and we can fill that those two blanks in with a lot of things. We can fill those blanks in with, for example, new creations in Christ―for, Second Corinthians 5:17―we are new creations. Yet, as Paul is going to say in chapter four, he's going to say, put on the new creation, put off the old man, and put on the new man. So we are a new man, we are―we're not thinking male, we're thinking humanity―we are a new humanity. Yet we are to put on a new humanity. Or we think about righteousness. For example, Paul will say to the Romans, in Romans five and verse one, that―since we have been justified by faith―now in that context, been justified is a synonym for having been made righteous. We are righteous, we have been made righteous in Christ, Christ covers us. His righteousness is what the Father recognizes when he looks at us. Yet, the scriptures go on to tell us to―strive for righteousness, to pursue righteousness, as Paul says to Timothy, (I'm sorry), Second Timothy two, verse 22, to pursue this righteousness, that we elsewhere are told we already are. And we see this in other concepts as well. We see this for example, we wrestled with this back in chapter one. When Paul prays the first prayer for the Ephesians, he prays that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, that the spirit of wisdom and revelation would be particularly powerful and active in them. And he had just a few verses earlier verified that they are indwelt by the Spirit, so they're indwelt by the Spirit, yet Paul prays that the spirit would―indwell or work or be active. A similar thing here we just dealt with just to just, I think, last Sunday, this this or no―two Sundays ago, this indwelling of Christ, we are in dwelt of Christ, yet Paul prays that this indwelling of Christ would be richer and fuller, and more complete. So we see this concept all over the place, that we in Christ, we are something, yet at the same time, we are encouraged to strive for something. And in processing all that we know that that has to do with the reality of our salvation―that we have been covered with the righteousness of another, meaning Christ, yet at the same time, we are not fully righteous in our own life. We can all look in the mirror of our life and see that we are not fully righteous, yet, in a real true sense, we are in the eyes of the Father. And so from that springs, all kinds of other truths like this, and this is one of those, this this truth here that we are as the church the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. Yet at the same time, Paul prays that they will be filled with the fullness of Christ. So we're back to the same question. What does Paul mean by filled with the fullness of God? This is an expression of which evangelical scholars, biblical scholars don't have a whole lot of agreement. Some will take this phrase to be―Paul is praying for a particular spiritual experience, an ecstatic sort of experience, a heightened experience. If you've ever read, maybe missionary biographies or biographies of Christians in the past, and you've read, oftentimes of these types of profound experiences, lots of times, a believer might have one of these, I think of maybe John Flavel, or Charles Wesley, or names like that people that just had this incredible ecstatic experience, in which―DL Moody is another―in which they just have this encounter with God and they are consumed, they are pressed in their spirit with this great profound realization of the love of God for them. Now, I don't doubt those. And I think that there is a sense in which this does concur with what Paul's asking. But I don't think that that is the real nature of what Paul is praying for here. I don't think that he's praying that we might have an experience, that the Ephesian believers would have this greater experience in the sense that you are praying tonight by your bed, and you're just overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of God. If God chooses to do that in your life, then we're all for that. But I don't think that that's the root of what Paul's praying for. Others will take this and they will, they will think that what Paul is praying for here is just a filling of what we're told that the fullness of Christ is. So this fullness of Christ is something that shows up in many places in the New Testament. For example, John chapter one, we're told that in the fullness, in this fullness, we've received grace upon grace, or, for example, later in the Letter to the Ephesians, in chapter four, Paul is going to say that to the church have been given apostles and prophets and teachers and preachers, for the purpose of building up the church to the fullness of the stature of manhood in Christ. So in that sense, the fullness of Christ is equated with this maturity in Christ, we're being made mature in Christ, being equipped to do the work of the church. Or elsewhere, we see the fullness of Christ show up in Paul's letter, for example, to the Colossians chapter two and verse nine, in which we're told that Christ is the fullness of God dwelling bodily. In Christ, the fullness of what it means to be God dwelt, bodily. And so some will take this prayer for the fullness of Christ, the filling of the fullness of Christ, to be a prayer for just that―Christ is the fullness of God, we have Christ, and so therefore, Paul is praying for the fullness of God. I don't think that that particularly fits either. So what fits the request that Paul has just made? Because remember, this is the fourth one. And the fourth request, whenever there's a sequence like this, that builds upon itself, then which of those four requests is going to be most important? Not trick―yeah the last one. Obviously, you're building up to the last one, obviously, the last one is where you want to get to. So the flow of Paul's prayer, what would it lead us to think that Paul has in his mind when he talks about being filled with the fullness of Christ, and I think that to see that all we have to do is just look to the previous phrase, where he says―that you might comprehend the height and the breadth and the width. And again, it’s a different order, but that you might comprehend this breadth and width and height, this immensity of the love of Christ. So as I plugged that in, and I think about this is what that was all leading to the strengthening in the inner man, through the mainly the removing the careful and gracious, removing of those things that compete with Christ for our loyalties, to the deeper, fuller, richer fellowship with Christ, which then opens the door to a comprehension of His love, an experiencing of His love, to the end result that we are filled with the fullness of Christ. I think that the only place that we can land and, and we can probably phrase this a number of different ways, but the fullness of Christ is all that God has for us in Christ. All of the blessings and privileges that are ours in Christ Jesus, I think that is the fullness of Christ that Paul has built up to this crescendo to pray for, that you be filled with all of the blessings and privileges that are ours in Christ Jesus. So when we think about this, this not only fits the immediate context, not only fits the prayer, but it also fits the entire letter. Because everything from chapter one verse three has been all about that, has been all about our blessings and privileges in Christ. We've talked about this, a multitude of times, particularly through chapter one, because Chapter One is all about our blessings and privileges in Christ; our blessings, prior to creation, prior to the foundation of the world are our choosing, our adopting. Our blessings in Christ that are brought to us in time by the son, his forgiveness, his redemption that he purchases on the cross, the blessings and privileges that were brought to us, as we believed―when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire. And then not only these blessings that we have acquired here in time, but also the blessings and privileges that await us, after the conclusion of this era, of this time when our real life begins. Remember all those Sundays that we talked about the blessed hope, the inheritance that is laid up for us. And then we have this prayer at the end of chapter one, that we might understand these things, that you might understand and perceive your blessings and privileges in Christ. Then chapter two is all about what Christ delivered you from, in order to bestow those blessings and privileges upon you―you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked in complete accordance with this world, with a god of this age, in complete accordance with the culture of this age, yet, by grace, you had been saved, this wasn't your own doing this was the gift of God. So all of chapter two was about how we were utterly undeserving of this, how deep how low, the Lord had to reach in order to bestow upon us the blessings and privileges in Christ. And then chapter three is all about the church. The church, which is the context, the sphere, in which all these blessings and privileges come to us. So this prayer really is, as we said a few Sundays ago, this really is the culmination of all of the first three chapters, with the exception of just those very two initial introductory verses, verses one and two, Paul an apostle of God in Christ Jesus to the saints who are in Ephesus and our faithful in Christ Jesus. Other than that, beginning at that point, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And I'm going to talk for three chapters about those spiritual blessings. And then when I get done talking about those spiritual blessings, I'm going to pray that you be filled with the fullness of those spiritual blessings that are yours in Christ Jesus. So these blessings and privileges, this reality that's ours in Christ, that comes to us by way of the love of Christ for His people, the fullness of what God has for us all, all of the benefits of knowing him, all of the benefits of being his child, all of the benefits of being the heir to his kingdom―this fullness of God, this is what Paul is praying for, that would come to us in a way that transforms us. Because this is how the Scriptures teach us that we are transformed again, at the risk of repeating ourselves, but we repeat ourselves because Paul is repeating himself. We are transformed not by reaching down and finding more willpower, we are transformed not by training ourselves to say no to certain sins. Were transformed by beholding Him, by perceiving His great love for us. That is how the Christian is transformed in reality. We are righteous before God. But we are in this process of becoming righteous, and we are becoming righteous, not because we are people of greater willpower than non-Christians, but we're becoming righteous in our life because we are increasingly beholding Him, perceiving him, and seeing him. This is straight from the teaching of the New Testament, for example, Second Corinthians three, verse 17, and 18. Now the Lord is the Spirit―so here's the work of the Spirit―and we all with unveiled face are beholding the glory of God, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So you see there plainly the transformation is coming to us as we behold, and behold, there doesn't mean with physical eyes, it means beholding with the eyes of the heart. The eyes of the spirit, of spiritual beholding. We are made alive to God, and we are made increasingly alive to God so that we may increasingly behold Him, and increasingly be He changed. First John chapter three and verse two―But we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. So let's pause right here. And let's just review one more time back through the steps of the four requests. Number one, Paul prays that you'd be strengthened with power through the Spirit in your inner man in your inner being. God is not content to allow us to continue to rely on the false means of self-support, that we are under the illusion really exist in our life. Reliance upon self is an illusion, and the world and our enemy want us to believe the illusion that we can rely on ourselves. Our Father knows we can't. Our Father knows he is the only rock, he is the only fortress, he is the only sure foothold. And so he's not content with having his children to rely upon that which is false upon the sands which shift and sink away. He will not rest until his children are firmly planted on the foothold on the stronghold of him and him alone. And so, he first prays that you be strengthened in your inner man, that you may rely more fully, not upon yourself, you may forsake yourself and turn to Him and Him alone and relying upon him, in your weakness, he is made strong in you. Which leads to then the second request that Christ would really find deep communion and fellowship with you. God is not happy with partial fellowship. God is not happy with false fellowship. God's not happy with fake fellowship with His children. God is not happy, having a part of you. God wants all of you, he wants genuine fellowship, he wants a genuine communion. Why? Because he's the selfish God no―because He created you to find ultimate pleasure in his friendship. And he knows, having made you, having major soul, that you will never find ultimate contentment and any other fellowship other than full fellowship with Him. And so he won't rest until you have that full fellowship with Him. Which then leads to this greater comprehension of his love for his people. We can't comprehend his love for his people outside of fellowship with him outside of communion with Him, outside of the weakening of the outer man, and the strengthening of the inner man, that increasingly perceives him as our rock, which opens the door wider and wider to sweeter fellowship, showing us more and more the deep love of Christ for His people, which is, Paul says, being filled with the fullness of Christ. So this is the final request that Paul has built up to, this request that, in a sense is what is praying in Romans eight, verse 15, that by the Spirit, we truly cry out in our hearts―Abba, Father. You are our father, you are our rock, you are everything. In your hand, you hold the key to all of my life’s satisfaction, all of my life's joy. Apart from you, there is no true joy. And so this is ultimately the fullness that I believe that Paul is praying for, the fullness of God, all that God is for us through the love of Christ, God's gift of himself in all the ways that his people can enjoy him and benefit from knowing him.

Part 2

The love of God for His people is both the means for our transformation, and the goal of our transformation. The reward itself is how the reward is attained.

So this is the final request that Paul has built up to, this request that, in a sense is what is praying in Romans eight, verse 15, that by the Spirit, we truly cry out in our hearts―Abba, Father. You are our father, you are our rock, you are everything. In your hand, you hold the key to all of my life’s satisfaction, all of my life's joy. Apart from you, there is no true joy. And so this is ultimately the fullness that I believe that Paul is praying for, the fullness of God, all that God is for us through the love of Christ, God's gift of himself in all the ways that his people can enjoy him and benefit from knowing him. So, let's just take a few moments now. And I want to point out some things about this prayer, now that we sort of have the prayer complete, even though it's not complete yet. But now that we sort of have this prayer complete, let's just take a few moments, and let's just enjoy, if you will, the perfection of God's plan for the joy of his people, for the eternal happiness of his people. We are, the power of His love strengthens us in our inner man, making us more aware of his love for us, which strengthens us in our inner man, which makes us more aware of his love for us, which strengthens us in our inner man. So you see how this this dynamic of God's growing us and our comprehension and our understanding and our experiencing of His love for us, you see how this is this is, in a sense, like this snowball, this spiritual snowball rolling downhill. Now he said last week, that this perception, this understanding of the love of God for His people, like any perception of any experience, any understanding of any experience is limited by the nature of the creature that's experiencing it. So our example one example from last week was a goldfish. You're taking a goldfish home from the pet store and a little Ziploc bag, you know, and as you drive the goldfish home, the goldfish experiences everything of your ride. He experiences the scenery, the music, that you're playing on the radio, the person honking their horn at you. But his experience of that ride home is limited by what he is―which is a goldfish. So the experience isn't lessened. It's the same experience for you and the goldfish. But the perception of that experience is quite different, according to the nature of the one doing the experiencing. So we―this, this knowledge of God that surpasses knowledge―is an experiencing of His love that surpasses our ability to perceive it. Because our nature limits our ability to perceive the love of God, yet, here's the thing, we are being changed in our nature. And that's the whole thing to see. Our Nature limits how we can understand the love of God for us in Christ. Yet our nature is being changed―from one degree to another we are being changed so that the perception of this is greatly increased. Again, Second Corinthians 3:17 and 18―We all with unveiled face are beholding the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. This is what happens when the soul is stretched by the experiencing of the love of God for His people. The stretching of that soul causes the soul to have greater perception of the love of God for them. Like the wine and the wine skins that burst the wine skins, but in a different way, the love of God poured out for his people in our soul stretches our soul so that our soul can grasp it more fully more deeply, and doing so we're transformed into one who can greater, in greater ways grasp that. So you see how the love of God is working. Now here's the thing to see. The love of God for His people is both the means and the goal of this whole process. And this is really beautiful. The love of God for His people in Jesus Christ, is both the means of our transformation, and the goal of our transformation. Our transformation that we just described is being brought about in our souls through the means of God's love for His people. Yet this realization, this full realization of the love of God for His people is also the goal of that transformation. Now, I thought this week of, of what I could compare this to. What other experience and all of the human experience compares to something in which the goal of something is also the means that you achieve the goal. And I thought of some false comparisons that the world might suggest for us. We've all heard it said that life is a journey. Life is not a destination. And so the goal of life is not to get somewhere but to live it, right? Okay. There, that may sound similar―that's not the same thing. Because at the end of life, you die. The goal of the love of Christ for His people, is the love of Christ for His people. In the purest sense, in the fullest sense, what God wants for us, what his plan for us is, is to bring us to a place in which we, being glorified, now have a full perception of the love of God for His people shown to us in Jesus Christ. And the way that God gets us there is by the love of God for his people through Christ. That's pretty profound. Nothing else works that way. Everything else in your life is some sort of goal, that you use something else to get to. Now the something you used to get to it might be enjoyable, it might not be so enjoyable. And the goal that you're working for, might be some sort of ultimate goal in life, or it might be something short of that. But everything else in your life works that way. You use something, to get something else. Nothing else in the human experience is true for this and, in the sense that the reward itself is how you attain the reward. This is why Paul begins this whole section by telling us―every blessing in Christ is already ours. We already have the love of God for His people shown in Christ. Our hindrance is perceiving it. How will we perceive it? By the love of God's people shown to us through Christ. So there's two fallacies that we can fall into in this Christian experience. Two fallacies of this whole thing of the love of Christ is the goal, the love of Christ is the means. And those fallacies are pretty easy to see. The first one is: to understand that the love of Christ is the means by which we're transformed, but to miss the fact that the love of Christ is the goal. So the love of Christ is how we are transformed, but the love of Christ is not what we're praying and looking to be transformed into. That fallacy is better known as ‘the prosperity gospel.’ The prosperity gospel understands that the love of Christ shown to us is the means of transformation. They just misunderstand what the goal of being transformed into is. And they see the love of Christ is that which gives to us that which we want more than the love of Christ, which is―in many cases―earthly things: better job, nicer car, health, freedom from disease, comfort in life, respect. And Christ is the one to bring us those things, but we misunderstand that what the love of Christ is meant and intended to bring us to, which is the love of Christ. Instead, we see the love of Christ as bringing us to that which we really want―which are often earthly blessings, sometimes their eternal blessings. Sometimes we see the love of Christ as intended to greater to bring us to greater eternal blessings than the love of Christ itself. I see this often show up in the words of believers that I oftentimes, I’ll just kind of hold my breath, when I hear believers talk about the next life in terms like this: terms that are exclusive to the removal of pain, the removal of sickness and seeing loved ones again. Now that's an eternal blessing. That's an eternal reward. But do you see how that's awfully close to becoming the main reward when that is how you view the next life? That the love of Christ is intended to get you to the thing that you really want, which is freedom from sickness, freedom from pain and seeing your loved ones again. So the love of Christ is the means to the end, only we get the end wrong. It's like a ticket, you know, think of something that you need a ticket to go to. Like―only thing I can think of is a movie, that you need a ticket to go see a movie. And so you go and you buy your $25 ticket, wherever they are now. And you have this ticket to get into the movie and the guy at the door, tears it in half and gives you your stubb, and you go in and you sit down, because the movie is what you really want. What did the ticket do? The ticket gets you to what you really wanted. I'm sure we can all imagine just how many half ticket stubs the movie theater, people have to clean up after every movie because you just you're done with it. It got you what you want it, you're done with it. The love of Christ is not our ticket. The love of Christ is, if it is a ticket, it's a ticket to itself. Because the love of Christ is the means and the goal. Now the other fallacy is that fallacy and reverse of understanding that the love of Christ is the ultimate goal. But failing to see that the love of Christ is also the means of reaching that goal. That's the fallacy called legalism. In which we may correctly understand that what we want is eternity with Christ that He is our reward. But we fail to see that the very love of Christ that were made for in eternity is how we get there. Instead, we've we understand that what we get there through other means through our good lives or, or keeping certain laws, or not doing certain things or being some sort of good person, as if there really was one before the eyes of God, right? There were lots of people like that in Jesus's day that saw correctly saw that the ultimate goal was eternal life with God, but they misunderstood how to get it. They were called Pharisees. And Jesus had some rather harsh things to say to them. So these two fallacies of misunderstanding that the love of Christ is both the means, and the end. It is one of the most beautiful things of the Christian life. And if we miss it, we've missed a lot. So now Paul has lifted up this last and final request. But as I hinted to, this is not the final request. There's another request, although it's not really a request, but it is a request. So this, remember, we talked about this Greek word hena. Hena was the one that's the word is translated ‘in order to’ or ‘so that,’ right? And there's these four hena phrases, right? So that this so that this so that this, and that was the last one. So there's not another one. But what follows is, I believe in a real sense, the ultimate request―the request that all of this was intended to lead to and that is the request of the doxology. That that word doxology just, it just means worship, the words of praise words of worship. And so this doxology, this praising, this lifting up of words of praise to God, really, I think that we should see this as the final request―strengthen them in their inner man, so that being made more fully reliant upon you, Christ dwells more intimately, the fellowship is more close, the communion more intimate, so that they may have greater comprehension of the love of God for His people, so that they be filled with the fullness of Christ, so that God be glorified. Now, I take that in a couple of ways. The first way I take that is because well remember back in chapter one, how Paul sprinkled throughout chapter one this repeated request that all these things are to the glory of God. Three times in chapter one, to the praise of his glory to the praise of his glory, and to the praise of His grace. So three times in chapter one, Paul brings us back, he talks about these blessings and privileges in Christ. And the purpose the ultimate point was―for the glory of God. The second thing that leads me to see this, the whole section that we've been talking about from verse three of chapter one, to verse 21, of chapter three, all of it, in a sense, is bracketed by words of praise. Everything with the again, the exception of those two little verses at the beginning, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus to the believers in Ephesus, beginning from verse three, what is it? How does he begin verse three? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now at the end of the section comes another in different words, Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's like Paul has bracketed this whole section in words of praise, almost as if he were to say: this right here, this great big grand truth that has taken us nearly a year to work through, this is the praise this is for the praise of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this filling of the fullness of God, the fullness of Christ, that all that God has for us in Christ, being filled with that, is for the ultimate purpose of the glory of God. Just like our choosing from eternity past was for the glory of God, our adoption into the eternal family of God was for the glory of God, our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, the sealing of the Spirit, all of this has been, Paul specifically says, for the glory of God. How is that? How is it that being filled with the fullness of Christ? And all this for the glory of God? How is it that both of these are the ultimate requests that Paul is making? And here's the next thing to see. Neither of these two requests are in conflict with one another. In fact, both of these requests are ultimately the same request. As Paul is asking, that they be filled with this incomprehensible, unsurpassable knowledge of the experiencing of the love of God for His people, simultaneously, God receives maximum glory. The best way to see this is through the words of John Piper, you've heard these from me before, you've probably read them yourself before but nobody explains this better than he. This is an original, it's not original to me for sure. It's not original to him. He takes this from other Christian writers like John Flavel, or John Owen, CS Lewis. But he summarizes this and puts this in words that are easier for me to grasp than any other words. And so they go like this. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” And that is so well worthy of being memorized. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” So the best way to see this is with again, Piper's example, which Piper's favorite example of this is the example of somebody's anniversary. Alright, so let's say it's your spouse's birthday. It's your spouse's birthday, all right. And it's about three o'clock, four o'clock in the afternoon, you're about to get off work and tonight is this day is your spouse's birthday. And on the way home, you go by Harris Teeter to pick up this great big bouquet of 12, red roses, you get this big box of nice chocolates and you gift wrap it and you go home and walk in the door and you say, get dressed. We've got reservations at your favorite restaurant. And we're gonna go there for your birthday. And you go to this restaurant, which is her favorite restaurant, and you had this wonderful meal, there was roses, there's dessert, there's the chocolates, all this kind of thing. And at the end of the meal, the check’s about to come. And she looks over to you. And she says “thank you so much. This was the most wonderful birthday ever.” To watch you reply, don't mention it. It's my duty. So just like taking a safety pin to a balloon, you just deflated the whole night? Because you turned that whole night into what you were supposed to do. Had you answered that differently, had she said this was the most wonderful birthday I've had since the last one. And you say, “I couldn't imagine spinning this night any other way, because I just I enjoy spending it with you.” Then you just took all the glory and the honor of the flowers and the meal. And you just took it to another level, by saying you're worthy of these flowers. You're worthy of the candy. But what really makes me happy, is you. Isn't that the greatest honor? In the same way, that is how God is most honored by us. When we see him rightly, as our greatest joy, and our greatest satisfaction, our greatest delight, our greatest happiness―that is the maximum glory that we can give to our Creator. Yes, we glorify Him with our words, we glorify Him with our deeds. We glorify Him in lots of ways. But can we give him more glory than saying to him, You and You alone are what I want? Now quite often, we have to say that from a position of faith, knowing that that's what your Word teaches us. And sometimes I really believe that sometimes I struggle to believe that, but that's what your Word tells me and so by faith, you, Lord God, you are all that I desire in heaven on earth. I have tasted you and found you to be good. You are the delight of my heart. That is how we most glorify Him.

Part 3

The maximum eternal happiness of the believer and the maximum glory of God are not in conflict.

Yes, we glorify Him with our words, we glorify Him with our deeds. We glorify Him in lots of ways. But can we give him more glory than saying to him, “You and You alone are what I want”? Now quite often, we have to say that from a position of faith, knowing that that's what your Word teaches us. And sometimes I really believe that, sometimes I struggle to believe that, but that's what your Word tells me and so by faith, you, Lord God, you are all that I desire in heaven on earth. I have tasted you and found you to be good. You are the delight of my heart. That is how we most glorify Him. And so now let's look at just the beauty of how God works this into our life. Through his strengthening work through His Spirit, in our inner man, he causes us to rely more fully and completely upon him, seeing ourselves or any other earthly thing as a dead end, only he is our rock. And doing that we then experience this deeper fellowship, this more settling down indwelling. And that leads to this greater comprehension of His love for us, which, as John says, leads to greater love for him, which leads to more glory for him. And the whole thing is just built that way. In such a way, that the maximum glory of our Maker and Creator is found in our maximum joy. And that's not just not philosophical words. That's what the Scriptures teach us. Our maximum joy is in him. And his maximum glory is in us finding our maximum joy in him. We have quite an eternity in store for us. So this, this is―these two ultimate goals that Paul is holding out this this ultimate goal of the glorifying of God, and the ultimate goal of our greatest realization of God's love for us, in Christ Jesus―perfect happiness, and the glory of God are not in competition, perfect happiness and the glory of God are working in parallel. So what a prayer to pray. When we pray for sustenance, and we pray for deliverance, when we pray for that doctor's report that wasn't very encouraging. When we pray for a better job, when we pray for a place to live. All those in the right context are honoring prayers to God that bring glory to Him. But to pray, as Paul prays, Lord, show me, show me the love of your people in Christ Jesus. So that I may see that and perceive that, and perceiving that give you greater glory and greater honor. Is that not a request that would delight God's heart to answer? And he does. He answers that he's is answering it as we speak. This is tantamount to what Jesus tells us in Luke 11, verse 13, remember his words there? You know, you are evil people, you're following people, your hearts are evil, but even you evil people, you know how to give good gifts. Who among you has a child that asks for a fish and you give them a snake? Who has a child that asks for a piece of bread, and you give them a stone? Nobody does that. How much more will your heavenly Father give you here is―the Holy Spirit to those who asked, that is the same prayer, is it not? When Jesus says How would it delight the heart of God for His people to cry out―God I want more of you. I have tasted and seen you to be good and I want more. So now Paul transitions into this final two verses of praise―Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think―does all of this sound like something that's from another world? Like there's no way that God has designed this system, this following him that is so built upon our maximum happiness and joy. There's no way. But Paul says―way. Because he is far more able to do far more abundantly than all you ask or even think, you know, when we pray, how rarely is it that this is in our hearts, that this is in our mind? When we pray, what are we praying for usually? We're praying for something right in front of our face. We're praying for this thing right here, this thing coming up tomorrow, this thing I'm struggling with over here. Paul says, That's okay. Because he knows how to give far more abundantly than even what you may think. This is tantamount to what Paul says in Romans chapter eight, of how to how the Spirit knows what we should pray. And he lists the sanctified prayers up. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly, all power, all power, all power rests in our maker, to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask, or to think, according to the power at work within us. Now, I read that, and what you probably want to say to yourself is the same thing I want to say to myself―according to the power at work within us―I don't feel very powerful. I don't feel like there's a power work, do you feel like there's a power working in you? I don't usually feel that way. I think Paul would answer that by saying―Good. Because, when you're strong, he's weak. That's the whole idea. He won't compete with your illusionary strength. Only when you realize your weakness is he strong. In our self-assured false strength, we are weak. In our self-assured false strength, that is when we take upon ourselves that which doesn't belong to us. So Paul says to us, there is a power at work within us, and you don't perceive it. And it's a good thing that you don't perceive it. Because that opens the door to his power working in you. According to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. You know, God does not fit into our limited expectations of him. Again, just like the wine and the wine―God just doesn't fit into our small expectations of him. Back in 1961, JB Phillips, you may be familiar with JB Phillips, he wrote a paraphrase of the New Testament, he wrote a book called ‘Your God Is Too Small.’ Back in 2018, JD Greear wrote another book by the exact same title. And both of those books have the same premise. And the premise is this: all of your spiritual problems are rooted in your low view of God. Because you do not have a high enough view of God, you have a deficient view of God, you have a view of God that is too low. You say, ‘Wait a minute, how do you know what my view of God is?’ I don't, because I can't see your heart. You can't see my heart. But I know what Paul said―all of you have a low view of God, all of us have a view of God beneath what he really is. In part, that's because we can't perceive him. In part, that's because he is infinite in all his ways. All of his attributes are infinite. And so in part, it's because we, it's impossible for us to see him rightly. But in big part is because of the sin in our heart. The remaining sin in our life that causes us to think low thoughts of God, that causes us to think deficient thoughts of God. And so both Phillips and Greer are going to say to us, you know where spiritual progress is really found? Spiritual progress is really found in informing your view of who God is, and reminding yourself of just the greatness of your God, and how his greatness far exceeds all of your ideas of him. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Isaiah says in Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9, from my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. So God is not merely able to do what Paul is asking. Paul also says that God's already doing it. To him who was able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that's going to be at work in us? That I pray will be at work? ―the power that is at work in us. We might hear this and we might say, Wow, I just need to revolutionize my prayers. I need to pray like Paul's praying here. And yes, you do. And yes, I do. But nevertheless, this was already God's goals. This was already God's working in your life. Remember, a few Sundays ago, we said that God is working behind the scenes in your life, to take from you all those false idols and false crutches that are detracting from him. He's already at work to do this. Philippians one, verse six, I'm sure of this, that He who began a good work, and you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. What we need is not as some would say, a deeper experience of Christ. What we need is not sort of this ecstatic, encountering of Christ in which he just brings us to our knees with this realization of the love of God―if he wants to do that for me, then please. But what we need is the work of the Spirit in our hearts, using the word of God and the people of God, to bring us supernaturally to a greater and greater comprehension of the love of God for His people, that is poured out for us in Jesus Christ, like we talked about last Sunday. That is how transformation takes place. And so this is why we need the Spirit, the necessity of the spirit to do this. Because we're not talking about knowing about God. We're not saying here that the more you know about God, the more you're transformed. What we're saying is what Paul is saying is, the more that we know God. Like he said to the Philippians, That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Now I can’t tell you about God, I can't tell myself about God, I can tell you about God. In fact, if all we needed was to be told about God, then I could do all that for you. We just stand up here and just tell you about God. I can't tell you to know God. That's the work of the Spirit. We only know him by the spirit’s work in our heart. As Paul will say to the Corinthians, nobody knows another person's thought only the spirit of a person knows that persons thought. In the same way, who knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, yet we have the Spirit of God. And that's the spirits were that we may know him, not know about him, not know facts about him, but to know Him. And that is only his work. And so one of the last things that we'll see here is that God is worthy of our highest, highest praise. Now to Him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever, and ever. God is worthy of your highest praise. DA Carson writes this, has God become so central to my thoughts and pursuits, and thus to my prayers, that I cannot easily imagine asking for anything without greatly desiring that answer would bring glory to God. Did you catch what he said? Have I been so transformed in my thoughts? Have been so transformed in my spirit, that it's reflected in my prayers, that everything that I pray for, I only pray for it, if God is glorified in it. That's quite a transformation. How do we make that transformation? What's our part of that? What do we do for that transformation? I would suggest to us, here's a real key: understanding that the glory of God, and all of your requests in Jesus Christ are the same. All of your requests, which are ultimately the requests for your peace, your security, your happiness, your satisfaction, your pleasure in Christ―all of those things are the same as the glory of God. And so he asks this question this right question, God, make my every request, make my every prayer grounded upon the glory of God, cause my heart to desire nothing that doesn't bring you glory. May that be our prayers, make my prayers filled with nothing that's outside of the desire for your glory. Now, just some final concluding thoughts here on the back of your notes: Ephesians one through three, as we finish up these three chapters, really is a lesson in worship and prayer. It's just a―Paul's just giving us, he's taking us to school, on what worship and prayer look like. And what we come away seeing here is that meaningful worship does not just happen. It results from intentionality, from purposefulness, from attention, from thought and from effort. And all of that is worked into our heart and into our lives by the enabling power of the Spirit. So this worship that Paul is teaching us of is not something that we should just ever expect to just sort of spontaneously happen when we walk into the door of the church building on Sunday morning. Nor should we expect it to spontaneously happen when you are reading scripture in the morning. In other words, it requires investment from us. It requires filling our thoughts with the truth of God, it requires being renewed in our mind―so that that transformational worship can take place, and Ephesians one through three is well worth our time, to just reflect upon, to memorize to commit it to memory, to teach us, to teach our hearts about worship and about prayer. Next, our cognitive view of God often does not evoke devotion, contemplation, or obedience. Paul seeks to change that. Our thoughts of God―have you ever noticed this about yourself that your thoughts of God sometimes just don't move you, don't evoke from you thoughts of worship, thoughts of devotion, thoughts of obedience, thoughts of loyalty. That's because the church has largely forgotten how to worship. And by church, I mean big C, the universal church, all those believers in Jesus Christ worldwide, we have largely forgotten to worship. We have replaced genuine true worship, with preoccupation with music, and oratory skills of the speaker, all kinds of things. We've replaced true and genuine worship with all sorts of superficial, temporary earthly things. And the church has largely forgotten how to worship, and forgetting how to worship we've forgotten how to pray. And Paul seeks to change that. And he seeks to change it, as we saw in chapter one through the deepest theology that New Testament has for us, through Chapter Two through a full faced view upon what it was that we were when God reached to us, when he reached down into that miry pit for us what we were, and then this full open eye view of the church in chapter three. And then lastly, our last point for the morning. And our last point for Ephesians. one through three is this, we do not seek to glorify the church. Instead, the church is to be the primary and the central glorifier of God. Of the many, many doxologies in the New Testament. This one is unique. It's unique, because it's one of the longest, it's also unique, because it's the only doxology in the church, or in the New Testament, that has the church in it. Every doxology of the New Testament is written to the church―only this one has the church in it. Now Paul says, To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Paul doesn't say, Paul doesn't say, Let there be glory to the church. Paul says, Let there be Glory to God in the church. We are the greatest manifestation on earth, of the transformative power of God. We are the display. As we said earlier, back in chapter two, we are the display of his wisdom. We are also the display of his transformative power, we as the church of Jesus Christ, we are the greatest illustration of how our God transforms, and not through outward pressure, but it transforms through inward love, through showing us increasingly, through increasing clarity and increasing perception, the love of God for His people in Jesus Christ.