The Riches of His Glory Part 2, Eph, 3:14-19
Ephesians 3:14-19 · Vern Peterman · Jan 23, 2005
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 54
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262319305139

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This passage here is now the second week we're looking at the passage, and we'll be focusing on that by shifting to the last half. Before we do that, though, one of the things I'd like to point out is Paul is writing this prayer. It begins in verse 14. We've included through 19 here, and it actually extends into verses 20 and 21 that we'll look at next week. One of the things that's interesting is Paul repeats words that don't always come through in the English, but in the Greek, father and family are words that sound similar and are related. Know and knowledge in the Greek are also related words and filled in fullness. There are also repeated words, Christ and love. If we extend that into the next couple of verses that we'll include next week in verses 20 and 21, there are also some additional repeated words. So it's a passage with lots of fabric to it, lots of theme. And Paul writes it in such a way that he introduces thoughts and ideas and words and he carries them through the rest of the prayer.

We'll be looking at specifically 17 through 19 here this morning. And so that's what you'll see singled out on your handout. And if you're joining us here for the first time this morning, this is the page number on your handout down in the lower corner. All right.

Now, our approach here, this is a little bit of a repeat of last week, but just to get us in sync, this is Paul's second prayer in Ephesians in chapter 1, 15 through 23. He had begun his first prayer. There's enough in it that we're taking two weeks here to cover this, and 20 and 21 will be a benediction. Paul is praying that the reality of their position in Christ would be the reality in their lives, in their condition, by God's power, by God's doing it.

It's interesting, he doesn't say, here's your position, here's your condition, here's what I want to see, do it. He very carefully emphasizes Here's your position in Christ. Here is who you are in Christ, who He has made you to be. Here is what that means as it's lived out. And to get from here to here, God's got to do it.

And He continues to emphasize that, and we'll see that even again next week. Alright. The other point being that He has stated, as we have noted all along here, God's eternal purpose. He mentioned that earlier in this passage. His eternal purpose starts off with declaring His glory, revealing His glory, and continues on with sharing His glory. The passage that we're looking at here today is very much focusing on sharing His glory.

One of the points that comes out in here He begins in verse 17, "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." All right, now, so here's a biblical truth. Christ is in each believer. It is underscored repeated times in Scripture. Here's John 14, Christ Himself speaking. He was speaking to the disciples there in the crucifixion week. In 1420, He speaks at the end of 1420, "...and I in you." Okay? Now, 1423. It says, we will come to him and make our abode with him. And here's Jesus himself speaking and included in that. We could go on to John 17, 23.

Jesus is praying here and he says, I and them, referring to the believers, okay? And in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, Or do you not recognize this about yourself, that Christ is in you? See, repeated statement. Christ is in each believer. So, if that's the case, He's already in the believer.

What's Paul saying? So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Sounds like he's praying that Christ is going to dwell in your hearts, doesn't it? Paul can't really be praying that believers have what they already have, can he? Is that what he's got in mind? No. He's not referring to the fact that Christ dwells in your heart. That's already clear. That cannot be changed and it can't be improved upon. What he's talking about is Christ making himself at home in your hearts. Ah, different emphasis, isn't it? Here's the point that he's making there.

He is not talking about the believer's position when he prays. He's talking about the believer's condition. He wasn't concerned about the fact of Christ He is not concerned about being in the believer and indwelling every believer. He is instead concerned about the quality of Christ's life in the believer.

See? That's the distinction. Key point. He says, your heart isn't just Christ's legal address. Your heart, Christ's home. In our own lives, think about it. We have an official address. Somebody says, where's your legal address? Legally, that's where we live.

However, making ourselves at home at some place is a different matter, isn't it? If I, for example, move to a new place and I go online or fill out the little postcard and drop it in for the post office folks and legally tell them, okay, here's where you need to send my mail, that doesn't mean that I've really made myself at home, does it?

I may have legally changed it, but I haven't made myself at home. I may even get all the stuff packed, get it into the new place. In fact, I think Laban and Katie are just going through this, unpacking the boxes. I may even have some things starting to be unpacked, but I still haven't made myself at home yet, have I? Not yet, not there. I've got all the boxes, I've got to get all the nooks and crannies, I unpack everything. I still haven't made myself at home yet.

Making oneself at home is a process of personalizing it, of intimate connection with the place that you live, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. It's not a prayer, he's on the outside and I'm praying that he'll be on the inside. Pray that he will make himself at home in your hearts, down dwell, as it says. Now, there's this next word, being rooted. Now, I want to set your minds at ease, relax, this has nothing to do with root canal.

So, being rooted here, this word is a perfect passive participle, it's the same one we saw before in Colossians 2.7. Rooted. This root, it is perfect tense, which means it's a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. There we go, all right. Completed past action with ongoing results into the future, and since it's passive, God's doing the rooting and not us, okay?

Now, this word is telling us about our position, eternally fixed in the heavenlies in Christ, and he says it's a done deal. It's a done deal. Christ, as he pictures it, because he's using a kind of an agricultural analogy, Christ, as he pictures it, is the soil in whom we're planted. He is the one with whom we have intimate connection.

Now, it's interesting, you ever bring a plant home, like from the nursery or something like that, and you want to plant it? What you do is you take it out of the pot, you bang all the dirt off it, and you lay it on the sidewalk, right? Probably not. No, what you want is an intimate connection between the roots and the soil, don't you?

You want a good connection, and you make sure of that because you want it to do well. That's what's taking place here. God has said, I have intimately connected you in Christ the soil. There is intimate contact. All right. Colossians 2, 6, and 7 is the passage we looked at before. and very much the same, having been firmly rooted.

So he pictures the believer as a tree. Okay, so feel like a tree. Do you look like a tree? I won't comment on that. Anyway, the believer is pictured as a tree, firmly rooted in Christ, Christ then being the soil, and the roots then that extend into that soil get all the water and minerals and the stability necessary for the tree to have life. Now, roots only provide that water, minerals, and stability for the tree because they're in intimate contact with the soil. They are, as Paul has continued to tell the people at Ephesus, the believers, you are in him. Christ is the soil. You are intimately connected with him. Then, he switches to an from an agricultural to an architectural analogy, if you will, being grounded.

This is the same word also as in Colossians 1.23, and it's also a perfect passive participle. Don't worry, you don't have to do a thing. God's done it. This firmly established there means to lay a foundation, and it was used both literally, if you're going to lay a foundation, or in the sense of figuratively, as Paul is making reference to it here.

It's a perfect passive, it's a completed past action with ongoing results in the future, just like being rooted. And it was done by another, not ourselves. There is no positionally, well, I gotta work really hard to get grounded, to get rooted, because he says it's a done deal.

Now, in biblical times, if you had well-built walls, buildings, things of that sort, you would found them on solid bedrock. They would build, for example, a city wall. They would dig all the way down to bedrock, even if it meant digging several dozen feet wide, in order to get a solid foundation. This is at a fortress, and even though it looks kind of precariously hung, they put the rock on bedrock, and it stood there for almost 2,000 years now. Solidly on the rock. That's the idea.

Paul pictures the believer has already Done deal. Already having been solidly founded on the rock, it is the believer's eternal position. Notice, as he is praying for their condition, as he is praying for how their life is lived out, he continues to put an emphasis on their position. He doesn't leave it behind.

As a matter of fact, in this prayer, he has a basis for praying for them because of their position. You see that? He can pray for them in their condition because they have a position in Christ. That should tell us something. As believers, we can pray for one another, and in our own lives, for how that's lived out because we have an eternally fixed position in Christ. That's the basis of prayer for other believers, their position.

Now, so this being rooted and grounded, it's not variable, it doesn't change. but they're word pictures of our position in Christ, fixed, solid, rooted, grounded, a firm foundation. So the believer is pictured as this tree, firmly rooted. The believer is also pictured as a firmly set building foundation.

Now, next he goes on to this idea and he uses the word love, agape, in both places. In this context it has a specific meaning. And so, in love says where we're rooted and grounded. Now, that's a good thing, isn't it? You see, your being rooted and grounded isn't something God decided to just sort of academically do. He did it in love. He did it in selfless love. He didn't say, boy, these people are so great. They're just such wonderful folks. I think I'll root them and ground them. selfless, agape love.

Then he has this word love, it refers to a unique personal source of that divine expression of love, the love of Christ, as he qualifies it there in verse 19. Now notice how this gets put here. Paul is referring to agape love, that's a self-sacrificial love, it's a love that by nature comes from God, It seeks the benefit of the recipient without asking anything in return. It's not a because-of kind of love. Now, each believer is placed in their eternal position, rooted and grounded, entirely within that unique kind of love. Let's picture it this way. There's this picture of the tree and this firm foundation, and we're going to shrink it just a little bit because we want to put it inside this box here entirely within love.

God didn't just say, hey, I think I'll root and ground these people and just kind of throw a little love on it, scatter a little bit, sprinkle a little love dust. No, it was done entirely in His love for us. In His selfless love for us, in His unconditional love for us, we've been rooted and grounded. It is not dependent on, boy, am I faithful? Can I work up some loyalty? Can I work up some faithfulness? Do I feel religious today?

It's none of that. It's none of those. It is entirely within his selfless love, his unconditional love, that he's rooted and grounded us. Now, we've got this next word, may be able to comprehend. Again, he's praying for them. He says, I want them to comprehend. This is katalambano. Do you remember katalambano? Eddie Lombano is this guy, the Italian guy who lives down the street. Cata Lombano is his sister. Literally, it means to down-receive. Receive down.

It has the idea of understanding to make something one's own. Ever been told about something and you say, yeah, I kind of get it, but it doesn't really mean anything to you? This means to bring it to yourself, to make it one's own. to take it down so that it is yours, you own it and understand it. That's what he's saying here. I want you to comprehend, not just in some academic fashion, I want you to make it your own understanding. I pray that you would understand down home in your heart.

That's what he's asking. He wants everyone to personalize the truth and the understanding, each one. You see, God isn't like the pagan gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses in the pagan world that Paul went to, they just kind of held all the truth to themselves. And one of the things we find repeatedly in the pagan world is people complaining, I don't know what the gods want.

I have no idea what they want. I don't know what they're doing, and they don't care about me. They don't bless me. They don't love me. God isn't hoarding the light bulbs like these pagan gods and goddesses, keeping us in the dark. Instead, he's telling us, and Paul is saying, I want you to understand, I want you to comprehend the love of Christ. What the people complained about with the pagan gods and goddesses, God says, I want nothing of that. I'm going to reveal exactly what my eternal purpose is. I'm going to reveal who they are. I'm going to tell them who I've made them in Christ. I'm going to tell them what's going on.

God has love and blessing in mind that the pagan gods and goddesses had no idea of, no thought of. He wants us to comprehend, as Paul is praying, with all the saints. All the saints. This is this soon word. Paul prays that this personalized understanding, that these believers would comprehend it, make it personally their own, would be a joint understanding of all the believers. Ah, I get it. It's mine. Every single believer. With all the saints. He includes everyone.

One of the things that we did this morning in recognizing Roger as an elder is looking at Roger as the shepherd. Not that he would be part of a small group who comprehends and understands. That's not Paul's intent. but carrying this out so that all comprehend and understand, all the saints. It's something that includes every believer. It's a point that he's made repeatedly. Every believer is included in this. You see, God didn't design things so that we would be spiritual lone rangers. That's not God's intent. All the saints together is what God has in mind.

When we get into chapter 4, the first 16 verses, it's going to put continued focus on not just individual spiritual growth, but spiritual growth as a church body. That's key. That's important. Our spiritual maturity as believers is not just individual. Yes, it's individual, and he did say all the saints, but it's also including us all together. He wants us all to comprehend. It's a together comprehension.

All right. So what is it we're supposed to comprehend? We've got to ask that question. All right. The breadth and length and height and depth. Now, right off, you're probably saying, wait a minute, that's one too many dimensions. And so what's he getting at here? Well, it's interesting. These four dimensions are prefaced by one article in the Greek as well as the English here. It's something that's singular, but it has all this multiplicity of dimensions. Paul is communicating the full dimensionality and the enormity of the love of Christ. The enormity of the love of Christ.

One of the other things that comes out of this passage as we go into verse 19 is definite articles. It doesn't always show up in the English, but we have it this way. to know the love of the Christ which surpasses the knowledge that we may be filled up with all the fullness of the God." All these things are intended to focus on the specificity, the identity, and the uniqueness of God's love for us. The love of Christ is not just any kind of love. It's that specific love of Christ, of Him. That love. The singular, incomparable love of Christ.

This word know and knowledge that Paul comes up with here, that's gnosko, to come to know is acquired knowledge, and gnosis, the acquired knowledge. And one of the things we've got to clear up here right off the bat, some people, you know, anyway, I just got to be clear. So you understand, this is not some combination between a canoe and a snow cone, okay? Gnosko is not that. So just take that out of your mind.

Now, instead here, what he's talking about, he's praying that they, be able to comprehend the dimensions and the enormity of Christ's love for us. My mind keeps going back to Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. It would be tough if you were to sit down and say, okay, you're going to go through this experience as a human being.

Take all your clothes off your back and just whip it. They're going to shove a bunch of thorns down on your head. They're going to drive nails into your hands. And then you're going to have all the wrath of the Father upon you because you'll take the sins of the world.

You going to sign up for that? Not easily, huh? Not as a human being. Does that sound appealing? Christ, however, could say, But for the joy set before me, I love these people." I'll do it. I'll do it. Immense love. Immense love. While we were yet sinners, enemies, Christ died for us. But he doesn't want us to just know about it. He wants us to acquire a personal knowledge of it. Personal knowledge of the love of Christ. This is the flip side of Christ being at home in your hearts. Christ at home in our hearts, and us having a personal knowledge of Him. Now I've got sort of, in the past I've called this Expanded and Explained. It's all through 18 and part of 19. I have the last part of it grayed out because we need to look at it a bit more. But let's look at this here.

Paul is praying that they may be able to personally possess the understanding together with all the saints what is the full dimensionality and enormity of the selfless love of Christ. That you grasp it, that you get it. And to know by acquiring the personal knowledge of the selfless love of Christ what surpasses any acquirable knowledge. That kind of love. He says, I pray that you would know it. I pray that you would know Him. And finally, then, the last half of 19, that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.

Now, here's this pair of words that are related, plerao for filled up and pleroma for fullness, two words both in English and in the Greek that have some similarity. But what's Paul writing about here? I mean, we understand fullness. When we think of full, we think, all right, we got the You got the oceans are full of water and that's okay. I understand that. You might say, well, I'm full of food, especially after the holidays. Yeah, you might say, okay, I understand that. Now in Acts 19, here's the theater at Ephesus. The crowd was filled with confusion, Luke writes, and they rushed into the theater and then they were filled with rage. and the theater was full too.

So we understand those kinds of things, but what does he mean, full of the fullness of God? What's that talking about? So what does he mean? Paul is referring to a process here that reaches towards an end, the fullness of God. That's what he spelled out. Elsewhere, he's used the same word, fill, and I think it's helpful for us to take a look at it in a few places to see what does he mean. How does he use this word, fill?

2 Corinthians 7.4. I was talking to Hal this morning. I said, boy, I'm sure glad you're doing 2 Corinthians. That's just a great book. Anyway, this is one of the points. I am filled with comfort. Filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. Wow. In the affliction.

Ephesians 5.18, which we'll be getting to later, but be filled with the Spirit. Or, as Paul wrote to the church at Rome, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. In Philippians, which we looked at, that's right, we passed another year, two years ago, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness. So we begin to get an idea, what's this filling talking about?

Colossians 1.9, we did look at this earlier this year. We have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. we begin to get a sense of what he means by filled with all the fullness of God. When we look at these words here, one of the things that comes through when we're saying, what's Paul writing about here? Paul is praying that they be filled up with all the fullness of God, and this means that the person of Christ, the person of Christ who indwells us is the one who is making his home in our hearts. He is expressing himself in us. Think about in your own home.

You don't just want to get any furniture. You don't want to just get anything up on the walls. Maybe you do, but usually it's a bachelor's pad. Anyway, what do you want to do? You want to express yourself in that dwelling, right? That's what's happening here.

Christ making His home in our hearts is expressing Himself in us. expressing Himself in us. It's His personality. It's not just a list of His characteristics. It's Him. It's Him personally. As Paul has spelled out, as he lays out what it means to have God's eternal purpose lived out in us, it'll be His glory. It'll be His character. It'll be His enabling, as he's spelled out here in this passage. It'll be He, him, his person, he's the one who's doing the filling. This also translates into maturity in him, both individually and together as a church body. This is the being filled with the fullness of God, him.

As we look at this passage here, and we see that Paul is laying out for the believers, it isn't just, look guys, I want you to behave this way. He puts the focus upon Christ. He says, I want Christ to be expressing himself, making himself at home in your hearts. I'm going to be praying to that end. Because you're rooted and grounded and have this position in Christ, I have a basis to pray for you that you will understand what that means, and that you will come to grasp personally that you'll get it, you'll take it home as your own understanding, the love of Christ.

God's glory is declared and revealed and now shared with us. His heed will be glorified, and we'll see that in next week's passage. I want to leave you with this, and we'll return to this this next Sunday. This is all of chapter 3. Don't memorize it all now. Don't worry about it.

But what we want to point out is here's God's eternal purpose, central in the chapter. And then, what we find is the first half of the chapter, right before his mention of eternal purpose, is focused on God's glory being declared and revealed. It says in the last half that His glory is shared with us. And as we'll see in next week's passage, He is glorified. This is God's eternal purpose spelled out throughout the chapter, isn't it? revealed, shared in you and I, that he would be glorified.

You see, that's the purpose. That's what's going on. We're not gathering here because it's an awfully nice thing to do, or because the elders thought it would be really good, and we just wanted to add one more elder to help us think it's really good. No, this is God's eternal purpose being carried out.

We see as we look at these words, God is indeed glorified. through what He has declared, revealed, shared with us. That glorifies Him. And when we walk out of here, that's what it's about too. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You as You have laid out in this chapter, as You laid out in this passage. It is all about Your glory. When this building is gone, when we're gone from this earth, When the concerns of this earth are well behind us, it will still be about your glory, that you've declared, that you've revealed, that you continue to share with us what a marvel that is, that your name would be glorified. We thank you for that. We praise you for it. In Jesus' name, Amen.