Ephesians 3:16-19 Incredible Riches of God's Glory

Incredible Riches of God's Glory

Ephesians 3: 16- 19

Have you ever felt unloved, unwanted and rejected? That is not the kind of experience for anyone to enjoy. Instead Paul shows us how to pray so that we will enjoy the love of our creator, our saviour and our Lord. We are to experience the breadth, length, height and depth of the love of God.

As I prepare for a message I spend considerable time reading the passage, meditating and trying to understand the whole section before I start writing my message. Once I have grasped a good part of the message in a passage for myself I can then begin to try to write out what I am learning.

As I began to meditate on verse 16, I was a little mislead by the first translation I read. I try to go back to the Greek and translate it there first. Then work on the meanings of the words, phrases and sentences. Then we should be taking the whole section, chapter and even keep in mind the whole book as we try to gain understanding of what God is trying to say through Paul's letter to the Ephesians. One translation spoke of the glorious riches of God. The focus of this section should not be on the riches of God but as in the original, the abundance or greatness of God's glory. The Psalmist said, “ The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows His handiwork.” As we begin to understand the vastness and wonder of the heavens, we will realize that this could not have come about by chance but there has to be some great designer that created the universe and everything in it. He had to position everything exactly or it would not hold together.

The book of Hebrews speaks about the great (shikina) glory of God in the temple. When God filled the temple with is glory, people fell on their faces in awe. What kind of glory have we seen? Have you ever fallen on your face before the Lord because you got a glimpse of His glory? We should be seeking that kind of an experience. God wants is to be filled with his glory not just to get a glimpse of it. When we begin to grasp even a little the great and awesome power of God, we will then begin to worship. Paul is not praying for himself to receive this gift of being able to see God's glory, but he is praying for others to get a glimpse of the glory of God. When we truely get a glimpse of God's glory, it will motivate us to want more. I believe it would be like

The first purpose of the prayer (v 16) tells us that the instrument of the divine filling is the Spirit and His power.
Paul is praying that we will be given strength to bear the fullness of God. Only in Christ is this possible.

The work of the Spirit is to strengthen the believers in their inner being. The Spirit gives spiritual power to us to use to expand God's kingdom. It is in doing this work that we can find true fulfillment and joy. When you see people's lives transformed, a new sense of hope and happiness there is a desire to even do more. Second purpose ( 17a) is that we may know the fullness of God by the indwelling Christ.

Third purpose for this pray is that we may know the fullness of God as we are rooted and grounded in God's love. There are two word pictures which Paul is implying here. Rooting refers to plants which are being grown. A root spreads out. Trees that have deep roots can withstand gale force winds and not be blown over. Our neighbour lost a beautiful 20 year old blue spruce tree this spring. This evergreen tree was about 30 feet high and well shaped, the kind which could be used in a huge department store display at Christmas. During the spring break in March we had a tremendous wind one night and in the morning the tree had fallen over. It's roots were shallow because it did not have to go deep to get water so it did not develop a strong root system. Finally the top was bigger than the root system and it toppled. I would hate to be the neighbour's tree today, as it has been cut up and prepared for the fire. We need to send our roots deep so that the storms of life will not topple us.

Sometimes we do not like to go through difficult times but these should be times to send our roots deep into the word of God to cling on to its truths so that we will remain strong and steadfast. When a storm blows up suddenly if we have not sent our root deep in the good times and bad we will face certain demise (destruction) We need to be ready at all times with our hearts in tune to God so that when the sudden storm of life hits, we will not be blown over and come to ruin because we were not ready. Jesus said that the thief ( Satan ) comes when we least expect it. We need to have built our foundation on solid rock. A popular hymn expresses it this way. “ On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.” The second picture that is alluded to here is the picture of a great building standing tall. Can you imagine the force of the wind blowing in a hundred kilometer driving rain? A tall office tower has to be built to withstand those powerful winds or it will come crashing down. Many skyscapers go into the bedrock to sink deep in the earth so that the highest stories will not push the building over in a torrential storm. Have you pushed your roots and foundations deep so that when difficulties come you will be victorious and know how to fight the enemy. When the floods come, we need to have our roots and foundation dug deep because the soil may be washed away and then we too will be destroyed.

The purpose for us to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit is so that Christ will live in our hearts. After Solomon pray for the dedication of the temple the scriptures tell us that the glory of the Lord filled the temple and the people were overcome by the glory of God ( I Kings 8:12, 13) In the Old Testament the glory of God was seen in the temple and in the lives of a few leaders, but in the New Testament we see a different picture. We read in I Corinthians 3 that we are the temple of God. If we are the temple of God, if we have Christ in our hearts we should be filled with his glory as well. Christ is not just temporarily dwelling in our hearts but He is there to stay. Christ wants to fill us with God's presence. We will need to have our lives cleansed by the Spirit before Christ will dwell in our hearts. Here we see that God strengthens our inner spirit through the power given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus wants to live (abide) in our hearts so that our lives will gradually be more like his including the great spiritual power He demonstrated in healing the sick and counselling the confused and hurting. Jesus said, “If my words abide in you ask what you will and it will be given you.” Is Jesus truely living in your hearts? Can you ask Him for a special gift to share with others? The purpose of our spiritual power is not to use it for our glory, but to bring God glory. Matthew 5:16 says to “let your light shine before men so that they can see your good works and GLORIFY YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.”

Some years ago I read a little pamphlet entitled My Heart Christ's Home. The author describes each of the various places within our heart and how sometimes we do not have our home swept clean and all the dirty dishes cleaned up. Sometimes there are even rooms that we refuse to allow Christ to enter because there could be some areas in our lives which we do not God to change. We are sometimes content to do wrong and disobey but we will not become victorious and joyful. To allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives properly, we need to be filled with the spirit and allow Him to control our inner man. This means feeding the inner man the word of God, praying and worshipping, keeping pure and exercising spiritually by doing good works to glorify God in heaven.

Many of us live in a three dimensional universe, it has height, width and depth. Paul speaks of 4 dimensions of the love of Christ: highth, width, depth and length. I am still trying to unfold my 4 dimensional universe. I f you have insights into this 4 dimensions of love I would appreciate you sharing your insights with me. Paul is praying that the Ephesians would experience a deeper fellowship with Christ. We should not be experiencing just a shallow relationship with God but our love and relationship with God should be an all consuming desire to experience the presence of Jesus Christ so strongly that we at times will fall down on our faces and cry out to God to restore our lives and help us.

The focal point of the prayer is that we would experience the love of Christ that changes us more than any knowledge can. The true love of Christ was demonstrated in that when we were still sinners Christ died on the Cross for us and paid the price for our disobedience toward God. That price was death. No greater love can a person show than that the will give their life for a friend but when they give their life for an enemy it takes love one step higher. Love is forgiving. God forgives our sin because of what Christ did for us on the cross. Some people have difficulty wanting to accept the personalization of that love, coming to the understanding that love motivated Jesus on the cross to cry out “ Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Love shows it's power not just in our relationship with God but Paul prays that God's gift of love would be understood with all the saints. The thing that destroys more churches is lack of love for other believers. Some Christians show such immaturity and shallowness that you just want to ignore them or even put them down. When we see them we want to grab them by the throat and shake them up so that they will wake up to their stupidity and immaturity in God's ways. That is not the way to experience the fullness of God's love. If we have such attitudes we are no better than any of the weakest Christians.
Love is for giving. We are to show our care and concern for other believers in a way that brings repentance, joy and peace. Love is for giving to others who do not know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The more we apprehend ( get a hold of ) love the greater will be our experience of God's completeness and fullness.

God can only work with and in a completely dedicated person. Do you want to experience God's complete love today? Do you want to be filled with God to overflowing so that God's love will ooze out of our life to enrich others and give you satisfaction and wholeness. (shaloam)? Cry out to God this morning with a simple prayer, “God please fill me with Your love and allow me the joy of passing that love on to everyone that You bring into my life.” If that is your prayer this morning, you will begin to grow and experience the fullness of God in your life. May God direct and show you what you can do to demonstrate the love that He has put in your heart by the very presence of Christ Himself.

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June 9, 2002