Ephesians 3:18-21a

SPEAKER 01 : 0:07

Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:44

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 18 through 21. Ephesians 3, 18-21. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers, chapters 1-3, so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God, chapters 4-6. If you remember, Paul began by giving praise to God. He then gave a great prayer for the Ephesians. And then he went on and he reminded the readers of what they once were before Christ rescued them, so they would then be captivated by Christ and what He has done for them in saving them from the eternal wages of their sin. The call now is to respond accordingly. We now find Paul giving another wonderful prayer for these Ephesian Christians. And we looked at the first part of that prayer last week, where Paul prayed three things for these believers. That they would be strengthened with might. That’s a great prayer. That Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith. Great prayer. And that they would be rooted and grounded in love. A great prayer. We ended really in the middle of a thought. And verse 18 picks up with that thought. Let’s look at that. Verse 18. That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints… What is the width and length and depth and height? To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. We’re going to stop here for now. And here we see two more things that Paul prayed for. First, Paul prayed that they would be able to comprehend the love of God. Oh, is that all? Think about that. It’s very interesting because this is a partial sentence. That you, being rooted and grounded in love… may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, and then the thought seems to end there. However, the mention of love in verse 17, and then the mention of love in verse 19, sets the context of what Paul wants these believers to comprehend, the love of God. Or as verse 19 says, the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge. So, Paul prays, think about this, Paul prays that the Ephesians would be able to comprehend something that’s incomprehensible. He prays that they would know something that can’t be known. He prays that they would be able to understand something that’s impossible to really understand. What’s that? The love of God. But still, Paul prays this prayer and clearly Paul wants them to get a firmer grasp on the love of God, which is something that passes all knowledge. And again, even though this love of God is beyond all calculation and can never be truly measured, even so, it’s their business and it’s our business to learn as much as we can about it and to receive as much of it as we possibly can contain. So, that’s the job this morning. All right, let’s try to get a better grasp on God’s love. The love of God, His love for us, His children. And note that this is good for us to do. This is very important for us to do. I mean, we do well to think deeply about this. Because when we do, it’ll fill us with intense love for God in return. And it will also fill us with joy because To know that we have a God who loves us so very, very much. See, we are deficient as Christians when we fail to realize more and more God’s great love for us. We spend so much time thinking about our activities and we spend so much time thinking about all our problems, but we should never neglect thinking on and we should never neglect meditating on God’s amazing love. And too often we don’t do that. So Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians along with all the other saints, which includes every Christian including us today, that we would all comprehend, grasp, seize, apprehend with our minds the width and the length and the depth and the height of God’s love. These measurements emphasize the immensity of Christ’s love for us. See, you can go left or right, forward or backwards, up or down, as far as you can, and you still haven’t explored all that there is to know about Christ’s great love. Look, Christ’s love for us is wide in the sense that it encompasses a great multitude that’s beyond number. In the sense that it consists of believers from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, believing Jew and believing Gentile alike. His love for us also takes in every concern of every child of God in every age. See, no care of ours is beyond the measure of His love for us. For a long time, the Jews thought that the love of God was only for them. But we know that they were wrong. And as Paul has made clear in these first three chapters of Ephesians, that in Christ there’s neither Jew nor Gentile, this tells us that His love goes out to all the world, right? Into every country and on every continent, to different cultures and backgrounds and skin colors, ages, male and female alike, even to us here today. And think about this. In glory… We will all be amazed when we see what the love of God in Christ has accomplished in spite of sin and hell and the devil. What about the length of His love? The length of His love conveys the endless character of the love of Christ. We read in Jeremiah 31.3 about the everlasting love of God, and that thought alone should mess with our heads a little bit. The everlasting love. Love of God for us. I mean, come on. Have you ever really thought about the eternity of Christ’s love towards you, His child, and towards all the saints? Everlasting means that God’s love for us, His children, is something that began in eternity. It was always there. Mind blown? Right? Think about this. Before time, before the world and man was ever created, look, an agreement was made between God the Father and God the Son. It was an agreement concerning us, concerning the salvation of everyone who would be saved. See, everything was known about what was going to happen before anything was ever created, including sin and the fall of man. And so Jesus, God the Son, entered into an agreement with His Father that He would save and redeem His people, us, all who would believe. How? God the Son would leave glory and come here. He would take on human flesh. He would live a perfect life. He would die on the cross in the believer’s place as our substitute for sin. And then He would rise up from the dead three days later, proving that what He would do on the cross would be a reality. What would that be? He will die and pay the full wages of the sin of every true believer in human history so they could then be forgiven of all that sin that condemns them to eternity in hell. He will face God’s wrath on the cross in the believer’s place so that the believer can instead be showered with grace and mercy and saving love. This means absolutely everything for us in Christ today. But oh, what a cost to Him. What a plan. God the Son, think of this, doing this for us. That’s the plan. Talk about love. Think about this. Christ’s love to us didn’t suddenly come into being either. No, it was there before the beginning of time. That’s why it says that our names were written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13a. How incredible is that? That I was known by Christ in eternity. Every one of us who belonged to Him were known to Him in eternity past and He set his love on us and our names were written in his book. He set his heart on us and his affections rested upon us in eternity past. So is the length of his love toward us before time. before time but even more look it began in eternity and it continues on in time we’re experiencing his love right now and then it continues on throughout eternity future see this length is an unbroken line it doesn’t suddenly cease and then start up again no it’s an unchanging love it’s a love that never gives up or lets us go it’s a love that never falters we see the love of god in the parable of the prodigal son right in spite of the fact that the younger son had been a fool and had gone to a faraway and wretched, sinful country, spurning the love that had been shown to him in his home, and despite the fact that he had wasted his inheritance on the sinful and fading pleasures of that sinful, faraway country, look, his father still loved him. His father was waiting and watching for his return. And his father showered great blessing upon him when he did indeed return. Remember what he did when he saw his son returning home? What did he do? He ran. Right? He ran. And that is a picture of the love of God towards us, his beloved children. See, he’s patient and he’s long-suffering and he bears with us and he never gives us up. And we see that His love toward us, His children, is relentless. It’s a relentless love. Wherever we may go, He will never let us go. As God says to His own, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. What? Never. Look what Romans 8.35-36 says. Who shall separate us, the Christian, from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it’s written, for your sake we’re killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Now here Paul’s asking the hard questions when it comes to the love of God for us as children. Is there anyone who can banish the justified, saved Christian from the love of Christ? Who or what is going to separate us from that love? Is there any force anywhere that can come between you and Jesus? Is there any way for you to lose your salvation once you truly have it? Who can remove us from Christ once we come to Him? Paul’s answer, alright, let’s take a look at the possibilities. Shall tribulation separate you? The word tribulation means to crush, to press together, to squash, and to squeeze. It refers to troubles pressing upon someone from without, such as persecution, or affliction, or tribulation. Talking about real hardships. Can that separate you from Christ’s love? What’s the answer? No. No. Okay. All right. But what about distress, which literally means tight places, which speaks of internal anguish and discomfort? Can that separate you from the love of God? What’s the answer? No. Okay, what about persecution or famine or nakedness, where you’re just suffering horribly in this life? Does that mean that you’re separated from the love of God? And can any of those things separate you from His love? What’s the answer? No. And even though suffering and pain is real in our lives, look, God still loves you. Oh yes, He does. And that’s important to understand. Okay, what about peril or sword? Peril means danger. A sword speaks of death. What about those things? What’s the answer? Never, never, never, never. And while these seven things have all been instruments of satanic and human hatred, they cannot interrupt the love of Christ toward any of us, His children, in any way whatsoever. And please mark this, which I mentioned last week, God’s love for you, His child, is perfect right now. He will never love you any more or any less than He loves you right now because He loves you fully and completely and perfectly right now. Your actions as a Christian don’t affect God’s love for you. See? Yes, your actions can glorify Him and honor Him and be well-pleasing to Him. They can also grieve Him and sadden Him, but they won’t affect the love that He has for you because He loves you as child fully and completely right here, right now. So think about it. He set His love on you before time began. He loves you with a perfect and unchanging love and nothing can separate you from that love. That’s what the Scriptures say. Nothing. He died to save you. He’s going to see you through. All the way to glory forever. And you will experience that love for all eternity. Scripture’s clear about that. Look what the next verse in that Romans passage says. Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. See, this love of God should profoundly affect us. And even in the midst of tribulation and distress and peril and sword, this truth still remains through it all. And not only that, but these hardships of life not only do not cut us off, from the love of christ but they actually give us more intimate and thrilling experiences of the love of christ because we see how god works through all those pains and and trials and hardships we can’t really lose right i mean nothing can stop us really nothing can really defeat us and while life is hard and while trials and tribulations and hardships abound what can man really do to us in christ who are loved so greatly by him you see We’re more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Conquerors above and beyond. Conquerors to the greatest degree. Super victorious conquerors, that’s us. You say, oh, but I don’t feel that way. Oh, so what? It doesn’t change the facts. Right? I mean, it’s still true because we have Christ and He loves us. And look, we win the supreme victory through Him, so hang in there and never forget the love that God has for you. Paul continues in that Romans 8 passage, I’m persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Are we not clear here? This truly is the best news that anyone could ever hear. It means that God will never forget or cease to care for us, and that He remains our forbearing Father even when we act the prodigal. Hey, life isn’t always easy. But God loves us, His children, this morning. What else matters? What else matters? For us, life often seems so much more difficult than death. But even death doesn’t separate us from God. It just draws us closer to Him in fuller measure. Until then, continually contemplate God’s great love for you and let that spurn you on to greater love back to Him. I mean, come on. The love of God, right? What a comfort. What consolation. What strength and joy. What a rock in times of trial and adversity. If He set His heart and His affection upon you, then guess what? It’s going to remain there. Nothing will ever be able to pluck you out of His hand. Nothing will ever rob you of that love, the incredible love of God. Nothing. One said, if hell be let loose, if everything goes against you, nothing will ever cause Him to let you go. It’s incredible. Okay, but what about the depths of His love for us? You want to see how deep God’s love for you goes? How about this? Philippians 2 tells us, Jesus humbled Himself to the lowest degree to save us. Think about the depths of His love for you as He entered into a virgin’s womb. As He took on to Himself a human nature and as He came and lived as a man in a sin-stained world. Think about that. We know about the poverty and the lowliness of the home into which He was born. We know that He felt everything that we feel as human beings minus sin. He felt pain. He felt hunger. He got bruises. He bled. He got calloused feet. He had to work. And all the while, He was the eternal Son of God. And then think about how much He suffered to save us. All the hatred and the malice and the spite. Think of men laying cruel hands on Him and arresting Him and trying Him, mocking Him, jeering at Him, and spitting into His most holy face. Think of cruel men condemning Him to death and then scourging Him. Look at Him suffering under the weight of the heavy cross on His way to Golgotha. Look at Him as He’s nailed upon that cross and listen to His expressions of agony at the thirst He endured and at the pain He suffered. And then, think of the terrible moment when our sins were laid upon Him. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? The agony! He died a brutal, gory, painful, horrible death. And then He was buried and laid down in a grave. He, God the Son, the author of life, the creator of everything, He lies dead in a grave. Why? Why did He do this? Because of His love for us. Because of His love for you and me. Because He loved us. Such is the depths of His love. Okay, but how high does His love for me go as His child? How about this? He not only loved us enough to die for us and to save us, but look, He desires that we should be with Him forever in glory. And that we should see something of that glory which He has shared with the Father from all eternity. He isn’t satisfied with purchasing our forgiveness and delivering us from the pollution of this sinful world, as amazing as that is, but He wants us to be there with Him in heaven and to spend our eternity there with Him. Thus, we see the incredible love of God. He loves us. He wants us. He died for us. He gives Himself to us to help us, His Spirit, right? So that we won’t fall short of glory with Him. Oh, what lengths He went through to save us. so is the love of God, the intense love of God for you, his child. Let me make one other point about this, knowing that this topic is well beyond limits to explain or understand. We looked at this a few weeks back, so this will be review, but it fits with the point. Remember in chapter 1, that’s when Paul prays that these believers may know the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints. It’s very interesting because the inheritance here isn’t talking about how heaven is our eternal inheritance as Christians, but instead, this is telling us that the saints are God’s inheritance. that he considers to be a treasure of incomprehensible worth. He’s talking about us, talking about you and me. That as Christians, we are God’s inheritance, God’s treasure, God’s prize. And that indicates how precious his people are to God, how precious you are, his child, to God, how much he loves you. Preacher S. Lewis Johnson says that God thinks of us as His inheritance. In the Old Testament, that’s what Israel was called, the Lord’s portion, the Lord’s inheritance. That’s what we are. We have an inheritance in Him, and He has an inheritance in us. God glories in His saints. That’s an amazing thought. And that then leads us again to Zephaniah 3.17, which says this. I can’t get away from this. The Mighty One will save you. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you in His love. There we see the love of God. He will rejoice over you with singing. And this too speaks tenderly of God’s love for us as people. This expresses the deepest inner joy and satisfaction of God Himself and His love for us, His people. And while these words were primarily addressed to believing Israel, they have direct application to all of God’s people today. This is true for all that He died for to save. So look, the people of God are to rejoice in God because God rejoices in them. We are to shout for joy and to sing because God’s joy too has a voice and breaks out into singing. Look at the flow of the verse. God rejoices, He quiets, and He bursts into song over you. The picture here is of God and His people mutually rejoicing in their intense love for one another. Look, He rejoices over you with gladness. That seems pretty straightforward, but the next line is a bit harder to comprehend. He will quiet you with His love. What does that mean? That Almighty God sinks into contemplations of love over us. Almighty God quiet in his love. Isn’t that intense? God, the mighty Savior, quietly contemplating his love for you. Excessive? No, not when we remember who our God truly is. He is indeed the direct source of all everything good and of all true love. And so God is not only capable of achieving every depth of love, but He, by His very nature, excels every human emotion of true love. Even so, we ask, how could the sovereign Creator concentrate His whole being in the love of a temporal creature of the dust? How could holy God satisfy Himself contentedly in the loving contemplation of the unholy, of us? But He does! And note how personal this is over you. Yes, in context over believing Israel. And yes, over all of us, His saved children. But also over you, His child, the individual child. In His contemplations of you, He shall sink into quietness. Me? Really? Yeah, why? Because it’s definitely not in us in which a reason for this intense love is to be found. It’s in Him. Amen. Finally, look at what it says. He will rejoice over you with singing. God singing over us? Yep. Rejoice means to be joyful, to celebrate, to be jubilant, and to make glad. Sing means sing. Some versions say that God will rejoice over you with shouts of joy, but the normal usage of the word means to sing. It’s a picture of profound and deep personal love. The kind of love that would sacrifice everything for our sake. The kind of love that did sacrifice everything for our sake. The point’s clear, isn’t it? That God delights in you out of His great love for you, His child. So is the unfathomable love of God. It surpasses all knowledge. However, the prayer in Ephesians is that we would continue to grow in our understanding of that intense love that God has for us, His children, the saved ones, because when we do that, it’s going to affect how we live out our faith. It has to. It has to. So question, have you been spiritually mediocre? Have you been regarding worship and prayer and Bible study as mere tasks? Have you allowed the world, the flesh, and the devil to defeat you and to depress you? The one antidote is to meditate upon and to contemplate the great love of Christ. And then, like Paul, pray about that for yourself and for one another. Think about it. He has set His affection and love on you. He… Thank you.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:57

Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.