Preparation for Christ’s Amazing Love

 

Ephesians 3:14–21

 

Subject: Love for our Church Family

Relevance:  Christ avails to us the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us to enable, equip, and help us lead an abundant, victorious, and empowered life to the glory of God. The Spirit helps us experience God as the potent demonstration of the indwelling Christ as we submit to Him. He makes continuous and genuine Christian expression possible by enabling us for supernatural Christian living, loving, and laboring so that our Father is glorified. 

Theme: We need the Holy Spirit’s supernatural strengthening for Christlike loving to the credit of our Father. Beloved, this is a prayer for strength to love each other. 

Introduction:

Caring For Family’s Killer

In 1946, Czeslaw Godlewski was a member of a young gang that roamed and sacked the German countryside. On an isolated farm they gunned down ten members of the Wilhelm Hamelmann family. Nine of the victims died, but Hamelmann himself survived his four bullet wounds.

Godlewski recently completed a twenty-year prison term for his crimes, but the state would not release him because he had nowhere to go. When Hamelmann learned of the situation, he asked the authorities to release Godlewski to his custody. He wrote in his request, “Christ died for my sins and forgave me. Should I not then forgive this man?”—Gospel Herald

Noting that positionally the Gentile and Jewish believers are “one new man” as a local assembly (Eph. 2:15), which is the body of Christ in Ephesus, Paul now prayed that they may be united experientially. To understand his request, we must note the context: it comes in a section in which Paul had been affirming the unity of a local church made up of many differing individuals. Paul prayed that the Ephesians would be strong inwardly through Christ's Spirit.

QUOTE: “There are four requests in Paul's prayer, but they must not be looked on as isolated, individual petitions. These four requests are more like four parts to a telescope. One request leads into the next one, and so on. He prays that the inner man might have spiritual strength, which will, in turn, lead to a deeper experience with Christ. This deeper experience will enable them to "apprehend" (get hold of) God's great love, which will result in their being "filled unto all the fullness of God." So, then, Paul is praying for strength, depth, apprehension, and fullness.”— (The Bible Exposition Commentary)

Message:

I.               The Preparation for Christ’s Love (Eph. 3:14-15)

A.    Prayer (Eph. 3:14) “For this cause I bow my knees….”

                                                    i.     Therefore, the words, … refer back to chapter 2 with its description of what the Gentiles had been by nature and what they had become through union with Christ. Their astonishing rise from poverty and death to riches and glory drives Paul to pray they will always live in the practical enjoyment of their exalted position.^[1]

                                                  ii.     So, in what way does the whole family of God in heaven and earth get their true name from God?

                                                iii.     “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth.”  That is, the whole family of the redeemed—those who have gone before and those who are still alive here on earth—are under the one Father, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:6; 6:10: 1Jn. 3:1). Those who belong to the family of believers, God’s household or children by believing in Christ; thus, all are related (Eph 2:19). The Christian family extends far beyond the walls of a particular church or the limits of a particular denomination to include all true believers.

                                                iv.     Thus, the whole family of God (Eph. 2:19–“household of God”) derives its “name,” or exists as a family with a loving Father, because of Him.  According to ancient practices we all share a basic character–love in this instance.  All the saved in Heaven and on earth look to Him as the Head of the Family of God.  Since we have a common LOVING Father, we should be able to live together in the Lord’s church (Jn. 14:20-21-26; 15:8-17; 17:25-26; 1Jn. 4:7-5:3).

B.    Purpose (Eph. 3:14-15, 20-21)

                                                    i.     How can we be sure God’s power is working through us rather than our own strength?  (Eph. 3:20-21)

                                                  ii.     We can praise God who is able to do far more than we could pray for or imagine, according to the standard of His power (dynamin; cf. v. 16; 1:19) that is at work (Eph. 1:19) within us. No person or angelic being (cf. 3:10) would ever think that we could function together in one body. But with God’s power of love in each believer’s life, we are confident that any church member regardless of ethnicity can function and love one another. Spiritual unity is astounding and though it is not naturally possible, God can indeed do this!

                                                iii.     Beloved, this is our supreme, “Why.” The achievement of glorifying God is what drives us!  Beyond our families, friends, co-workers, or associations we are hyper motivated internally to pursue God’s praise, honor, glory, approval, credit, and worship.

C.    Praise (Eph. 3:21).

                                                    i.     We should ascribe to God “glory” for manifesting love in the church by Christ Jesus, who made this union of believers possible. Such loving unity in a local fellowship is truly a “God thing,” and he rightly deserves all the glory and praise for such an accomplishment!

                                                  ii.     Praise unto Almighty God for this triumph in and through our lives; it will continue throughout eternity (see Rom. 11:36; 2 Tim. 4:18). How fitting these instructions are.

Conclusion:

All this is possible only because God is more than able to do immeasurably more than all we could pray for or even imagine possible, because it is according to His power that is at work within us as believers.

---

^[1] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1929.