The Power to be Filled with God
Notes
Transcript
I. God is the Father of the Whole Family on Earth and Heaven
I. God is the Father of the Whole Family on Earth and Heaven
Paul picks up his thought after the side track that was 3:1-13. Thus the reason he prays this is his understanding of
The Spiritual Blessings we have in Christ 1:1-14- God chose us to be holy, predestined us to be his children. Christ redeemed us through his blood out of the riches of his grace. We have the inheritance of God’s Kingdom. The guarantee and down-payment of that inheritance is the Holy Spirit who unites us into the church, and empowers us to do his will. All this was done, not for us, but so that people would praise God for his grace, and for his wisdom in uniting everything in Christ.
his evidence of the Ephesians salvation is their faith which they declare and their love which they demonstrate. Accordingly he prays that they would know the hope of the Christian’s destiny, the riches of our inheritance and the overwhelming resurrection power that currently works in us and energizes the church. 1:15-23
the greatness of God’s grace. We were all once dead to God, captive to our own uncontrolled desires, carried along by the pressures of this world system, and deceived by the prince of the power of the air. This made us worthy of God’s wrath, like everyone. But God is just that sort of God who delights in showing mercy, so by his great love he made us alive and united us with Christ. Because Christ is in heaven, seated at God’s right hand, our inheritance is just that great, though since we are still on earth, we must wait to enjoy most of it. God did this just to show the universe his immeasurable kindness to us. We are saved by grace through faith. It is all God’s gift, and none of it is our deeds. We don’t do good things to go to heaven; rather, because we already are going there, God empowers us to live as the children of heaven he made us to be in Christ. 2:1-10
Before Jesus came, we Gentiles were in a bad spot. The only way to approach God under the Mosaic Law was by following it, and only those who worship God can be saved. But the Law put barriers to keep Gentiles out, only because these barriers were necessary to keep Israel following God. Still, those barriers prevented us from coming to God and being saved. When Christ died, the Law of Moses became obsolete, and now there is a new way to approach God, by following him. This created peace between Jew and Gentile, and made us part of the family of God, part of the church which is God’s temple in the present age. 2:11-22
God is described as a father, but this fatherhood is not exactly the same
Now the key question is who is this family? is he talking about all people on earth or only some of them? The answer depends on figuring out what Paul means by the family in heaven.
It’s possible that Paul is talking about the angels, but there’s a problem with that idea. Angels are not a family. They aren’t even a race or a species, because angels don’t reproduce (Luke 20:34-36) . Instead, they are individually created by God at the beginning of creation. That’s why they are called the “sons of God” in Job 1:6. Each of them have God as their direct creator. So if we want to talk about a family, we need a class of beings that come from a common ancestor. Who’s left in heaven that fits that description? Only beings left are humans. But who are they? well, obviously church-age believers who died are in heaven. But also those who believed God and died before Jesus came. They also went to heaven, but they aren’t part of the church, since it wasn’t invented when they were alive.
So the most that the “families in heaven” could be referring to is the redeemed dead of all the ages. But all this time I was thinking about families in earth and heaven. Then I took a closer look at the word. First of all, it isn’t the usual word for nations ἔθνη, from which we get our English word “ethnic”, but πατρία, related to “father.” He might not be talking about ethnic groups at all, or it might just be a synonym. But the second observation proves that he isn’t talking about Ethnic Groups. Second, and more importantly, it doesn’t say “families”, it says “family” singular. One family of earth and heaven. So if this is the one family who all derive their name from God, a family that is partly on earth and partly in heaven. So Paul can’t be talking about all humans, since not everyone goes to heaven. Since he doesn’t call the family in heaven “the church” he could be talking about all the redeemed, and I think he is. You can’t call Old Testament Saints, “the church” since they’re not part of it, but they are part of the “family of God” since they did worship him and went to heaven. The “family of earth and heaven” are the redeemed of all ages; who all of them had to worship God and therefore walked in his “name” or his power and carried his reputation with them.
Finally, the whole family derives its name from God. This means more than God created them. Rather, to bear God’s name means to have his authority, his identity upon you. Unbelievers may have been created by God, but by definition they don’t worship him, so they cannot derive their identity from a being they don’t worship. Thus, the family on earth must be the family of believers.
II. The Power of the Presence of God
II. The Power of the Presence of God
The heart of Paul’s request in this second prayer is for power. Power that is “in the inner man” is the power to comprehend, not be stronger than a locomotive. But this comprehension requires the operation of the whole trinity.
The source of the power to comprehend God must come from God himself, and so it is out of the riches of God’s limitless glory that this strength to know comes
Christ is the one who dwells in our hearts by faith. Knowledge of who Jesus is and what he has done is the heart of the Gospel, without which there is nothing to comprehend. It is our faith that permits Christ to dwell with us. But what does that mean? Christ is in heaven, so in what sense is he also dwelling inside us?
It is another metaphor for the real relationship that Christ has with us. Now knowing people is different than knowing about people. On the one hand, you can’t know someone without knowing something about them. He already knows everything there is to know about us. We must also know something about him.
On the other hand, facts about Jesus is not the same as knowing him. For him to dwell with you by faith, your faith must have content. But faith is more than just knowing facts. It’s trusting the person to do what he says he will do.
When you trust Jesus to save you from your sins, you are believing him when he says in his word that (1) you are a sinner in great danger of eternal judgment and (2) He is a great savior to deliver you from the punishment you deserve.
So Jesus “living in our hearts” is more than just that we think about him and care about him. It means that we trust him to do what he says, and that he in turn establishes a special relationship with us, to make us his children.
The enabler of this power is the Holy Spirit. This is the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? If you know enough Christians, you will realize that we aren’t smarter than non-Christians, so whatever this means, it doesn’t mean a higher IQ. 1 Cor 2:9-12. A non-Christian might not have any more trouble comprehending the information than a Christian, but the Christian can do something no non-Christian is capable of - he can truly appreciate the significance of the Word of God.
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
III. The Power to Know The Unknowable Love of Christ
III. The Power to Know The Unknowable Love of Christ
We don’t normally think about needing strength to comprehend. We think of being smart enough to comprehend. But here, the comprehension Paul is talking about is more than just understanding the content. It means also appreciating and therefore experiencing the love of Christ as well. Thus Paul is speaking about something that only Christians can know. The intellectual level to understanding the gospel isn’t that high; a child can do it. But it is impossible to appreciate it for what it is unless you believe it.
This comprehension accompanies being “rooted” and “grounded”
“rooted” suggests the metaphor of a plant, whose roots are firmly dug into the soil. In this case, knowledge of the Bible mixed with faith in what you know. You cannot be rooted unless you both know and believe the Scriptures; The more you know and believe, the more rooted you are. And just like a plant rooted in soil, the deeper your roots, the better you will grow, and the more difficult it is for the devil to disturb your faith by various trials
“grounded” suggests the foundation of a building. Whereas at the end of chapter 2, the foundation was the whole church; here the foundation is you as in individual. Just as a building needs a deep enough foundation in order to stand, the deeper your knowledge of the Word, and the more deeply you believe what you know, the more stable a Christian you will be. Also like a building, there is a certain minimum depth for the building to stay standing; deeper than that might be a good idea, but you need to be “deep enough” to be a Christian. However, “deep enough” isn’t to say that you can’t be more established than the minimum.
The heart of this knowledge is the surpassing love of Christ
the metaphor of enormous dimensions - four of them! suggesting that God’s love is so vast it’s difficult to perceive the scale of it.
He drops the metaphor and declares that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. But exactly how are you supposed to know what cannot be known? The idea is that the love of Christ for you is so immense that all we know about it is not enough to truly describe the intensity of that love. My children know that I love them. But they cannot know the intensity of my love, since they are so young they have no conception of what a parent’s love for a child is like. They can know that I love them, and they do. They can’t yet comprehend the intensity of a parent’s love for their child. Similarly, we can know and appreciate that God loves us very much. We can increase our comprehension of God’s love by learning how he describes it in his Word.
We can learn the “depth” of his love, by learning how much he hates sin and loves us anyway
We can learn the “length” of that love by learning the great lengths Jesus had to go to deliver us from our sins.
We can learn the “height” of that love by learning the great things God has prepared for us in the future.
We can learn the “breadth” of that love by learning just how unconditionally he loves us.
IV. The Knowledge that Fills with God’s Fullness
IV. The Knowledge that Fills with God’s Fullness
The aim of Paul’s prayer for power is that we would be filled with the fullness of God. What does that mean?
Col 2:9 declares that Jesus is filled with the fullness of the Godhead, which is another way of saying he has all the attributes of God. Now Paul clearly doesn’t mean we are filled in exactly the same way, since we do not become God. But it might give us a clue about what he means.
Eph 1:23 declares that God planned from the beginning to make the church the fullness of Christ on earth.
“Fullness” can indicate the thing that is filled - such as the church - but it can also mean goal of filling Eph 4:13. God’s Goal for the church is to be filled with the character of christ. In other words, God wants his church to “do what Jesus would do” to “think what he would think” to “feel what he would feel” if he were in your shoes. this is describing the final goal that God has for his church, not what we are today. In fact, this prayer doesn’t ever stop being needed this side of heaven. We will always need to be a bit more like Jesus in word, in thought, and in feeling; until we see him.
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
Fully appreciating the Love of Christ does have a transforming effect. The more you realize how much he loves you and how much he hates sin, the more you will hate sin yourself. The more you realize how much he loves others, the more you will want them to have the same joy you do. The more you are rooted and grounded in the Scriptures, the more you will be able to accurately do, think, and feel as he would. John 14:15, 23-24
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
V. The Greatness of the Power at Work in Us
V. The Greatness of the Power at Work in Us
God’s Power is at work preparing to give us the greatest blessing possible - to give us eternal life in his Kingdom.
The Greatness of this power is such that God will bless us not just with better and greater blessings than we ask for, but that he is preparing blessings for us so great we cannot even imagine it - until God actually gives it to us. Now this is the definition of revelation - if you can figure it out on your own without God’s help, it isn’t revelation. So God isn’t saying that the future blessings are always so great we cannot imagine them; he’s saying that the greatness of what God has planned for us is better than we imagine we want. God promises to give you the best blessings he can imagine; not the best blessings you can imagine. His imagination is better than yours.
The power of God that will do this is not something we are waiting to see; it is currently at work preparing us to receive those blessings; for the blessings of God are so great that to receive them we need to be prepared.
The unimaginable blessings God had prepared for us are not done for us - God has done this that we would glorify him forever.