Strengthening Love (Ephesians 3:14-22)

Tonight, we will look at one of the most mind-blowing texts in the New Testament. This is a text that I don't fully understand. This is an extremely difficult text for all Christians to grasp by its very nature. If I attempted to explain my desires for this church, I would never match Paul's words in this text. Paul tries to explain his desires for them thoroughly, and what he says is predicated on some of the most amazing truths we can see in the New Testament. The first words, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father..." Paul is bowing his knees because the Father has provided a way for all of us (terrible sinners that we are) to be a part of his family. We are all able to enjoy every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Paul reviews all of this fantastic news, and he is left with no other option but to bow his knees before the Father. Paul has been blessed above all, even though he was the worst of sinners. There is no other response that would come close to the appropriateness of bowing his knees before the Father.

Prayer For Strength

But Paul is talking about prayer. Paul doesn't just fall on his face and sit there. He makes his request with faith that God has done all of this to make us into men and women who praise his name and glorify him. Paul believes that God is working in the lives of Christians to mold them into his image. We were all called for this purpose, and now Paul prays that God will strengthen them to fulfill their call.

He said in verse 13 that he does not want them to lose heart over Pauls' suffering. He is concerned that their faith will wain as they see Paul suffer. So he wants God to work in them to strengthen their hearts and strengthen their resolve. Have you ever prayed that way for anyone? When COVID hit, were you on your knees praying for God to strengthen the weak and bring them to a place of greater faithfulness in the trials ahead? I was praying that prayer, and I hope you were too. But we should still be praying that prayer. With the secular world pressing so hard on us to give in to idolatry and humanism, we need strength.

How Does The Spirit Work?

Most people take a deep dive into verse 16 to talk about how God strengthens us. I don't think there is any doubt that Paul is asking God to strengthen and build up the Christians in Ephesus directly. He wants God to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen their hearts and minds. Beyond that truth, I hear people get into all kinds of speculations. Do we believe that God gives people a feeling or conviction to strengthen them? Do we believe that God only strengthens through the word? I will tell you what I believe, and we can move on. I believe the Spirit strengthens however the Spirit sees fit to strengthen. There is no reason to assume we understand all that the Spirit can or cannot do.

The Word

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul's words, and those very words may cause an emotional response in the reader. I have felt an emotional response from these words as we have studied them over the last few weeks, and I believe many of you have as well. We have experienced what it feels like to be loved by God. Isn't that wonderful? God did that through his word as we saturated ourselves with it.

Outside of the Word

However, I don't assume that God only encourages us through the word. Paul is not commanding them to read scriptures. He is praying for God to act. He is asking God to providentially work in their lives to transform their hearts and minds. Paul knows that God has been working since the day of their salvation, but he wants God to do more. We may not know it at the time, but we can see God's working in hindsight. God is the reason we are here today.

Ezekiel 36:25--28 (ESV) --- 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

God promises to put a drive and desire in us to do his will. He will be working with us to direct our paths and draw us near to him. If you doubt that, I want to turn your attention back to Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Did any of us object to the notion that there is a spiritual force of wickedness working to drive us into disobedience? Of course not! We know that spiritual force all too well. The prince of the power of the air is at work. But Paul also says that God is at work. We read in 1:19 that the same power that rose Jesus from the grave is toward us who believe. God used his power to raise us from spiritual death, and Paul is now praying for God to use that power to strengthen his children.

Can We Trust A Feeling?

As I say all of this, I know that many people have felt that God is leading them or strengthening them to do certain things. That may be true, but I must warn against trusting our feelings fool-heartedly. We have feelings and notions that are wrong all the time. If someone does something awful to me, my heart tells me to punch them in the face. Those feelings and emotions do not come from God. You see, the heart is deceitful above all things. Often my feelings and emotions lead me toward a work of the flesh, not the fruit of the Spirit. We must not trust our feelings to guide us and listen to our feelings when they align with the truth. I know many people discount feelings and act as though feelings are useless, but I don't believe that either. Our feelings are precious when they come in response to the truth of God's word.

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) --- 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I know many of you have felt the cut of the word as we study it together. I can see the teary eyes and the long faces. I know that in some cases, there is a storm raging under the tranquil sea. God is working in your inner man, just like I have prayed for him to. Maybe you aren't ready to submit yet, but I will keep praying for you. I want the whole body to be strengthened so that we can join together and glorify God. I know many of you are praying for me. Keep it up. It's working. Opportunities are increasing, and I feel more driven than ever to do more for God's kingdom.

We need passionate feeling people who believe in and want to understand the truth of God's word, and we need intelligent, logical thinking people who are feeling the cut of God's word and the joy of God's grace.

"According to God's glory"

Paul prays for God to strengthen the Ephesians according to the richness of God's glory. How much strength does God want the Ephesians to have? How glorious is God? Paul doesn't give a precise measure. He doesn't say, "Strengthen them so they can go out and teach one person." He doesn't say, "Strengthen them so they can stop one sin." He says, "Strengthen them so that they can accurately reflect your glory." Have you ever imagined yourself being able to reflect God's glory accurately? That's an insane idea! We typically feel overwhelmed by a single sin. But Paul is praying for the Ephesians to be Jesus, walking on the earth. That's why he says, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." He wants the Ephesians to bear the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. He wants them to be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That's how we fulfill our calling.

How Can We Be That Strong?

If this seems far-fetched to you, notice that Paul tells us exactly how we can be like Christ. Paul points to something that God has given us to be strengthened.

Ephesians 3:16--19 (ESV) --- 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith---that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

1. See The Love of Christ

Do you know what it means to be rooted and grounded? This terminology illustrates the strength of our hearts toward faithfulness. We need deep roots to stand against the spiritual enemy we face every week. We need a foundation that will be stable when everything starts to fall apart. How? He says the deep roots and the broad stable foundation come from love.

He wants us to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. God's love for us is displayed in Christ, but how do we encapsulate that? We sing the song Jesus Loves Me, but do we understand that love? It's not like the love we show each other or the love we show our spouse.

1. Broad - This love is broad. It covers every human being on the planet. Spend a little time asking if God's love would reach this person or that person as you experience the world.

2. Long - His love is long. It lasts through the good times and the bad. He does not stop wanting to show us love. Jesus died on the cross to show that he would love to the very end and never stop loving.

3. High - His love is high. It takes us into heaven itself to be ruling on the throne of Christ. We are hidden in Christ with every spiritual blessing shared as his brothers and sisters.

4. Deep - His love is deep. It doesn't just appear to love us on the surface. He loves the heart he is forming inside of us with all of his heart. He gives himself entirely to us, pleading with us to give ourselves entirely to him.

2. Believe That God's Power Is Working In Us

The second part of this is found in verses 20-22

Ephesians 3:20--21 (ESV) --- 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

This last section is so encouraging. It tells us that God can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think. That's an insane statement. If we ask God to make us like Christ, can he do it? He can do more than that. That is an obvious expectation that we should all have. Listen to Paul's words in Galatians.

Galatians 4:19 (ESV) --- 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

Paul is aggravated with the Galatians because they don't believe in the good news he delivered. They don't believe that Christ can be formed in them without some secret formula or list of things they must do. There is no list. Christ is formed when we seek Christ in us by God's working, rooted, and grounded in love.

Application

We can't glorify God in us until Christ is formed in us. We need to maintain a sense of humility and recognition that we aren't there yet. We must never give up on the goal. But we must also believe that God is gradually moving us closer to Christ-likeness. The world and the spiritual realm will see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives if Christ's love is our constant meditation.

I love these words I read from Tim Keller. This is the series of questions he asks himself when meditating on what he has studied in God's word, "Lord God, if I really knew in the depths of my being what I just read, how would I be different? How would my emotions be different? How would my will be different? How would everything be different if I really knew it in the depths... of my being?"

To be filled with all the fullness of God, we need Christ living in us, the strengthening of the Spirit in our inner man, and constant meditation on the love of Christ. Let's pray for God to help us and make his word a continual focus in our lives.