Ephesians 3 · Third Avenue Baptist Church

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What exactly is the point of what we're doing here? I don't even mean just us as a church, though that's where your mind may have gone at first. But I mean all of it. I mean history. I mean kings and presidents and emperors and nations and countries and kingdoms. I mean the whole swath of history. What is the point of it all? Where is it all going and why does it matter? Human beings have thought about that question for millennia. for millennia we've been talking about what what is history and why are these things happening and what's the end of it and what's the point of it the Mayans had a calendar that ended on December the 21st 2012 they don't seem to have had much of an idea of what it was all for but they were certainly confident about when it was going to end well so much for that Karl Marx thought that the point of history was for the proletariat to affect the kind of final revolution against the bourgeoisie and so bring about the end of history. Georg Hegel was way more complicated, but he just thought that a series of little conflicts between various ideas and various peoples would finally

resolve into one big conflict at the end of history, and that would be the end and the point of it all. Elon Musk has said that he thinks the end and the point of history is just for human consciousness to carry on as long as possible until the sun expands so much that it burns it all up. Henry Ford once said in his infinite wisdom history is bunk history is just one darned thing after another he didn't even say the word darned he said a different word that I'm not going to say in this context but really what what's the point what's the point of history why is it all here where's it going and what's going to exist at the end what is the point of all these darn things that keep following one after another are they headed anywhere and is there any central point

to it all well that's what I'm going to talk to you about today as we continue our study through the book of Ephesians this morning this book Ephesians was written in about AD 62 so something like 1970 years ago roughly by the apostle Paul and it was meant to be a circular letter that was read in churches all over what is now western Turkey. A lot of the cities that this letter was written to and meant to be circulated to still exist kind of they're sort of ruins most of them but they still exist and you can you can go see them if you want to. The most prominent of those churches and those cities of course was the city of Ephesus and the church of the Ephesians and so hence the name of the letter all the last few over the last few weeks we've been looking at chapters one and two of this book in which paul has been speaking to a particular audience he's been speaking to the gentile believers in these various churches around western turkey including ephesus and what he's trying to do as he speaks to these gentile believers is form in them a

christian consciousness a christian identity that's what he wants to do he's trying to teach them to think of themselves not first as romans which they would have been tempted to do not first as ephesians which they certainly would have been tempted to do but first and foremost as christians when you think of yourself you ought to think of yourself paul is saying as first and foremost a christian and so to do that to form that christian identity he's been telling them over these first two chapters, how God, through the work of Christ, has broken down walls that divided these Gentiles from both God and from other people. You remember that from last week. So through his life and death and resurrection, through his blood shed on the cross, Jesus Christ has cut down, he's taken down the wall of hostility and enmity that existed between these Gentiles and God, right? So they now stand forgiven and justified and adopted into God's family. But not only that, horizontally as well, Jesus has broken down the wall of hostility that existed between the Gentiles and the Jews,

right? And he's brought them together into one nation. So it's, you know, what we talked about last week was this movement where God has taken the Gentiles who were way out there, and he's brought them near, he's crammed them together with the Jews into one new humanity, and then he's reconciled that new humanity to God by his blood. So that's what Paul is trying to convince the Gentiles that Jesus has done. So today, we're going to continue that thought. He's still talking about the unity of the Jews and the Gentiles, but we're going to be looking at chapter 3. And this, in chapter 3, is where Paul really comes to his point. Now, he's been there for a while, and if you sort of, if you're familiar with what Paul does and what the kind of vocabulary and language he uses, You can guess by the end of chapter 2 what he's driving at and where he's going.

But here he finally puts a sharp point on it. And what he says is, look, not only has Jesus done this thing, not only has God done this thing through Jesus, but this thing that God has done through Jesus was the whole point of history all along. This is what it's all leading up to. This was the whole thing. When God conceived of history, when he conceived an eternity past, what do I want the history of humanity to be about?

The crown jewel of the whole thing was this. Because that's how God has chosen to glorify himself. Now, I don't think I've even said the word yet of what the this finally is. But as we read this chapter here in just a second, see if you can figure out what the word is that belongs in that sentence. The whole point of it all was this. So here we go. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1. the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel, I was made a minister

according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I don't think, in reading that passage, for all the detail, for all the piled up phrases, I don't think it's that hard to see what Paul's point is here, to see kind of what the cutting edge of this whole thing is. It's really verses 6 and 10. if you want to just underline those or put a star next to them, if you've got 6 and 10, you've got this whole chapter. This mystery that I've been talking about for five verses, Paul is saying, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Verse 10, so that, all of that, so that through the church, The manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. You see what he's saying there? He's saying that the great mystery of the ages, which has been hidden in God for centuries and millennia. The great plan, which has now been brought to light, is that the Gentiles have been made fellow heirs, fellow members of the kingdom, fellow partakers of the promise.

And as they are, there is created a church made up of both Jews and Gentiles, which God has now set on display before hell itself as the number one showcase of his wisdom in all the universe. Which is mind-bending. It's just mind-blowing to think about what Paul is talking about here.

Think about it. Of all the things, of everything in the universe that God could have pointed to as proofs of his wisdom, as sparkling examples of what he is capable of doing as the God of the universe. He could have pointed to stars. He could have pointed to quarks. He could have pointed to all the billions of galaxies in just this little sector of the universe. He could have pointed to the whole thing. What does he point to? Of all of that, he points to the church as the great showcase of his wisdom.

Now, we obviously got to talk about whether all of these words that Paul writes here about the church are referring to local churches like us, right? Or if they're referring to what you can think of either as the universal church, that's all believers in all times at all places, right? or as the great heavenly assembly at the last day. So that's going to be the, you know, all believers in all times and all places, finally and literally assembled before the throne of God. You can think about that in either way. And we're going to do that. We're going to talk about whether it's local or universal, right?

That's the question. But for now, I'm just going to give you the answer at the back of the book, and it is all of the above. Paul in Ephesians chapter 3 is very much talking about the universal church or the heavenly assembly at the last day. something like that. It's the whole big thing. And yet, for reasons that I'll give you later, he's also talking about individual expressions and manifestations of that great heavenly assembly as they show up in the world right now. So just like this one. He's talking about both.

So it's entirely appropriate for us to say that the main idea of Ephesians chapter 3 is this. God has put this local church right here. Third Avenue Baptist Church, 1726 South 3rd Street, Louisville, Kentucky, 40208. This local church, God has put on display to showcase his wisdom. And that's been the plan for all eternity. So let's live like it. God has put this local church on display to showcase his wisdom.

And that's been the plan for all eternity. So let's live like it. All right, two big sections of this text. You can see them very easily if you look at the subtitles, subheadings in your text. There's verses 1 to 13 where Paul kind of makes this final case that it's the church that stands at the center of God's eternal plan. And then you got 14 to 21 where he prays for these churches, the Ephesians, the Laodiceans, the Pergamumians or whatever you'd call them. You know, all these churches, he prays for them to have a vibrant, living, spiritual life.

before God so that they will in fact show off God's glory and wisdom to the world. That's what's going on. So those two points corresponding to those two big sections. Number one, God has put the church on display. Number two, second section, now pray that you and I will live worthy of that honor. God has put the church on display. Now pray that we will all live worthy of that honor. All right, so point number one, looking at verses 1 to 13.

God has put the church on display. So that's what Paul is driving at in those first couple of paragraphs, as you probably see them in your Bible. He actually starts by trying to say a prayer for the Ephesians. Like he's been trying to sort of pray for the Ephesians for quite a while, and he never quite gets there. He keeps interrupting himself because some great thought occurs to him, and he, you know, runs off on a rabbit trail. Same thing happens here, and you can see it in that big dash at the end of verse 1. So he says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, hold up.

I'm assuming you've heard of me. And that's kind of what he does. Assuming you know about this stewardship. And then he doesn't pick up the prayer again until 14. You can see the same words there. For this reason, I bow my knees before. And then he goes on and he actually says the prayer. But he gets interrupted. And so really everything from 2 all the way down through 13 is a big parenthesis that erupts in Paul's mind. And it's just full of theological truth. So what sidetracks him? Why does he get interrupted in his prayer? For this reason, I, Paul, you know, he's writing, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.

Wait a second. It's that phrase that I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles that sidetracks him. He starts thinking about what's landed him in this prison in the middle of Rome. And he starts thinking about what was it that landed me here in the first place? What made me a prisoner of Christ for the sake of you Gentiles? And so he thinks about it for a while. Now, there are a couple of ironies in that phrase. I mean, for one thing, just look at verse 1 and see that he calls himself a prisoner of Christ.

But of course, from any human perspective, he's not a prisoner of Christ. Jesus didn't throw Paul in jail. Jesus didn't snap the shackles around him. he's a prisoner of the emperor Nero but Paul never ever thinks about these kinds of things in purely human terms never he knows that behind every setback every hardship every difficulty every shipwreck every beating every getting thrown out of the city every imprisonment and ultimately his own death he knows that all of it is God's sovereign plan that God ordained from before the foundation of the world.

Not one part of it is an accident. Not one part of it is just atoms crashing into one another randomly. No, it's not that. It's not out of control. It's fully in God's control. And so Paul can say, without any apology whatsoever, and probably without even thinking about it that much, I'm not Nero's prisoner. Not ultimately. It's Christ who has put me here for his own purposes. Christian, without going into too much on this, That is a critical mindset for you to have.

If you are convinced that the difficulties and setbacks and shipwrecks and imprisonments and whatever else are being inflicted on you by either a world or a person that doesn't care about you, you're going to crack and crumble. But if you're convinced right down to the bottom of your heart that, no, it's not Nero throwing me in prison. It's not my boss that's ultimately firing me. It's not my landlord that's raising the rent. It's Christ who is doing that, and he has his purposes for it. Then your heart will have all the ballast in the world that it needs to handle this world.

Paul had that kind of mindset. I mean, also, there's another irony here, because technically, it was, in fact, because of his love for the Gentiles that he was in prison. That's not just some sort of grand thing that he's saying. He's literally in prison because he got accused of liking the Gentiles too much. So you can go back if you want to and read the story in Acts 21, 22. He had been preaching and showed up in Jerusalem with this gift from Gentile churches to Jewish churches. And he's preaching right in the middle of Jerusalem that the Gentiles have now been brought fully into God's redemptive plan.

And that so incensed the Jews that they arrested him and threw him in prison, which is how he got here in the first place. So there's that. But that phrase catches Paul's attention. It interrupts his prayer because it's not just that. It's not just that he was preaching good things about the Gentiles and welcoming them into the, that's not it. It's not just that he cared for them and loved them and wanted them included, and the Jews didn't like that. It was way more than that. And he decides here in these verses to let them in on what's really going on.

So for the next few verses, two to six, he really just pulls back the curtain on what God has revealed to him about the Gentiles' destiny. And by the end of it, you can see why he is so determined to preach what he's preaching, even if it lands him in prison. So let's walk through it. So if you look at verse 2, Paul says there, Assuming, I assume that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for your sake. So what's that saying? It's saying that Paul has been entrusted with something from God.

God has given Paul something. He's been entrusted with it by God. and it's for the Gentiles. In other words, it's for their good. Whatever he's been entrusted with is for the good of the Gentiles. Verse three, I assume you have heard how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly. So this thing that he's been entrusted with, he calls here a mystery. Well, what does that mean? Well, mystery is, it's an old word and it just means a thing that is closed up.

or a thing that is hidden. If you take the word apart, that's what it means. So here Paul is saying that some hidden, closed-up thing has been revealed to him by God. So it's no longer closed up. It's now been opened by God to him and entrusted to him for the good of the Gentiles. That's what he's saying. Where did he briefly write about it? There in verse 3. Well, probably in chapter 2. So if you've been with us through this whole study in Ephesians, and you already really know what the revealed mystery is.

Paul hasn't said it yet outright in this section, but he's been talking about it for two chapters now. Verses 4 and 5, look at those. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. God's revealed it to me. He's opened it up to me, and I now have insight into it. And you can see that from the way that I'm writing. And I have this insight about this mystery of Christ, and this mystery was not made known to the sons of men in other generations in the same way that it's now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Now, when Paul writes that, that it wasn't revealed to other generations, he doesn't mean that nothing about this mystery was ever revealed.

We know that because even back in Genesis, rumblings of this mystery could be heard in the promises to Abraham. And then later you get even brighter flashes of light in the prophets. But what Paul means is that the full splendor of what God was doing was only becoming clear now. It was only revealed now, after the resurrection of Jesus. That's what he means. And then in verse 6, he just pulls the cover off. I mean, he's like a chef revealing his food or an artist, you know, pulling the sheet off a portrait.

Voila, here it is, right? This is it. And he says, this mystery is, this thing that's been opened up after centuries and revealed to me for the good of the Gentiles, the mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So see, that's what's been revealed. That's the mystery, that the Gentiles are not just going to be second-class citizens. They're going to be full members of the kingdom of God.

Now, Paul does this kind of thing a lot, but here he's actually invented three more brand new Greek words. I think we talked about this a week or two ago where he did this three times up in chapter two somewhere. But we got three more brand new words here. And those words are heirs together. It's one word. Heirs together, members together, and particulars together. Right? So he just makes these words up. Because the togetherness of Jew and Gentile is so important to him that he doesn't even want to take the time to write two words.

He doesn't even want the separation of one space in between them. He doesn't want members together. He wants members together. It's that important to him. And so he even makes up new words. And all this is new. And this is what he means. It's new that the Gentiles were going to be heirs together, members together, partakers together. That's new. There have been flashes that the Gentiles were going to be brought in, right? And we looked at it in Genesis 12.

All those who bless you, Abraham, will be blessed. And you'll become a blessing for all the families of the nations, right? There have been flashes. But the flashes in the Old Testament were of the Gentiles streaming into Jerusalem as second-class citizens of the kingdom. And that's what the Jews expected. But here, Paul is saying, no, no, no, no, no. What God has done through Jesus is far more profound than that. He's not just brought the nations of the world in as second-class members of the kingdom.

They are equal heirs and members and partakers of this one brand new nation, this one new humanity that's centered around King Jesus. Now, I think that it is really difficult to get people in 21st century modern America to feel just how shocking this was. I think it's really hard to get you guys to feel that, right? I mean, we Americans have our divisions, right?

And yet, part of what we talk about constantly as Americans, whether we live up to it or not, is the idea of unity and one nation under God and equality and freedom for all under the law. We talk about it all the time, even if we never live up to it, in all kinds of different ways. So it's really hard for us to feel just how shocking this was that Paul's talking about Jews and Gentiles being pulled together and made into one new nation. I mean, think about the story in Acts 21-22. It goes on for a long time, but you think about it. Paul starts to make this speech to the Jews, and he's just trying to explain himself.

He's like, I met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and Jesus was resurrected. He's talking about this whole thing, and they're fine with it. They're totally fine with resurrected, crucified Messiah. Doesn't cause a problem. Paul walking on the road to Damascus and meeting the resurrected Christ and being blind and scales falling. Doesn't matter. That's fine, Paul. Whatever you think. But as soon as he says, the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom, they riot and they throw him in jail.

it wasn't just one side that thought this was unthinkable. The Gentiles hated the Jews just as much as the Jews hated the Gentiles. So the only way, the only way it was even imaginable that Jews and Gentiles could exist somehow in the same nation, in the same kingdom, was if one submitted to the other, if one could have its foot on the neck of the other. And right now, at the time Paul is writing, It's the Gentiles that had their foot on the neck of the Jews.

The Jews just spent the entire time hoping that one day it would change and their foot would go on the neck of the Gentiles. But that was the only way it was going to happen. I mean, how do I get you to understand the intensity of the shock it was when Paul said, oh, no, no, no, no, no foot's on any necks, feet on any necks. You're all going to be one nation. How do I get you to feel the insanity of that? I mean, imagine if somebody came in, just strutted in, you know, says, I'm the king or whatever.

And what I'm telling you right now is not that Canada is going to become the 51st state of the United States and Mexico the 52nd. But what I'm telling you is that the United States of America is going to cease to exist. and Canada ceases to exist, and Mexico ceases to exist, and you're all going to be one nation of North America. I mean, a lot of you would think, well, wait, I don't want the United States of America to cease to exist. And yet, even in that illustration, it's hard, because, you know, Americans and Canadians and Mexicans, they don't hate each other, right?

It's not totally unthinkable. So let me give you another illustration. Take the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. You guys hate each other. Neither of us, I'm a UofL fan, neither of us had anything at all to say positively about the basketball games this weekend, neither of us. And so what happened in that great vacuum was that all of our hatreds for each other got sucked out because you couldn't say nice things about your own team, you had to say negative things about the other, and so it was just full of hatred.

Imagine somebody waltzed in and said, there will never again be a University of Louisville Cardinals and a University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team. They both cease to exist, and there shall be one team, Kentucky. Oh, my God. I mean, yeah, I heard you feel the revulsion in that thought, all of you. All right, maybe I've got it there. That's what Paul was dealing with, but on a national level, not just a couple of college teams that don't like each other.

That's the great mystery that's been revealed to Paul and that he's now preaching. And then in 7 to 13, he brings it down to his final point. Look at that. In 7 and 8, he backs up to his core calling as an apostle. He says, look, it was by God's grace that I was made a minister of the gospel. And that's how it happened, by grace. Then in verse 8, he just kind of steps back for a second in 8 and marvels at that grace. He says he was the very least of all the saints, but believers, right? That's what saints means. It's all believers. If you're a Christian, you're a saint.

It's not a special category. But he says, I'm the least of all the believers. In fact, that word there, or the two words, very least, are actually one word. And it's an interesting word because Paul takes a superlative. If you remember from your junior high English classes, a superlative is a word like best, right? It's the top, top level. Better is what's called a comparative because you're comparing two things. This thing is better than that thing. Best is superlative. Because it means it's like the top level. Well, Paul takes a superlative, like best, and weirdly turns it into a comparative.

So it's like saying that, well, you know, somebody walks in and says, well, yeah, I'm the best at basketball. And you go, yeah, well, I'm bester. It kind of doesn't make any sense, and yet you get the point. Well, what Paul is saying here is, you know, I'm not just the least of the saints. I am the leaster of the saints. I am the leaster of the saints. And he's not just, you know, being grabbed by false humility there. And this guy had spent years persecuting the church, putting them in prison, maybe even executing them.

He was deeply aware of his sin. He was aware of his outright warfare against Jesus in the church. And he's deeply aware now of how Jesus has forgiven him of even that great sin. Verse 9, he keeps going. I'm called to preach the riches of Christ to the Gentiles. That's one thing. But also, he says, to bring to light, again, this mystery. He calls it here the plan of the mystery that was kept hidden for ages. That's what I'm called to make people know. And what was that plan? Conceived in eternity and kept hidden for millennia until here?

Well, it's verse 10. so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. It just goes off in this passage like a bomb. This great plan, this unfathomable mystery, this thing above all things that's going to showcase the wisdom of God before the powers and authorities and rulers in all the heavenly realms is this right here.

And in case you haven't gotten it, look at 11. This was according to the eternal purpose that God has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, it's not a mistake. He planned for this right here to be set on display before heaven and hell and all the rest as the number one showcase of his wisdom, and he planned that from all eternity. And then he encourages them in 12 and 13. Okay, so let's just step back and get this straight. Let's get this straight and nail it into our minds because what Paul is saying here would just absolutely blow the hair completely off of 99% of evangelicals so fast and so completely would it fly over their heads.

I mean, we just don't even think in these terms. I mean, think about it. Before today, if I just point blank asked you to fill in this blank, what would you say? The thing that God has chosen to showcase his wisdom in the world is blank. Man, you'd fill that blank up with all kinds of things. You'd say, Jesus, the gospel, the scriptures, prayer, the family, marriage, the Holy Spirit, anything.

And I imagine even if I gave you 10 blanks to fill that in, the church might not even make the top 5 or top 8 or even top 10 for most people. And yet, there it is. The mystery of the ages, the plan kept hidden, the showcase of God's glory before heaven and hell is the church. Okay, but what church? Well, that's a great question. For most of Ephesians, Paul has almost certainly, the word church I think comes up one other time in the book, but he's certainly been talking about the universal church or the sort of last day assembly.

All believers, all true believers in all times and in all places. And here, I think it's obvious that that great assembly is definitely in view. It's the whole worldwide church gathered at the throne on the last day. With all of its multitude of languages and cultures and all the rest of it, That thing is most certainly going to showcase God's wisdom. But what you got to see is that what Paul is saying here really requires something visible right now. Something you can look at now to see the Jews and Gentiles living together in love and unity.

Otherwise, the whole point loses its power. Like he's got nothing to say if there's nothing visible. I mean, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jews and Gentiles still hate each other, right? They don't go to church together. They still hate each other. They still stay very segregated in their churches. But it'll work out in the end, and then, you powers and rulers, then you'll see. I promise all the powers and rulers would just say, ah, okay, okay, got it, Paul, sure thing. But the whole point was that right there in Ephesus and Sardis and Pergamum and Laodicea, you actually did have real tangible local churches where Jews and Gentiles were loving each other because of and only because of their shared allegiance to and love for King Jesus.

You had tangible examples of that where these ancient dividing walls of hostility really had been leveled. And that present reality, not just the future one, but those present, visible, touchable, seeable local churches were already at this moment showcasing God's wisdom just like this. And so, therefore, do we. If you look around this room, you're going to see all kinds of different people.

You're going to see young and old, rich and poor. You're going to see Americans and not Americans. And part of what we're trying to do here at 3rd Avenue is not just wind up reinforcing the walls that the world would build between us. That's why we don't break you guys up as adults into age-graded Sunday schools. It's why our teenagers and college students aren't off having a teenager church service and a college-age church service. It's why we don't segregate you in home groups into life stages because the world knows how to build those kinds of walls.

It does not know how to tear them down. And that's what we're trying to do in the church. One of our promises, one of the promises in our church covenant is that we, the very first one in fact, is we will walk together in brotherly love. And what we mean by that is that we'll walk together in brotherly love across the normal barriers that the world wants to build between us. I mean, think about it. It does not surprise the world when people who are the same love each other.

If the world sees a group of, you know, bright, shiny, young college students hanging out, caring for one another, loving one another, it doesn't surprise them in the least. That's normal. What surprises them is when one of those bright, shiny, young college students goes to sit next to the hospital bed of an older woman who is dying that night. That's the kind of love that shocks the world. And when they ask, why would you do that? You say, it's because of my love for Jesus and my allegiance to him.

That's it. Friends, that speaks. What that means, of course, is that that love that we have for one another is exceedingly precious and valuable. This church right here, this one right here is exceedingly precious and valuable. You look down at verse 13 and you see that Paul says, look, I'm even willing to, I'm willing to suffer for you guys. All you Pergamumians and you Ephesians and all you churches that I'm writing to, I'm willing to suffer for you, for your glory.

it's precious. But the other side of preciousness, of course, the other side of value sometimes, is that this church is exceedingly fragile. It's not because the gospel is fragile. It's not because Jesus is fragile or what he's bought for us is fragile. That's not it at all. The preacher from 1,700 years ago, or whenever it was, John Chrysostom said, Look, if it breaks, if it breaks, it's not because Jesus has somehow failed.

It's because of our exceeding depravity. Friends, if this precious thing breaks, that's on us. We are not, any of us, not one of us is in heaven yet. Not one of us has been glorified before Christ yet. And what that means is that each of us needs to look ourselves in the eye and acknowledge what we are. Each and every one of us needs to look ourselves in the eye and say, acknowledge, you, Greg, are a threat to this church.

Look, I've been doing pastoral ministry of some form or another for about 25 years now. And in the course of 25 years in pastoral ministry, You see some absolutely beautiful things. But over the course of 25 years, I've also learned that when push comes to shove, a concern for the good and unity of the church ranks about eighth on the list of things that motivate a lot of Christians when things go wrong.

Now, that's not comfortable to think about, and maybe that's not true for you as an individual Christian. The proof will be in the pudding at some point. But for a lot of Christians, when push comes to shove, they're motivated by all kinds of things. Who your friends are, who your family are, your own ego, your own embarrassment, who you heard from first. And then maybe down at number six or seven or eight, you get to protecting the unity of the church. Brothers and sisters, it ought not to be that way.

Paul cherishes these churches even to the point of being willing to suffer for them, even to the point of being willing to be wronged for their good. And we ought to be that way too because it's the reputation of Jesus Christ on the line. Now, don't hear me wrong on that. The unity of the church should not be number one on that list. That is not what I'm saying. Number one on that list ought to be truth, what the Word of God says. And sometimes truth is worth breaking the unity of the church.

But friends, close on its heels, close on the heels of truth should be protecting what God has created, what he plans to create from all eternity through the blood of Christ, the church. Which is, of course, incredibly hard. And that leads us to the second point. God has put the church on display. Number two, now pray. Now pray that we will live worthy of that honor. So in verses 14 to 21, Paul finally gets to his prayer after this long parenthesis, right?

It jumps from 1 to 14. We read it earlier, but it doesn't take much, I think, to see what he's praying for ultimately. And that is that these Christians in these various churches will have a vibrant, living, spiritual life that's grounded in the rock-solid foundation of God's love for them. And at the same time, it's kind of rocketing off into the glories of what God has in store for them. And the whole thing is meant to empower them and get them ready to do what he's been talking about in the first half of the chapter. Life in the church is hard.

And so I pray for you, Paul says, these things. So in 1415, he starts the prayer and addresses it to the Father. He calls him there, you can see that, I bow my knees before the Father. And in 15, he calls him, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Which is underscoring the point that he's been making this whole time. That, you know, he's the father of the Jews and he's the father of the Gentiles. He's the father of everybody from all eternity. And so it makes sense that God's desire, as the father of all the nations and the families of the earth, should want to unify those under one kingdom, right?

That's what he means by that. Then in 16 to 19, he prays three things for them. Now, as you read through this, it looks like more than that. And if you start sort of counting it, you're probably going to come up with more than three things. But you've got to understand that some of them are sort of stuck together. You get like these sort of double prayers. But they're all set off by a particular word in the text. I'm not going to get into the detail of it. But just trust me, there are three of them. And they start in the following places.

They start, each one of these petitions starts at the beginning of verse 16, the middle of 17, and the middle of 19. That's the three. 16, middle 17, middle 19. Now, some people have looked at these and they've said, you know, these things look kind of like a staircase. right? Because they move from sort of here to here to there, right? As you go through them. I'll point that out to you. I don't know if it's a staircase. It kind of has more of the feel of a rocket launch to me or maybe even a slingshot. But the point is that these three petitions that Paul makes here are reaching up, up, up until Paul can't even go any further. And he just sort of gives up in 20 and 21 and just says, all glory be to God, right? So let's look at what he prays for them when he prays for us in fact first petition there is in verse 16 through the first half of 17 so he says I pray to the father 16 first thing I pray is that according to the riches

of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with your with power through his spirit and your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith it's that whole thing that Paul is praying. That's his first petition. What it means is this. To stand firm in a world that is constantly calling you to sin, to stand firm even against your heart's own inclination to rebuild walls that Christ has already torn down, you're going to have to be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that dwells in you. Your desires are going to have to be conformed to his. Your values are going to be have to have to be conformed to his your hatreds are going to have to be conformed to God's and that doesn't happen naturally naturally apart from the spirit of Christ dwelling in you your values your motivations the things that you care about even your hatreds are going to be shaped more by your sinful nature and the world around you and the devil but you get the spirit of Christ in you and all of that starts to change and that's what Paul is saying you need to be

strengthened in the inner man in the inner heart to care about the things that god cares about that's a good thing to take a sort of self-assessment on isn't it is that happening as you live as a christian you find your values growing and changing you find yourself loving more the things that god loves valuing the things that god values well that's what paul prays for you here and what he means is that if the unity of the church is going to be protected rightly, we are going to have to value and care about the things that God values and cares about. And if we don't, the whole thing's going to blow apart.

Second petition there is from mid-17 through mid-19. So if you look at right after the dash in 17, I pray to the Father, that first thing, and now I pray to the Father that you, being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge it's all of that that's the second petition I mean the prayer if you look at it carefully there's a lot of words in it but the prayer is actually that you may have strength to do some things right that you may have strength to do some things so he's saying this strengthening that happens in your inner man from the first petition, I want that strength to issue in some stuff. So you'll have strength to do some things. But he starts with this phrase, being rooted and grounded in love. Well, what does he mean by that? I want you to have strength to do these things, but I want that to happen in the context of you being rooted and grounded in love. Well, that's talking about God's love for us

in the gospel. And it's foundational. It's one of those foundational things that the Bible teaches us about ourselves as Christians. Every good thing that we do, every blessing we enjoy is anchored in the bare fact that God loves us. That's where it all came from. Then go back to chapter 2. God does all this because of the great love with which he loved us. Or go back even further to chapter 1. In love he predestined us, etc., etc., etc. Or even the apostle John maybe puts it more clearly than anyone. We love Jesus. We love each other. We love God. We love because he first loved us.

So, rooted and grounded in that love, Paul prays that we'd be strengthened to do two things. You see it there? Two things. He prays that we would be strengthened to comprehend, and then verse 19, to know. You see those two words? Pray that you'll be strengthened to comprehend and to know. Well, okay, what are we supposed to comprehend and know? Well, both of those are completed by that little phrase, the love of Christ. I want you to comprehend the love of Christ and I want you to know the love of Christ.

And he says in the middle of it there, I want you to comprehend actually, not just that love sort of, you know, barely as a tiny little thing, But I want you to comprehend its breadth and length and height and depth. I want you to see just how great the love of Christ really is. And what he means by that is that the love of Christ is infinite. It never stops. It fills up the universe. It's all for your good. Ancient Christians sometimes would say that what Paul says here, the length and width and height and depth, It referred to the four points of the cross, right?

Length and breadth and height and depth. It said it referred to the cross. Probably more likely is that Paul is just thinking along the same terms that he did in Romans 8. I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of Christ and Christ Jesus our Lord. How great is Jesus' love for you? It is so high, so wide, so deep, and so long that nothing in all of creation will ever be able to snatch you out of his hand.

That's how big it is. Oh, but my sin will snatch me. No, it won't. No, it won't. Nothing in all of creation. Know the height and the depth and the breadth of Jesus' love for you. So, I mean, you see this progression so far you see kind of what's what's going on here he starts with starts with being strengthened right here right this is the most intimate thing i want you to be strengthened in your inmost man in your heart by the spirit of christ dwelling in you and then you've got this kind of slingshot move in the second petition where he says and rooted and grounded in love i want you to know the infinity of jesus's love for you all the way down and all the way back up and look this is not some sentimental love that paul is talking about here that jesus has for you this is not jesus holding a little lamb and stroking its little head

to make it feel better after it stubbed its toe no this is the kind of love this is the kind of devotion this is the kind of determination to save someone that sends a man to war. And that's exactly what it did. It sent Jesus to war against Satan, against our sin, against death itself. You need to know what that love is like.

You need to know what it is to have the God of the universe say, I love him so much that I'm going to war against hell and death and sin to save him. Because that's what Jesus did. Don't let another day go by. Don't let another day go by without you saying, Jesus, I'm in. I'm in. I'm trusting you to save me from my sin. I'm turning away from everything I've been pursuing, and I'm following you for the rest of my life. And it's worth everything for you to know that kind of war-making, rescuing love.

Don't wait another day. The last part of the prayer is the end of 19. He says, I pray this thing for you, and I pray this second thing for you, and then finally, the very last sentence of it, I pray that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, what does that mean? Well, it could mean a couple of things. It could, on the one hand, mean that Paul is praying that we'll be filled up with something called the fullness of God, Something that, you know, is the right size and it'll neatly fit into our little finite souls.

And I pray that God, whatever that thing called the fullness is that fits neatly in our souls, I pray that God will fill you with that thing that just barely fits in your soul. But I don't think that's what it says. Because the word with there, end of 19, that you may be filled with is not really with. It's that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. May you be filled up all the way to the fullness that belongs to God. It's just absolutely astonishing that one day those of us who are in Christ will be filled up unto the fullness that belongs to God himself.

It's mind-blowing, and yet that's what the Bible promises. Romans 8, you and me are going to be conformed to the image of Christ. 1 John 3, when he comes, we will be made like him. I mean, Paul is just shot off into the stars here. I pray that you will be filled up to the fullness that belongs to God himself. It's the highest step he takes us to. But I mean, how are you ever even going to fathom another step?

Because the fullness of God is infinite. It's like standing on the highest peak imaginable and just looking off into the galaxies. I mean, how is God even going to do that? How is he going to take our little finite, tiny little souls and fill us up to the fullness that belongs to him? How is he going to make us like the eternal son of God? How is he going to conform you and me to the image of the king of the universe?

How? I don't know. And neither does Paul. So he ends with this. Well, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. I have no idea how he's going to do it, but I know that he is. And it's far more than I'm able to imagine or think. I think it's worth ending on just one more little detail.

Look down at verse 21. 21, you look at it. What brings glory to God? What brings glory to God? Do you see what he says there? And does it blow your mind in the same way it blows my mind? Paul says there that God will gain eternal glory through the church and through Jesus Christ.

When it comes to what will bring God glory in the last day, he puts us on a parallel with Jesus. He even mentions us first. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that we're really on a par in bringing glory to God. I mean, Jesus is the cause of all of it, right? But what Paul does mean to say, what he does mean to show for why he's got this unimaginable esteem for the church, he wants to say that the glory that Jesus brings to the Father is inseparably bound up with the fact that his work created us.

Look, I know that this little church doesn't look like much. Some things in this world look like very much. The coronation of the King of England looks like much. The election of a new pope in Rome looks like much. I was at the inauguration in D.C., or at least I was in D.C. for the inauguration. But at least what I saw on TV looked like much. We really don't.

And we don't even really look like much compared to a lot of other churches. But brothers and sisters, never let appearances fool you. Never let appearances fool you. Because it is to this church and to churches just like it all over the world, to whom the great king has stooped down and looked into our eyes and said, not little flock for it is the father's good pleasure to give you the whole kingdom let's pray our lord god we thank you for these great truths that in your great grace and mercy and wisdom you saw fit to create one new kingdom one new nation one new humanity united around your son Jesus Christ the king of kings and lord

of lords God we thank you that you have made us a part of that kingdom and we thank you that even here in the life of this this little local church third avenue baptist we're able to manifest the life of that kingdom here in this dark and fallen world Lord help us to do that well conform our values conform our desires even conform our hatreds to yours and help us to live in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called we pray all of this in the name of jesus amen