Eph

Eph. 3:20-21

1/13/2008

“To Him be Glory in the Church”

To give you the context very briefly: Paul just spent three chapters to set forth the glory of God as it is manifested in His plan and work of redemption in Jesus Christ. In the next three chapters he would go on to talk about its implications in our life as he gives commands, which flow out of the salvation God has accomplished and is perfecting in us. The doxology in our passage comes at the very end of the first three chapters, which is usually referred to as the doctrinal section of this letter (chs. 1-3). Do you see the significance of this doxology and its position in the letter? It seems as though Paul could not contain his emotions swelling up inside of him as he concluded his survey of the glorious work of God. He bursts out into this doxology, offering his exuberant praise to God! In this we see a proper effect of biblical doctrines. They cannot be a matter of cold, intellectual equation and logic. How can they be, when they are dealing with the plan and work of the One, who preserves and governs all His creatures and all their actions? That includes us and our actions. Who He is and what He does, therefore, have a most direct bearing on our life. And since it is He, who created us according to His purpose, we cannot know the meaning and purpose of our life apart from His design. What, then, can be more important and urgent for us to know than the knowledge of God?

What is more, through His word, God tells us what He has done for OUR salvation--how He planned it even before the foundation of the world, how He accomplished it by sacrificing His only begotten Son and how He is efficaciously applying it to us through the work of the Holy Spirit? How can we not get emotional about these truths? How can we be so cool and collected when we hear about God's great love for us sinners and the suffering that the Son of God had to go through to redeem us from our sin and its fearful punishment? As we are reading through the Bible together, these are the things that we must remember to stir up the grace of God in us. It is so easy for many of us, in our comfort and security, to read the Word of God as though they are no more than spam e-mails! In His Word, God is speaking to us about the most important and weighty matters. If the Word of God does not resonate with us in a meaningful and powerful way, we know that we are out of tune with God. When we are out of tune with God, the beautiful and harmonious and delightful music that our life can be becomes a horribly ugly, screechy, discordant cacophony. It is a tragedy that we are missing all that beauty and joy of our Christian life because we are loath to let go of our petty desires! When we allow these petty things to run our lives, when we allow even the urgent things of our life to dictate our life so as to crowd out the truly important things, the Word of God and its beautiful truths become more and more distant and there is nothing more dangerous than that! If that is where you are, and if that is what happens to you at times when you read the Bible, pray to God for His help with a sense of urgency and awaken your soul to be alert and read the Word as what it is--God's Word to you--to be believed wholeheartedly and obeyed gladly.

The placement of this doxology is so significant in another sense. It is the prelude to the imperative section, which consists of many, many apostolic commands (chs. 4-6). This doxology--this rapturous relish in the greatness and glory of God--is the foundation and motivation for our Christian living. Today, I want to focus on the glory of God and the church. For the relationship between God and the church is a prominent aspect of this Pauline doxology.

Paul praises God that He is "able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (v. 20). I think we all know this. God is God because He is greater than we. He is far more powerful than we are. His thoughts are so much higher and nobler than ours. So then, He should be able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. To feel the impact of what Paul is saying here, consider what he just prayed for in the previous passage. He prayed "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, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (vv. 17-19). Concerning this prayer Armitage Robinson said, "No prayer that has ever been framed has uttered a bolder request" (Peter. T. O'Brien, Ephesians, PNTC, p. 266). His prayer for all Christians is that we be filled with all the fullness of God and that by comprehending what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ. And this love of Christ is something that surpasses knowledge! What request can be greater than this, that we should be filled with the fullness of God?

And do you see that phrase, "ask or think"? What is in view here is not just what we ask in prayer but also the limits of our imagination! We know from our experiences the difference between the two, don't we? We sing, "Thou art coming to a King, / Large petitions with thee bring; / For his grace and pow'r are such, / None can ever ask too much." But what we actually ask in our petitions are limited by many things: our uncertainty about what God's will is, our lack of faith, our lack of confidence in God's love for us, our assessment of the situation as hopeless, etc. These things limit what we pray for. Of course God is able to do far beyond what we ask out of these limitations. But Paul goes a step further! Paul is certain without a shadow of the doubt that God is able to do far beyond even what we think!

I am sure that, when Paul prayed that we be filled with the fullness of God, he must have had some ideas about what that might look like. As an apostle of Jesus Christ, whose mind was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he must have had some grand picture of what it meant to be filled with God’ fullness of God. But the moment he started putting up some mental images of himself and God's people being filled with God’s fullness, he must have felt right away that his imagination, even under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was far too weak to imagine the fullness of what God has in store for His people. Oh, how humbling! Yet how marvelous and assuring it is at the same time to know that God's blessings for us will be so much greater than what we can ever imagine with our finite mind! Even our idle, carefree wishful thinking will not outdo what God has in store for us! What glory! He exalts God as the One who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, which include even that bold, daring petition of his in the previous passage that we be filled with the fullness of God!

But the wonder of the almighty work of God for us is not confined to the time of consummation. Paul is not just talking about what God will do for us in that future, when all of God's promises will come to its full and complete fruition with the Second Coming of Christ. Paul is talking about what God is able to do for His people NOW in this present age! That is the sense we get from these words, isn't it? In speaking of God's ability to do far beyond what we ask or think, Paul is not simply affirming God's divine attribute, which is His from all eternity to all eternity! He is speaking of this attribute of divine omnipotence because it is at work even now to do far beyond what WE ask or think! So Paul says, "according to the power that is at work within us..."! What is in view here is not just any kind of divine power; it is the power of God that is at work in us NOW!

Surely, this is not hard to understand. But the question is whether we believe it or not. Because that will make all the difference in the world. It is one thing to be familiar with an idea. But it is another to truly believe it to live by it. This is all the more important because Paul is not just talking about the abstract, philosophical theory of the omnipotence of God. He is talking about the almighty power of OUR covenant God, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that WE ask or think! Paul is taking about our God, who is mindful of us and attentive to our concerns in a very special way!

It is no wonder, then, that we see Paul focusing on the relationship between the church and God's glory: "to him be glory in the church...." (v. 21). Paul has already spoken of the church as the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (1:23). The church is also the household of God (2:19), which is being built into "a holy temple in the Lord" (2:21), "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (2:22). Paul expands on the idea of the church being the body of Christ later (4:11ff). He also speaks of the church as the bride of Christ in his discussion of the Christian marriage (5:25ff). There the idea of the body of Christ and the bride of Christ are joined together (5:27f): Christ loves His bride, the church, as His own body.

I wonder how well we understand what these analogies mean! How well do you think you understand how special you are to God as the church of Jesus Christ? The church is the body of Jesus Christ. What does this mean? Paul says in 5:29, "[N]o one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church...." Think about how commonsensical these words are and yet how astounding they are at the same time in their implication! Christ loves the church as His own body! Christ nourishes and cherishes the church as His own body! How much does Christ love Himself as God? We saw last week how God does all things to the praise of His own glory and how God is morally obligated to do so! And as the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son is obligated to seek His own glory first and foremost! His chief end as God is to glorify Himself and to enjoy Himself forever! In loving Himself as such, He does not have to feel guilty. For He is the absolute and purest Good whereas we are not! As God He must love Himself and He must love Himself perfectly and eternally and infinitely above and beyond everything else! And this self-loving God, this self-enjoying God, this happy God, loves the church as His own body and nourishes and cherishes it with His infinite love! All we have to do is to remember what He sacrificed, what He paid for her redemption! That is how glorious the church is: it is the object of God’s infinite, unbreakable love!

How then is God to be glorified in the church? What can the church do to bring glory to the all-glorious God? Surely, the church's resources are scanty at best and of no significance to God! Just take a look at our small church. What can we bring to God to give Him glory and honor? Then, what about those mega churches with 15,000 or 20,000 members, with their worship centers decorated with theater seating and latest technology, with their 300-member choirs and 100-member orchestras? When we think of God, who is the Lord of this whole universe, which is made up of millions and billions of galaxies, what is the best music and praise such mega churches can produce but an insignificant noise made by an ant? If we think that a choir of ten thousand voices is anything to God, we think too small of God.

And yet we are told that "without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 11:6), which means that God is pleased with our faith! This is a most amazing thing! Though this globe we live on is smaller than a dust in our galaxy, which is but a dust in this universe composed of billions of galaxies; and though we as individuals are but specks on this tiny planet of ours, which is not even a speck in the cosmic scale of things, something that we do can please the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth--isn't that the most astounding thought? David once marveled, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him" (Ps. 8:4)? And that which pleases God--that which we do, which brings pleasure and delight to God (!)--is our faith, the Word of God tells us! How is that possible? Does our faith have some kind of mystical, magical power in and of itself to shake and move the heart of God? No! If our faith can bring pleasure and delight to God, it is only because our faith is an act of our humble and genuine reliance on the almighty God.

We have a wonderful picture what faith is in Matt. 8. There we are told that Jesus marveled, that he was amazed, at the faith of a Roman centurion. And what did his faith consist of? Two things: a true understanding of his unworthiness before Christ ("Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof..."; Matt. 8:8); and a true understanding of Christ's authority and power and worthiness ("only say the word, and my servant will be healed"; Matt. 8:8). The true faith sees one's own bankruptcy, on the one hand, and God's all-sufficiency, on the other; one's own emptiness, on the one hand, and God's abundant fullness, on the other.

When we view faith in this way, we can see the reason that the church, which is rightly called the community of faith, is the fullness of Him, who fills all in all! By faith the church recognizes its utter bankruptcy and emptiness and reaches out for the fullness of Christ. Faith, then, is essential for the church to be the church. In this epistle, where Paul presents the church as the fullness of Christ, faith plays an important role. The word "faith" occurs at least 8 times (1:15; 2:8; 3:12, 17; 4:5, 13; 6:16, 21, 23; "faithful" twice in 1:1; 6:23).

To speak of faith in this way is not to say that we must empty ourselves, as some religions strive to do, so that God can fill us, as if God is helpless to fill us unless we empty ourselves first! Paul says in 1 Cor. 4:7, "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" So you see, objectively speaking, God is the One, who fills all in all, whether people have faith or not. It is not as though God is the God only of Christians and only Christians have received what they have from their God. No, whether we are Christian or not, all that we have is from God--our life, our intelligence, our abilities, our looks, our possessions and our relationships, etc. But only those, who have faith, recognize it and give God the glory that is due His name. And if faith is important, it is because faith is the only proper response to the truth and reality of who God is as the Creator and Sustainer of all things and who we are as creatures, wholly dependent on Him for all things.

And this awareness makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? It is the difference between being cared for by your loved one while in a coma, on the one hand, and being engaged in a fully satisfying relationship in sound body and mind, with all one’s mind and heart and will fully engaged! Do you see how beneficial it is for us to be aware of God and His presence in this world? The awareness of God, who fills all in all, is the difference between looking out into the universe and seeing nothing but cold, empty space, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, seeing the heavens declaring the glory of God and the sky above proclaiming his handiwork (Ps. 19:1), seeing that we are not alone in this vast universe but are in the presence of God. This awareness helps us see in all the chaotic and tragic and senseless affairs of the world the hand of God's providence with calm assurance. This awareness of God's sovereign authority over all and in all helps us know that everything has a purpose because everything happens according to God's sovereign plan.

Oh, how beneficial it is for US to be aware of God and His presence in this world by faith? Yet our awareness of God and His presence cannot possibly add anything to God's inherent glory. What does God get out of this arrangement? Yet it was God Himself who made us in His own image with the ability to see His glory and appreciate it. Why? Because He delights when we delight in His majesty and beauty! It is He, who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Who can know the truth of this statement better than God Himself? Even as fallen creatures, in our bankruptcy and deficiency, in our incessant craving for more and more, we sometimes experience the truth of that statement. If so, how much more would God delight in giving out of the abundance of His wealth? Perfect in His infinite richness, God cannot possibly want anything more than He already is and possesses! All that He desired when He created us in His image was that we should share in His abundant riches and get a taste of His happiness and joy as the all-sufficient God! And we considered it an unbearable burden and bother that we should acknowledge His supreme worth above our petty desires and curiosities. Oh, how tragic and foolish!

Often we think and act as though God could possibly want anything from us what was not His already. We are all (both Christians and non-Christians) but stewards of God. All that we have are in our charge only for a time. We will have to let go of them one by one and eventually all of them when we die. Is there anything that we have, which we can keep from God when He should decide to rip it out of our hands? You see, we lose nothing when we surrender everything to God because nothing was ours to begin with. Yet when we do surrender to God everything, which we did not have, we come to gain God, who possesses everything. It is like a boy, who gives up his candy to his daddy at his daddy's request. Does he lose a candy? No, he gets it back because what Daddy wanted was not the candy but the boy's heart and love! Not only does the boy get his candy back but also wins Daddy's heart. Abraham was ready to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, at the request of God. When he surrendered his son in his heart, not only did he receive his son back but also with him the renewal and confirmation of God's gracious covenant with him! Why is it so difficult for us to understand this heart of God, our heavenly Father? And if we can just understand this, how amazing our life will be--how rich, how satisfying, how fulfilling, how enjoyable, how fearless, how free!

Of course, those, who refuse to accept God's offer of salvation in Jesus Christ, cannot claim to have surrendered everything to God! How can they when they hold on to their own wisdom and their own idea of what is right and wrong and consequently reject Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God and the power of God? In rejecting the gospel of God’s Son, they refuse to give up what is most despicable in the sight of God--their pride and arrogance, insisting on their own thoughts and opinions, even against what God says, even against God's most precious Gift, even against God's solution to our most urgent and desperate problem.

This shows what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. It means more than just walking down the aisle and praying the sinner's prayer and knowing the right answers to the Evangelism Explosion. To believe in Jesus Christ is to surrender any claim to yourself and to your possessions and to your rights and to your pride and ego. For we cannot truly believe in Jesus Christ without acknowledging our utter bankruptcy before God. Not only do we acknowledge that nothing we own is our own; we acknowledge also that we are totally depraved sinners, fully deserving of God's wrath. We acknowledge that even our best efforts are detestable to God as a washcloth that is filthy and stinky because it is left unwashed in a damp place for a long time! Have you smelled one of those recently? True faith makes us decrease so that Christ may increase. More accurately, faith enables us see the two wonders of the gospel: the wonder of Christ's redeeming love and the wonder of our unworthiness, our utter unworthiness.

If we were to put this in a positive way, we can say this: faith is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to fill us with Christ. This is where the glory of the church lies, which is the community of faith: as the church is filled with Christ, the Lord of glory, it is filled with glory. The church is after all the body of Christ, which is the fullness of Him, who fills all in all (1:23). Our faith is that by which we receive into our bankruptcy and emptiness the fullness of Christ. And that is how God is glorified through and in the church: as the church, once dead in trespasses and sins, is now made alive and filled with the glory of Christ through the power of God, to Him belongs all glory in the church in Christ.

Last week, we talked about the most basic and important premise of Christian life: all things are to be done to the praise of His glory. Today we are seeing a logical biblical extension of that thought: the importance of the church to the praise of God's glory. For the church, as we have mentioned many times already, is the body of Christ, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all. Do you realize that nothing in this whole universe has this privileged position? Not even the glorified angels in heaven belong to the church of Jesus Christ, which is His fullness! But you now belong to the church of Jesus Christ, you who as Gentiles were once separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world! But we must not forget that our privilege is ours as we are members of the church, the body of Jesus Christ! As precious as we are as individuals in the eyes of God, God does not see us merely as separate individuals but as members of the body of Christ. In the eyes of God, we do not exist apart from the church as we do not exist apart from Jesus Christ. For Christ and His body cannot be separated!

How important is the church of Jesus Christ to you? How important is this local body of Christ called the New Life Mission Church of La Jolla? Do you accept how precious this church is in the sight of God? Do you realize that much of your enjoyment of the fullness of Christ is to take place in this church of yours? So then, don’t you desire to see this church be filled with the fullness of Christ? For it is by being filled with the fullness of Christ that we give glory to God! Oh, how this church needs our care and cherishing! Oh, how this church, which is the body of Christ, deserves our prayers and tears, our sacrificial giving and labors for its edification and expansion.

Brothers and sisters, let us pray and strive to grow in Christ so that we may be filled with the fullness of Christ, so that Christ may be all in all in our life and in our church! For it is by faith that we are filled with Christ—our thoughts filled with the mind of Christ, our words filled with the Word of Christ and our actions filled with the patience and love and forbearance of Christ? Do you not want to be filled with the nobility and joy and peace and love of Christ? Do you not want this church to be filled with Christ? And let us bless our God, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think! The day of Christ’s Return will be a day of utmost wonder and amazement to behold the glory God has prepared for His! And may our gracious God satisfy our longing for that day even now as we walk by faith in His beloved Son! And may God be pleased to fill our church with the fullness of Christ! Amen.