Transcription
[Music] Tonight we've been looking at Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 3, and it's a prayer that crescendos with what we've really made the theme of this 21 days. It's Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more." So, it's not just more than you can ask or imagine, it's immeasurably more. You're not going to be able to measure, you're not going to be able to contain it. And honestly, what I want to encourage you to think in terms of is, as you and I fast, as we're waiting on the Lord to work, God will not be confined by calendar. So we can't think in terms of, "Well, you know, what do I see next week? What do I see next month? What do I see by the end of the year?" Maybe what God is doing, part of what happens out of the fast is something that you don't see for 12 months from now. Maybe it's nine months from now. Some of it, actually, I believe when we get to heaven, some of what we accomplished on the fast and what God did, we won't fully understand, fully appreciate until we're in heaven. And then God's going to say, "Look what happened during that time." And at that point, we're going to say, "Well, that's immeasurably more than I, then all we could ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."
Now, on the way to this incredible verse in verse 20, we come to verse 18. And I think it's really important that we understand that from verse 14 all the way to verse 20, Paul is building. And a lot of times we want to run to the end and say, "Well, that's what I want." But along the way, there's a lot that God wants, and he wants to do in our life, and he wants us to know things that will change us, things that will strengthen us, things that will make our lives richer, fuller, our faith more vibrant. And one of those things is that you and I would grow in our understanding of the love of God. Not just in a generic sense, but that we would grow in our understanding of how much God loves us.
Tonight, we're going to talk about how much Jesus loves us. And this is important. In fact, I would suggest to you that the single most important thing any Christian can grow in their understanding of is the love of God. That would be, if there's anything we need to get, it's that. Because when you know how much God loves you, it strengthens your boldness, it encourages your confidence, it causes you to have a vibrant faith, a more intimate friendship with the Lord, a greater commitment, a greater purity, a better understanding of priority. And you can't give what you don't have. You can't explain to people the love of God, you can't share the love of God unless, number one, you've received the love of God and you understand the love of God. And the more you and I know about God's love, the more we understand God's love, the more we'll live in his love, the more we'll demonstrate his love, the more we'll be able to share his love, the more we'll be like his love.
Well, Proverbs, or if Ephesians chapter 3, verse 18: "I pray that you may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." A couple of comments here. "All the saints." All the saints are all believers. And I say that because there are some who are from a Catholic background, and in the Catholic Church, people have to be canonized to be saints. And so you could read that and think, "Well, that's talking about the saints that, that people would pray to in Catholicism, and people who have been who have done miracles, met the the mark of sainthood." In the New Testament, every single believer, every follower of Christ Jesus, is a saint. You're a saint, I'm a saint. You may not always act like a saint, but you are a saint. So, yes, Saint John, somebody said, "I like that, Saint John and Saint Debbie." So there we go.
I want you to notice something else here. Paul's praying that they might have the power together with all the saints, all believers, to grasp, to comprehend, how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. I find it interesting that in order to understand whatever this is, it requires power. She tells you that what we're talking about here is something that is so supernatural, so incredible, that a human mind cannot understand it, a human ear cannot hear it, a human eye cannot see it. To really grasp it, to really comprehend it, to really understand it, we need power. And remember, he prayed earlier in this prayer that we might be strengthened in our by his Spirit in our inner being, that we might be strengthened with power. And what do we need that power? We need the power of God to come upon us that we might comprehend the love of God.
Heavenly Father, I ask right now that you would do that in this place, that you would do that in our hearts and minds. Lord, there's not anyone of us who are smart enough, anyone of us who can in our own intellect comprehend the love of God, how wide it is, how long it is, how high it is, how deep it is. Lord, unless you touch us, we cannot do it. And so, God, I pray that tonight you would open the eyes of our understanding, you would open our heart, that you would anoint our mind. For we are reminded that the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit; he cannot, because they are spiritually discerned. And so tonight, may every person in this room, Lord, no longer, no matter how long they've known you, Lord, may every single one of us receive a supernatural anointing that would help us to understand this one of the greatest truths in all of the study of theology, in all that we would ever know about you, that we might know the love of God. I pray that you would help us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. So, what we're going to do, it divides up very nicely into four things, and then we're going to gather around and have communion, because communion is a remembrance of what the love of God. The more we love, but know about the love of God, the more we'll understand what we're doing when we come to the table of the Lord.
Look at this. He says, "I pray that you might have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." I want to ask you a question: How many times have you read that verse? Maybe some of you say, "I've never read it." That's okay, you've just read it. Okay, so everybody's at least read it once. But how many have read the scripture before and you've read it many times, you just kind of go through that and you view that as poetry? You view it as a, you know what, that's just a beautiful phrase, isn't that just beautiful? Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, I want to do that. But you never thought, "What does it mean? How long is the love of God? What does that mean? What does it mean how wide is the love of God? What does that mean? How high? How high is the love of God? What does that mean? How deep is the love of God?" How would you define, define to somebody the width of God's love?
I want to give you some suggestions, because I think it's important for us to think. God's love is like a diamond, multifaceted. And Paul gives us four facets that I want you to think about with me tonight. The first is the width of his love. What does it mean, how wide it is? What he's saying is, his love has no boundaries. It covers the up and outer and the down and outer. It covers the big shots, it covers the little shots, and it covers the people who've never shot. I mean, his love is for women, it's for men, it's for the poor, it's for the rich, it's for the smartest person in the room, it's for the simplest person in the world. It's for the Jew, it's for the Gentile, it's for the black person, the white person, and every color in between. His love is for Americans and our minions, it's for Russians and Rwandans, it's for Chinese and Tlapanecs, it's for Mexicans and Malaysians. He loves the Indian and he loves the Indonesian. His love is wide. Revelation chapter 5, look at this. John says he takes us into the throne room, and as this host is worshipping, the angelic beings are worshipping around the throne: "With your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." It's wide.
And then in Revelation chapter 7 and verse 9: "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." His love is wide. It reaches to everyone. The gospel is, "Whosoever will, let him believe." Anybody, anyone, anywhere, anytime, who calls on the Lord can be saved. That's wide. It's a wide love, it's an encompassing love.
Second, the length of his love. Somebody asks you, "What's the length of his love?" What are we talking about there? I would suggest to you that the length of his love has to do with the endless nature of it, in terms of its infinite. In Ephesians chapter, or in Jeremiah, excuse me, chapter 31 and verse 3, it says this: "The Lord appeared to us in times past, saying, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love.'" Wow. That's an amazing statement. "I have drawn you with loving-kindness." Paul echoes that in Romans, and he says, "It's the kindness of God that leads us to salvation." The only reason why you and I love Him is because He what? First loved us, right? And what's His love like? His love is everlasting. We have a tendency to think of everlasting as being, "Well, you know, I got saved, and now from now on, He's going to love me well into the future." Time out. He loved you long before you ever loved Him. He loved you before you were born. He loved you before you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye. He loved you an eternity past.
Look at this in Ephesians chapter 1: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world." Before the world was created, He chose you. You say, "How could He possibly have known me? I wasn't around." He knew you before you were formed. He knew you, says that to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you, I knew you." He knew you. He purposed you. He willed not only your salvation, He willed your creation. He's planned for your glorification in love. He predestined us to be adopted as his sons. He determined before this earth was created, He determined before the universe came into being, He determined before anything in creation, while the earth was still formless and void and darkness hovered over the face of the deep, before that, in time, before time began, God knew you. God willed your creation. God planned for your salvation. That God who loves you today loved you long, long ago, before time ever began. In time, before time, the Father, Son, and Spirit entered into an agreement that a race would be created in their image. The fall of mankind was foreseen. Everything was known down to the tiniest detail. The Son would be the representative of a new humanity, a redeemed humanity. You and I were loved all the way back there. Christ's love for you didn't start when you got saved. It didn't begin when you were born. He loved you long before He ever even created the universe.
Listen to this, this will blow your mind. Revelation 13, it's talking about people who take the mark of the beast and the judgment that comes on them, and it says, "And all who dwell on earth will worship it." That's the the image of the beast. And how does it define who those people are going to be? "Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world." So, before the world was, the foundation of the world was ever laid, names were written in the Book of Life of the Lamb that was slain. Every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb that was slain. When you get to heaven, you're going to find out your name wasn't written down the minute you got saved. Your name was written down before the earth was ever formed. That's an amazing thing to consider. This is so true, it's repeated twice in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 17 and verse 8: "And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast." I mean, how long is His love? His love stretches. You were known in eternity past, and you will be known in eternity future. You were loved in eternity past, you will be loved in eternity future. Here's why: because God never changes. Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13 and verse 8: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." If ever He loved you, He'll love you forever. His love is long, his love is unbroken, his love is without interruption. It is constant, it is unchanging, it is unceasing, it is without end. It never gives up and it never lets go. Even when you're grumpy as you're fasting, He loves you. He loves you no matter what you're going through. He loves you. He hasn't forgotten you. No matter if you failed Him, He loves you. His love is constant, His love never changes.
You hold the cup, as you hold the bread, and you hold the cup, you can know this. Sometimes people get in there like, "You know, others don't know. I just don't know." Listen, it's not about you, it's about Him. He didn't say, "Do this in remembrance of you." He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." He said, "Think about Me, think about what I've done." And what He did is, He loved you before time began. He'll love you when time is no more. He loves you. If ever He loved you, He loved you forever. "I have loved you with an everlasting love." He said it in times past, He's saying it today, and He'll say it in heaven when we're all together. That's the length of His love. His love is wide, and His love is long.
Number three, the height of his love. It's wide, it's long, and it's high. And most of us tend to think of salvation, and we looked at this in Romans, in terms of forgiveness. That we got saved, and you say to somebody, "Hey, you got saved." So, what does that mean? "Well, I've been forgiven all my sin." But it's not just that He's forgiven us of our sin. He not only died to make us forgiven, He died to make us good. He died to make us righteous. He not only died to save us from hell, He died to make us heirs with Christ of an inheritance. He didn't do it by holding us at arm's length, but He did it by wrapping His arms, or Himself, around us and uniting with us. I mean, what does it mean, the heights? With Him, we died with Him, we were buried with Him, we're resurrected with Him, and we are now seated with Him in the heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 2. And that's really high. How high is heaven? Very high. How high are you going? Clear to the top. Clear to the top. That's an example of His love.
Look at it in John chapter 17 and verse 24. Jesus prayed this: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am." Boy, did God answer that, huh? Jesus' heart is that you would be with Him, that you would, you would be, that you would share with Him. You know, listen, when you love somebody, you, you know, if Debbie, you know, one of the things we like to do when we're on vacation, we just like to eat good food. I'm gonna think everybody likes to eat, but some foods better than other foods. Though foods good, some foods really good. And so, you know, you taste something, you're like, "Oh, then you got to try this. This is just like over the top." Because you know, when you love somebody, you want to share with them, right? You want to share the good things that come your way, you want to share the, the blessing that of all that's a part of life. And Jesus, the one who loves you more than can imagine, wants to share everything He has with you. How high is His love? He wants to share everything He has with you. It's all yours. He says, "Listen, you know what? You can have it. I want you." He says, "I want you to be seated right beside Me. I don't want to get too far, far away from. I don't want you to be far away from Me, and I don't want to be far away from you. I want you right with Me." That's the height of His love. He is seated in the high places, we are seated with Him. What does it mean, how high His love is? It means to be with Christ, to have our mind set on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, as Paul says in Colossians. It's you and I thinking about, about who, where He is, who He is, and what's in store for us. It's you and I thinking about that day when we shall see Him. And in that moment, according to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2: "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He, we shall see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." He loves you so much. What's the height of His love? That you and I are going to be like Him. Not that we're going to be God, but we're going to be, we're going to be eternal, we're gonna have that glorified body, we're gonna know fully even as we are fully. We're gonna have the ability to comprehend the glory, the grace, the beauty, the majesty, the awesomeness, the incomprehensible wonder of God forever. We will marvel at His amazing goodness forever. We will be stunned at the height of His love, at the length of His love, at the width of His love. We'll be saying, "Oh my goodness, think of this."
Well, the depth of his love. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 18: "I pray that you might have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." What is the depth of His love? I think the depth of His love can be seen in two ways. First, Him, what He did. You said, "What did He do?" He left heaven. When you and I hold the bread in our hand at communion, He says, "This is my body." Jesus took the bread and He broke it, saying, "This is my body, which is for you." It's not talking about His death, it's talking about His distribution. That all of us now, each of us, hold a piece of the loaf. His body being a symbol of the loaf, each of us holding a piece together. We're all parts of the loaf, or all part of a body. There's a mystery in that. But when, when you're holding the bread, you're remembering He left heaven and came to earth for you and lived a righteous life. God, very God, Paul says in Philippians, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." That's not saying He didn't think He was God, equal to God. It's saying He didn't hang on to that. The one who, before He came to earth, was surrounded by Seraphim, who in an infernal voice cried out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." And they cry out back and forth, back and forth. Me, repeatedly, said, "Don't they get tired of that?" The only reason why we would ever think that is because we have no idea how glorious and how awesome He is. One second in heaven, you'll know why a being could be satisfied and enjoy that activity in God's presence. He set aside the place where He was adored by angels, where He exercised the prerogatives of deity, and He set that aside. And He said, "I'm going to live within the limits of a human body and humanity." And for 30 years, He lived as a man. So convincing was it that they really thought He was a man. And then He operated in the power of the Spirit, the same power available to us, to show us what a supernatural life looks like. Says this: "He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself." I mean, He lived in humility. He came to His own things, John 1 says, and His own things received Him not. The one who was God, very God, co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent with the Father, became a man and lived a righteous life. Why did He live a righteous life? Because He wanted to give us a righteous life. He gave us His righteous life. He took our unrighteous life on Himself. And that's the second measure of His, the depth of His love, that He died on the cross. He took the beating. His face was so disfigured, Isaiah says, because Isaiah 52 and 14, "His appearance was marred beyond human likeness." You couldn't even tell what He looked like. His face had been so beat by the soldiers. And then He carried the heavy cross after having been flogged. And then they put nails through His hands. And as He hung suspended, He had time to think about what was being done to Him. And He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I mean, I'm always aware of individuals. To the thief on the cross, He said, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." To His mother Mary, He said, "Mother, behold your son. Son, behold your mother." And in the midst of all that, God placed the sin, our sins, on Him and punished Him with what kind of punishment? It would be a compressed, in some ways, eternity of hell poured out on Him, wrath poured out on Him for us. He took our place. And why did He taste it? "The author of life died and tasted death for every man." And why did He do it? Because He loved us.
Here's what you have to understand. It's not because we were lovable. Here's, here's how we were to Him. Listen to this in Romans: "There is no one righteous, not even one." Romans 3:10. "This is the message: There's nobody living right, not even one. Nobody knows the score. Nobody looks for God." He died for us when we didn't care anything about Him, didn't know anything about Him, didn't know our need for Him, didn't know how wonderful He was. We didn't know anything. He says, "Babe," all He's talking about is humanity. This is a picture of humanity apart from God. "They've all taken the wrong turn." I say, put it this way: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We each one have gone to his own way. They've all wandered down blind alleys. No one's living right. I can't find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves. It's like there's every time a person apart from Christ opens their mouth, it's just got a stench to it."
[Music] Because even if they're a good person, their pride is offensive in God's sight. Their throats are gaping graves. Their tongues slick as mud slides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of center of the year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin. Don't know the first thing about living with others. In other words, they don't know anything about peace. They never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in the scriptures is not what God says about others, but to us, to whom these scriptures were addressed in the first place. And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else. And He died for us. That's the depth of His love. That God should love a sinner such as I, that at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. When we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I mean, it's all through the scripture. That's how much He loves you. We weren't lovely to Him, but He loved us anyway. There was much about us that offended Him, but He looked at, looked beyond that and said, "I love them, and I'm going to redeem them." Listen, He loves you more than you could ever imagine, and His love will never fail.