Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21
The Big Idea
Ephesians 3:14-21 is the hinge of the whole letter, the prayer that ties the doctrine of chapters 1-3 to the daily life of chapters 4-6. Paul doesn’t just inform us; he gets on his knees and asks God to make it all real in our hearts: strength in the inner person by the Spirit, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and a love rooted so deep that we know, in four dimensions, the love of Christ that passes knowledge.
When Information Becomes Real
I sometimes have a recurring dream where I have to get up and preach and I have nothing prepared. So all I give is information. Nothing real, nothing that matters.
Ephesians has two halves: the theological (chapters 1-3) and the practical (chapters 4-6). The practical section begins with Paul urging us to walk worthy of the calling we’ve received (Ephesians 4:1).
But between them is this central prayer, the middle of the book and the heart of its message. Paul doesn’t just inform us and then tell us what to do. He asks the Lord to make it all come alive in our hearts. This is where it all gets real: where Paul moves from giving us information to describing what happens when we believe it.
When a soldier enters his first battle, with bullets flying and stress at its peak, he’s glad for everything he learned in boot camp. Suddenly he understands why the drill sergeant yelled those instructions.
We’re the same. When life gets crazy, we need everything we’ve learned to become real. That’s why gathering with the church to hear the Word is so vital. It isn’t to earn anything; it’s to prepare us for the battles that are coming, whether we’re ready or not.
On His Knees (Ephesians 3:14-15)
Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”
The first way it gets real is Paul’s humility: on his knees, pleading with the Father.
- He’s praying for the whole family, every believer who will ever live.
- It’s a bit like Solomon kneeling to dedicate the temple (1 Kings 8:54), except Paul is dedicating the whole Church.
- And he links the Church in heaven with the Church on earth. We’re one family. Hebrews calls those who’ve gone before us a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).
I used to love it when my family came to watch my football games. I felt their love and support. I do the same for my boys now. I like to picture the saints in heaven that way. They aren’t yelling, “Quit dropping the ball!” They’re cheering about what God is doing in and through your life. They know how hard it is to live in the flesh. But they also know the freedom that’s coming.
What is Paul so passionate about that he’ll beg God on his knees for it?
Strength Inside (Ephesians 3:16)
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
- It’s a grant, a gift, according to the riches of His glory. Paul isn’t asking that we’d do well enough to earn God’s strength. That would be according to our glory!
- He prays that God would do the work inside us. It matters that we pray the right way, according to how God works. He gives grace.
- If we pray, “God, I’ve tried soooo hard! Why won’t You help me? Haven’t You seen how hard I’ve tried?” we aren’t praying in Jesus’ name, according to His will.
- Paul asks God to give us strength on the inside. That gift is grace: God’s strength freely given to whoever asks in faith.
And oh, do we need it. No amount of human strength can overcome the sin and selfish desires in my heart. No amount of effort can bring freedom or lift that burden. Sin is like a mountain on our back.
Remember Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress? He carried a huge burden on his back for much of his journey, until he came to the cross and it rolled away into the tomb. That’s how it feels. But God’s strength is so great He can easily lift that weight off our shoulders, and He does it by the Holy Spirit.
And who is the Holy Spirit? God Himself! How strong is God? Good question!
“Strengthened with might” means God’s might. Think of Gideon. The Angel of the Lord greeted him as a “mighty man of valor,” and Gideon basically said, “I think You have the wrong guy” (Judges 6:12-15). But that’s how God works. He gives His strength to the humble.
Have you ever thought, “This feels a little fake,” or, “I’m a little fake”? Here’s how it gets real.
Christ at Home in Your Heart (Ephesians 3:17)
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love…
Jesus living in your heart is the real deal. It’s all you need, and all we have to offer the world.
What kind of house is good enough for God? Stephen reminded the council that Solomon built God a house, yet the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. As the prophet said, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me?” (Acts 7:47-49).
We could never build Him a house, so He’s building one Himself: in our hearts!
- Obviously Jesus isn’t in our hearts in His physical body. That’s why He told the disciples it was better for them that He go away (John 16:7). In His body He could only be in one place. By His Spirit He can live in all of us.
- The Spirit couldn’t dwell in people this way before Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. But now He can.
- Jesus promised He wouldn’t leave us as orphans; He would come to us (John 14:18).
And it’s by faith. When a person believes in what Jesus did, they’re forgiven, and now the Spirit can live in their heart. He’s available to anyone who asks. He doesn’t come to those who work; He comes to those who ask and believe.
Then, as Jesus dwells in your heart, He starts growing like a tree. His roots dig down deep. Talk about getting a hold on someone’s heart!
How does a tree grow? You water it, with the water of the Word. Spend time in it!
And what is the soil He’s rooted in, the foundation of our lives? His love. The love of Jesus for you is what this is all about. It’s what makes everything real.
Thomas Aquinas taught that although the Father and the Son had the power to stop those who crucified Christ, neither did, because of the perfection of Christ’s love. And since perfect love casts out fear, Aquinas reasoned, Christ faced the cross without fear.
That perfect love is what roots and grounds your heart, changes you and makes you holy. His love saves us. His love changes us. His love is the power.
The Love That Passes Knowledge (Ephesians 3:18-19)
Paul prays that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Spurgeon wrote: “In this measurement may you and I be skilled. If we know nothing of mathematics, may we be well-tutored scholars in this spiritual geometry, and be able to comprehend the breadths and lengths of Jesus’ precious love.”
To many people, Jesus and His love are just a story, a theory, an idea designed to make us try harder to be good. But to Paul, and to us, His love is to be measured, contemplated in every direction: up, down, side to side, and upside down.
If we did nothing but lose ourselves in the love of Jesus all day, we’d be filled beyond imagining.
Picture Paul grabbing your face, holding it close, and exploding with passion: “You need to know how much He loves you!” Maybe if we knew His love the way Paul did, we’d sound more convincing when we said, “Jesus loves you.”
But Paul says this love passes knowledge. If all you ever learned your whole life was the love of Jesus, it would still be greater. Put everything you’ve ever learned in a bucket, and the love of Jesus would overflow it.
Yet Paul boldly prays that we would comprehend it and know it. How? I love when the Bible purposely blows your mind. Because our minds are limited, Paul asks God to go beyond our puny understanding and plant the fullness of this knowledge in our hearts, rooted and grounded there, where no one can steal it or confuse you out of believing it.
And we’re given His love in four dimensions, a “4D movie” of His love in our hearts: width, length, height and depth, together describing its fullness.
You need to see this movie. I can tell you about it, but it isn’t the same. You have to experience it.
Some of you haven’t seen it yet. Or you got distracted by the people around you, or the smell of buttery popcorn. You think, “Everyone talks about the love of Jesus, but I don’t get it. I’m not sure it applies to me. I’m not what I should be.”
You need to see the movie again with fresh eyes.
That means pray. Ask God to show you how much He loves you. I can’t do it justice. If I preached the greatest sermon in history or were the most gifted poet who ever lived, I still couldn’t come close to describing His love… for you.
- I don’t know how wide He searched for you.
- I have no idea how long He was willing to bear with you and pursue you.
- I’ll never understand the depth He pulled you up from.
- And I can’t see the height He’s now raised you to.
But when you pray and ask God to show you His love, He will. Through the pages of Scripture you’ll see it demonstrated over and over. Others can tell you the stories, but it’s so real when you read it for yourself and know His Spirit is speaking to you.
Then your heart will burst like a well that’s just been tapped, gushing with the water of His love. And how will you describe it?
Love Stronger Than Death
Look at the Song of Solomon, an ancient love song many have read as a picture of Christ and His Church. The bride tries to describe her beloved’s love: Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a mighty flame. Many waters can’t quench love, nor can floods drown it. If a man offered all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned (Song of Solomon 8:6-7).
(Love as strong as death? Like The Princess Bride teaches us: death cannot stop true love!)
She describes this love in two ways.
1. It’s unquenchable.
It’s an everlasting love, unending, not dependent on your performance. It’s a fire, a mighty flame. And no waters can put it out.
- The waters of shame and suffering tried to quench it. But Jesus wasn’t stopped on His way to love us completely on the cross. He endured the pain and the shame.
- The waters of death tried to quench it. They covered Jesus completely. But His love overcame them, broke the grave, and put death to open shame when He rose.
- The waters of our unworthiness can’t quench it. Jesus clings to the unworthy and won’t let them go. He touches the leper and speaks peace to the prostitute.
- The waters of our long rejection tried to quench it. He waits for us to turn to Him. He’s so patient.
- The waters of our daily inconsistency try to quench it. But His love works with power inside us, creating consistency where there was none.
2. It’s unpurchasable.
“If a man offered all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.” You can’t use money:
- As a gift to persuade Him to love. You can’t buy love.
- As payment for having been loved. That would cheapen it into something shameful.
- As a bribe to tempt Him not to love. No one can tempt Him to stop loving you.
- As a substitute for love. “I can’t love you, but here’s money to make up for it.”
Her beloved’s love was real in her heart. She could never describe it with such clarity and conviction if it weren’t. No one could change her mind or make her doubt. It was tucked deep in her heart. You could say it had grown roots there.
Especially when the challenges come. When the doctor says “cancer.” When the door slams in your face. When the boss calls you in to fire you. When we’re betrayed, despised, rejected or mistreated. The things the world points to and says, “That’s why you shouldn’t believe in the love of God.”
But Paul asks, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. He is persuaded that neither death nor life, angels nor rulers, things present nor things to come, height nor depth, nor anything else in creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).
Nothing can separate us, even if we run. Our challenges don’t separate us from His love; they give that love a chance to flow out of our hearts to the world around us.
A Quick Test
Has the love of Jesus gripped your heart? How deep have its roots gone?
Here’s a test. Paul says we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of God’s glory. And not only that, we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope doesn’t disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:2-5).
Do you glory in tribulation? That’s the clearest sign to anyone watching that you trust God, that you know the love of Jesus, that you have what they’re searching for.
There’s no shortage of tribulation among us. But there may be a shortage of glorying in it.
I’m not telling you to just start glorying in your trials. I’m saying: abide in His love. Learn His love. Know His love. And you’ll see your trials in a whole new light, the way God sees them. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). You won’t be afraid. You’ll trust that God is always working and always doing what’s best for you.
Exceedingly Abundantly (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Then you’ll have this attitude: Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
When His love gets real in our hearts, we start to see what could happen if we let Him work in and through us: laying down our plans every day and seeking His, crucifying our expectations and our dependence on the flesh, in the sure hope that He’ll pour His power out in our lives.
“This guy hates me. My flesh wants to treat him badly or run away. But Your love is growing in my heart, and now I want to stay and patiently love him and meet his needs.” Then that guy gets saved, and God is glorified! It wasn’t my power; it was Yours working in me. I don’t get the glory. To Him be the glory!
That’s how the Church is meant to work in every generation. And it has.
The love of Jesus is just another name for grace.
Do you have an impossible situation? Do you feel you can’t do what the Lord is asking because it’s too much? Nothing is too hard for God. Ask Him for His grace. Know that He’ll answer and provide everything you need… because He loves you.
Grace Takeaway
All the doctrine in the world won’t change you until it gets real in your heart, and that’s exactly what Paul prays for. God grants strength by His Spirit, makes His home in you by faith, and roots you in a love too wide, long, deep and high to measure. Ask Him to show you that love. When it takes root, fear loses its grip, trials become opportunities, and He does exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think.
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