I would have you turn again in your Bibles this morning to the letter of Paul to the Ephesians, to the end of chapter 3, where our text this morning brings to a close the section Paul began in chapter 2, in which he proclaims the truth of the gospel that in Christ, Jew and Gentiles have been reconciled to one another, and as one new man have been reconciled to God. And it also completes the first half of the letter, finishing the foundation upon which the second half is built. In chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul has boldly declared the truth about who the triune God is and what he has done for his people in Christ. He's emphasized the privileges granted to the saints in Christ. In chapters 4, 5, and 6, Paul will emphasize the responsibilities of the saints. The good works by which Christ continues his work through his people. These responsibilities are not only demanding, but are in fact impossible apart from the enabling grace of God. Therefore, Paul, in anticipation of what lies ahead, in anticipation of that which he is going to call upon us to do from our Lord God. Our text today records Paul's exalted prayer for the church. A prayer that unfolds in three parts. First, for the church to be empowered. And then for the church thus empowered to know the unknowable. And finally, through this knowledge, for the church to be transformed. Read with me, if you will. Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 to 21. Listen here to the Word of God. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Paul picks up here in verse 14 where he left off in verse 1 for this reason. In other words, because of the mystery of Christ that I have made known to you, I kneel before the Father. Now, before we consider the substance of this prayer, as I've outlined it for you, I want to give a few moments to consider the introduction that Paul gives in verses 14 and 15. There he writes, For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Why does Paul include this particular description of his posture in prayer? It's unique in his references to prayer in his letters. Is Paul simply telling the saints that he kneeled when he prayed? Well, I'd say it certainly tells us at least that much, but I think it tells us much more. For by it, he not only shows us something about himself, but he also shows us something about ourselves as we compare our practice in prayer to his example. When Paul says, I bend my knee before the Father, he pictures an outward posture that demonstrates an inner attitude and I believe serves to reinforce that inner attitude of prayer, namely that of submission to authority and willingness to obey. What Paul did and we should do follows the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus who always prayed with this attitude, who always asked, not my will, but yours be done. And the second thing I want to look at in this introduction is to whom Paul submitted this prayer. We read past it very quickly. The Father, of course, he says in verse 14, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives his name. And I believe the NIV has this translation right here, his whole family. But the words Paul wrote are open to other interpretations. The words in verse 14 can also be translated like they are in the King James Bible, the New King James Bible that says that he He bent the knee to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. Or as we find it in the New American Standard, English Standard, and the Revised Standard Version, the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Many commentators use this difficulty to support ideas that are foreign to what Paul teaches here. Some use this text to support the view that all men may call upon their Creator God as Father. And some understand the whole family or every family to include both men and angels because it's in heaven and on earth. But the words of Scripture, of a particular Scripture, are not to be interpreted in a vacuum. They must be understood in light of the rest of Scripture. So therefore we turn to other Scriptures that are more clear to explain that which is less clear. And what Paul says in verse 14 must be understood in light of what he has already said in this letter, specifically that in Christ, God has elected some to be adopted as sons of God from all the rest of humanity which are born dead men walking or sons of disobedience. To the elect adopted sons of God, Paul wrote this letter. He wrote a letter to the Galatians in which he spells this out even more clearly. He says in Galatians chapter 4 verse 6 that because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. No man, let alone an angel, can speak of God their Creator as Father apart from the regenerated work of the Holy Spirit. Only the adopted sons and heirs of God in Christ may approach the Creator as the Father. Only those adopted into His one and only family can pray as Jesus taught us to pray, our Father, who art in heaven. And whether her members are bound up in history here on earth as we are, or have been caught up into the eternity of heaven as the saints who've gone before, the Church of Christ is one. The family of God is one. And her members together bend the knee to the Creator, her Redeemer as our Father. So when Paul bent the knee before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives his name, he did so as one of God's adopted sons who by faith are able to approach God with freedom and with confidence, even as we did this morning as his children. Now, to the prayer proper. The first part of Paul's exalted prayer is for the church to be empowered. We read this in verses 16 and 17. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Notice how Paul calls on our triune God again. He does this over and over in his letters. He addresses the Father and appeals to His glorious riches and he asked that he would work with the power through his Spirit in our inner being and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Now the goal of this part of Paul's prayer is found in verse 16. The manner in which this prayer is fulfilled and the result of this fulfillment is found in verse 17. So first, what is the goal of this prayer? What is the goal of Paul's prayer here, verse 16? that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being. That's the core prayer that Paul has for the people of God. Now, do you remember the question we considered in chapter 1 of this letter? The question, what's it all about? Well, it's the praise of God's glory, of course. And Paul here appeals to the riches of the Father's glory, of God's glory as the abundant fountain of power out of which this blessing can flow. And he prays for the Father to strengthen with power those whom he's already marked as his own by the same Spirit. So why does Paul ask such a thing of God? Why does he ask for us to be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit? It's because we need, we need his strength. Even though we've been declared right with God, justified by the blood of Christ, and sanctified, set apart as servants of Christ, of servants of God in this world. We will not fully experience this sanctification until Christ returns and we're glorified, we're perfected. And as we wait for that day, the Christian life will ever be a struggle, a battle, between the outer man that we are by nature, the old man that still clings to us, and the new man, the inner man, the inner being that we've become in Christ. It's to the church militant that Paul has asked God for this power. Children of God, each of you here today knows this struggle. We're all involved in the same fight, although we may face the foe in different places and in different times in different ways. For some of us, it's a struggle against false doctrines that we hold dear in order to justify our sin. For others, it's a struggle against sensuality, or stealing, or speaking lies, or letting unwholesome talk come from our mouths that we just can't seem to stop. And for still others, it's a struggle against sinning in our anger, or bitterness, or greed that we justify as being the other person's fault. Oh, how we love to hear the glorious truths of Ephesians chapters 1 through 3, and revel in the wonders of what God has wrought. And at the same time, to disregard and disobey the commands of God, we find in chapters 4 through 6 and throughout the rest of Scripture. As children of God, we can say with Paul from his letter to the Romans, chapter 7, verses 21 through 25. So I find this law at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Well, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, how we need the power of God to endure and be victorious in this fight. Oh, how we need to know His incomparably great power for us who believe. This fight is not imaginary, people of God. It's not a fiction. It's not ill-defined. It's rather very real and very well-defined and ever-present in every aspect of our life. As Paul makes clear in chapter 6, it is a battle that requires us to put on the full armor of God. Now Paul continues in verse 17 to give the manner in which this empowerment for the Christian life is accomplished. How does God do it? Verse 17 continues, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. The word so may be a little misleading. Not all English translations have it. I don't think it's helpful. Because Paul is not praying for Christians to be empowered in the inner man in order for Christ to dwell within them. Rather, Paul has revealed how the saints are empowered by the Spirit, and that is by the Spirit of Christ living in their hearts through faith. In effect, verse 17 explains verse 16. What Paul has prayed for is accomplished by Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith. The Gospel of John, chapter 17, records Jesus' prayer on behalf of all who have faith in Him through the Gospel. And he prayed using these words, That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I've given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. See, just as we are in Christ, the point that Paul has made over and over and over again in this letter, so Christ is in us. He dwells in our hearts. Look again at chapter 2, verses 20 through 22. Paul writes, actually it's 20, in verse 21, 22. In Him, that is, in Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. We in Him, and He in us. Now we must beware of the sentimental notion that Jesus dwells in our hearts like a divine teddy bear, if you will, that brings us happy when we're sad. Or a divine CEO that brings us success in this world. When we say Jesus dwells in our hearts, we must not believe that we have God in a box like a genie in the bottle that we can pull out to do whatever we wish. No, Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith. as the king sitting on his throne. He inhabits the fullness of our inner being. There's no corner where he does not dwell. There's no secret that he does not know. And there's no aspect of life over which he does not rule. If he dwells in your heart, and if he dwells in my heart, then we are to bend the knee to his authority and to be willing to obey all that he commands. Now, the second part of Paul's prayer is for the church to know the unknowable. But there's a condition that must be met before we can know the unknowable. And that condition is being rooted and established in love. This condition is the result of God's answer to Paul's first part of his prayer. All the saints that the Father has empowered by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them through faith have been granted this condition. Security in Christ. The church is like a tree planted by the stream of living water with roots that run deep. It's like a house established on the firm foundation of the rock of ages. So that no matter how great the storms of life, no matter how deep the flood of troubles, no matter how difficult the fight against our old nature, Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. So now listen to the second part of Paul's prayer in verses 17 to 19 where you'll hear this condition that has been accomplished in Christ. Paul writes, And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, this is something that's already been done, being rooted and established in love, may have the power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge. Paul prays that the church, the communion of saints together may be empowered by the Holy Spirit to grasp the love of Christ, to know that which is beyond knowing. How can we grasp the magnitude of something that's beyond our measure? How can we know what surpasses knowledge? And I'll give you an analogy that will lead us into this. I would like you to consider the experience of the astronomer. I believe we have some budding astronomers in our midst who study the night sky. He began as a child with a little telescope he got for his birthday. And the more he studied the stars, the more he knew that there were still things there that he couldn't see. So he upgraded and got a bigger telescope. And he studied new and greater things and he got help from books and from teachers. And the more he looked, the more he knew he couldn't quite see. So he got another bigger telescope and more help and more study and more hours. And today he works on the Hubble telescope. And he peers into the depths of space that are beyond anything he's ever imagined. And the more he looks, he looks knowing that he'll never find the limit. He'll never find the end. And that's what it means to know the unknowable. The knowledge of his finitude, his smallness in the face of the infinity of the universe, rather than causing him to lose interest, causes him to do all that he can to know it more and more. It's what his life is about. And this is the way we are to grasp the love of Christ. This is the way we're to know the love that surpasses knowledge. we begin as children hearing Bible stories. And as we grow, we begin to memorize parts of those stories and the words. And we grow and we begin to read the Bible for ourselves. And we better understand what the preacher is saying and what our teacher is telling us. And by the grace of God, by the power of the Spirit working in us, we start to search the Scriptures. And the more we learn from Scripture about God, about who He is and about what He's done. And the more we learn from Scripture about who we are and what we've done, we see our finitude in the face of His infinity. And we can come to start to know and appreciate the love of God and Christ for such as us. And the more we know, the more we know that we don't know. So we get help from others, from our pastors, from our elders, from our parents, from our teachers. And we come to the place that we grasp the reality that no matter how much we study, we'll never know all that God has revealed in this Word. But that doesn't stop us. In fact, it drives us on to pursue this knowledge, to immerse ourselves in it, to be overwhelmed by it. But there's a temptation attached to the pursuit of knowledge. Even this knowledge about the love of Christ. We must always remember that it's not enough to know about the love of Christ. In the end, even unbelievers suffering eternal damnation will know about the love of Christ. They'll know that John 3.16 is true. They will know that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. They'll know about that. But they won't believe Him. See, the saints of God, on the other hand, believe in Jesus Christ and know that His love is for us. And the saints grasp the truth of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, that because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ. Even when we were dead in transgressions, it's by grace you've been saved. See, this knowledge, that's beyond knowing. This grasping to which we're called is a saving knowledge. A knowledge that's personal, that's engaging, and that's overwhelming. And it can only be had by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only as He illuminates our hearts and minds to the truth of His Word, can we grasp the love of Christ for His church. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us, Paul writes, by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. See, by the Spirit we can know. And the purpose of this knowing, the purpose of this knowledge, according to verse 19, is that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now that's a profound statement. That you will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. By this, Paul does not mean that we should somehow be filled up with God so much that we become divine. That we somehow become gods, as Mormon theology would have us believe. Rather, as Calvin says, it's a foolish and wicked dream to believe men are raised to an equality with God. Rather, those who are empowered by God to grasp the love of Christ are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ in His humanity. You see, the saints will be perfected as men and women, just as God is eternally perfect as God. We know, according to Romans 8, 28, 29, that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn of many brothers. We will be perfected. And we will be perfected through this knowledge. Now, even though we can never know all that we don't know about the love of Christ, we can know that we have grasped the love of Christ. And even though we will not be perfected until Christ returns in glory, we can know that we are presently being filled, being perfected to the measure of all the fullness of God. How can this be? It's not because we're so bright. It's not because we're so willing. It's not because we're so able to figure it out on our own. No, it's only because of the one who is at work within us. God has revealed to Paul what grasping the love of Christ means for God's people. Paul knew what is involved in our perfection. He knew not only that God expects, but that God demands, according to chapter 4, verse 1, that we live a life worthy of the calling we've received. Now we know we're not able or willing to do that. Paul knew that we were in for a life of struggle. The Christian life, according to chapter 4, verses 22 through 24, requires that you continually put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. See, the Christian life demands that which is impossible for us in our own strength. Therefore, in the third part of Paul's exalted prayer for the church, he praises God in a beautiful doxology that also teaches us, the saints, that the God he praises is the one who causes the church to be transformed. We are not able, but he is able. We are not doing, but He is doing. Read verses 20 and 21 with me. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. Amen. You see, it is God who accomplished our justification in Christ, who washed away our sins and gave us Christ's righteousness. And it's also He who will accomplish our sanctification, who will perfect us. By this doxology, Paul exalts not only the ability of Almighty God to do this, for He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, but Paul also exalts the willingness of our Heavenly Father to do this, for our sanctification is accomplished according to His power that is at work within us. To those that God grants the power to grasp the love of Christ, He also enables to show others the love of Christ. The Apostle John said it this way in 1 John 3.16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. For those he's perfecting by the love of Christ. God enables by his power that is at work within us to more and more submit before his authority and be willing to obey all that he commands. And it's true that at the last day all the saints will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye into the perfect humanity God has created us to be and redeemed us to be. But here and now, today, tomorrow, the next day, as we wait for that day, the saints are being transformed by the power of God already at work within us. We need to know this. We need to know that God has honored this prayer for His people. Therefore, when we hear the commands of God on our lives, whether from the Ten Commandments as we read this morning or whether from chapters 4 through 6 of this letter as we get to in weeks to come, let us not hear them with indifference or with despair. Rather, let us hear them with a commitment to submit to His authority and the expectation of being transformed through obedience to them by the power of the Spirit. May our lives give glory and honor to the God of our salvation for His power and His wisdom and His mercy, His love and His grace that He has and continues to manifest through the church, which is the body. And in Christ Jesus, its exalted head for all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this prayer. Raised before your throne of grace by your son, Paul of Tarsus, the apostle whom you've appointed to the Gentiles. We thank you, Father, that in answering his prayer, we can know that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to know the love of Christ more and more as you illumine our minds and our hearts to the word in which you revealed him. And Lord, we know that through the power of the same Spirit, through our obedience of love to your commandments, that you transform us, that you sanctify us, that you conform us more and more to the image of Christ. We thank you for this preparatory prayer, Lord, that orients us to all that follows in this word in which there will be much demanded of us, much that we are uncomfortable with, much that we struggle against in our flesh. And Lord, I pray with Paul that we would know that in those struggles we can trust that if we indeed belong to Christ, we can do what you command. And we can be transformed through the doing in the perfection to which you're working us by your Spirit. I pray for us this week that we would remember this in our day, in our days with people. To the glory of Christ and His church forever and ever. Amen.