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Ephesians 3:20-21
Many years ago when I was in seminary, I used to love to visit a church that was not my own church, but I was a friend of the pastor, to a degree. And this church had black walls. They had very interesting lights that hung from the ceiling, almost like light bulbs.
They had TV screens lined up behind them and smoke machines that kind of just pulsated a little bit as the worship music was playing before the sermon began. The music was of a contemporary nature, very, we could say, hipsterish.
And everybody there, as you looked around while the music was playing, had their arms in the air. They were singing incredibly loud, and it just felt like the Holy Spirit was present. And I often caught myself thinking, man, these people really know how to praise the triune God.
These people truly know how to worship. Underneath the hood, though, what I didn't realize at the time was that theology was very weak and oftentimes incorrect. And what I came to find is that the songs that we were singing were not theologically true, nor were they lifting up God himself, nor the son and his plan of redemption.
It was completely people-centered. You see, what I didn't understand at the time, which I have come to understand since, is that praise is actually a byproduct of what we understand about God. Or what we could say is that doxology is a byproduct of theology.
What we are going to be looking at today is a doxology, a paean of praise, if you will, that Paul is going to essentially word-vomit all over the place. And he does this because he understands something about God.
Now, the word doxology comes from two words, doxa, meaning glory, and logos, meaning word, which together means a word of glory or a praise. And what we need to understand is that worship is not something disconnected from our understanding of God.
It's completely dependent upon it. And though we bump up against God's godness, as it were, or his bigness, our understanding of him helps us make sense of the things that seemingly make no sense. In fact, it's our understanding of God and what he has done in and through the work of Jesus Christ and in the church that fuels our understanding of his immeasurableness.
It helps us to bump up against that wall that causes us to worship because worship is the response of redeemed sinners to the sovereign electing kindness and mercy that delivered them from the domain of darkness and has brought them into the kingdom of God's beloved son.
Now, this is important, and this is important for a lot of different reasons, but one of the reasons it's important is because it helps us to understand the purpose of worship and even the purpose of church, or the purpose of what we are doing here on Sunday morning.
It has become increasingly common in theology books, but also just in the world at large to hear people say that when Christians gather together on the Lord's day for worship, the purpose is simply to edify or to just get together with the saints.
But that's not true. The reason that we gather here on Sunday is to worship the holy God of the Bible for what he has wrought in us and what he is doing and has done for us. And we only know that because of what the Bible reveals to us about God.
In other words, doxology is the first resting place of true theology. And conversely, when doxology is absent, the theology can hardly be said to be present in our lives and in the church. And doxology and praise is something that the Christians are to give at all times.
It is something commanded of us and something that is modeled for us throughout the entire Bible. For instance, in Psalm 47, verses one and two, says, oh, clap your hands, all peoples. Make a loud shout to God with the sound of a shout of joy.
For Yahweh, most high is fearsome, a great king over all the earth. Or if we move to Psalm 113, one through three, he says, the psalmist, of course, praise Yah. Praise, oh, slaves of Yahweh. Praise the name of Yahweh.
May the name of Yahweh be blessed from now until forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of Yahweh is to be praised. And in Hebrews 13, 15, he says, the author, through him then let us continue to offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
That is the fruit of lips that confess his name. So whatever doxology is and whatever we are to praise God for, it certainly is rooted in who God is and what he does for his people. And so if you would, please rise and stand with me for the reading of God's holy and fallible and all-sufficient word.
And I wanna take a look at Paul's doxology or his outburst of praise. I will begin reading in verse 14, but we will go all the way to verse 21. This is the word of God. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever, amen. Amen, go ahead and have a seat. As we look at our text, the first thing that I want you to note is that God has a more than abundant ability.
So the first thing I want you to see is God's more than abundant ability. Paul begins in verse 20, transitioning to praise. He says, now to him. So he moves from requests that he has been pleading God for to a praise, and what has he been asking?
Well, if you remember, he falls upon his knees, so to speak, before both the king and creator, the sovereign God, verse 14, and to the father. And he prays that the Christians in Ephesus and us by extension would what?
That we would be strengthened with his power. That is the Holy Spirit in our inner man so that Christ would rule and reign in our hearts, that he would govern our wills and affections. And then he says, having that a reality, he then prays that we would comprehend with all the saints what is the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
And then he now comes to this praise and stops and pauses and he moves to glorifying God. Now, what's interesting about this is this is the last part of chapter three. And if you remember what I told you is that much like many of Paul's other letters, there is this split that happens down the middle.
Chapters one through three are doctrine. It is teaching us about who God is. And then three through six, or four through six rather, are all about duty. What we are to do. And so Paul is moving in this praise.
He's moving from exposition to application, but he must first pause and take a deep breath of grace. He must pause to consider this hymn, right? To him, and of course we know that this is God because he is the last antecedent to be talked about.
We are being prayed for by Paul to be filled up with the fullness of God in verse 19. And it is to him who is absolutely and utterly able. Now, I wanna pause here because there's kind of a pyramid stacking up here.
As we look at God's more than abundant ability, we need to see that it's rooted in this staircase of arguments being made. Namely, firstly, that God is in fact able, that he is able to do what we ask, and that he is able to do more than what we ask.
And more than that, he is able to do it in ways.
That we can't even fathom.
And so let's take it one at a time. First, God is able. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand. This Greek word, able, as it were, means to make, to cause, effect, to bring about, to accomplish, to perform, to provide, or to create.
And what's happening when he says this, very simply, is that God is a worker. He does things. As John Stott has famously said, this means he is neither idle, nor inactive, nor dead. Now on the surface, we say, well, of course.
Of course.
God is not dead. Well, do we think that? Well, philosophers have argued in the past that God is dead. But we're Christians, at least some of us in this room, or most of us, I don't know. But how often do we trust in the little g gods that are no gods at all, because we do not believe that our God is one who acts?
This was the problem of Israel in the Old Testament. You might remember a story in the Old Testament where the prophet Elijah is in a battle with the prophets of Baal at Marcomel. And he's focused in his taunting on the utter inability of their gods to answer prayer.
But Paul is praying that God would strengthen us with his power, and then he tells us that he's able to give us that power, and he's praising him for it, much like our friend Elijah here. Our friend Elijah begins by trying to tell these false prophets that their God is no God at all.
In 1 Kings chapter 18, verses 27 and 39, I want you to hear what he says about gods that don't exist. He says, now it happened at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, and this is supposed to be read sarcastically, call out with a loud voice, for he is a god.
Either he is occupied or relieving himself, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened. Right, what Elijah is saying here is your God is no God, and you think that he might be out somewhere doing something, but God exists to be known.
Or maybe a better way to put that is being known and doing are part of who God is. God is triune in his nature, and he has made himself known in salvation by his acting. And so God is able. Now, the reason I bring that up is because oftentimes, we as Christians, though we may not run to false gods in the formal sense of the word, that is we're not building statues and worshiping these sorts of things, but oftentimes we think God is not able, and so we run to things that we think will save or satiate us in any one given moment.
For instance, when times get hard, we run to self-medication. Many of us might run to TV or phones. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's pornography. Maybe it's your family. Maybe your family becomes a sense of a way to numb yourself to the reality and the pain that exists around you.
Instead of running to God, we run to things thinking that they will save or satiate us, and then they become our God. And what we don't believe sometimes when we find ourselves in these situations is actually that God will come through on his promise, that he will satiate, that he will bring about good.
Why?
Because he's God, and he's able. He's able, but he's able, secondarily, to do what we ask. So he's not just a God who is able to do some things, that he's a God who acts. He's also a God who delights in doing what we ask.
And sometimes that gets lost on us. You've heard me say this before from this pulpit. As good reformed Christians, we often like to pray to God, if it so be your will. Of course, it's his will to bless his children.
Matthew chapter seven, verse 11, Jesus says this, speaking to likely unregenerate people, "'If you then, being evil, "'know how to give good gifts to your children, "'how much more will your Father who is in heaven "'give what is good to those who ask him?'.
Our Father in heaven delights to answer prayer. So long as," and here's Paul's argument, I think, "'So long as we are praying "'that God would strengthen us with power "'through his Spirit in our inner man, "'so that Christ would dwell in us richly, "'and that we would be overtaken by the love of Christ.'.
And when those things are present, when Christ is ruling your heart and your affections, and you are looking to the God who is able, then he delights in doing what we ask. Of course, he's not going to give you the desires of your heart if they're contrary to his word, if they're contrary to his character, if they're contrary to what's good for you in this life, because he gives good gifts, not damning gifts, not gifts that could get in the way of your salvation or your sanctification, but he delights in giving good gifts.
The problem is not that God withholds gifts from his people. Oftentimes, the problem is that we ask for little because we have such a small view of who God actually is. One of the things that Paul has demonstrated for us in both of his prayers is that God is big, and that he's worthy of being asked big things in accordance with his mercy.
And this God is one who can handle being asked to do hard things.
Because in verse 18 of chapter one, he starts praying this prayer, or verse 17 rather, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the full knowledge of him.
And then we would understand this impacts the greatness, verse 19, of his power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of his strength, which he worked in Christ Jesus. That same power that Paul is praying that we would see and that we would feel and that we would know, and that we would be strengthened with here in verse 17, is the same power, it says in verse 20, that raised Jesus from the dead.
Friends, the power of God that rose Jesus from the dead is the power that Paul is praising God for right now. And it's the power behind the reality that says, God is able, he's able to do what we ask.
The problem is, as James 4 ,2 says, is we do not have because we do not ask.
Do you?
Ask God in prayer, believing that he is this God who is able and who is able to do what we ask. Children, would you look at me for just a second? Did you know that God loves it when you pray? He loves him when you praise him as well.
See, when you praise God and you pray to God, you're trusting God and you're believing him to be God, to be a big God, a God who can handle it and that glorifies him. And it's wonderful to your heart and soul to remember that God is that big and that amazing and that helpful.
But more than that, God is able to do more than we ask. Look with me again in our verses. It says, now to him, the God whom he has been speaking about for three chapters, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.
So God is not just interesting and giving you what you ask, he's interested in giving you more than what you ask for. He's interested in giving you more of himself. You see, Paul's prayer and what we're getting at here in this doxology is actually that this prayer that Paul is praying, though it's audacious in nature, is actually a small thing for God.
Because why? Lastly, God is able to do it in ways we can't even fathom. I want you to pay attention to this important phrase here, far more abundantly beyond.
What?
A set of words. Some might even say linguistically incorrect, but it is a wonderful truth. Now let me explain to you a little bit about how language works. Adjectives and adverbs generally have a comparative form.
Namely, when you say more, right? I have more juice in this container than I have in this container. But sometimes they have a superlative form as well. And that means you might say this has the most juice in it.
But here in the English, what is used is actually called by linguists a super superlative. That is a superlative to the 10th degree. It is building upon that which really cannot be built upon. Like how is something more than most?
It's somewhat incoherent, but obviously what Paul is trying to do here, and it's not hyperbolic because we're talking about God, is to show us, much like he said earlier in this prayer, he wants us to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
Well here, he wants us to understand that he is such a God who is able to do more than most. Not most people, not most things, but more than you can imagine. What makes this even more interesting is do you remember when Paul was so caught up in having us understand union with Christ in chapter one and in chapter two, that he created these words?
He created these words. Remember when we said that we were in him, right? Look with me. In verse five of chapter two specifically, it says, even when we were dead in our transgression, he made us alive together with Christ, and he raised us with him and seated us with him.
Paul, if you remember, created a Greek word, a set of Greek words by combining the in him with these words seated and so on and so forth to show the theological validity and importance of everything being bound up in Christ.
Well, much in the same way, he's created a word here. He is acting as we know Paul to be, a very sophisticated wordsmith. And this word is only used two times in antiquity in all of Greek literature, here and once in 1 Thessalonians 3 .10.
And so what we are coming to find here is that Paul did not find a word suitable for him to show us how much he should be praised, so much so that he went ahead and created one. God is so able to do far more abundantly beyond all, that means everything that we ask or understand or think, so much so that no word will do that reality justice.
God is able to do what he does in ways we can't. Very pointedly, this means our prayers cannot stretch to the limits of what God is able to do. Very pointedly, there is no one beyond his power to save.
There is no enemy he cannot vanquish. There is no temptation he cannot help us overcome. No indwelling troublesome sin that we cannot put to death and slay by his enabling spirit. Let us sink in. I mean, what has the Bible taught us up to this point?
What does the book of Ephesians particularly taught us up to this point? That God reaches in and does the unthinkable. He does the undoable in many ways, right? Because dead people can't save themselves and so he has to spiritually resurrect them.
Before the foundations of the world, God was moving and acting to do what? As verse three says of chapter one, to extend to us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So what do we do? We remember this when we come to pray and we praise him for this reality.
People are slandering you. People are saying untrue things about you and trying to make your character look horrendous to the people that you love the most. Or maybe they're just spreading it in the public sphere.
Pray.
Praise God that he is able to meet you in that. You have a problem in your family, at your work? Is there something going on in the church? God is far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think able to deal with those problems.
We don't need to run to all of these fake idols, to all of these false things that we think that are going to save and satiate us that we believe this about God. Do you believe that God is this big, that he can do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think?
Second thing that I want you to see as we look at our text is that God is already working in the power that he's being praised for. So the second point is God's already working power. We just looked at God's more than abundant ability.
Now I want you to see God's already working power. Earlier, Paul had prayed that they would be strengthened with power through the spirit. You can see that in verse 16. And now Paul gives praise to God for that very power.
Look with me again at verse 20. It says, now to him who's able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand according to the power that works within us. Now, I don't know about you, but when I read things like Hebrews chapter 11, and I see the power of God on full display.
As a matter of fact, let's go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, there are these great stories of God's power. Not only God's power, but God's power as it relates to people, our faith, right?
And that is what Paul has prayed for. Paul has prayed that we would be strengthened in the inner man, and that we'd be firmly rooted and grounded in love, and that we would have Christ dwell in our hearts through faith.
And in Hebrews chapter 11, we see all of these mighty things that God has done through men of faith. I mean, it starts in verse three. By faith, we understand the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
And then it begins to talk about people. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. And then verse five, by faith, Enoch, right? Verse seven, by faith, Noah. Verse eight, by faith, Abraham. Verse nine, by faith, he sojourned in the land of promise.
Verse 11, by faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, and so on and so forth. And then you get all the way to verse 32. And in verse 32, it says, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, performed righteousness, obtained promises, shot the mouths of lion, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, or made strong from weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.
We read stories like that about what God has done in ordinary sinners, and we seem so disconnected from that reality, because that was a long time ago, and these were great men of faith, and yet we are so weak, and we are so feeble.
And so we can read, sure, yeah, God, in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20, yeah, God is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we can ask or understand, but that's something that happened a long time ago.
Well, that's something that happens to great men of faith, or great women of faith. That's something that maybe happened in our salvation, but actually, can that really affect our daily lives? Paul's saying yes, right?
Because this very thing that he is speaking about, this power that he has prayed for, it's already working within us, right? According to the power that works within us, what he's saying is God is able to do the unimaginable for you, and the proof of it, Christians, the proof of it, Ephesian church, you, you're the proof of it.
You are the very proof that God is able to do.
Way more than you think he can do.
In other words, he is saying that this very reality that God can do far more abundantly beyond that we ask or think is not abstract or theoretical. While God is absolutely transcendent and holy, he is not remote from us.
The spirit of God indwells us, and it says that God fills us with his fullness. So Paul here is tying down to our experience this theology. He's showing that the power of God, which is able to do these things, is the same power that is already at work in sinners as they are sanctified in grace.
How do we know that God is able to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think? And since this is crescendo, I know some of this is review, but the reality is because before the foundation of the world, verses three through 14 of chapter one, the triune God of the Bible had planned and accomplished salvation.
The Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because he has, according to verse four, chosen us in him. He had elected us for grace that we would be holy and blameless before him.
He predestined us to adoption as children and now calls us sons and daughters. He has given us the spirit, has caused us to be trophies of his grace. In other words, the power put on display is the same power that has made Christians.
And every Christian is a walking testimony to God's divine omnipotence. Now, if that doesn't blow your hair back, so to speak, then you're not paying attention. The reality is you, being a Christian right now, took a miracle.
It took God's active power to bring you from death to life, to, as verse four of chapter two says, to begot you, to step in and to pull you out of the wreckage that you found yourself in. It's a greater miracle than the creation of the world itself.
God has put his power on display when a sinner comes to Christ, when a sinner is sanctified, when he is being moved from an unholy mess to someone who is walking worthy of their calling. None of us, none of us can walk through this life as a Christian without the power of God.
You know, interestingly enough, my wife and I were having a conversation this past week and we were talking about, interestingly, I mean, it has nothing to do with the sermon per se,.
But we'll get here because it's Ephesians,.
Demonic possession. And we got to thinking about like, what is the difference between someone who is demon-possessed and someone who is a Christian, like in terms of what they need? Obviously, we know one is saved by the grace and mercy of God and the other one is possessed by a demon.
But at the end of the day, what we wound up pontificating about was the reality that they both need the same thing when they're in the situation that they're in. When the person who is influenced by the demonic and the person who is falling on their face in sin, they both need the Holy Spirit.
They both need a heart change. Now, one certainly looks different and requires regeneration. The other one does not, but the reality is God's omnipotence needs to be acting toward everyone, everyone at all times, right?
The Bible teaches that we could do far more evil far more often, but that God restrains that in his common mercy. But the beautiful reality behind what's being said here is that the power working in Christians that saved them, that brought them from death to life is the same power that is chiseling and molding them into the image of the sun, removing the grip that they have, right?
On the things of this world, the flesh, the world, and so on. And what a power that is. What an amazing power that is. And it is the power that is already working. So then it is appropriate and right that God should be praised, not only for past activity, but his powerful work in the hearts of believers at the present time.
Heart check, do you praise God for the working of the people around you? Or are you always focused on their shortcomings and failures? Paul is showing us here that we ought to praise God for his working in every believer.
And you best believe that not everybody in the church at Ephesus was on the same level of sanctification. But we praise God, and he's praising God for the work that is already in us. And he's saying like, look around.
I can say it, heritage, look around. Look around at the people that you love and that you know that have sinned against you and you've sinned against them. And look how God has transformed them and changed them and has wooed them and won them.
And though they are imperfect, stand back and just say, look what God is doing. But too often, instead of saying, look what God is doing, we say, what in the world are you doing? And we go from a praising people to a condemning people.
Now that is not to throw out the law of God. That's not to throw out the fact that we should be striving to be sanctified in who we are. But it is saying that like, we should be able as God's people to look at people being sanctified in grace and go, he's not where he needs to be.
She's not where she needs to be. I'm not where I need to be. But praise God that he is working in me. Praise God that he is doing something in me and the people around me that requires divine omnipotence.
So the reason that we know that God is good outside of what Paul has already said theologically is because he's already working in us. And how do we know that? Because of what's been revealed. So we worship God and we praise God, not because of fuzzy feelings that we have about God, but because we can look back upon his revelation of himself and go, this is unthinkable, right?
So many churches, so many theologies, and so many people who talk about worship will try to get you to divorce yourself from thinking about theology and say, real worship is when you disconnect your brain.
Literally, they will say this,.
You disconnect your brain and you let the spirit take over. Well, the spirit works by revealing truth and impressing truth, and it's because of that truth that we then become worshipers of God. We do not worship God because we think God is awesome, because we just think that.
We don't worship God because the music is good. We don't worship God because it feels right, because the atmosphere or the ambiance is right. But we don't even love preaching because the person in front of us might be the best orator on planet Earth.
We love all of these things because of the truth, because of the truth. Now, the third thing that I want you to see after looking at God's more than abundant ability and his already working power is his eternal glory.
So the third thing that I want you to notice, God's eternal glory. He goes on in verse 21 to him, kind of beckoning back to verse 20. Now to him, and then he says some things about him, and now he's going to say he requires some things or he deserves glory, right?
To him, verse 21, be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Amen.
Now, this word glory here is important. We've encountered it already, but I wanna pause here to consider it more in depth. Now, when we think about the word glory, we are confronted with a lot of different things.
But one of the main things that we're confronted with is it is a word that in many ways defies a definition. It is not something that has like a gloss of three related words. In fact, the word glory in the Old Testament was used to talk about the weight of something.
So when it uses the word glory in the Old Testament, it is talking about how God is weighty, ought to be considered in everything. But of course, when it's applied to God, it's speaking of that thing that makes him God, his Godness, or as we have defined it in previous sermons, it is the reflection or essence of his being, the summation of all of his attributes.
In other words, his glory is the visible expression of his invisible perfection. It is the visible expression of his invisible perfection. Now, that causes us to think through a couple things too, namely, firstly, that God has a glory that is intrinsic to himself.
And secondarily, he also has glory that is ascribed to him. One is static and does not change and is really the foundation of all that is. And the other thing is just that which we notice. For example, when we are speaking of God's intrinsic glory, we're speaking of God's glory and how it relates to who he is.
The Bible speaks of God's glory as representing himself, his name, Deuteronomy 20, 28, his majesty, Psalm 93, one, his power, Exodus 15, his works, Psalm 19, one, and his holiness, Exodus 15, 11. More than that, his glory is described as great beyond all measure, Psalm 138, five, that it is internal, it does not pass away, Psalm 104, 31, that it is rich, Ephesians 3, 16, and that it should be most highly exalted, Psalm 8, one.
In other words, this glory is a type of glory that cannot be taken away or neglected. It can't be subtracted from. This glory is glorious whether it is perceived as such by fallen man or not. It is who God is in his godness.
It is his glory. It is his weightiness. It is who he is in his manifold perfections. It is who he is ontologically.
He's glorious.
But there's a scribe glory. You see, the finite mind, the fallen mind, and the human mind cannot fully understand, appreciate God's glory. And so there's a scribe glory. That is the glory that we bring to him in praise for noticing those glorious things that he puts on display.
And for Paul here, it's almost a physical reality. It's not just something that we think about or praise. Now, that sounds strange, but every time I look at definitions of the word glory, it doesn't always quite seem to match up with what Paul says about it, at least in the way he's thinking about it.
Now, I agree, glory means what it means. But glory is not just something that we ascribe. It's also something tangible, right? He says, to him be this glory, which is the visible expression of his invisible perfection in the church and in Christ Jesus.
So this glory is not just something that we have an intellectual ascent to, but it is a glory that exists and is promoted within the church, by the church. It's something that Jesus Christ puts on display.
And so here in this context, it refers to God's splendor, power, radiance, and work in salvation. And so to him be the glory in the church, in Christ Jesus. Now, this is an interesting spot to pause, because he's praising God, this God who is able to do immeasurably more beyond everything that we think or ask, according to the power that's already working in us.
And it's to him that glory must exist in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations. Now, theologians have argued about this passage for a long time, trying to figure out why in the world Paul would put the church before Christ Jesus.
Liberal scholars will say Paul made a mistake. Jesus is more important than the church. And of course, every conservative Christian who would disagree with those liberal theologians would agree, yes, Jesus is more important than his church.
Textual scholars have said, there are textual variants that put Jesus Christ in front of the Lord, in front of the church. And so therefore, it should be interpreted that way. And then we avoid these hard questions we must ask.
Namely, why did Paul put church before Jesus here? Now, there's no textual reason to believe that it should not be this way, which is why the Legacy Standard Bible has chosen to put the church in front of Christ Jesus here.
Other Greek scholars and so on will say, well, this chi, and, should be neglected and not really seen as a connector of the two. For instance, it should be, to him be the glory and the church in Christ Jesus.
So it's the church in Christ Jesus, it's not the church and Christ Jesus. But once again, that's trying to inject theology into the way the Bible is written instead of building your theology off of the way the Bible is written.
Now, the question becomes, why? Why does he do that? Well, before I answer that, which I will answer, let's look at the passage and see how it might connect. It says here that God's eternal glory is the place of his glory, it is the person of his glory, and the permanence of his glory.
First, let's look at the place of his glory. Where is it showcased, in other words? Well, it is showcased in the church. It is showcased in the church. So here's the thing. The church is also a visible expression, if not the visible expression, of God's power on display in the Christian life.
Not only that, but the power radiates from inside. For instance, we are God's children when we are saved, adopted into his family, and we should depict the family likeness. And so we, as the church, as we love on one another, as our brothers and sisters, as we cling to one another, we are putting God's adoption on display.
We're putting his fatherhood on display, as it were. The same was said when we looked at the church as the temple at the end of chapter two, and as the temple, the church is the architecture of our life, and together it should be shaped by God.
The church is the explanation for what we are and what God is and who God is. And church is about God, and it's about his glory. So not only does God's glory, as it relates to his salvation of sinners, work in and through us and out of here, but it should be the aim of everything that we do.
Now, I know that that pushes up against some very hard idols in the church at large. I don't think it's a problem here necessarily,.
At Heritage Church,.
But oftentimes we think that the church should be about us, the church should make much of us, that it should make us comfortable. But the Bible teaches that the church is the place that houses and promotes and seeks after God's glory, not man's glory.
It's the place where we come to hear God's inspired word, to sing God's insurmountable praises, to take God's immeasurable goodness, taste God's immeasurable goodness, to see God's infinite mercies. It's all about God, and it ought to glorify him.
And so we don't come here to Heritage to think how do we do church in terms of what we like. We come to do church in terms of what God likes, because it exists to glorify him and to put his glory on display in the world.
See, we don't understand the power that actually exists in the church. If we did, we couldn't get enough of it. We think when we get on Twitter and people talk trash about Christians or Christianity or call us bigots or whatever the case may be, that they're just shutting their ears off.
No, God uses the witness of the church in the world to put his glory on display. When people look in the church and they see God working and changing people who were once ill and undeserving sinners into trophies of his grace, who used to be one way or another way, used to be angry are now gentle, used to be drug addicts are now sober, used to be prideful are now humble, right?
Used to be all of these things, used to be dead in their transgressions and sins. It can't help but show off the glory of our triune God. It can't help to show off his glory in the church. When the purity of the church is taken seriously, when the pulpit is taken seriously, when all of these things are taken seriously, the glory is put on display.
And so the place of his glory, the place where he showcases his glory is primarily, at least here and now, the church. But he goes on and says, and in Christ Jesus. Now he moves to the person of his glory, not just the place of his glory, but the person of his glory.
And he moves from the church to the head of the church. Remember in Ephesians chapter one, 22 and 23, it says that this power that we're speaking of put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
And so everything is for the glory of God and it is aimed at the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why in Ephesians chapter two, verse 16, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death in enmity.
So the reason, at least one of the reasons, that he begins with the church is because he's being illogical. He's been talking about the birth of the church this entire time.
Right?
He starts an eternity past and then moves into the present, how God creates Christians behind the scenes and how he creates Christians boots on the ground. And then how does he take two people groups, namely the Jews and the Gentiles, and bring them together?
He does that and he does that according to his mercy, according to his grace, and in his power, and he does it to make the church. And so that's where his glory is. And that church is not made possible apart from the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, there need not be a huge distinction between Christ and his bride. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying here because that sentence can get all kinds of skewed, right? There is a big difference between the person Jesus Christ and the church.
But there is a reason, for example, that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, kicked the apostle Paul, who wrote this letter off of his horse, and said, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus is the head of his church, the church is his body, and he so identifies with his church that if you persecute them, you're persecuting him.
And so whether or not church of Jesus Christ goes first is really largely irrelevant in terms of the truth that's being presented here. It is Jesus Christ who makes the church possible, it's Jesus Christ who saves sinners, it's Jesus Christ who instituted his church, and it's Jesus Christ who has made it possible for sinners like you and me to come and be a part of his beautiful bride.
And so it's to him that God is glorified. God is to be glorified in the church because his power and splendor are displayed there, and he is glorified in Christ Jesus because Christ's work, which pleased the Father, made the church possible.
But it doesn't end there. We've seen the place of his glory, the person of his glory, now I want you to see the permanence of his glory. Jesus Christ is not content with just saying and showing he's glorious and leaving it at that.
Not saving a bunch of sinners and then calling the whole thing off. No, he's extending that glory throughout all of human history. He's not interested in occasional glimpse, he wants history to gaze at what he has done and who he is in the church and in Jesus Christ.
Look with me how it ends. To him be the glory in the church, verse 21, and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Children, would you look at me for just a second? Did you know that when your father sits you down for family worship and he's teaching you about God, not only is he teaching you about God and who he is and what he has done through Jesus Christ, but he's also teaching you, whether you know it or not, how to do that for your children.
Think about this if you haven't. When you are teaching your family and your children in family worship, you're doing it not just for them, but future generations who will potentially taste and see that the Lord is good.
God wants all generations to see his glory, appreciate his glory, bask in his glory, experience his glory in the church and in Jesus Christ. He wouldn't have done all of this work from eternity past all the way into eternity future if he was not interested in that.
This is why I address children in the sermons. This is why we try to make sure that men are equipped to lead their families in family worship because God wants his generations, yes, beginning in this age, but continuing on even into eternity.
God's glory will never run dry. God's glory will never not be mesmerizing. God's glory will only deepen and always satisfy. And so you train up your children in the way that they should go. And so you promote the Lord Jesus Christ.
You preach the gospel to them. You make sure that you're always, always sitting under the preached word and gathering with the church. After all, that is what the Lord Jesus died for. He died to bring a people to himself, a bride, the church.
And he ends then by saying, amen, amen. Now this word amen is used 129 times in the New Testament. It is used 15 times by Paul. And it is only used here in the book of Ephesians. And what this word really means is something like truly, or I'm in agreement.
And he's not saying this out of pride. He's simply saying that he is overwhelmed by God's glory. And in a sense, what Paul is saying here is, let me repeat that again. Truly, what I've just said is true.
It is true that God is able, that he's a God who acts, that he's not a God who sleeps, and that he is able to do what we ask. And that he is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask, or even can fathom.
We can think or understand. And that he has already proven to us that is true by virtue of the fact that he is working in us and has been working in us. And by the way, has promised to continue to work in us as we grow in our sanctification with the Lord.
And it's to him, be the glory, the praise, the honor, the worship in the church and in Christ Jesus, not just here and now, but for generations to come because he's that good and because he's that beautiful.
You see, Paul is climaxing here. In God's providence, my energy levels are low because I'm a little under the weather. But Paul is not meaning for this to be any sort of somber moment. Paul here is lifting up three chapters, three chapters of glorious realities rooted in grace, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and how he has made the church.
And he wants us to be blown away by it, which is why he ends with this praise before he begins to tell us how to live as the church.
Because doctrine always comes before duty and worship is always rooted in good theology. And what is living according to Romans chapter 12?
Worship.
So worship is not just this. It's how we live our life. It's how we think. It's how we breathe. It's how we drink. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, all that we do ought to be done to the glory of God the Father, praising him, worshiping him.
And so Paul is saying, gear up, get ready to go because we're about to tell you how to live. And if you don't understand what God has already done in Christ and how he was made the church to be the church, who cares?
That's just behavior modification. But if you believe that God is who he says he is and he has done and will continue to do more than you can think or imagine, well, then this other stuff is gonna be a lot easier.
And you can actually begin to put one foot in front of the other.
Because the indicatives always empower the imperatives. The truth of theology will always give you the power needed to move forward in the Christian life, knowing that the spirit there is helping you walk and to love his statutes.
And so you have, as we leave today, two choices before you. You can choose to live, to glorify and worship yourself. You can choose to walk out of here and to make everything about you. You can choose to walk out of here and say, man, Jesus Christ and the church really exist to serve me.
Or they're just there and I'll get to it when I can.
Or you can choose to glorify God and his church and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And instead of thinking, what can the church do for me? Or something of that nature. You think, how can I most glorify God in this place? How can I most glorify God in this place? How can I most glorify God in the church by trusting and believing that Jesus Christ has done what he has done?
And how can I glorify God in my sanctification? How can I glorify God in what God has called me to do and be? How can I glorify God and worship him and praise him for what he has done in my life and the lives of people around me?
So you can self-worship or worship God. So you can praise yourself or praise God. The question becomes, which will it be? Which will it be? And what will your answer be rooted in? A good experience, a thoughtful idea of what a good time would be or most helpful?
Or would it be rooted in what God has already revealed in his word? Would you pray with me?
