Ephesians 3 Part 6
Bible Study Time 9-11-05
Even now we are the children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. When Jesus Christ is revealed in heaven, then we shall be like Him.
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we might:
Ephesians 3:19-21 (NKJ)
19 . . . know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Then he sums it up by saying:
20 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,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch_ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch_fw.com/
Bible Study Time 9-11-05
“Oh, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful. Is my Savior’s love for me.” We have to stand amazed when we come to Jesus and see the great love with which He loves us. Shedding His blood upon the cross of Calvary for your sins and for mine.
In Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul prays that we,
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJ)
17 . . . being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;
In other words, Paul prays that we may be able to know that which passes knowledge. At first, that may sound like nonsense, but doing what can not be done is the essence of our relationship with God. Whenever, God calls someone to Himself, He calls them to do things which they can not do. He calls us to do that which we can not do, and He calls us to understand that which we can not understand. Paul told the Corinthians that:
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NKJ)
14 . . . the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
With God, all things are possible.
God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sands of the seashore even though Abraham was 100 years old and had no children. With God, all things are possible. Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac and from Him came the nation of Israel.
God told Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. To be sure, it was one man against the strongest nation on the face of the earth. It’s little wonder that Moses was somewhat hesitant. With God, all things are possible. Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and crossed through the middle of the Red Sea on dry land.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rule as King in an everlasting kingdom and die for sin. How could He do both? With God, all things are possible. After 3 days in the grave, the Lord Jesus arose from the dead and is now in heaven ready to rule the earth in an everlasting kingdom.
Well, here in Ephesians, Paul prays that we might know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. More specifically, he prays that we might be able to comprehend the width and length and depth and height of the love of God.
We live in a world that is three dimensional, but here we see that the love of God is 4 dimensional. It’s no wonder that the love of God is beyond human comprehension.
When we want to understand spiritual things, we need to turn to the word of God, and the first thing that we need to see from the word of God is that God loves us. In fact, John says that we love God because God first loved us. Paul says that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and Paul goes on to say that even while we were the enemies of God, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. John put it this way:
I John 4:10 (NKJ)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
When the preschoolers at Trinity Lutheran in Crown Point, Indiana, got up to give their end-of-the-year program, they were adorable as usual, and everyone was a little amused when they held up their cards which spelled out, “DOG LOVES YOU”.
Well, no matter how you spell it, God does love us, and He loves us with an everlasting love.
The second thing we need to see from the word of God is that God is love. I John 4:16 says, “God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
It is impossible to abide in love and not abide in God. If anyone says that they love people, but they don’t believe in Jesus, they are lying. No one can love people unless they know God, and no one can know God unless they believe in Jesus.
Of coarse, John says that the inverse is also true. He says that:
I John 4:20 (NKJ)
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
In other words, if someone says, “I love God,” or “I love Allah,” or “I follow Buddha,” but they hate their fellowman, then they do not love God, for God is love.
The other day the National Geographic Channel had a special called “Inside 9/11.” They told how the man who used a truck bomb to bomb the Word Trade Center in 1993 was actually the man who came up with the idea of using commercial airliners as flying bombs to destroy the targets of 9/11. This man was described as a person who used all of his imagination coming up with plan after plan after plan for killing innocent people. John said that anyone who says he loves God but hates his brother is a liar.
There was a mother who told about her daughter, Rosemary. This mother said that when Rosemary was three, she had a little rag doll, and Rosemary loved that rag doll. As the doll got older and dirtier, it got too old to wash and too dirty to play with. It was ready for the trash, but if you loved Rosemary, you had to love the rag doll too. It was a package deal.
Rosemary’s mother went on to make the point that if we love God, we have to love His rag dolls too. Even if they don’t meet our personal standard of respectability, we still have to love them. If anyone says “I love God” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
The third thing we need to see is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We do not have to worry that God’s love will be here today but gone tomorrow. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His love is just as constant as He is, for He is love. Romans 8 says:
Romans 8:35,37-39 (NKJ)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
One day Charles Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they were walking, Spurgeon noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked that he thought the weather vane was not an appropriate place for such a message because weather vanes are changeable, while God’s love is constant. Spurgeon’s friend disagreed and said that the weather vane made a good point, namely, that regardless of the way the wind blows, GOD IS LOVE.
The fourth point in regard to God’s love relates to the fact that we are called the children of God. Again, we turn to John who said:
I John 3:1-2 (NKJ)
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
In Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul prays that we,
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJ)
17 . . . being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;
In other words, Paul prays that we may be able to know that which passes knowledge. At first, that may sound like nonsense, but doing what can not be done is the essence of our relationship with God. Whenever, God calls someone to Himself, He calls them to do things which they can not do. He calls us to do that which we can not do, and He calls us to understand that which we can not understand. Paul told the Corinthians that:
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NKJ)
14 . . . the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
With God, all things are possible.
God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sands of the seashore even though Abraham was 100 years old and had no children. With God, all things are possible. Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac and from Him came the nation of Israel.
God told Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. To be sure, it was one man against the strongest nation on the face of the earth. It’s little wonder that Moses was somewhat hesitant. With God, all things are possible. Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and crossed through the middle of the Red Sea on dry land.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rule as King in an everlasting kingdom and die for sin. How could He do both? With God, all things are possible. After 3 days in the grave, the Lord Jesus arose from the dead and is now in heaven ready to rule the earth in an everlasting kingdom.
Well, here in Ephesians, Paul prays that we might know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. More specifically, he prays that we might be able to comprehend the width and length and depth and height of the love of God.
We live in a world that is three dimensional, but here we see that the love of God is 4 dimensional. It’s no wonder that the love of God is beyond human comprehension.
When we want to understand spiritual things, we need to turn to the word of God, and the first thing that we need to see from the word of God is that God loves us. In fact, John says that we love God because God first loved us. Paul says that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and Paul goes on to say that even while we were the enemies of God, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. John put it this way:
I John 4:10 (NKJ)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
When the preschoolers at Trinity Lutheran in Crown Point, Indiana, got up to give their end-of-the-year program, they were adorable as usual, and everyone was a little amused when they held up their cards which spelled out, “DOG LOVES YOU”.
Well, no matter how you spell it, God does love us, and He loves us with an everlasting love.
The second thing we need to see from the word of God is that God is love. I John 4:16 says, “God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
It is impossible to abide in love and not abide in God. If anyone says that they love people, but they don’t believe in Jesus, they are lying. No one can love people unless they know God, and no one can know God unless they believe in Jesus.
Of coarse, John says that the inverse is also true. He says that:
I John 4:20 (NKJ)
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
In other words, if someone says, “I love God,” or “I love Allah,” or “I follow Buddha,” but they hate their fellowman, then they do not love God, for God is love.
The other day the National Geographic Channel had a special called “Inside 9/11.” They told how the man who used a truck bomb to bomb the Word Trade Center in 1993 was actually the man who came up with the idea of using commercial airliners as flying bombs to destroy the targets of 9/11. This man was described as a person who used all of his imagination coming up with plan after plan after plan for killing innocent people. John said that anyone who says he loves God but hates his brother is a liar.
There was a mother who told about her daughter, Rosemary. This mother said that when Rosemary was three, she had a little rag doll, and Rosemary loved that rag doll. As the doll got older and dirtier, it got too old to wash and too dirty to play with. It was ready for the trash, but if you loved Rosemary, you had to love the rag doll too. It was a package deal.
Rosemary’s mother went on to make the point that if we love God, we have to love His rag dolls too. Even if they don’t meet our personal standard of respectability, we still have to love them. If anyone says “I love God” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
The third thing we need to see is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We do not have to worry that God’s love will be here today but gone tomorrow. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His love is just as constant as He is, for He is love. Romans 8 says:
Romans 8:35,37-39 (NKJ)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
One day Charles Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they were walking, Spurgeon noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked that he thought the weather vane was not an appropriate place for such a message because weather vanes are changeable, while God’s love is constant. Spurgeon’s friend disagreed and said that the weather vane made a good point, namely, that regardless of the way the wind blows, GOD IS LOVE.
The fourth point in regard to God’s love relates to the fact that we are called the children of God. Again, we turn to John who said:
I John 3:1-2 (NKJ)
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Even now we are the children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. When Jesus Christ is revealed in heaven, then we shall be like Him.
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we might:
Ephesians 3:19-21 (NKJ)
19 . . . know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Then he sums it up by saying:
20 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,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
http://www.peacechurch_ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch_fw.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment