[Audio of this message may be heard here. The manuscript is below. Note that the sermon was not preached from the manuscript, so there may be slight differences between the two.]
“Just Once Before I Die”
Losing Ourselves in the Glory
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
"Just once before I die, I would like to pastor a New Testament church."
That’s what my older friend told me. That’s what I want to see. That’s what you, I believe, want to see. That’s what we have been preaching towards these last nine weeks. That’s why we are asking you as a church to embrace a plan for instructing prospective members in what our church is. That’s why we are asking you as a church to consider afresh and anew what a New Testament church is. That’s why we have been calling the church back to covenant membership.
Our working definition of a New Testament church is “an authentic community around the whole gospel for the glory of God.”
The three components of that definition (1. the whole gospel, 2. authentic community, 3. the glory of God) have formed the three sub-sections of this series. We have considered the whole gospel: its definition and its two radical implications (worship and evangelism). For the last 6 weeks we have considered what an authentic New Testament community is: the ordinances, our discipline and accountability, and our covenant life together. For the final three weeks of this series, starting today, we are talking about the glory of God.
“An authentic community around the whole gospel for the glory of God.”
This morning I want to call all of us to lose ourselves in the glory: to see God’s glory as the most precious, the most beautiful, the most important, the most wondrous, the most awe-inspiring, and the most crucial reality of our lives together.
Hear me and hear me well: First Baptist Church, Dawson, Georgia, will never be one it was intended to be until we value God’s glory over our own comfort, our own preferences, and our own agendas. His glory must become precious to us once again.
I will remind you once again of one of the historical statements I read last week from our old minutes. Remember that on September 7, 1898, this church gathered around the covenant in a season of corporate repentance and recommitment. Perhaps you will remember this amazing statement:
“…whereas the Glory of God and the prosperity of His Church depend upon our watchfulness as well as our prayers…”
I do not believe our forefathers meant that God’s glory emanates from or is created by the church. I believe they understood well that God’s glory emanates from who He is. But what they did rightly understand is that the church bears marked witness to His glory and our obedience to Him reflects either positively or poorly on His glory.
I believe they were right. Much is at stake in this business of becoming a New Testament church. I believe that Paul felt so as well.
Let us consider this amazing passage of praise that we find at the end of Ephesians 3:
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I. The church derives its power from the rich storehouses of God’s glory. (vv.14-16)
God’s Word pictures the church as a glory-empowered body. Consider verses 14-16:
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being
Notice that Paul’s very posture reflects the amazing significance of the glory of God: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.”
Let us envision Paul falling to his knees at this point. Let us envision his very body bowed in recognition that the glory of God is not something to be discussed casually.
Paul also begins by presenting an instrumental view of divine glory: it accomplishes something. “…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
God grants us strength and power out of and in accordance with His own glory.
What, then, is glory? It is one of those words (like “love”) that is so great it eludes easy definition. But the glory of God refers to God’s own immeasurable worth and grandeur which He has chosen to manifest and incarnate in this fallen world. God’s glory is God’s person, God’s name, God’s divine reality.
Let us imagine the glory of God as a vast ocean. It is immeasurable, as Paul will show a few verses from now. It is majestic. It cannot be contained. And it is out of this wide and deep sea of God’s glory that He empowers us.
More accurate to Paul’s language, let us consider God’s glory as a treasure chest of incalculable wealth. God is rich in glory! And, more amazing still, God shares the wealth of His own glory with us, His people. It is through the riches of God’s glory that we are enabled to be what God has called us to be: a redeemed people of His own who reflect His glorious character.
Depending on what translation you use, the Bible speaks of God’s glory somewhere around three hundred times. Why? Because the earth was created for His glory, His only begotten Son came to show men His glory (i.e., John 1:14 – “And we beheld His glory…”), you were redeemed for His glory, the church exists for His glory, and the end of all things will find the people of God living in the light of His glory forever and ever.
II. The church is to grow in and towards the fullness of God’s glory. (vv.17-19)
And what is the effect of God’s glory having its way in the church? Paul tells us:
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Consider what a glory-driven church looks like:
a. Christ dwells in the midst of a glory-driven church. (17a)
God blesses us out of the riches of His glory, Paul says in verse 17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
When we are empowered by and saturated with the glory of God, Christ dwells in our midst.
A New Testament church is a glory-driven and glory-focused church. This means that Christ dwells in our hearts. This is one of the few times that the Bible speaks of Jesus being “in our hearts.” We are blessed with Christ’s presence out of the storehouse of God’s glory. Jesus is the glory of God. This means that if we are indeed the body of Christ we too should reflect God’s glory.
b. A deeper understanding of the gospel. (17b-19a)
God also blesses and empowers us out of His own glory so “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”
As we walk together in the light of God’s glory, valuing His glory above all other treasures, we come to know the gospel better. James Montgomery Boice tells of when…
“…Napoleon’s armies opened a prison that had been used by the Spanish Inquisition [and] they found the remains of a prisoner who had been incarcerated for his faith. The dungeon was underground. The body was long since decayed. Only a chain fastened around an anklebone cried out his confinement. But this prisoner, long since dead, had left a witness. On the wall of his small, dismal cell this faithful soldier of Christ had scratched a rough cross with four words surrounding it in Spanish. Above the cross was the Spanish word for “height.” Below it was the word for “depth.” To the left the word “width.” To the right, the word “length.” Clearly this prisoner wanted to testify to the surpassing greatness of the love of Christ, perceived even in his suffering.”1
A glory-driven church is a church that comes to see, more and more, that the cross of Jesus Christ represents “the breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s glory and grace.
A glory driven church is a church that dives ever-deeper into the cross of Jesus Christ. A glory-driven church is a church that finds itself increasingly in awe of who God is and what He has done for us through His son Jesus.
c. A continued filling with the fullness of God. (v.19b)
“That you may be filled with all the fullness of God,” Paul writes at the end of verse 19. A church driven by and towards the glory of God is a church that is being continuously filled with the fullness of God.
This idea of being filled with the fullness of God immediately harkens us to Colossians 1:15-20, where Paul gives us an amazing picture of the person of Christ:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
III. God should be glorified in His church. (vv.20-21)
We now move to an amazing statement, a statement that one commentator called “suprising.” In verses 20-21, Paul writes:
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Did you hear that? “To Him be glory in the church.”
This is indeed a profound thought! Notice first of all the words that immediately follow this thought: “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” The point here certainly is not that the church is equal with Jesus. On the contrary, Christ is the head of the church. The church is the blood-bought bride of the living Christ. Yet the church, as the body of Christ, shares in the mission of Christ: to bring glory to God.
Let us understand what is being said here: God is to be glorified in His church. God is to be glorified in His church!
Who we are, how we act, the way we worship, our life together…all of these things are to bring glory to God. It reminds us of Jesus’ words near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:16: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
May we become "an authentic community around the whole gospel for the glory of God." May our character, our worship, our behavior, our speech, and our life together cause men and women to glorify God. May our practices, our customs, our traditions, and our habits reflect well upon His glory. May we become a gospel-saturated, glory-driven fellowship of blood-bought disciples who treasure, value, relish, and highly esteem God's name, purposes, work, person, and, above all, God's glory.
1. James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p.111.