Ephesians 3:20-21 • Beyond Our Doubts and Dreams
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Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Would you look with me in your Bibles this morning at Ephesians chapter 3 as we'll be considering verses 20 through 21.
At this stage we come to the end of the first half of the book of Ephesians. And we're going to take a little bit of a pause after this Sunday and we'll be looking at some Christmas prophecies for the next few weeks before returning back to the second half of Ephesians in February.
As we've covered this first half of the epistle of Ephesians, I wonder if it has surprised you a little bit. After all, here is the Apostle Paul writing to a first century church, many converts, people who don't know what it means to be a Christian, don't know what it means to live the Christian life, and instead of giving us a moral code, the Apostle instead gives us a world vision.
He speaks to those who are gathering the church and he's saying, "By the love of God and the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, you are going to be the most powerful transformation agent the world has ever seen or could know. All of this God is going to do through you. You are the world changers."
And of course, as he is speaking to that first century church, he is speaking to us who inherit the same promises.
How could it possibly be? How could those little churches gathering homes across ancient Ephesus be such a powerful instrument for transformation and we be the inheritors of the same promise? How could that happen?
Well let's stand and read together what's going to make this happen. Ephesians 3 and verse 20.
The Apostle says, "How such power?"
Verse 20, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
Amen."
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that in this time of remembering your promises of old, we can still claim them.
We claim not only the Savior who came, but we claim what he intended to do through people that he claimed.
He would use them.
He would use us for divine purposes far beyond what we would ask or even think.
Last week in this very place we expressed concern and prayer for Grace and Matthew Heng,
the couple held in Qatar because of the supposed starvation of a child, a child that they merely cared for out of the name of Christ and for his sake.
And this week, Father, we hear of their acquittal and we praise you for so working through the prayers of your people around the world for the sake of this couple that loves you. We pray for Kenneth Bae and we see you releasing him and allowing him to come back and minister among your people. This day we would pray for Sa'id Abedini, the American pastor also held for his faith. The people of the world, your people gathered to ask that you would work beyond barriers in fulfillment of the promises you have made to do exceedingly above all that we would ask or even think.
We don't even pray for those matters afar. We pray for matters near as well.
That here with Grace Family Christmas this week as thousands will come into this church, many not a part of this church, many not knowing you, just coming for the entertainment of Christmas that nonetheless as they would come that they would hear the truth of the gospel and hearing it would long for you and longing for you would by the witness of your spirit and your people in this place would come to you. Grandfather, we pray even this day as we would study your word that in ways beyond our human explanation your spirit would work to apply the word to our hearts that we might be changed and being changed be instruments of your power for Christ's glory in this world. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
Please be seated.
Her mother was first diagnosed with the cancer when she was 15.
It was terminal but chemotherapy would keep it in check for a while.
So the daughter continued in school. She was brilliant and so she graduated high school early, went to college, earned a master's, PhD, began to teach at Stanford.
All this time her mother on chemotherapy but all this time her mother also supporting her. It was needed because it was a time in this nation when being a woman and being black meant that it was controversial and difficult to be in academic environments in which this young woman served.
But her mother continued to be her strength, continued to be her support until the young woman at age 30 did finally witness the death of her mother as she succumbed to the cancer.
The young woman was named Condoleezza Rice, the 66th Secretary of State of this nation.
As she was serving in the administration of George W. Bush, Michael Lindsay, the author, records a particular occasion in the Oval Office when a critical decision was being made.
The debate in the Oval Office at that time was whether the United States would provide $15 billion in humanitarian aid to help with the AIDS pandemic that was then striking Africa.
It was a Republican administration.
Not only was this the largest amount of humanitarian aid that had ever been even proposed in the United States or the world, but it was controversial within the administration itself whether this should be done.
The debate went on and on. After an hour they finally got down to brass tacks, the real question about whether or not they would provide the humanitarian aid. Here was the argument. Should we spend $15 billion to seek to prolong the lives of Africans who even when helped
will not live beyond 25 or 30?
She was at that point that Condoleezza Rice spoke up.
She said, "The reason that I am here today is between my 15th and my 30th birthdays, my mother, though dying by chemotherapy was well enough to support me in the absolute need I had of her as my parent during those formative years.
If she had not lived in that time to support me in those critical formative years, I would not be here today. And if we, the most powerful nation in the world who can provide for parents to be with their children in their formative years, will not do it, it is a moral failure on our part. And if we will do it, it will change the face of Africa and ultimately will change the nature of our world."
They provided the $15 billion and through it saved the lives and the future of quite literally millions of African families and children.
Some of you know the family of Condoleezza Rice was a family of faith.
And if you could think back to that 15 years in which the family prayed, I'm sure prayed for healing, prayed for release from the disease, you know they must have at times been filled with doubt. Is God listening?
Is this real what we're doing?
Are our dreams just futile as we are seeking for God's help? Never could they have imagined.
It was beyond what they were asking, beyond what they could even think that God could use that experience of their difficulty to become instrumental in the saving of the lives of millions of families in the years to come. God was operating beyond what they would ask or even think.
We have dreams and doubts too.
Dreams that at times we believe are unfulfilled.
Doubts that are real. We pray for help. We wonder if it's actually there. And what this text is telling us in no uncertain terms is when we face the trial and the difficulty and turn to God, He is able to do what?
To do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we would ask or even think.
I mean consider what we are being told here. That's just the opening words of verse 20. He who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or even think is working according to the power that's at work within us. It is after all the asking time of year, right? We ask for things.
You know young people, they are asking for mutant, turbo, dino blaster rope. I don't know what they are.
Diamond dancing Barbies.
And of course the parents are asking too for the money to pay for it.
For security in the jobs for the money to pay for it.
For the security in the jobs that will give security for a family so that a marriage will be strong again.
Some of us pray for bodies that will be healed again. Some of us pray for hearts that will be whole again.
Every year we ask and we wonder will He really help? Can He really do anything? And the words of faith are He is able to do more than we ask or even think.
In 1983 a woman that Kathy and I know, her name Mary Nelson, fell on her face in a garden in St. Louis.
In grief, simply no longer able to stand.
She had wanted a child for so long. She had asked God and there was no child coming.
And so in 1983 as she wept there in the garden, she finally in deep humility said, "God, please,
provide a child in whatever way you know is right."
And nine months later she gave birth to the Pregnancy Resource Center in St. Louis that
has since that time saved from abortion and for adoption, quite literally thousands of children doing exceedingly, abundantly above all that she would ask or even think.
It is the nature of our God to take our humility, to take what we present to Him and say, "I can do more. I will do more than you can even imagine." I recognize it's typical among us when we say if you ask God for something, He's got standard ways of answering. You know this, right? When you pray to God, He can either say yes or no or what? Not yet. I actually think there's a more common answer.
I think the more common answer is the one right from this passage, that God is going to answer far beyond all you would ask or even think. We pray for our families at Thanksgiving. We pray for our families just to travel in this weekend. If we could even think of what it takes for us to draw the next breath, the physical processes, the biological processes that have to occur in nature around us, inside our own body, takes beyond our fathoming even to grasp it. If you just think of your way home from this service, not only what has happened mechanically in your car, what does God have to do to keep you safe from the road, from other drivers, from your own inattention? All the thousands, the infinite processes that God is managing beyond our asking, beyond our ability even to grasp it. This is God working even when we offer ordinary daily prayers, much less when we offer the prayers that are beyond what we would ask or even think. We gather here on a Thanksgiving weekend for the Thanksgiving service, which I love so much where people give their testimonies of how God is blessing their lives.
And one gives thanks for a new child or grandchild. By the way, our grandchild is not here yet.
Tonight, tonight.
But we hear families do what we expect.
One gives thanks for a new child, another gives strength, gives thanks for strength after a spouse's passing.
Another family gives thanks for a newly adopted child after years of miscarriage.
And if you're a cynic sitting there, you say, "Now wait a minute."
One gives thanks for a new life. One gives thanks in the midst of loss of life.
And another gives thanks for a life such as no one had originally planned.
How can you possibly give thanks in all those different situations? Because we believe that God is working far beyond what we would ask or even think. And the great evidence of that is what He did through His own Son. That had we stood at the foot of the cross, we would have said, "God, stop this. Let this cup pass from Him." Even He prayed for the cup to pass from Him. But God was doing exceedingly far more than we would ask or even think in providing my eternity from all eternity by the work of His Son.
It astounds us. It confounds our imagination. And yet it is God simply asking and answering in the way that He has promised and doing in ways beyond our potential asking. How does God do this? How does He do more than we would ask or even think? The end of verse 20 says, "He does it according to the power at work within us."
That's an amazing statement.
God doing beyond what we would ask or even think, and the way that's happening is by something He is working in us. What power is that?
We've been in Ephesians enough now that you know that when the Apostle takes a particular subject and theme and begins to echo it, he's tying it back to principles he has already laid. The power that is at work within us, he has already described in the first chapter in the 19th verse. Are you there? Can you look? Verse 19 of chapter 1.
The power is described as the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.
According to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand than the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominions and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the one to come.
I know the words go by so fast.
What is the power that's at work within us?
It is the immeasurably great power first by which He raised Jesus from the dead. It is resurrection power. That power that gave life to what was dead. That power is at work in God's people. It's not only resurrection power, it is unrivaled power.
Above every authority, above every power, above every source of rule, above every name that can be named, it is absolute unrivaled power and is eternal power. What is at work within us, that expression of the power of the Holy Spirit that is above all other powers, is not only in this age but greater than anything in the ages to come.
It is eternal power at work in us. Even if we have eyes to see it, we begin to see it even now in our midst.
Just this last week we had the final week of collecting those shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child that's organized by Samaritan's Purse. And I think we must wonder, what's the good of that? I mean, Pastor Carey tells us with such passion that a half million people around the world are cooperating this effort of providing funds and materials for children. We just bring our little shoeboxes out of our homes, out of our families to give to children other places.
Well, I get the news updates from Samaritan's Purse, the organization that organizes the shoebox gifts.
Samaritan's Purse does not only work in poor areas but in war-torn areas like Syria and Iraq.
And I read the report that came in recently from Todd Daniels who oversees the work in those areas where ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is now operating with such terror and horror.
He wrote these words, "In this region there is a wide open harvest of people. When you show in practical, tangible ways, Christ's love, it opens up the doors of the gospel."
Here we are just providing shoeboxes of little gifts to children and we are being told by the ones who are distributing them, it is opening up the doors to the gospel for people's eternity. Is it really happening?
Daniels goes on to describe what happened a few weeks ago in Mosul. Now, do you remember Mosul? That is the modern name for the ancient city of Nineveh, the place where Jonah's grave now is.
In Mosul, shortly before ISIS came and drove out the Christians and those Muslims who were of a different sect, Daniels said he spoke with a woman who said that she had dreamed of a great harvest of people that was about to come. Now we're Presbyterians and we don't know what to do about dreams.
I'm not going to limit God, but I understand that what God is doing is using his people in ways that we can hardly imagine.
As the refugees, both Christians and Muslims, are driven from Mosul, so many of them have gone into Kurdistan, the neighboring areas, where the churches of Kurdistan have opened their doors to help the refugees. And Daniels reports that those churches are now filling every Sunday, including this one, are now filling every Sunday with former Muslims because the Christian churches are providing them help, like the shoeboxes that you were providing last week.
Daniels goes on to say, "The same is true not only from Mosul. The same is true even in Baghdad." He said, "A church leader there said, "I now have 30 people in my Bible study. They want to be baptized, and 23 of them are former Muslims."
Do you recognize that because of the conflict that's happening right now in the Middle East, because of people being uprooted from traditional homes and traditional communities, and the ability of the church to minister in the refugee camps like never before, that the greatest conversion of Muslims in the history of the world is happening right now?
God is doing an amazing work beyond what we would ask or even think it's not what we would ask. It's not the way that we would ask. And yet God is saying, "Above all powers.
Above all other names. For eternal purposes. I am working beyond what you would ask or even think. According to the power that it work in us who believe."
It absolutely stretches our imagination, stretches even our faith. Could it really be that we recognize right now in Syria and Iraq there is war and prejudice, weapons and politics, terrorism, and Satan himself on rampage.
And yet against it all, above all powers and dominions and every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come, is the name of Jesus Christ who is working through his people beyond what they would ask or even think for eternal glory. And that is the actual purpose that's being stated here. Why does God work in us beyond what we would ask or even think? He says right there in verse 21, "To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever." He is working so that there would be glory in the church.
Already at the end of the previous chapter he has said that as the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, that we as living stones being built upon that foundation are rising as a new temple to God, rising to heaven with the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us as the new Shekinah glory.
That the Holy Spirit indwelling God's people is now using them for eternal purposes, chief among them is to bring glory to God.
That as God's people are doing his work in his place, glory comes to God.
But then we recognize this.
The verse says, "Not only is there glory in the church, but glory in Christ Jesus."
Now it doesn't sound like good English to us. Well of course it's Greek.
There is glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. How is there glory in Christ Jesus by the power flowing through us?
Do you remember we've already been told that the church is the body of Christ.
That when this power of faith and belief is offered to God, not only is there glory to God himself in the church, there is glory in Christ Jesus. Christ himself is on display. His glory is in this place as we are believing that God is working far beyond what we would ask or even think there is glory in Christ Jesus, which is who we are. We are that body of Christ in which the glory of God is displayed. In Christ Jesus, the church is shining the light of the gospel to others.
When it happens, it just is absolutely astounding.
And you believe that what you are witnessing is the power of God on display for the glory of Christ to the nations because of what God's people are willing to ask and do for His glory even beyond their own.
Some years ago in our church in St. Louis where we also have one of those testimony services at Thanksgiving, Kathy and I witnessed a Thanksgiving testimony which even though we went to those services for years and years, I'm guessing this is the one that stands out in both our minds more than any other.
A friend of ours, a young woman, stood up and gave thanks to God for His work in her brother's life just weeks before he was murdered.
She's giving thanks to God in the wake of her brother's murder.
Why?
Because he had lived a life of rebellion and waywardness, but in those few weeks before
had turned his heart and his eternity to Jesus Christ. And she was saying thank you God that he was secure. Thank you my father that as my earthly father held his son dying in his own arms that my father could whisper words of peace to my brother. You will be with Jesus soon. Thank you God for eternal truths that we had prayed for my brother for so long, but when you turned his heart it was the weeks before he would lose his life. He is with you now whole and joyful and the glory of God is in this place. And she gave glory to God for that change, but that was not the end of the glory.
She then said now church we have a responsibility.
Would you please join my family now in praying for the salvation of the man who murdered my brother?
Beyond all that we ask or think according to his power that work in us so that there would be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations is what God is doing through us, the church. What she was asking that we be true to. Let's be true to our gospel. Let's be true to what we believe because if we can pray for one who is so damaged our family what we fundamentally believe is that as we can forgive another it is because God has forgiven us.
If we can pray it is with the character. It is with the truth of the gospel that has been communicated to us by Jesus Christ. If we can forgive it's because we have been forgiven and the world needs to hear that there is glory.
There is a gospel for you. There is a pardon for you. There is forgiveness for you. There is power for you. There is a working of God beyond what you would ask or even think. That is the God to whom you come and is the God to whom glory is to be given in this age and every age to come. What does glory look like in the church?
Well it looks like this.
That one would give his life shed his blood in our behalf that we would be eternally right with God not by our goodness not by our works but on the basis of what he has done in our behalf. That is the glory.
And it's the glory that we not only witness but we experience as we pray to God with the profound understanding that he will take his power in us and do exceedingly abundantly above all that we would ask or even think according to his power that's at work in the church and in Christ Jesus.
Because we are the testifiers of what he has done because of what he has done for us. What do I do? What do I say when I partake of this meal in Jesus name?
I say not unto us, not unto me may they be glory but to my Savior who gave himself for my sin took the penalty for my death took it upon himself and now though I am undeserving
he makes me right with his father and not me only but those whose lives my life touches
I witness the glory and tell others the same.
Would you pray with me? Father we pray that you would work that profound work of faith in our hearts again.
That we would be believing that you are working beyond what we would ask or even think according to a power that is at work within us so that the glory of God might be known in the church and in Christ Jesus that is the body, the one we corporately are so that for eternity not only would we be secure but those who have been touched by the glory of this church in deeds little like shoeboxes or deeds hard like the forgiving of those who have hurt us and our families.
May that glory be present in us that Christ Jesus might be praised and his goodness be known by all.
Through us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.