Good morning, everyone. My name is Nick. I'm Pastor for Discipleship here at St. Paul's.
! It's my joy to open the Word with you.
We've just had Chinese New Year, and many, many Chinese New Years ago in the 80s, there was a little girl
and she was given some red envelopes. She laid them all out on her bed, but one of them slipped down the back of her bed,
down the side of her bunk bed frame, and was lost, forgotten. Flash forward 40 years,
she was a single mum, battling debts and barely making ends meet, until one day when her old bed frame
finally broke under the weight of her two sons playing in their room, they pulled down the old
bed to throw it away, and wedged under a wooden slat, she found the red envelope.
It had been given to her by her grandfather, long passed away now. That year he'd sold his business,
and he'd done something special for his favourite grandchild. In the envelope wasn't cash,
but shares in a company he'd just been told about. He'd printed out all the details on this folded A4
page, put it in the envelope, it was all legally in her name. And at the time, he was very generous.
He put nearly three, just over $3,000 worth of shares in that envelope. 33,000 shares at 10 cents each.
40 years later, those shares were $290 each. That's what they were worth. Nearly $10 million. Without knowing it,
this family had been battling to stay afloat while being millionaires the whole time.
This mirrors the experience of many Christians who come to faith, and yet through their life feel like
the wallets of their strength to keep following Jesus are always emptier than they would like.
Today, Paul is going to show us where the red envelope of God's strength for his church is.
So far in Ephesians, Paul has been encouraging us to remember the riches that Christians have in Jesus,
in Christ, right now. We have eternity in front of us. God the Father, certain, safe, joyful, glorious,
with him forever. We have each other, the church. God's riches displayed in a family
of support and love. And we have his grace to us that while we were powerless to save ourselves or do
anything in our own strength, through Christ, God has saved us and empowers us to live for him
by the Holy Spirit. We have great hope in Christ. And if you're joining us online or you're in the room
with us and you don't yet follow Jesus, consider the blessings and love available to all people
in Christ. And last week we heard how Christ has destroyed the walls of hostility that divide humanity
on the cross. Jesus took the Roman punishment for an insurrectionist so that our rebellious lives
could be exchanged for his life of love for his enemies. But even after this exchange, Christians are
still prone to retaliation, divisions, fears of those unlike us, even racism. So where do we find the
strength to be a unified church, wrestling with sin and one another in a broken world?
When Christians experience the riches of Christ's love, God strengthens his people with power
to be his church and achieve his mission. Who is the church? This week we're focusing on the fact
that we are empowered. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will provide strength for your church through
your spirit to behold the love of Christ for them in such a way that they are empowered to display your
glory to our city as your church in powerful ways. Amen. Today I have three points. Why do we need to be
empowered? What does it mean to be empowered? And how do we get empowered? First, why do we need to be
empowered? I want to draw your attention to how Paul begins not just this passage but this chapter.
We didn't read it and there's a reason for it. Have a look at chapter one there, verse one there.
Paul starts, for this reason I, and then he gets completely distracted. He goes on this tangent
and he gets completely distracted. His train of thought gets broken. He was far away from these
people in Ephesus, writing this letter from a Roman jail cell and he knows that this church is worried
about him, about what the future might hold without him. Just as Paul shared the boundless riches of
Christ with them, God's plan is now to do the same thing through the church. The mission that was Paul's,
the mission of God in Ephesus is now in their hands. It's in the hands of the local church.
And Paul imagined them reading this letter. It's almost like he got to this point and then just
cast his mind to them and thought, I wonder if they're discouraged. Wondering how they're going to do
God's mission to face it without me. So how will Paul strengthen the church for their mission? Well,
the prayer that Steve just read out is Paul's answer. It's a prayer. Paul could have asked God to make
things easier for the Ephesians. He could have asked for more receptive hearts in their city to their
message or even to Christians in their midst. Even for himself to be released to go help them
in Ephesus. But instead, he prays for power from God to see immeasurably more done through them.
Verse 16, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit
in your inner being. Paul knows of a power that God can give Christians that will fill them to the
measure of all the fullness of God. That's what Paul wants. More than his own freedom, more than changes
to the circumstances of the church. Real power from God to be his church. But Christian, you might be
asking a good question here. Isn't Christ dwelling in every Christian already? Yes. We are in Christ and
Christ is in us. At the very moment a Christian yields their life to Christ, he lives in them. So what
more do Christians have to draw on than the indwelling presence of Christ by the Holy Spirit?
A kind of change that Paul imagines here isn't more of Christ in us, but a deeper knowledge, a
surpassing knowledge, verse 19, of just how loved they are by Christ, that once experienced gives them power.
There is more to experience of Christ and his love day by day as the Spirit provides. It's the love of
Christ experienced that Paul wants to show empowers the church. Paul fears that Christians in Ephesus will live
poor even amongst the riches of their salvation, like a mum with millions under the bed. Paul asks the Spirit
to give us an empowering experience when we remember the love of Christ for us that will strengthen our
discouraged hearts. Second, what does it mean to be empowered? We've used this illustration in a number
of ways, but this week I thought of it from the perspective of a dad with a young child, that's me,
and I remember one Easter weekend many years ago, we gave our middle child chocolate for the first time.
We told her she'd like it, but she wasn't excited. Even today, she has the character of someone who will
doubt first, especially what a parent says is true. She will doubt first, and then she will slowly lean
into maybe the truth, maybe the experience, maybe how things look. And to this one-year-old, the shiny
wrapper was far more exciting than what was inside. Our joy wasn't catching on. And we took a video of
all of this, and I remember ending the video because it was going so badly. She was almost too terrified
to eat it out of the pressure of how excited people were compared to how she was. But then she tasted it.
We have this photo of this moment. She has this smile. It's almost an aggressive bite into a piece of
chocolate. It's like, give me more of that. Oh, this is incredible. And also, I'm on camera. I've got a
smile. It's the funniest little photo. The moment she experienced that chocolate is good, she was
convinced. Experiencing the love of Christ is to take the reality of the riches, taste the reality
of the riches of God. And just like chocolate puts a whirlwind of energy in a toddler, so too does the
love of Christ put a power in the church. Many churches are hesitant to experience something that
might stir our emotions. Most on the North Shore trust emotions less than we do evidence, data, and truth.
But in Christianity, both the knowledge of God and the affections for God always go together.
There was a philosopher and a mathematician, an inventor, a real head knowledge guy,
his name was Blaise Pascal, many, many years ago. He was also a Christian. And when he died,
his coat was found to have a page of his diary, apparently this page, sewn into the fabric so that
any time he wanted, he could look back on something that happened to him, something that he had
experienced. And on there is a date and a title. The title is Fire.
Fire. Here's what he wrote. Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers
and the learned, certainty, security, feeling, joy, peace, and on and on the diary entry goes.
He had experienced the love of Christ that day for him so deeply, emotionally, physically,
that it changed his perspective on his entire life. And he wanted to remember how that day felt.
When the truth of the truth of the love of Christ grabbed him in this experience of wonder, awe, fear, and praise.
What experiences of the love of Christ have you had? What experiences of the love of Christ have we had together?
Think of the moments we've shared singing where it's like all of a sudden someone's turned up the volume
of our voices and our emotions are running high in the room.
Think of the tears that you might have shed maybe in someone's home with your Bibles open with someone
or sharing your testimony or hearing their testimony of God's love in Christ.
There are experiences of God that stir deep emotions.
And Paul knows we need experiences of the love of Christ to empower his church.
So as you discover more knowledge of the love of Christ for you,
you may have a Holy Spirit-empowered experience.
Now, this is really important.
Tim Keller uses a really helpful image here for us to understand this, the image of a kiss.
Imagine someone kisses you.
Woo!
You hope you are the reason that they want to kiss you, right?
But if you discover that they're only here for the kiss and that they can get it from another
and you just happen to be there, then that kiss loses all its meaning to you.
If you go after the kiss and not the person, then the kiss is nothing.
But if the kiss is about the person, then the kiss means everything.
So if you go after an experience of being deeply moved but do not go after God,
then your experience is nothing.
But if you experience deep affections as you go after the love of Christ for you,
then that experience means everything.
Keller says,
through the power of the Holy Spirit, information becomes sensation.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, information about the love Christ has for you
can become sensation.
We can't always hope to experience God's love in Christ with this emotional depth.
But together as God's church, we can ask God to strengthen us regularly in our midst.
These experiences can happen together or we can share them with one another when they happen,
when we are together.
And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord's holy people
to grasp how wide, how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ.
The church are the glorious riches of Christ.
We've already heard that in Ephesians.
And they are the location where God's glory will be displayed in power through us.
There's no individualism in this passage at all.
Any experience of Christ's love on our own, shared together, can empower us together.
There were 35 of us gathered around Steve on Wednesday night
as we explored God's vision for St. Paul's Chatswood towards 2030.
And we shared big goals.
Steve's just shared the summary of those this morning.
We want to make a big impact in our city.
Not to be known, but for Christ's love for our city to be known.
We want to see him do incredible things.
And we can't do that unless God empowers us.
Just like the church in Ephesus couldn't do that unless God empowers them.
So Paul's huge goal for the Ephesian church and for us is that God will,
and another tangent it seems,
but God who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or even imagine,
will empower his church to glorify God throughout all generations forever and ever.
What it means to be empowered by God is for the church to regularly, purposefully pray
that God might strengthen them through his spirit as they experience the love of Christ.
So how do we get empowered?
There are many practical ways that we can pursue the love of Christ,
but let me give you four, and then we'll do one of them together.
First, yield.
Look at verse 14.
Paul's posture, he tells us, and he may have been as he dictated this letter,
is that he is on his knees.
Or he might have been saying,
I am doing this regularly.
I'm on my knees praying this prayer for you.
But in Paul's day, people didn't pray kneeling.
That might be what we see on TV or what you might have experienced
as a more traditional way of praying.
But no, in Paul's day, they stood to pray.
So it's important that we realise Paul's telling them this to show them something.
It's actually an act of submission.
God is our Father, and ours is a relationship of intimacy and love,
but also of authority.
To submit to God's authority to you,
to change you,
is an act of obedience.
You may not want God to change you.
You might not feel like you need changing.
Or to feel deep emotions.
But trust your Father.
Yield to Scripture,
and find out more,
and more,
and more about the love of Christ
for you.
And be open to the Spirit
to empower you,
and change you.
Yield,
and
meditate.
Look at verse 18 with me.
What do you notice about the verb there?
It doesn't say read
about the
depth and height and width
and of the love of Christ.
It says grasp.
Grasp.
That word literally means
wrestle
or
ambush.
It's a very
intense,
strong word.
What Paul's saying
is it's a wrestling
with
the truth
of the love of Christ
into your own heart.
An active,
reflective,
purposeful activity
that the Bible calls
meditation.
If you want to get a picture
of what this looks like
in the Bible,
Psalm 103
is really helpful.
It's a talking
to your soul
prayer.
It's to yourself,
examining your own life,
beliefs and understanding
and desires
and loves
and comparing them
to God's perspective
of the world
and yourself
like a wrestling match
between your will
and the will of God.
Your priorities
and the priorities
of God.
And by the Spirit,
it's an experience
that can
happen to you.
You can grasp it
and even as you do,
you can be grasped
by it.
The disciple,
Peter,
he was ambushed
by God's word
in Acts 10.
Last week,
we were talking
about the topic
of unity
in the church
and one of the,
well,
the leader
of God's church,
Peter,
failed
immediately
when it came
to allowing
Gentiles
to be fully
a part
of the church,
non-Jews
to be fully
a part
of what God
was doing.
He knew
God loved them.
He knew
they should be
a part of the church
but he didn't live it.
He was ambushed
by a revelation
from God
and to accept
all people
in the church.
To grasp
the love
of God,
we reach out
and grasp
the pages
of scripture,
not just
to read it
but to always
meditate on it.
There is no,
and let me just
say here,
this is not
meditation
where you empty
everything out
of your mind
and sit
blank.
Christian
meditation
instead
is to fill
our minds
with God's
words
and reflect.
Seek to connect
with God
daily.
That's one
of our seven
rhythms of grace.
What it means
to live
in Chatswood
as his people,
regularly connecting
with God.
And here's a
starting point
if you've never
done this.
Read,
meditate
and pray.
Read the word
of God.
Give yourself
time
to wrestle
with what
you have read.
Meditate
on it
and pray.
Behold
the love
of Christ
in Scripture
and grasp
it in your
soul
as the
information
you read
becomes
sensation
by the
power
of the
Spirit.
And yes,
thirdly,
pray.
This passage
itself is a
prayer
and it's a
prayer for
experience.
And
it is not
the only
thing you
should pray
for.
but we
can
ask the
Spirit
to empower
us
as we
reflect
on the
love
of Christ
for us.
Hudson
Taylor,
who was
the
founding
missionary
of the
gospel
going into
China,
he prayed
every day
starting like
this.
It's actually
a longer
poem,
but the
start of
the poem
that he
wrote
in the
top of
his diary
was this,
Lord Jesus,
make thyself
to me
a living
bright
reality.
Lord Jesus,
make yourself
to me
a living
bright
reality.
God
can make
us more
receptive
to the
bright love
of Jesus
through
his Spirit.
Praying
in step
with this
passage
is like
asking God
to change
us
as if
we're
a normal
boring
piece
of A4
paper
like this.
Change
us into
a
photosensitive
chemically
treated
piece of
paper,
receptive
and ready
to receive
the light
of Christ,
seen in
his word
and heard
in the
church,
experienced
in Christian
friendships,
and then
have it
come to
life on
us,
like a
photo
instead of
a blank
white
page.
Pray for
God to
give you
an
experience
of the
love
of
Christ.
And then
fourthly,
together.
If you want
to know
the love
of Christ
deeply,
you need
to be
deeply
involved
in the
church
community.
the
promised
power
of this
passage
involves
other
Christians.
God
pours
out
his
power
over
the
church
together
with
all the
Lord's
holy
people.
This
whole
letter
is all
about
the
church
and
it's
evidence
enough
for any
Christian
to dig
roots
and
foundations
in a
church.
And if
we take
our lead
from this
passage,
together
as God's
church,
we can
grasp
the love
of Christ
deeper
together.
So let's
do it.
Let's
explore the
love of
Christ
together
now and
answer
this
question.
How
wide
and
long
and
high
and
deep
is the
love of
Christ?
for you.
How
wide
is the
love of
God
for you?
Jesus
said,
when I
am lifted
up at
the cross,
I will
draw all
people
to
myself.
All
people
can come
to Jesus.
His
love
reaches to
all people
of every
nation.
His
love is
to all
nations.
And
Isaiah
1.18
says,
though your
sins be
as scarlet,
you shall
be whiter
than snow.
This
vivid image
of scarlet
to white
or red
to white
is actually
about
blood.
Even
if you've
killed,
you can
be forgiven
no matter
what you've
done.
That is
how wide
the love
of Christ
is for
you.
How long
is the
love of
God?
Revelation
13.8
says that
Christ was
ready to
die for
you before
the universe
was made.
In
eternity
past,
God had
a plan
for you.
And
Jesus
said,
I give
them
eternal
life and
no one
can pluck
them out
of my
hand.
Jesus
will
never
let
go
of
the
ones
he
loves.
And
Philippians
1.16
says,
the one
who began
a good
work in
you
will
bring
it
to
completion.
His
love
is with
you
every
step
you
take.
God's
love
is that
long.
How deep
is the
love of
God
for you?
How deep
is his
love?
The
depth
of
Christ's
love
is seen
in how
far he
will go
to show
you.
What did
it cost
you?
What does
it cost
anyone
for God
to love
you?
Nothing.
What did
it cost
God to
show you
his love?
Everything.
Death of
his son
on a
cross.
Jesus
died your
death and
went to
hell for
you,
as Peter
taught.
Christ's
love is
as deep
can go.
God's
love is
that
deep.
And
our
high
is the
love of
Christ
for you.
John 17,
Jesus
prays,
Father,
I want
them to
have the
glory
that we
have.
Christ
loves us
up into
the status
and riches
and glory
that he
has with
God the
Father.
And
John,
in 1
John,
says,
we will
be like
him and
we will
see him
as he
is.
God
lifts us
into holiness
and nearness
with the
highest
king.
That's
how high
the love
of Christ
is for
you.
The love
of Christ
is the
red
envelope
of the
Christian.
But is
it lost
under your
bed?
God
or are
you
experiencing
the love
of Christ
each
day?
Yield
yourself
to
Christ
and
connect
with
him
daily
in
the
word
and
meditate
on
it.
Seek
to
grasp
Christ's
love
for you
and pray
that the
spirit
would move
you
deeply,
even
knock
you
off
your
feet
onto
your
knees
like
Paul
and
prioritize
being
together,
seeking
the love
of Christ
with the
church.
Where do
we find
strength
to be
united
church?
Wrestling
with sin
and one
another
in a
broken
world?
In
the love
of Christ
for us.
God
empowers
his people
to be
his church
as we
behold
the love
of Christ.
Who is
the church?
We are
empowered.
And what
are we
empowered
to do?
Well,
you have
to join
us in
Ephesians
4 from
next week
on.
We need
the power
of God
working
within us
to experience
the love
of Christ,
to do
more in
God's
mission
than we
can ask
for or
even
imagine.