Immeasurably More (Ephesians 3.20-21)

Introduction

Well, happy New Year to you all if I haven’t had the opportunity to wish you one already. I hope you’ve had a good Christmas break.

I remember when one of our children was small, I think it must have been Nathan, we were blowing up balloons together for a birthday party. And I was quite impressed that, even with his little lungs, (he would have been 6 or 7), he was able to blow into the balloon and inflate it… a bit.

After two little puffs, he’d proudly hold up this rather wimpy looking balloon perhaps the size of a large grapefruit and say “Look daddy, I’ve finished this one, can you tie the knot for me?”

These were pretty good quality balloons and I was easily able to inflate them to the size of basketballs. So I’d take his balloon, encourage him, and say “Well, that’s great – but let’s see how much bigger this one can go, shall we?” And I was usually able to blow 5 or 6 long breaths into it and make it much bigger.

You see, Nathan had inflated his balloon - but it wasn’t full. There was ample capacity for more – much more.

Christians, like balloons, come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve noticed, haven’t you? Some are quite large and round (especially just after Christmas). Some are long and thin. Some never get off the ground. Some are always up in the air. Some are quite flexible and can tie themselves up in knots. And some, like me perhaps, are just full of hot air…

Balloons of course have different capacities for containing air – and Christians too, the Bible tells us, have different graces and gifts apportioned to us in different measures.

It is not true to say that all Christians have exactly the same sort of Spirit-filled life, we don’t.

But, like Nathan and his balloon, however full we might think we are filled, most of us have a capacity for more.

The Bible talks about growing in grace – so you can have more grace. We could all have a greater measure of faith, more love and more power, increased expectation…

How hungry are you for an experience of God that is above and beyond what you have so far known? Or can you say that you are satisfied with your spiritual life as it is? Are you content that you’ve got it all, that you’ve made it?

Paul, writing to the Christians in Ephesus, pauses in chapter 3 to pray. And in his prayer he asks God to strengthen them, from the abundant storehouse of his glorious riches. He prays that they will be absolutely firmly grounded in love. And he prays that they will have spiritual power to really grasp and fully know the love of Christ and that they will be filled to the measure [that means replete, saturated, overflowing, bursting with] all the fullness of God.

Unless that is already your experience of the Christian life, let me tell you this morning that there’s more!

And Paul goes on to say it in Ephesians 3.20-21; “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

I want to speak out three realities from these verses this morning and here they are.

Reality number 1: God is able to do much, much more than anything we could expect or even dream of.

Reality number 2: God’s sovereign power is already actively at work within us and among us.

Reality number 3: The glory of God, supremely revealed in Christ, must be reflected in the church in every generation, including our own.

And I’m going to take them in reverse order.

1. To God Be the Glory…

Reality number 3, that the glory of God revealed in Christ must be reflected in the church in every generation, including our own, means this: our top priority, our principal calling, is to magnify and exalt the greatness, the supremacy, the holiness and majesty and wisdom of God.

It’s not about us. It’s all about him. It’s all for him and he deserves it all.

What is “glory”? Have you ever stopped to think about that? It’s not an easy word to define is it?

We use the word in sports headlines. “England chase World Cup glory…” But we all know it’s going to end depressingly in the quarter finals on penalties.  

We use the word in nature. “The glory of the English countryside…” But we know really that for much of the year we’ll have to experience it battling to stay warm to the sound of driving rain lashing down on an umbrella.

Everywhere we use the word “glory” we devalue it except when we talk about God. So when the Bible says “To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” it’s not talking about average sportsmen or hills and dales under heavy grey skies. It’s talking about a different order of things altogether.

The writer and pastor John Piper says “the glory of God is the beauty and brightness of his infinite perfections.” Think about that. The beauty… and brightness… of his infinite… perfections.

When I was in primary school, there was a big sensation the pop charts. He dressed in shiny clothes and he had an exciting name. People idolised him. He was a superstar. His name was written in lights; Gary Glitter.

But within five years of his peak nobody was buying his records anymore. Nobody was talking about him at all. He was all but forgotten. He attempted a comeback and flopped. It turns out he wore a chest wig and dyed his hair. Twenty years later, he was in a jail as a convicted sex offender. His fame lasted less than one generation and even that was a sham.

But even the genuine greats of human history, even the most admirable of men and women who have ever lived, even cultural icons who have left their mark, even the great and the good buried in Westminster Abbey, are as dust compared with the sheer greatness and grandeur of God’s glory.

I saw in the news that there was a meteor shower over the UK just before dawn on Friday. When you look up at the sky at night and see a shooting star it’s briefly entertaining; a fraction of a second and it’s gone. That’s what the glory of the very greatest men and women who have ever lived is like.

By comparison, the glory of God in Christ is like… the sun. You have to be warned against looking at it. Just as the sun’s light can blind you, so God’s glory is awesome beyond our capacity to bear it. For generation after generation, the intense radiance of God’s glory never fades.

About 750 years before Christ, Isaiah briefly saw the glory of God, and the manifestation of his holiness. The foundations of the place he was in trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and the room was filled with smoke and he called out in terror; “That’s it! I have looked God in the face! I’m finished!”

It’s the church’s job to reflect the countless facets of glory of God revealed in Christ in every generation, including our own.

Think about, for example,

• his absolute holiness
• his limitless goodness
• his manifold wisdom
• his unchanging faithfulness
• his saving grace
• his Father heart
• his immeasurable kindness
• Let there be an admiration for, and an echo of, God’s glory in All Saints’ this year. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. 

2. The Power of God is Among Us

Reality number 2. God’s mighty power is already at work within us. It means this: the same mighty power that spoke creation into existence from nothing, the same immense power that raised a corpse from death; the power to love the unloveable and forgive the unforgivable is right here.

We’re talking about:

• power that transforms the foulest sinners into the finest saints
• power that transforms the sulkiest foes into the sweetest friends
• power to that transforms tears of sorrow to shouts of joy

The Bible says that that power is at work among us. It’s in this place today.

Jesus once got into a discussion with a group of religious people called the Sadducees. These people rejected most of the Old Testament, they didn’t believe in the supernatural and they denied the resurrection. And Jesus said to them, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

According to Jesus, people go wrong in life if they are unfamiliar with God’s word. That is why we have chosen a verse for 2013 that says “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

The more acquainted with the Scriptures we are, the clearer our direction through life will be. That is also why we are reading the essential Bible together this year. Let’s saturate our minds with God’s thoughts and familiarise ourselves with words of truth.

But according to Jesus, people also go wrong in life if they do not experience God’s power.

In fact, knowing God’s word and knowing his power go together. You will never be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit if you haven’t soaked in God’s word.

How do I know that? Well, when Jesus returned from his 40 days of testing in the desert, Luke 4.14 specifically says he did so “in the power of the Spirit.” He had taken the devil on - and won decisively - by speaking out truth from Scripture. Every time he was attacked he answered, “It is written” and he affirmed God’s word. Jesus was filled of the Holy Spirit because he was full of the God’s word.

Tragically, like the Sadducees, I’ve known Christians who are ignorant of both the Scriptures and the power of God.

Don’t be lulled into thinking, because you’re baptized, or because you’re an Anglican, or because you never miss church, or because of some other formal qualification, that you’ve got everything you need.

In 1961, the minister at Westminster Chapel, Martin Lloyd-Jones, preached a sermon that really startled his congregation.

Some people had told him they had no need of being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit because (they said) they had already received everything they needed when they were converted many years before.

And Lloyd-Jones got a bit cross. “Got it all?” he said. “Got it all? Well, if you have ‘got it all’, I simply ask in the name of God, why are you as you are? If you have ‘got it all’, why are you so unlike the New Testament Christians? Got it all? Got it at your conversion? Well, where is it, I ask?”

Don’t be a “got it all” Christian. Be an “immeasurably more…” Christian!

In May 1738, an utterly disillusioned man who had also been thoroughly ineffective, not to say miserable, as an Anglican minister walked into a gathering in Aldersgate Street, London, in which someone was reading Martin Luther's introduction to the Epistle to the Romans. Something significant happened. That encounter changed the history of England.

The man was John Wesley of course and he later wrote about that experience. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he said. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

The whole nation came under God’s hand of blessing. A mighty revival broke out throughout the land.

Pubs emptied and chapels filled up. There were many signs and wonders. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were converted. (And the Church of England opposed it by the way).

Wesley travelled 250,000 miles (that’s more than the distance between the Earth and the moon!) and preached more than 40,000 sermons. He formed discipleship groups, he planted churches, he commissioned preachers, he administered relief charities and he opened schools and orphanages. He published many books earning at least £20,000 (a huge sum of money in those days). But he actually gave away £30,000. He lived very simply and died practically penniless. But under God he changed our nation armed with nothing but the simple gospel.

The power that is at work among us…

3. Immeasurably More…

And so to reality number 1; God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine means this: however hard you strain to visualise the sheer span and dimensions of God’s bounteous supply of blessings, you will never get close.

He is able to far, far exceed anything you could dream of.

Our translation has the words “immeasurably more”. The King James Version used to translate it as “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” So God is able to do not just more, not just abundantly more, but exceedingly abundantly more. Are you ambitious for God’s glory to shine as never before in our church and in our land?

We’re going to be talking about key ministries at All Saints’ in the next four or five weeks.

Next Sunday Kathryn will be explaining why we invest so much in our youth. It’s a strategic decision we’ve made. It’s really exciting that we are sending out about a dozen of them as our missionaries at Easter to build a house for a homeless family in Mexico. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

Then Jan will be speaking in two weeks’ time about whole families. The PCC has given Jan the go ahead to recruit a team and start a new ministry after Easter called Messy Church. Don’t let the title put you off, it’s a nationwide movement and God’s anointing is on it. This may be one of the keys that unlocks unchurched families coming to Christ. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

God’s hand has been on our Connect ministry amongst retired people. We have never attracted as many to the lunch club as we do now. The Holy Spirit is moving and we want to go where God is blessing and join in. Sylvia is going to speak about our plans for that in three weeks’ time. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

We are not going to slacken off in our ambition to let every home around this church know that there is a vibrant Christian community in their midst.

We want to continue to resource evangelism and mission in other churches situated in poorer areas than ours. And I’ll be sharing some of the exciting news from further afield in four weeks’ time.

I want you to know that we are focused on exalting God’s glory here and further afield.

I believe, by the grace of God, and with Spirit-filled people, and with passionate serving, we’ll prevail and grow.

We are hoping and praying for a 5-10% increase in giving this year to ensure that all these ministries and others can flourish. In fact, we’re not just hoping for it, the PCC has budgeted for it. That is ambitious. Some would say reckless.

I believe, by the grace of God, and with Spirit-filled people, and with radical generosity, we can do it - and have money to spare.

These are very challenging times spiritually. These are also very testing times economically. But God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

Ending

Remember that story about Nathan and the balloon? How full are you?

Simon Ponsonby of Saint Aldate’s Oxford says, “To be filled with the Holy Spirit leaves no room to be filled with anything else.” So let’s clear out everything that is taking up the space in our lives that the Holy Spirit alone should be occupying.

The Scottish evangelist to South Africa, Andrew Murray, used to suggest three simple steps to being filled with the Holy Spirit (in fact he had four, but I’m abbreviating it).

So let me leave you with this as we begin this New Year 2013.

Step 1 – say, “I must be filled.” Step 2 – say, “I may be filled.” Step 3 – say, “I shall be filled.”

Step 1 – “I must be filled.” Why must you? Because it’s God’s command. The Bible says “Go on being continually filled with the Holy Spirit.” So it’s imperative. God doesn’t say “If you want...” “I must be filled.”

Step 2 – “I may be filled.” Some people doubt that God’s word is really for them. Listen, the promise of Scripture is for all believers. Jesus said, “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” God doesn’t say “This is only for leaders or the outstandingly holy.” “I may be filled.”

Step 3 – “I shall be filled.” Some people say, “Well, I’ll just put it off a couple of weeks and get round to it when I’m ready.” Listen, you won’t. You’ll never be ready. Jesus says, “All those who are thirsty, come.” The Lord is moving now.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 6th January 2013