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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (3-3-1996 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Now reached Paul’s second prayer of the epistle.
Preliminary remarks. Our prayer life reveals a lot about us. Reveals what we
really believe, what really concerns us, what we feel people are in need of, and
how intense is our desire. Do we just pray for material needs, or health,
family, problems, travelling safety? Do we rely on the word “bless” to avoid
being specific? Do we realize people’s deepest needs are spiritual, their
relationship with God, spiritual state, Christian walk, realization of God’s
grace?
Paul’s prayer has much to
teach us. Main weight of the prayer is on spiritual needs and condition of these
people. Also very specific requests. Not that they be delivered from difficult
situation and spiritual enemies and problems, but that they will be made
adequate to meet them. This prayer is one of the most profound passages, a great
mountain peak. No other prayer rises higher in Scripture. And to preach on it
merely disturbs the preacher about how much he knows about this in his own heart
and how much is theory. Every preacher must feel inadequate and rebuked by such
a prayer.
Asking God that these Christians
may know deepest spiritual experience of God. And note that his readers were
mainly slaves, mere nobodies, scarcely literate, with none of our social
position and educational advantages. Makes four requests – like four steps up
a ladder, or four parts to a telescope – one request leading to the next.
Inner man to have strength to lead them to deeper experience of Christ, so that
they will grasp immensity of God’s love. Leading to supreme experience of
being filled with God’s fullness.
Strength, depth, grasping,
fullness. Today going to look at first two requests. To have a deeper experience
of the Lord involves (i) preparation for experience, (ii) the experience itself,
and (iii) the means whereby it may be known. Degrees and gradations of the
Christian life. Great ocean in which a child can paddle and depths can totally
submerge great ocean liner. John refers to little children, fathers, young men,
in spiritual terms as well as physical (1 John 2:12-14). Spurgeon said, “There
is a point in grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary
Christian is above the worldling.” I.e. there is a stage in the Christian’s
development which is as much above the ordinary Christian as he is above the
worldling. There are higher reaches of Christian life, which ordinary Christians
do not know. Content to be saved, forgiven, belong to God, have His help and
support. But there is much more to it than that.
The challenge is – do we know about this and do we want this so that we go deeper, much deeper than we are at present?
I pray that out of his
glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your
inner being (Ephesians 3:16). Prayer that the Holy Spirit would do something
in inner man. The inner man is the part of the personality which is alive to
God. Referring to heart and soul and spirit of man who belongs to Christ.
Something which non-Christian lacks. No spiritual life. Whole life is bound up
with the world you can see and hear and handle. Life is confined to this body
and relationships with others. Nothing which responds to God and spiritual
things. Lives only in one realm. Depends on circumstances. The Christian has a
new life, is a new man and inner man, and this is what is renewed daily even
when outer man is perishing.
Now if we are to be taken deeper
into experience and knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit must work in inner man on
new life and strengthen it. Sometimes our spiritual life is weak, we are
oppressed by doubts. Not trusting God, we wonder what He will do to us and with
us and in us if we give Him complete control. We trust God for eternity, but not
for time. Sometimes we feel dissatisfied with our present experience and
spiritual level. Often oppressed by evil thoughts insinuated into our minds by
the devil. Our will needs strengthening for it is feeble and irresolute. Our
faith is feeble and our will is stubborn. Need to be brought to the end of
ourselves. So there is the need for the Holy Spirit to constantly work in the
inner man and spiritual life.
Not talking about something we
have to work up or manufacture, but something which the Spirit must do in us,
and do it abundantly and fully, according to His riches in glory. N.B.
kata to ploutos “according to”, not “out of”. You could ask a
millionaire for a gift, he would be giving “out of” his riches, even if he
only gave ten pence. But if he was giving “according to” his riches, we
could rightly expect a lot more. So we can expect the Holy Spirit to work
abundantly, powerfully, effectively in our spiritual life. Do we ever pray for
that for ourselves or for others?
By the Spirit we believe we have new life, but the Holy Spirit has not finished with us. He has plenty more work to do in our lives. His work is to strengthen us spiritually for deeper blessing.
So that Christ may dwell in
your hearts (Ephesians 3:17). Here is the cause of the problem. Christ
dwells in the heart, it is the mark of the Christian. Many can even give the
date He took up residence there. But there are degrees of Christ’s indwelling.
Christ dwells at different levels. In some, He is on the threshold, or the
entrance hall. He is in the life – just! katoikew
- Dwell. Settle down, be at home in the heart. Permanent residence.
Master in the home, not a lodger. The host, not the guest. He wants to Lord and
Master, to take control, to do with us as He wills.
Bishop Taylor Smith was
visiting, and the hostess asked him to make himself at home. “Do you mean
that?”, “Of course”. He said that the first thing he would do with an
invitation like that was to kiss the lady of the house – and this may not be
well received! And the second thing he would want to do was go and look inside
every door – which would definitely not be well received!
If Christ is in control, if He
is Master, He looks behind every door. He has authority over the heart, i.e. the
very centre of the personality. He rules and reigns in the life, enthroned. Not
a surface relationship but a deep one. Not given a place in the heart,
but given the place.
Presides over all, permeates all and possesses all.
Some versions of the hymn “Abide with me” contain the verse which concludes
“Come not to sojourn, but abide with
me”
Other passages teach the same
thing. Revelation 3:20 is often used evangelistically. A helpful picture to
illustrate the way Christ enters the life. But N.B. the original meaning was for
Christians, the church at Laodicea. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with
me. This is about entering more deeply, and the result is deeper fellowship.
I too will love him and show
myself to him….. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our
home with him (John 14:21,23). These words were addressed to obedient
believers. Shows there are levels of intimacy and fellowship and reality to
which many believers are strangers. Christ is in their life as Saviour and Lord,
they have eternal life, but Christ has not fully manifest Himself, the Lord is
held at a distance, not close or real. Such Christians are not strong, and the
Lord is often just a name and not a reality.
Hudson Taylor daily prayed a verse that began,
“Lord Jesus, make thyself to me
A
living, bright reality”
If Christ is at home in the heart, in the centre of the heart, occupying the place, in conscious fellowship and enjoyment, He manifests Himself, He is real and actual. Not a vague influence or memory. Many down the centuries have for years believed in Him, had assurance of salvation and peace of soul, and thought that was all. Then discovered something more and vaster and greater than they realized. Christ manifested Himself in a deeper way. Texts like Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20), God revealed his son in me (Galatians 1:16), I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13), have taken on new and real meaning. Also hymns have come to life:
“Jesus
thou joy of loving hearts,
Thou
fount of life, thou light of men.”
“Jesus
the very thought of thee
With
sweetness fills my breast”
“Thou,
O Christ, art all I want.
More
than all in thee I find.”
“Jesus,
my all in all thou art”
Do we really share the hymn-writers feelings as we sing
these words? Do they reflect our experience? Is this what Christ means to us?
This is what people feel when Christ has taken up permanent residence in the
life, has manifested Himself and become the centre of the personality. C.f.
Samuel Rutherford’s experience of Christ recorded in his Letters from Aberdeen
jail; the words of Count Zinzendorf “I have one passion. It is Christ and
Christ alone.”
It is possible to be a Christian
but not to share these sentiments, because Christ has not settled down in the
life and heart, does not dominate and rule the life. It is not just an
experience saved for exceptional people. Ephesians was written for very ordinary
church members, and very ordinary people down the centuries have been able to
sing these hymns with complete honesty and truthfulness.
There is so much we skim over and rush through, because we fill our lives with good instead of filling our lives with the best. One day we shall realize this, when we see Him face to face – how much more He could have meant to us and what possibilities we have never realized because we have not concerned ourselves with them.
Dwell in your hearts by faith
(Ephesians 3:17). Not talking about something to be worked up within self, or
act of blind faith hoping for the best. Not sitting down passively hoping
something will turn up. Something to be actively sought with all the heart.
Involving hungering and thirsting for this. Concerned to have it. Feel we can
have no peace till it is ours. To desire Christ in the heart – willing to part
with everything which grieves and offends him.
What fellowship can light
have with darkness? …I will live with them and walk among them…. Therefore
come out from them and be separate (2 Corinthians 6:14, 16, 17). Do not
love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Read the Bible. Meditate and
consider passages about Christ’s indwelling. Read life stories of men of God
who sought God for all He had for them. Read hymns (try a section about “Union
with Christ”, “Fellowship with God”). Have you an appetite for these
things?
Then there is another enemy to
be dealt with. While “I” am on the throne, He cannot be. Therefore “I”
has to abdicate. There is a throne and a cross in every life. While I am on the
throne, Christ is on the cross. But if I am on the cross, Christ is on the
throne. Jesus spoke of denying self (Matthew 16:24). Paul spoke of crucifying
the flesh i.e. the self (Galatians
5:24). Seek Him earnestly in prayer with this disposition, that He will not let
you go. Keep seeking till you find Him and enthrone Him. He has promised, Whoever
comes to me I will never drive away (John 6:37).
These things are quite impossible to do on our own. Hence need for being strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man. When we long for Him above all else, and are prepared to pay any price as long as we have Him in all His fullness, while we are hungry and desperate for Him, then we will find Him and He becomes all in all to us.
There are possibilities of
experiences of God you know nothing about yet. Forgiveness is but the beginning.
There is so much more. We need not be content with bare minimum. It is possible
to be truly Christian, but not fully Christian, to be a Christian but without
conscious fellowship with Christ. We should seek to not only know Christ for
us but Christ in us. This is real , vital New Testament Christianity.
Do not keep Christ in vestibule or in front porch. Do not settle to be in a relationship with Him but not controlled by Him. Take Him into very centre of being, to be all in all to you. How sad to waste our lives. Not for exceptional people or people with plenty of time on their hands. Remember Revelation 3:20 is an invitation for Christians.
