Think of some great things. Great feats. Great accomplishments. Today we are blasting past the extreme limits of true greatness, and on into the uber/hyper.
"For this reason...", Paul says. Why? For what reason? “You also believed…” [v13] And I heard that you believed, Paul says. Which is one reason why we think Paul is writing more of a circular letter, to people he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know them, but he knows they are following Christ.
But how does he know this? Because I heard that you believed, he says - that you have faith in the Lord Jesus - AND that you love the saints. This is the proof of the pudding. You want to know if somebody believes, has really put their trust in Jesus? Look for love for all the saints. It’s not about attendance. Showing up at a building once a week. It’s about putting your faith into action for the benefit of other believers. Love for one another is the litmus test of our faith. Love surpasses greatness. And Paul is thinking of love in community, love focused towards a local assembly. If you are a believer in Christ, He has given you gifts which He expects you to use on behalf of building up the church - and we will unpack this in chapter 4. For now, Paul simply says, all the saints. All the saints. Each one of us needs to take a good look in the mirror of our own faith and ask, how am I doing at loving all the saints? Even those who are hard to love? Is there real care and concern for the people of God? It’s not about attendance. It’s not about a program. It’s not about service. It’s about the people. It’s not even about gifts - the gifts are given to benefit the people. And what we’re after is not numbers. It’s not having a slicker program so that we can attract more people. It’s not more people. It’s more love. And I’m not saying that we don’t strive for excellence in our programs and the like. And it’s not that we don’t want more people to be following Christ. Of course we want that. That’s what the Lord wants as well. He wants people to be following Christ, by all means, yes. But the goal of all we are doing is not filling seats. The goal is love. Paul knows they believe, not because they say they believe, or cuz they go to church, but because they love. The greatest of these is love. Surpassing, uber greatness. Loving God with all our heart. Loving one another, as well as our neighbors. To the praise of His glory.
But because you are believers, Paul says, I am praying for you. In fact, once I understood that you believed, I have not ceased to pray for you. Giving thanks for you. Mentioning you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul is praying for them. Giving thanks for them. And asking God to do something. Let’s not miss Paul’s priority of prayer. Look at verse 16. Think about how we could describe Paul’s prayer life. These are people who Paul hasn’t even met. And he’s praying for them. Praying for them a lot! Of all the things we can do for someone, surely one of the best things - if not THE best - we can do for someone - is pray. That person you’re angry with? You need to be praying for them. [Prayer —> Love ; Prayer ≠ Anger]
Note Who he is praying to. To Whom. To God the Father. The Father of glory [think about THAT for a moment]. Prayer surpasses greatness, because God surpasses greatness.
But look at what Paul is asking. Wisdom and revelation in knowing God. For the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened. This is how we know that Paul knows that these things about which he is writing are truly unfathomable. They are really hard to understand. Mind-blowing. So Paul is asking God to help these believers know what? Know Him, the surpassingly great unfathomable God. Know the hope of God’s calling. Know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance. And know how great His power is toward us who believe. Shining the light on these things. We’re talking about clarity. The root of the word “enlighten” here gives us the word for sound/voice as well as the word for light - both of which are vital to understanding. Have you ever tried watching a movie or tv show with the sound off? Or have you ever tried walking in the dark? Turn on the sound, turn on the light - that’s what Paul has in mind as he is praying here. Lord - turn up the sound and turn up the lights in the hearts of your people.
But I think the operative phrase here is, ‘knowledge of Him”. Full knowledge - that’s the word in the Greek. Full knowledge of our heavenly Father, this glorious Father of glory. This One Who made all things and Who works all things and Who fills all in all things. The surpassing value, the surpassing greatness of knowing Him, Paul says in Philippians. Better by far and then some than anything else. Paul himself had chosen to take everything in life and subjugate it to the greater goal of knowing the Lord, this God of glory. Breathtaking goodness. And how does one go about getting to know someone? How do we get to know someone? Spend time with them. Watch them in action. Communicate with them - talk to them, listen to them, back and forth. It takes time, and you’ve got to be intentional. You’ve got to deliberately set aside time to spend with them. Because life moves pretty fast. And the busy-ness of living tends to create and perpetuate separation in relationships, rather than connection. Full knowledge of Him, Paul says. Wisdom and revelation - which means obviously God plays a huge part in this relationship. He is the source of wisdom. He needs to reveal to us what He is like, what He wants, what He is doing. Open our eyes to surpassing greatness.
Colossians 1:9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…
But we need to be intentional, we need to do what we can to put ourselves in positions to be able to get glimpses of glory. We need to turn aside…
Exodus 3:1-4 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I MUST TURN ASIDE now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
I wonder, how long had that bush been burning there on that mountain of God? The one which later is called Sinai? I wonder how many times Moses might have simply hurried past the place, nose to the grindstone, nose in his business, working real hard, busy, busy, busy. The busy-ness of life, just tryin to make a livin’ and doin the best I can, right?
I wonder if the key ingredient here was Moses’ finally turning aside? So often I think we can miss out on glimpses of glory, surpassing greatness, cuz we’re in such a hurry to take care of our own business? So distracted and bothered with our preparations? Just like Martha? The Lord of the universe had shown up, was seated in her living room, and she was missing it!
Sometimes He shows up in our living room. Sometimes we’ve got to turn aside, put ourselves out there. Literally. We’ve got to plan to actually put ourselves in the way of trying to get a glimpse of God’s glory. Like Zaccheus - Jesus was walking by. And he made sure he got to a place where he had the chance to get a glimpse of glory, the Prince of Glory walking by…
It was some years ago, after studying through this passage, that I decided our family needed to be more intentional about pursuing glimpses of glory. Glimpses of glory in this life - which will enlighten our heart as to the incomparable glory to be found in the next. Where are you looking for glimpses of glory? We like to go to the beach to get our vacation on. And to be sure, there is great fun and beauty to be enjoyed at the beach. But I had us begin going to the tops of mountains. We’ve gone to the bottom of Niagara Falls. The point is, there is breathtaking beauty and awesome power to behold in this life which gives us an inkling of what is waiting for us in the next. Where are we looking? Are we even looking? Full knowledge of Him. Glimpses of glory, of surpassing greatness. Where are we looking?
Obviously God’s Word is the best place to start. God’s concrete, inerrant revelation about Himself to His people. Spending time with Him in His Word. Taking/making the time to immerse ourselves in it. With a pen and paper - or some means of notetaking. Write down what you see, what He shows you about Himself. Keep a journal - the original selfie. The God of glory, surpassing greatness could show up in your [living] room this very day… Don't forget to include spending time with God's people, those who know Him. Family time. Know Him.
Know the hope of His calling. It is living, constant and sure. Indescribable! God has called us into His forever family, into a relationship with Him. And there is nothing in this world or anywhere that can even come close. Nothing, no thing, no one can compare. Incomparable. Unfathomable. We have no idea how wonderful. How glorious. How surpassingly great. So much better than anything we could ever hope for in this life. He is better. Paul wants these believers - and us - to get a better understanding of what it will be like to finally be home. For most of us, yes we hope to go to heaven. We desire and expect to be there when we put our trust in Jesus. But we really have no idea how surpassingly great it is actually going to be. Talk about getting your money’s worth. Have you ever been disappointed with how something turned out? A new movie? Or a concert? A new restaurant? A new toy or smartphone? You hoped it would be great, but it let you down. Well, no chance of that happening here…
Our hope is not like the hope of the world - uncertain, temporary, false, dead, destined to disappoint. Our hope is certain, it is real, it is alive and abiding, and it is a game-changer. It - heaven - will be magnificent, stunning beyond belief, truly unimaginable - which is why we need God to reveal how awesome and sure our hope is. If we could only get a real glimpse of this - mind blown. Because again, our hope, this hope of heaven, is Him. He is our hope. He is heaven, our heavenly Treasure. He is the Magnificent One, unimaginably stunning beyond belief. For the God of glory to reveal to us what is the hope of His calling is to reveal to us Himself. Because our hope of heaven is to be with Him, forever, in the very presence of glorious Glory. He is the the destination, the home for our hearts. Surpassing greatness.
But wait - there’s more! Paul wants us to know what are the glorious riches of His inheritance in the saints. We’ve already looked at this. God adopting us into His family, becoming His heirs - there is no earthly equivalent. Nothing which can even come close. Anything you could ever hope to inherit in this life - it could get lost, stolen, broken, scratched, breathed on wrong. And no matter how large the earthly inheritance, it could never ever fill the gaping hole in our hearts. The infinite abyss. But what do the saints in heaven inherit?
Our inheritance in heaven in Christ is inexhaustible, infinite, eternal and eternally satisfying, and it is so not because of where we will be or what we get but rather Who we get. We get the God of glory. HE is inexhaustible, eternal, and He alone is so eternally satisfying, breathtakingly good - we have no idea. We just don’t get it - we can’t really this side of heaven. God, turn up the lights. Turn up the sound. It has nothing to do with us or how special we are. It is all about God. Which is exactly why Paul is praying for this. Getting a real good glimpse of the untold glory that is this God Who is calling us into His presence forever will rock our world. Surpassing greatness. Know Him. Know hope. Know true riches.
AND know the surpassing greatness of God’s great power. So how great is that, exactly? How much power are we talking about? Try coming up with an adjective to describe it. Limitless. Inexhaustible. Unfathomable. Almighty. The mighty muscle of God’s omnipotence. It is the same power which created and sustains the universe, this One Who made everything out of nothing and for Whom no thing is impossible. The Greek word is where we get our word dynamite. Dynamite. Explosive. We’re talking about the same explosive Power that flung out and fuels a billion trillion stars in each of which a hundred million nuclear bombs are exploding every second of every day - that same Power lives and works in and through you and me, surpassingly great, so far beyond anything on earth, defying explanation and description. Paul has seen this power at work in and through his own life, power to work miracles, power to heal, to overcome, to serve, to forgive, to persevere, power unleashed through prayer. And God is directing this mind-blowing power toward us who believe. IN us. He lives inside us. Which is why Paul is praying now. Prayer in fact is that slender nerve which moves the mighty muscle of God’s omnipotence. Surpassing greatness.
Paul says it is the same power God worked in Christ when He raised Him up out of the grave. Now, how much power was that? How much power is required to take something that is dead, and make it alive? We’re not talking resuscitation, where someone’s heart has stopped beating for like a minute. We’re talking dead-as-a-doornail dead. Polly-the-parrot-pushing-up-the-daisies dead. This is resurrection.
And God not only raised Jesus up out of the grave, He seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. [the same place where all our spiritual blessings are found - because they are in Christ!] And no power, not any authority even comes close to Jesus. Far above. Far above, Paul says. There is no one higher, no one greater, no one ever. No one who has ever lived or ever will live, is greater than Jesus. God put all things in subjection under His feet. And He is now the head of the church. Surpassing greatness.
Which has a couple of implications for us. Jesus said, if you ask anything in My Name, what?
John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Jesus’ language concerning prayer is always limitless. In His name… But second, He said, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me, so go therefore and…” do what?
Matthew 28.18-19
Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”
Greater works. Answered prayer. Disciple all the nations. Love. This is not just about a little dose of Jesus, just enough to get me some fire insurance and make me happy. There is so much more to this life than just a little dab’ll do ya, 18 in of pew once a week, and rubbing my Jesus lamp every once in a while when I’m in a pinch. We’re talking about the fate of billions of lost souls, people who God so loves. Blessing the nations. Eternity. The glory of the King of kings, making Him supremely famous to the ends of the earth - starting in my own heart. Famous in MY heart. The stakes are so much higher than just me and Jesus, me and my stuff.
Paul says, Jesus is the head of the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. Together, we are the fullness of Jesus. All that Jesus wants to pour out in the world - His love, His blessings, His grace, His goodness, His power - He has filled us up with that. And His intent is for us to overflow that to our Jerusalem. To our Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We are repositories, yes, AND we are conduits. He wants to so fill us up that we become channels of His surpassing greatness to all those around. You and I are God’s conduits, this week. And we will see this unpacked in ch 4, but suffice it to say - two are 200% better than one. Paul says the church, the assembly of believers, is the fullness of Jesus. What we do in unison, in unity, in love - striving together for the sake of the Gospel - has a far greater impact than our collective individual efforts. Both in our own lives and in the mission. Surpassing greatness...
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