Well, our record of Paul's prayer here in Ephesians chapter 3 beginning at verse 14 is likened by some to something of a prayer ladder. The first level of the prayer begins there in verse 16, that we would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man. And then there is an advance higher that we would comprehend the vast dimensions of Christ's love, and that's our focus this evening. And then later on in verse 19, to be filled with God's fullness. And for us, to comprehend Christ's love is like us trying to comprehend the size of the Pacific Ocean. to be able, you and I, to be able to calculate something of the span, the square miles that would cover the Pacific Ocean, to take into account the depth of the Marianas Trench. To do those calculations, we will sooner be able to tell someone exactly how much water is in the Pacific Ocean, then we will be able to tell someone what are the precise dimensions of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ that he has shown for us as believers. Well, if you have your handout sheet before you and you care to use it, notice with me, Roman numeral one, the Believers Foundation. the believer's foundation in personal love. If we are going to rightly estimate Christ's love, we need to have something of this love ourselves. See how it is worded there in verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. We need to be rooted and grounded in love. What is the identity of this love? Well, it's the agape love that believers demonstrate for God, for one another, that is based on God's agape love to us. Agape love is that distinctive Christian love. That love where we desire and do the very best for another person in the name of Christ. In the words of one, this love is a selfless giving. Always selfless and always giving. When it comes to this love, it is this willingness to give of ourselves. Jesus did not say greater love has no one than to have warm feelings for his friends. But what he said was greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. Now this love that we are to experience, does not originate in ourselves. We love him because he first loved us. This love that we have, being willing to give of ourselves for others, is a reflection of the family likeness. Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So Roman numeral one, the believer's foundation, A, the identity, and now B, the stability from the two figures of love. We are told in the latter part of verse 17 that we're to be rooted and grounded. So there are two figures here. And the first figure comes from the botanical world. It's a tree that is rooted in love. So if we think of some large oak tree with its massive roots going down into love, it is firmly fixed there. If we change and follow the figure of the Apostle Paul, being rooted and grounded in love. And now it is an architectural figure. And he's talking about the foundation for a building. It is that having been grounded, your foundation is that on Christian love. So here, secondly, be the stability. Whether we're talking about the tree or we're talking about some massive building, we're talking about those roots that hold this firm, that foundation that does not shift around. Thirdly, the significance for comprehending Christ's love. We're going to come in verse 18 and then particularly in verse 19 to focus on the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, that love which is hard for anyone to comprehend. But what Paul is saying here in verse 17 is that you've got to be one to know one. You've got to have something of God working in you and working this love in you for you to appreciate something of the love of the Lord Jesus. And if you have not been fundamentally changed, into a person that is other-oriented, then it will be hard, if not impossible, for you to appreciate the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. One has written, the loveless life is the ungodly life. And the godly life is the serving, caring, tender-hearted, affectionate, self-giving, self-sacrificing life of Christ's love working through the believer. So there we have, Roman numeral one, the believer's foundation in personal love before we can appreciate what Christ has done in love. We need to have some experience of love ourselves. Then, Roman numeral two, the believer's comprehension. The believer's comprehension of Christ's vast love. Notice with me, now we're looking at verse 18. This is A, the essential goal. The essential goal of comprehending Christ's love. that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and if we jump ahead into verse 19, that we would be able to know the dimensions of the love of the Lord Jesus. So Paul feels that we need to know whoever we are, if we are a believer who's been a Christian for one year, or we are a believer who's been a Christian for 20 or 50 or 80 years, we need to know more about Christ's love. And this is that goal that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what are the dimensions of this. Jesus humbled himself, came from heaven, became a man. It was a humiliation for the Lord Jesus Christ where he took his true deity and joined to it true humanity. It is humiliation by addition, God joining humanity to himself. Thus the most powerful and blessed chain reaction in the whole universe is established. And it's the chain reaction where God the Father is loving us, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God loves us, we are brought to faith in Christ, we begin to have something of this agape love, and now Paul is saying we need to look to Christ and seek to comprehend how great His love for us is. Secondly B, the necessary strengthening, the necessary strengthening. The words there in our English text, something like may be able to comprehend, may be able is a word that speaks of having enough strength. So once again, Paul is mindful that we are going to need some sort of divine enabling for us to take in this measurement, this calculation of how vast the love of the Lord Jesus is. You and I cannot do that on our own. And then come with me thirdly to see the vast dimensions, the vast dimensions discovered in comprehending Christ's love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height." Well, I think that depth and height might be the same measurement. But again, the precise point is not that we're able to come up with a precise calculation. Well, Christ's love is about this wide, and it's about this dimension, this way in depth, and it's got this height to it. No, it's like the Pacific Ocean. were to get a sense of the vastness of the love of the Lord Jesus. Could Abraham really count the stars in the heavens and know how many descendants should come from him? Can Abraham really count the sands of the seashore and comprehend this? But let's grab from sea the vast dimensions discovered in comprehending Christ's love. If Jesus Christ had been unwilling to come, if Jesus would just turn his back and not even focus on us, I don't know that we could really blame him. that he should humble himself for getting what? Sinners brought to himself? You and I, because of our violations against God, could rightly be suffering in the damnations of hell even now. But instead of that, we have the prospect of our sins being forgiven and being in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. The vast dimensions of Christ's love. Fourthly, D, the fellow participants, the fellow participants, verse 18 again, may be able to comprehend with all the saints. What is the width and length and depth and height? The assumed context of our growth in grace is with other believers. And we don't have to read very long in the New Testament to find out that the assumed context of believers growing together in grace is in the context of a local church. We can't grow properly. unless we are tied in with other believers in the church. An individual believer in isolation is going to miss out on certain aspects of the Christian life. Psalm 66 and verse 16 reads, come in here, all you who fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul. You and I need the local church, You and I need our own local church where the Lord has placed us for our mutual growth. Well, I've been trying to cover these first couple of points more quickly. Roman numeral one, the believer's personal foundation. We need to have love ourselves in order to appreciate Christ's self-giving love. And then secondly, we've seen something of the believer's comprehension of Christ's love. And now come with me to Roman numeral three, the believer's knowledge of Christ's unknowable love. the believer's knowledge of Christ's unknowable love. And here we're looking at verse 19. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. And you'll say, well, your heading doesn't make much sense. To have as a goal to have a knowledge of Christ's unknowable love, Well, it's not my mistake and it's not Paul's mistake. It's no one's mistake. God the Holy Spirit is giving us this language to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. I want you to know that which in a sense you cannot know. You will not be able to measure it. We're back to the Pacific Ocean. will sooner have the dimensions of the ocean in its depth and height and width than we will be able to know the love of Christ. Nonetheless, A. The essential goal here is of an experiential knowledge. The goal of an experiential knowledge. The term for the know is one that points to our experience of it. Acquiring knowledge and experiential knowledge. The great object of this knowing is the love of Christ. It's underscored for us in Galatians 2. Galatians 2 verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And it's a good thing as we come to the Lord's Supper this evening to take some time to remember our Lord's death, That is simply to say for us to try to know something of the love of Christ that is passing knowledge. Jesus loved me from eternity. Jesus took on true humanity for me. Jesus hungered and thirsted for me. Jesus endured the crown of thorns on his head and the spittle on his face for me. Jesus bled on the cross for me. Jesus was willing to have his body taken down off the cross and put into a tomb. You remember how he told the disciples this before him, three different times. The son of man is going to be crucified, he's going to die, and he's going to be raised again from the dead. Jesus endured it all for the joy that was set before him. the joy of having believers drawn to himself. There's the essential goal. I want to know something of that love that is hard for me to know. Secondly, B, the incomprehensibility of Christ's love. If we've got a goal of knowing, now we want to look at those words, passes knowledge. This is a word that speaks of incomprehensibility. It is a word that is to throw beyond. What we want to know is a knowledge that is thrown beyond us. We can't reach it. You can't fully know the love of Christ. Ephesians 1 and verse 19, Paul writes of what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us. Talking about when God raised us from the dead, there was omnipotence at work. Well, how much power was it? Well, it was beyond comprehension. It was immeasurable. And this love is an immeasurable love. It passes knowledge. One has written, the very fact that our Lord's love expressed itself in his willingness to die on behalf of sinners is in itself beyond one's comprehension. Why would he do it? No matter how much knowledge we have of Christ and his work, his love surpasses knowledge. The more we know of his love, the more we are amazed by it. Well, and as we close this evening, see closing applications, this is how we ought to pray for one another. It's not simply for one another's big toe to heal, but it is that we would be strengthened in the inner man. That's the first petition there, verse 16. Then 17 and 18, that we would be able to comprehend the size of Christ's self-giving love. And then that we would be, and a part of that along with it, is to know this love of Christ that is beyond knowing, and then Later on, there'll be that petition that we would be filled with the fullness of God. One way that we advance our experience of Christ's love is for you and I as believers to be here this evening to celebrate together that ordinance which the Lord Jesus has given to the church, that we would remember our Lord's death in these frequent and yet periodic opportunities, focusing on what the Lord Jesus has done for us. And if we will do this, if we will remember our Lord's death regularly as we focus on the truths of the scripture, then it will help us to experience more of Christ's incomprehensible love for us. Secondly, Paul assumes that we need a greater knowledge of the love of Christ. And there is, in the book of Ephesians, this dominant emphasis on in Christ, our union with Christ. What is it there in that first long paragraph, verses chapter one, three to 14, there are 11 times We are united to Christ. We are in Christ. And then this theme comes out 38 times in the six short chapters of the book of Ephesians. It is a dominant theme. And you and I, as we think, all right, I'm in Christ. That's a good thing for us to focus on. It's a better thing for us to focus. I am in Christ. And how did I get into Christ? It is only through the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus, He dies on the cross. We come, we give Him our sin, He gives us His perfect righteousness, and we are united to Him. It's not just by your native ability that you know these things. God must strengthen you. God must help each of us. We need to reflect on this love. Where would I be apart from Christ? If Jesus had not saved me five years ago, two years ago, 50 years ago, if Christ did not save me, then humanly speaking, these are the kinds of sins that would dominate my life right now. And if we're honest with ourselves, it's not a very pretty picture. Some of us would likely be dead and already suffering in hell. But Romans 5 and verse 8 underscores that God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How did Christ show his love to me last month? Well, whatever particular sins you committed last month, if you've gone to God and asked him to forgive you, and he's forgiven you, then there is tremendous love that is shown in that. For our Lord Jesus, existing there in heaven, ever living to intercede for his own, And perhaps a key way as we come to the table of remembrance, the more we think on Christ's love. And if we have this sense that the love of Christ is so vast, it's like the Pacific Ocean. That's how great his love is towards me. I'm on a task of trying to know that which cannot be known. I'm trying to measure and know the love of Christ that is beyond measurement, that is beyond knowing. And I trust that it will have the practical impact in all of our lives that we will think more and more like Joseph of old there in Egypt. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God." Well, let's pray. Father, we do thank You for Your Scriptures. We thank You for these themes, these Even this evening, reflecting back on our union with Christ as believers, though we are natively selfish, you come and you tell us that if we will repent, we may be forgiven and we may be united to your Son, the Lord Jesus. And we thank you for this great privilege. And we pray, oh God, that you would stir us to have a sense of how poorly we measure the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. We tend to be so self-centered. Well, of course Jesus came and lived and died and was buried and was raised again from the dead. We tend to look at this from a very selfish and very self-centered perspective, but we pray, Lord, that you would give us this night a sense of our privilege of being loved by the Lord of glory, who did not consider equality with God a thing that had to be held on to. but he humbled himself to become a man and humbled himself to that shameful death on the Roman cross. Lord, we pray that you'll work in our hearts and help each one of us to understand something of the importance of the love of the Lord Jesus. And we pray that for those who are believers and come to the Lord's table. We pray our God that this would be a meaningful participation and that this would be a sanctifying influence as we reflect back on what Christ has done for us in love and as we commit ourselves afresh to walk in the way of the new covenant. We pray these things in Christ's name.