Ephesians 3:20-21: The Vision of Our Church

Ephesians 3:20-21: The Vision of Our Church

In light of the fact that this is our Recovenanting Sunday, we’ll be temporarily pausing our journey through Galatians and looking instead at Ephesians 3:20-21. It says,

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our paths. Shine your light brightly this morning. Help us to see everything we need to see about who you are, what you’ve done, what you promise, what you teach, and what you desire for our lives. Minister to us by your Holy Spirit, for it’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

One of the distinctive features of our church is that we typically like to go passage by passage through books of the Bible. So, right now, we’re going through Galatians. But since this is our Recovenanting Sunday, I thought it’d be good for us to push “pause” on that journey and instead turn our attention to Ephesians 3:20-21. This morning is a great opportunity for us not only to celebrate what God’s done in the past in bringing our church together and blessing us the way he has, it’s also an opportunity for us to take stock of where we are in the present…and even to spend some time considering where God would have us go in the future and what he’d have us focus on.

Because it’s so easy for us to start drifting and diverging from what God’s said a church should be and from what he’s said a church should focus on. And at first, we might only diverge from that by a single degree. But the longer we continue that divergent course, the further away we end up being from where God wants us to be. 

Think about it like this. If an airplane is flying somewhere and is off course by just one degree, that might not seem like a big deal. I mean, if the airplane’s supposed to be going this way and instead goes that way, it certainly doesn’t seem like a big deviation at all. But as the distance the airplane travels increases, that one degree divergence actually makes a pretty significant impact on where the plane ends up. After 100 yards, the plane would be off its target by about 5.2 feet. After a mile, it would be off by 92.2 feet. Then after travelling from San Francisco to Los Angeles, it would be off by 6 miles. And travelling from San Francisco to Washington D.C., it would end up 42.6 miles off course, which is basically not even in Washington DC but instead on the other side of Baltimore.

So, I’m sure you get the idea. The longer that plane continues its divergent course, even if the divergence is just one degree, the farther away it’s going to end up from its intended destination. That’s why we have to make sure our church stays on course and keeps pursuing a biblical vision for what God wants our church to be. Even a one-degree divergence from that biblical vision for what a church should be will eventually have devastating consequences and bring us to a place where we’re no longer being faithful to the Bible at all. So, that’s what I’d like us to consider this morning. How faithfully are we pursuing what God’s called us to pursue? Are there any course corrections we need to make? What specifically do we need to focus on this upcoming year?

And as I thought about what God would have us focus on, one passage in particular kept coming to mind— Ephesians 3:20-21. Paul writes, with reference to God, ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

These verses begin with an incredibly encouraging statement. Paul describes God as “him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” God’s ability to work in and through us is infinitely beyond anything we can comprehend. We serve an awesome God—in the truest and most literal sense of that word. After that, Paul reminds us that all that God does in and through us is “according to the power at work within us.” Amazing things are possible not through our power or our abilities but rather through the power of our Almighty God.

Paul then expresses his all-consuming desire in verse 21: “to him [that is, to God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” For the rest of our time looking at this passage today, I’d like to focus on the first seven of those words: “to him be glory in the church.” “To him be glory in the church.” The entire rest of the sermon is going to be focused on exploring the meaning and implications of those seven words.

So, the main idea of our message today is that the greatest ambition we as a church could ever have is to bring glory to God. Again, the greatest ambition we as a church could ever have is to bring glory to God. That’s the very core of our vision for Redeeming Grace Church. And by the way, bringing glory to God simply means making much of God and seeing God exalted and magnified.

And the reason we should be so passionate about bringing glory to God is because the God of the Bible is supremely worthy of glory. He’s perfect in every way and the epitome of everything good and desirable in this entire universe. And not only is God worthy of glory because of who he is, he’s also worthy of glory because of what he’s done.

In fact, as we read the Bible, we learn that God’s done the things he’s done in order to put his glory on display and to reveal just how worthy he is of being glorified. Perhaps the best place to begin exploring this theme is in God’s act of creation. Everything from the smallest molecule to the most distant galaxy exists because God spoke it into existence. And the more you study the intricacies of God’s creation, the more apparent it is that God created a masterpiece.

The universe in which we live displays in a marvelous and stunning way God’s power and wisdom and goodness and beauty and creativity. Everything from the exquisite beauty of a sunset to the perfect balance of an ecosystem to the sheer immensity of the Milky Way galaxy speaks volumes to us about our glorious God. And the Bible says God designed it to do that. He designed it to display his glory.

Psalm 19:1 states that “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” And not only did God create nature for his glory, he created people in particular for his glory. He states in Isaiah 43:6-7, ⁶ I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, ⁷ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory…

In addition, not only did God create us and the world for his glory, he’s also—ever since then—been continuously working in the world for his glory as well. For example, the Bible highlights God’s special relationship with Israel and tells us that God’s grand purpose in all of his interactions with Israel was to bring glory to himself.  

God did this in an especially notable way when he saved the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt. The psalmist states in Psalm 106:8 that “[God] saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.” Unfortunately, though, the Israelites ended up rebelling against God, resulting in him sending the surrounding nations to conquer them and carry them off into exile. Yet, God tells them through the prophet Ezekiel that he’s going to rescue them from their exile. However, listen to why God says he’s going to rescue them. Ezekiel 36:22-23: ²² “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. ²³ …And the nations will know that I am the Lord….”

And indeed, all of the things God does to care for his people are ultimately done for his own glory. We see this stated in the famous words of Psalm 23:1-3: ¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. ³ He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yet the greatest way in which God gets glory for himself is by rescuing us from our sins. The Bible teaches that we’ve all rebelled against God and therefore deserve to suffer his wrath in hell for all eternity. However, instead of giving us the punishment our sins deserved, God provided a way for us to be saved. He actually sent his own Son Jesus to suffer the penalty for our sins on the cross.

Jesus was God in human flesh and was therefore perfect and pure in every way. Yet, on the cross, Jesus acted as our substitute and suffered the penalty for our sins. He was then triumphantly raised from the dead with the result that everyone who puts their trust in him is forgiven of their sins and receives the free gift of eternal life.

 And once again, the ultimate reason God did this was for his glory. Ephesians 1:11-12 states that ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. And in fact, that phrase “to the praise of his glory” occurs not once but three times in Ephesians 1. Three times, Paul emphasizes that as the ultimate goal of our salvation. And he’s not alone. Peter joins him in teaching this very same truth. In 1 Peter 2:9, he says to his readers, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

In fact, as you look at the storyline of the Bible, it’s apparent that God saving us from our sins is the highest and central way in which he glorifies himself. The greatest way in which God receives glory is by saving his people—whom the Bible calls “the church”—from their sins. I love the way John Calvin says it. He writes, “The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power, but the Church is the orchestra, as it were—the most conspicuous part of it.” Isn’t that good? The whole world is a theater for the display of God’s glory. That’s why God created everything—as a theater to display his glory. But in that theater, the church is the orchestra.

And to bring it back to our main passage, that’s why Paul writes what he does in Ephesians 3:21: “to him be glory in the church.” So, our all-consuming passion as a church should be to glorify God in everything we do. Of course, this begins with the way each one of us lives individually. As Paul states 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Each one of us is called to live a radically God-centered life—in every area of our lives. Notice that word “all”—“do all to the glory of God.” That includes engaging in our jobs for the glory of God, relating to our spouse if we have one for the glory of God, raising our children if we have them for the glory of God, looking after our physical health for the glory of God, spending our money for the glory of God, making the best use of our discretionary time for the glory of God, and of course laboring for the glory of God among those who don’t yet know him by telling them about Jesus.

Yet this idea of God being glorified in the church has massive implications not only for each of us individually but also for our church as a whole. God’s glory shouldn’t just something we put at the beginning of our mission statement on the front of the bulletins each Sunday. It should be the primary focus of our church. And I’ll tell you that we as church leaders are making every effort to ensure that we’re operating in that mentality. As we make decisions about various aspects of our church’s ministry such as what priorities we’re going focus on and how we’re going to approach different things, we’re not primarily asking ourselves what people want or what we think will attract a crowd or make our church popular in the community. Our primary concern isn’t people’s preferences.

You know, this isn’t Dunkin’ Donuts. Now, those of you who know me know that I love Dunkin Donuts. I visit Dunkin Donuts on a regular basis, and I’m so glad they allow consumer demand to drive their decision-making. It’s led them to make some really good coffee and offer that coffee very conveniently. And I hope they continue focusing on me, the consumer, so that I can continue enjoying their coffee. But this isn’t Dunkin Donuts, and we’re not called to be consumer-driven in our approach.

So, we don’t let people’s preferences dictate our approach to things. Instead, our focus is on the glory of God. We want God to look down and be pleased both with our goals and also with our methods. We’re not primarily concerned about whether something “works” or whether it’ll make our church bigger. We want to know, does it glorify God? Does every part of it glorify God? And hopefully that’s the mentality not only of the leaders of our church but of every member of our church.

I once heard a pastor compare the mentality we should have—oddly enough—to a scene from a Looney Tunes episode featuring a small yellow canary named Tweety Bird and a cat named Sylvester that was regularly trying to eat Tweety Bird for lunch. And there’s one scene in particular in which Tweety Bird is walking across a windowsill relatively oblivious to his surroundings. And in the background, two huge eyes belonging to Sylvester are just there watching Tweety Bird as he walks. Is that the mentality we have as we gather here on Sunday mornings? How aware we of the eyes of God upon us? To what extent do we view God as the primary audience of our worship service?

And of course, that mentality should also extend beyond our worship service and affect every aspect of the way we function as a church. Our passion should be for every aspect of our church to bring glory to God.

Yet that leads us to the question of how we can best do that. How might a passion for the glory of God translate into the way we actually “do church” and the kind of church we seek to become and the specific things we pursue as a church? I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time thinking about that, and my thoughts about it today haven’t really changed very much from my thoughts about it when we first started this church. I’m convinced that if our goal really is to glorify God in our church, our focus should be on building a church that’s biblically healthy. That’s what I believe God would have us focus on as a vision for our church—building a church that’s biblically healthy.

Our focus shouldn’t be on becoming a big church or an innovative church or a cool church or a “successful” church—as the world would define success. Instead, our focus should be on being a biblically healthy church.

And I’ll get more specific. Here’s what I believe a biblically healthy church looks like. There are 11 characteristics that I believe mark a biblically healthy church. Of course, time won’t permit me to give much explanation at all about these characteristics, but you can learn a lot more about each of them in our Membership Information Class. And by the way, I have to give credit to a pastor named Mark Dever for bringing a lot of these to my attention about 15 years ago. A biblically healthy church is a church that’s striving to be faithful in the following 11 ways:

First, a biblical view of God. This means that, instead of having a supposed “god” who’s merely the product of our own imaginations, we view God according to what he’s revealed about himself in the pages of the Bible. And God’s shown us that he’s every bit as much a God of holiness and justice and sovereignty as he is a God of love and grace and mercy.

Second, a biblical view of the gospel. Contrary to what many people seem to assume, the gospel isn’t a message that we need to be good people so that God will let us into heaven. Instead, it’s the message of Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins and then rising from the dead so that we also can enjoy eternal life through faith in him. And it’s this gospel message that serves as the driving force behind everything we do.

Then a third characteristic of a biblically healthy church is a biblical view of conversion. If someone genuinely has saving faith, it changes them in a profound way. Even though we’re not saved by good works, good works still function as evidence of our salvation. True conversion is inevitably manifested in a transformed life.

After that, a fourth characteristic is focus on the glory of God, which we’ve already spent quite a bit of time talking about.

Then, number five is expository preaching. This refers to preaching that takes the main idea of a particular passage of the Bible and makes that the main idea of the sermon. The focus of expository preaching is on unpacking the meaning of a specific biblical passage and helping people see how that passage connects to their lives. Essentially, the expository preacher’s goal is to take a Bible and take a microphone and hold that microphone up to the Bible so that God’s words are what people hear.

Next, a sixth characteristic of a biblically healthy church is church membership, which involves people who want to become a part of the church first being interviewed to ensure they have a credible testimony of saving faith and then being asked to make a formal commitment—in the form of a church covenant—to love and relate to the other Christians of that church in clearly defined ways. The goal of church membership is to draw a clear line between the church and the world.

Then, growing out of that is the seventh characteristic, which is church discipline. This is a necessary component of meaningful church membership and involves removing from the church membership rolls any member who brazenly persists in unrepentant sin. Of course, it’s not that they can’t attend the church any longer but simply that they can’t be members of the church. In this way, church discipline preserves the purity of the church and promotes holiness within the church. The church is indeed a hospital for sinners—but not just for any sinners. It’s a hospital for sinners who desire to get better and who are striving to walk in repentance.

After that, number eight is meaningful relationships that spur spiritual growth. In a biblically healthy church, people don’t just anonymously slip in and slip out on Sunday mornings. Instead, they seek to become a part of the relational fabric of that church and strive to build loving and meaningful relationships with others in the church with the understanding that those relationships are the primary context in which spiritual growth takes place. Our church seeks to facilitate these relationships primarily through Community Groups.

Ninth is a godly and faithful team of elders. A biblically healthy church isn’t just a “one-man show” but is instead led by a plurality of godly men who meet the biblical qualifications for the office of elder and who make leadership decisions as a team. They also serve as spiritual shepherds who are responsible to nourish, guide, protect, and care for the members of that church.

After that, number ten is a culture of prayer. Even if we had impeccable theology and had the most gifted leaders and labored night and day in our efforts to build a healthy church, that wouldn’t change the fact that a biblically healthy church is the product not of human efforts but rather of the supernatural power of God. And the only way we can expect God to do anything in and through our church is through our prayers. That’s why we have the Prayer Gathering on the first Wednesday of each month—in addition to other ways we seek to promote a culture of prayer.

 And finally, number eleven is a culture of evangelism. In a biblically healthy church, evangelism—or sharing the gospel—is seen as the job not just of the pastors or staff but of every Christian. God calls every Christian to live as a missionary among their family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Unfortunately, many churches have become so inwardly focused that they basically function as country clubs, but a biblically healthy church has God’s heart for those who are far from him and recognizes that the task of evangelism is the central reason for the church’s continued existence on this earth. The Great Commission is why we’re here.

So, that summarizes what I believe are some of the key characteristics of a biblically healthy church. And if I had more time, I could give you numerous Bible verses for each one of those. So, when Paul expresses a desire in Ephesians 3:21 for God to be glorified in the church, I believe these eleven characteristics are a great summary of the kind of church that most glorifies God. They summarize what a biblically healthy church looks like.

Moreover, not only is this the kind of church that most glorifies God, it’s also the kind of church that produces the kind of Christians who ultimately make the greatest impact for the gospel. Unfortunately, there are many church leaders who don’t give much attention to having a biblically healthy church and who attempt to justify their behavior by saying that their focus is on reaching people outside the church. They speak as though having a biblically healthy church and reaching out to people outside the church are two mutually exclusive goals—and as if pursuing one of these goals takes away from our ability to pursue the other. But I’m convinced that the exact opposite is actually the case and that the most effective way to reach people with the gospel is by striving to build a biblically healthy church.

 Think about it. Who’s more effective in reaching non-Christians with the gospel—healthy Christians who are growing in spiritual maturity and experiencing meaningful transformation through the gospel…or anemic Christians who can’t do much of anything because they’re not being nourished with substantive biblical teaching in the context of a healthy church? You see, the fact is that a church that’s biblically healthy—according to the 11 characteristics I’ve outlined—is much more likely than a church that’s not biblically healthy to produce spiritually mature Christians. And it’s those Christians who will, in turn, be most effective in reaching other people with the gospel.

And if you want an example of what I mean, just think about the early church. How do you think the early Christians went from 120 people in Acts chapter 1 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 million people by the year 300? How did they grow so much in just 300 years? And remember, they were severely persecuted. So, that meant it was impossible for them to have nice church buildings or sizeable church budgets. These Christians had to meet in their homes and at the risk of their lives. Yet the number of Christians exploded in those first few centuries. How did it happen? Well, that’s the question an Oxford historian named Michael Green asks and answers in a book entitled Evangelism in the Early Church. And Green conclusively demonstrates in over 400 pages of material that the secret to their explosive growth wasn’t any particular program or strategy but instead consisted in the kind of lives the early Christians lived.

For example, they loved people with a kind of love that you didn’t find anywhere else in society. In fact, they even loved the very people who were persecuting them. In addition, not only did they possess extraordinary love, they also possessed extraordinary joy—a joy that was even present in the midst of suffering. And they lived lives that were markedly distinct from the world in many other ways as well. And it was the way they lived and the kind of character they exhibited that made such a powerful impact on the non-Christians around them. So, the secret to the early church’s explosive growth wasn’t any particular program or strategy but was instead related to the kind of lives the early Christians lived and, we might say, the caliber of Christians that they were.

And that’s why I believe our focus needs to be on being a biblically healthy church—because that’s the kind of environment that produces the kind of Christians who will make the greatest gospel impact. We may not attract the biggest crowds, but I’m convinced we’ll have the greatest long-term impact if we focus on being a biblically heathy church, according to those eleven characteristics of biblical health I’ve outlined.

So, let me invite you, on this Recovenanting Sunday, to commit yourself afresh and anew to this vision. To state it concisely, our vision is to be a biblically healthy church because that's what we believe most glorifies God and produces the kind of Christians who ultimately make the greatest gospel impact. Again, our vision is to be a biblically healthy church because that's what we believe most glorifies God and produces the kind of Christians who ultimately make the greatest gospel impact.

And I recognize that that is indeed a lofty vision. But let me encourage you with a reminder from Ephesians 3:20 that we serve a God who “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” We may not be able to be all that God wants us to be in our own strength, and that’s okay—because God’s more than able to work in and through our church in ways that are beyond what we can even imagine.