October 25, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 3:14-20

SERMON TITLE: Dimensions

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  1. For a lot of people life is something which just happens
    1. Experiences come and go.
    2. Individuals remain the same
      1. They have their beliefs
      2. They have their view of the world.
  2. This kind of life could be illustrated by the Truman Show, Paramount Pictures, starring Jim Carey, opened June 5, 1998
    1. I have not seen the movie, I have only read descriptions and reviews.
    2. Twenty-nine years ago, a baby boy was adopted by the OmniCam Corporation to become the subject of the most popular television show of all time. His name is Truman Burbank.
    3. The whole world was watching the Truman Show 24 hours a day.
    4. TV executive Christof created a complete world for the unknowing Truman, the first person ever adopted by a corporation (OmniCam)
    5. Every day of his life, since he was a fetus in fact, Truman has been on-camera and on stage, a prisoner in paradise.
    6. His nights end, his days begin, not when the world turns on its axis or a Russian-made reflective satellite gleams a little light his way.
    7. For Truman, an insurance salesman, all of life is literally a stage.
    8. For the 10,909 days he's been on the air (that is, three decades), Truman's days have begun when Christof declares, "Cue the sun."
    9. But Truman's picture-postcard-perfect life, his too perfect world, Sea Haven, is really a zoo.
      1. His perfect wife/perfect mother/perfect best friend/perfect city are all elaborate fakes.
      2. Actors, props, sets and scripts are the only reality.

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    10. But Truman doesn't know that.
    11. Truman's whole life is two-inches deep. It is appearances only; just surfaces, no depth.
    12. But he IS the center of that universe.
    13. Without the aid of a carefully cued sun or a practiced bird call, Truman finally begins to wake up to the world around him.
    14. The more Truman wakes up to the world around him, the more he sees what is wrong.
      1. And the more awake he becomes, the more the actors around him come unglued and break down.
      2. The more awake he becomes, the more the fake world comes crashing down.
    15. Truman's life is a very shallow one.
      1. There is no height, no length, no breadth, no depth.
      2. His life is one dimensional.
    16. We may believe that it cannot happen in "real life," but it can and does.
  3. For the Christian, life is not something which happens, but that which is created.
    1. There is the recognition that you need a sound foundation.
    2. We have earlier explored Ephesians 2:19-22.
      1. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
      2. [20] built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
      3. [21] In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
      4. [22] in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
    3. We have everything sufficient for creating a productive and lasting life.

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  4. Paul is communicating God's concern for realizing the capacity that we have to accomplish God's purposes in life and in the world.
    1. He prays that "you (we) may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth," (Ephesians 3:18, NRSV)
      1. Breadth and length create one dimension
      2. If you add height you create three dimensions
      3. If you add depth you create a vastly expanded three dimensions.
    2. Paul wants us to know not only the breadth and length and height, but also the depth.
      1. What is meant by this phrase?
      2. Comprehend what?
        1. You would be influenced to say love.
        2. Love belongs to the next section.
        3. Breadth, length, height, and depth of life?
        4. Breadth, length, height, and depth of God?
        5. Breadth, length, height, and depth of salvation?
        6. Of all the above.
  5. We may begin to comprehend the depth if we take the time to analyze what we talk about when we get together?
    1. The weather
    2. Sports
    3. Politics
    4. People and places
    5. If we talk with one another in this way does it also reflect the way in which we approach God?
      1. Pastoring in the 60's I became acutely aware of a serious need.
        1. At that time to join the church I was pasturing, you needed to agree to a 12 point "statement of faith."
        2. People often reflected the belief that once you had accepted it that was all there was.

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  6. We need to understand that there is more, much more.
    1. To comprehend the depth.
    2. Listen again to the words of Paul:
      1. (Ephesians 3:18 NRSV) I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth.
      2. Can we comprehend? YES we can!
    3. The writer to the Hebrews pinpoints a specific need that highlighted a situation among the Christian community in Jerusalem.
      1. (Hebrews 5:12-14 NRSV) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; [13] for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. [14] But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
      2. (Hebrews 6:1-3 NRSV) Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, [2] instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. [3] And we will do this, if God permits (allows).
    4. Will God allow? YES!
      1. What is it that God wants.
      2. God desires multidimensional people.

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  7. God provides for our growth.
    1. Jesus said in Mark 4:5-6 "Listen! A sower went out to sow.[5] Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. [6] And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away.
      1. We have the sower and the seed.
        1. The sower is Jesus Christ
        2. The seed is his teachings.
    2. We have the capacity to create not only length and height and breadth to life, but also depth.

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  8. If we will use what God has provided to create a life with height and breadth with length and depth we will find that life is good.
    1. We can be like the beggar that Tauler of Strasbourg met one day.
    2. J. Ellsworth Kalas in The Ten Commandments: From the Back Side reports a story of Tauler of Strasbourg(1)
    3. He is remembered as a great 14th century saint and mystic.
    4. One day he learned a lesson from an anonymous beggar.
    5. "God give you a good day, my friend," Tauler said as he met the beggar.
    6. "I thank God I never had a bad day," the beggar quickly answered.
    7. Tauler was silent for a moment, then said, "God give you a happy life, my friend."
    8. And the beggar answered, "I thank God I am never unhappy."
    9. Now Tauler was nonplused. "Never unhappy," he said. "What do you mean?"
    10. "Well," the beggar replied,
      1. "when it is fine, I thank God;
      2. when it rains, I thank God;
      3. when I have plenty, I thank God;
      4. when I am hungry, I thank God; and
      5. since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I say that I am unhappy when I am not?"
    11. Tauler was now in awe of his new friend. "Who are you?" he asked.
    12. "I am a king," said the beggar.
    13. "A king!" said Tauler, half ready to believe it. "Where is your kingdom?"
    14. The man in rags spoke calmly, strongly, "In my heart," he whispered. "In my heart."
  9. Whatever the circumstances of life, we also can have the Kingdom of God in our hearts.
    1. We can live and act as Kings and Queens.
    2. It is better than being a beggar.

1. J. Ellsworth Kalas, The Ten Commandments: From the Back Side (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 106-107.

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