There’s this classic scene in the movie Rush Hour where Jackie Chan gets off a plane and meets Chris Tucker for the first time. Chris Tucker walks up to Jackie Chan and says, “Please tell me you speak English. I’m detective Carter. Do you speak English? Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?”

It’s a classic scene. Most of us have probably mimicked it when trying to get our point across to our kids our spouse or our friends. I know I’ve used it countless times. But all kidding aside, the question that Chris Tucker asks is a question about comprehension. Do you comprehend the words that are coming out of my mouth? Every human being has to wrestle with this question at some point when it comes to the love of Christ.

It might sound like this: Do I really comprehend the love of Christ? Am I growing in my comprehension of the love of Christ? Does the fruit of my life prove that I am growing in my comprehension of the love of Christ? It’s an important question to ask. It’s probably the most important question to ask. And it’s one of the things that Paul prays for in Ephesians 3:14 – 21…

Look at Ephesians 3:14 – 21…

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in Heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of 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.

We’ve been examining these verses for the last six weeks. These verses make up the second prayer that Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus. And as we’ve worked our way through these verses we’ve considered Paul’s posture in prayer as he kneels before the Father of every family in Heaven and on Earth. We looked at the reasons that Paul prayed in light of our identity in Christ. We thought about our source of true spiritual power in the riches of God’s glory. We discussed what it means to have Christ settle down and dwell in our hearts through faith. We examined what it means to be rooted in the love of Christ like a big tall tree with deep roots, strong character and godly fruit. And we studied what it means to be grounded in the love of Christ like a big tall building with a solid foundation.

And now as we move forward, we see Paul continuing to build on everything he’s previously prayed for in relation to us experiencing the love of Christ. Think about your experience of Christ’s love for you. Not Christ’s love for others. Not Christ’s love in a headspace sort of way with bullet points. Not Christ’s love like a cool Sunday school topic.

I want you to think about Christ’s love for you in an experiential sort of a way.

Where were you the first time you experienced Christ’s love? What was happening in your life when you first experienced his love? Now let me ask a different question. When was your most recent experience of Christ’s love? What was that like for you? What did that experience produce in you?

One of the passages of Scripture that’s been on my heart this week as I’ve prayed and studied and written this sermon is a passage from the book of Revelation. The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation and it’s a hard book to read because of all of its fascinating imagery and end-times language.

But nestled into the second chapter is a letter that the Lord instructed John to write to the Ephesian church. Listen to what the Lord says to the Ephesian believers in Revelation 2. He says, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp-stand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” God says, You’ve done good. You’ve been patient. You’ve endured much suffering. You hate evil. But you’ve abandoned your first love and you need to repent.

Think about this letter from John to the Ephesians against the backdrop of the prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians. Paul is praying that they would have the strength to comprehend the love of Christ and then John is warning and rebuking the Ephesians for abandoning the love of Christ. And he’s calling them to repent or face the consequences.

As I was thinking about this it struck me that the Ephesian believers were being rebuked by John because they had forgotten their first love right? In a very real sense they had become spiritually adulterous. One night they appeared to be intimately in love with Jesus and the next night they were in bed with a new lover. How does this happen? How do you go from being someone who appears to be intimately in love with Jesus to being someone who needs to be rebuked and called to repentance for spiritual adultery?

I think there are many answers to this question throughout the Bible. But if I can bring us back to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians three, I think we get a small glimpse of what had possibly happened with the Ephesian believers that warranted such a strong rebuke from John in Revelation. Look at the words of verses 18 – 19 again…

Paul prays that we would “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” The key word here is the word: comprehend.

Comprehend doesn’t just mean to understand or to have knowledge about something. It means to have first hand experience. The reason the Ephesian believers needed to be rebuked by John was because they hadn’t had that first hand experience that Paul prayed for. They may have had head knowledge or a basic understanding of God’s love but they hadn’t experienced the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of the love of Christ personally.

They could spot a spiritual phony a mile away. They hated heretical spiritual cults the same way God hated them. But they were lacking one thing. They had become spiritually adulterous. They loved their thoughts about Christ’s love more than they loved Christ himself. They loved their war against all things culturally evil more than they loved Christ himself.

How can this be? How did they get to this point? The answer is that they hadn’t comprehended or experienced the love of Christ personally. Heaven forbid if this is true of any of us today. This is why this prayer from the apostle Paul is so critical for us.

1: Paul prays that we would have the strength to comprehend the love of Christ…

Do you have the strength to comprehend or experience the love of Christ? Or is this an area of weakness for you? Have you settled for the weak version of Christ’s love as fire insurance that keeps you out of hell? Or are you experiencing a vital and growing experience of Christ’s love as you mature in your relationship with Christ?

As I thought about these questions this week I thought about some of the ways I’ve experienced weakness rather than strength in my experience of Christ’s love. Sometimes the pleasures of this world tempt me to trade in the love of Christ. Sometimes my appetite for sin chokes out my experience of the love of Christ. Sometimes it’s the suffering of this life. Sometimes it’s worry and doubt and despair. And other times it’s my love for learning and knowledge that weakens my ability to experience the love of Christ personally.

But the Scriptures remind me that there is no condemnation for me if I am in Christ Jesus. I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. I am adopted in Christ Jesus. I am priceless in Christ Jesus. I am not an afterthought in Christ Jesus. I am not forgotten. I am not an alien. I am not an outcast. I am loved since before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus. And nothing in all of creation can ever separate me from the love of Christ.

I am strengthened by the love of Christ. The love of Christ is not merely fire insurance to keep me out of hell. The love of Christ is what enables me to continue maturing as a child of God. When I am tempted by the pleasures of this world the love of Christ strengthens me. When my appetite for sin rears its ugly head the love of Christ strengthens me. When suffering seems too hard to bear the love of Christ strengthens me. When worry and doubt and despair come chasing after me the love of Christ strengthens me. When I realize that all of my learning and knowledge falls short of the glory of God the love of Christ strengthens me.

Are you strengthened in the love of Christ? Have you settled for a weak toddler toy version of the love of Christ? Are you trading the experience of the never-ending love of Christ for cheap momentary substitutes? Have you lost your first love?

If this is you today, I pray that the Spirit of the living God who left the tomb empty on Easter Sunday would open your heart to the love of Christ Jesus at the cross for you. I pray that you would be strengthened to experience the love of Christ and that this experience would provoke you to repent and return to your first love and that you would forsake any other cheap substitutes that have filled your heart.

2: Paul prays that we would comprehend the love of Christ with all the saints…

Why does Paul pray that we would experience the love of Christ with all the saints? I was talking with a good friend about this last week. And as we talked we were both caught up with how much we need each other and how awesome it is that Christ’s love isn’t relegated only for the highly learned or highly committed crowd.

I get tons of gospel community. I counted up the various gospel communities that I get to be part of on a weekly, monthly and bimonthly basis and I came up with eight different gospel communities all ranging from people who are fairly new believers to people who’ve been in ministry longer than I’ve been alive. I got to thinking about where I would be today if it weren’t for the privilege of gathering in gospel community with all these other believers.

What would happen if I began to be too busy for them? What would happen if I decided I didn’t want to listen to all those people anymore? What if I only shared in community with my wife and my kids? What if I only shared in gospel centered relationship with my neighbor who is a believer? Or what if I relegated my Christian experience of Christ’s love down to reading a book or watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts?

I would be terribly anemic in my experience of Christ’s love if I did that. It would be like cutting important meals out of my spiritual diet. It would be deadly for me to cut gospel community out of my spiritual experience because community is vital for experiencing the love of Christ in tangible ways. Without the gift of gospel community I would begin to chase down cheap substitutes for Christ’s love. I would become spiritually adulterous and find new lovers to replace God.

The Scriptures teach us that we are not to discontinue gathering together as is the habit of some but instead we are to continue gathering together for the purpose of encouraging one another in love and good works. We also have the example of the early church in Acts where the believers gathered daily to eat meals together, study the apostle’s teaching and provide care for one another. Not a person was in need in these communities. The love of Christ was on display towards other believers in front of an unbelieving world. No person was more important or more holy than the next. Every person had the opportunity to experience the love of Christ regardless of ethnicity, social and economic status, religious background or messy life.

Has your experience of gospel community helped you to grow deeper in Christ’s love or has it become all about you? Have you decided to stop gathering, as is the habit of some? Have you decided to stop listening to the counsel of other believers in your community? Have you traded the love of Christ in community for some other cheap substitute like an image on a screen, or an inappropriate relationship or the pursuit of vocational goals?

The love of Christ is big enough to overcome your biggest failure and it’s available to you today. You can return to your first love. Your heart can come alive to Christ’s love. Your life can be radically transformed by Christ’s love. My prayer is that the Lord would awaken your heart and renew your desire for experiencing his love in the community of all the saints.

Conclusion…

In conclusion one of the most tangible ways we experience the love of Christ every week is by participating in communion. As we draw close to celebrating Easter we celebrate the death of Christ on our behalf and his victory over Satan, sin and the grave at the empty tomb.

This meal is a celebration for everyone who has trusted in Christ and it’s an opportunity to evaluate your relationship with Jesus. Are there things in your life that are competing with your love for Christ? Are there things in your life that are weakening your experience of the love of Christ? Has your experience of the love of Christ in community become more about you than about the shed blood and broken body of Jesus?

Confess those things to the Lord. Confess those things to a brother or sister in Christ. Ask the Lord to renew your love for Christ. He loved you first in his work at the cross. While you were still a sinner and before you were ever able to sin, he died in your place so that you could experience his love in an ongoing basis.

Christ died on the cross so that you could have the opportunity to be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”