The Love of Christ: How Deep

3/18/12 “The Love of Christ: How Deep!” Ephesians 3:14-19
I. Introduction
A. Series: breadth, length, depth, height
B. Depth: the distance He traveled
C. “...Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11)
II. Where it begins
A. Phil.2 the descent of Christ’s love
1. Equal glory with the Father
B. One of the things God has given us to give us a tiny glimpse of His highness and exaltedness is the height of the heavens.
1. “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!” (Job 22:12)
2. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
3. It doesn’t seem that we have yet to get glimpse of the outer edge of the universe (the realm of stars and other heavenly objects). Every year or two they spot a galaxy even farther away.
4. But we’ve seen far enough to blow our minds.
5. The one scientists think is the farthest discovered so far is 13.2 billion light years from earth.
6. Light year: 8 minutes to the sun (93 million miles).
a. Imagine how far light would travel in a whole year.
7. Probably this does not represent the highest heavens. We’ll probably find ones even higher.
8. (And think about not only the height, but also the volume. The height represents the radius, if you remember your high school geometry. And the volume of a sphere is 4/3πr3. Approximately one nonillion cubic light years or 1030 cubic light years.)
9. But even the highest heavens are not enough to contain the greatness of God. “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you!” (1Kings 8:27)
C. God doesn’t live out there somewhere among the galaxies. But all this is given to us to give us a glimpse of how high and exalted He is, how far above us He is, and how amazing it is that He sets His great love upon us.
1. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.” (Ps.103:11)
III. Where it led Him
A. It led Him down into the depths of human woe.
1. “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil.2)
2. The big gap is not the gap from human to death on a cross. The big gap is between equality with God to being born as a man.
3. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us...For...while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” (Romans 5:8, 10)
4. “...all...are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9-18)
B. Our sin is deep. Human misery is deep. But...
1. “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Betsie ten Boom
C. So, instead of being disgusted by human sin from afar, He plunged into the poisonous sea of human corruption in order to rescue His beloved enemies.
1. Like a rescuer when there is a collapse or explosion in a mine, He plunged down into the dangerous pit, ignoring the fumes and the dangers of further collapse, in order to reach and save those trapped inside.
2. Not only to come down with us, but to become one with us in our humanity.
D. He endured the suffering
1. The hunger and thirst, The hatred, The mocking, The beatings, The jeering, The spitting, The false accusations
2. The condemnation as a criminal, The weariness, Being nailed to a tree
3. The forsaking by His Father
4. The bleeding
5. The death
6. “He descended into hell” on the cross
E. And to allow us — infinitely inferior beings — to become one with Him by faith, such that He is eternally bonded with the likes of us.
F. Oh the heights from which He came, and the depths to which He plunged!
G. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2Corinthians 8:9)
H. What are we going to do with this?
I. This is big: it dwarfs all our little resentments, our little lusts, our little ambitions.
J. Every knee shall bow.