Experimental Christianity
A Sermon on Ephesians 3:18-19
Originally preached March 10, 1957
Scripture
18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Sermon Description
In this sermon from Ephesians 3:18–19 titled “Experimental Christianity,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains why it is so important that Christians not only know the right things about God but also apply it to their lives. Many believers are like people who have been left a great fortune but do not realize it. God tells His children to apply their knowledge of Him to their lives, and part of this is not quenching the Spirit. Especially in today’s rationalistic culture, Christians are so wary of excess of emotion and the pitfalls it can bring in their relationship with the Lord that they cut themselves off to the depth of the knowledge of God about which Paul writes. Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds that this fear of an excess is no reason to go to the extreme and leave no room for knowing God intimately in this way. Paul was adamant in proclaiming how much joy Christians can have by knowing the Spirit intimately, and Dr. Lloyd-Jones gives several examples to demonstrate that those who have been most fruitful for the Lord are those who knew Him intimately as a friend.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 3:14-21 that Christians may know the love of Christ.
- There are varying degrees of closeness to Christ among Christians, ranging from those wholly devoted to Him to those barely within His influence.
- We must examine ourselves to see how close we are to Christ. Are we comprehending the breadth, length, depth and height of His love? Do we know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge?
- The men of the world think little of Christ because they do not look to Him. The true disciple looks only to Christ and learns to forget himself.
- There are many Christians who live far below their privileges as children of God and do not realize what they have in Christ.
- The reason many Christians do not experience perfect peace is that their souls are not yet able to take in the whole Christ.
- From the time Hewitson clearly saw Christ as his all in all, Christ became his present Savior and ever-living friend. His communion with Christ was like that of friend with friend.
- Blessed is the soul that is rarely in Christ. No soul should stop short of realizing and enjoying union with Christ.
- Many Christians regard the standard of rarely being out of Christ's presence as too high, showing their ignorance of their standing in Christ and what they have in Him.
- We must ask ourselves whether we measure up to the standard of Scripture and even the Old Testament, where the psalmist preferred one day in God's courts to a thousand elsewhere.
- The men of the world think little of Christ because they do not look at Him, being concerned only with themselves. The true disciple, looking only at Christ, sees nothing but Christ and forgets himself.
- There are many Christians in the various circles at different degrees of closeness to Christ, from those wholly devoted to Him to those barely within His influence.
- We must examine what circle we are in - are we pressing into the innermost circle to be close to Christ?
- The apostle prays this for all Christians, even the lowest slave, showing it is possible for all. But many live as paupers, not realizing their riches in Christ.
- Many discount this closeness to Christ as mysticism and say we should just hold the truth externally by faith, not seeking personal experience of Christ. But Scripture clearly teaches we can know Christ intimately.
- There is false mysticism involving unhealthy introspection and selfishness. But the opposite of false mysticism is not the absence of all mysticism but true mysticism - knowing Christ intimately, as taught in Scripture.
- Paul and John were mystics, with Paul saying "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" and John writing so we may have fellowship with the Father and Son and our joy may be full.
- Jesus said it was for our good that He left so the Spirit could come, showing we can know Him more intimately than when He was physically present. The disciples knew Jesus better after Pentecost than before.
- This closeness to Christ is not just for apostles but for all Christians. John wrote so all may have fellowship with the Father and Son, not just the apostles.
- Those who say seeking closeness to Christ leads to uselessness and inactivity are ignorant of Scripture and church history. The most active servants of Christ were those who knew His love best.
- Christ's love for the Father and the Father's love for Him drove all He did. Peter and Paul preached out of the necessity laid on them by Christ's love. Count Zinzendorf and George Whitefield were motivated by experiencing Christ's love.
- The church today emphasizes activity and busyness but often achieves little because the motivation is wrong. We should work because of Christ's love, not to fulfill expectations or earn diplomas. The greatest servants of God sought Christ's face and enjoyed His love, then accomplished more in an hour than others in a lifetime.
- We must ask ourselves which circle we are in - are we pressing into the closest circle to be near Christ? We should covet to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
Sermon Q&A
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Knowing the Love of Christ
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones identify as the core message of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, Paul's core message in Ephesians 3 is that Christians may "come with all saints to comprehend and to know this love of Christ which passeth knowledge." He emphasizes that Paul wants Christians to have both a conceptual understanding of Christ's love through Scripture and an experiential, direct, and personal knowledge of it.
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones describe the different levels of Christian experience?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones quotes Edward Payson who describes Christians as arranged in concentric circles around Christ: 1. The innermost circle: Those who live fully in Christ's presence, doing all their work in His presence and constantly lifting their eyes to Him 2. The second circle: Those who wouldn't be content outside His presence but are less absorbed by it 3. The third circle: A "doubtful multitude" who are engaged in worldly schemes, often standing sideways to Christ 4. The outermost circle: Those who occasionally turn toward Christ but mostly have their backs to Him, overly concerned with many things
What is the misconception many Christians have about their spiritual inheritance?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones says that many Christians are "like people who've been left a great fortune in a will, but we don't seem to realize it. It seems too good to be true. We've been so accustomed to poverty and to penury and to struggling to make both ends meet that though we are told that we've been left a fortune, we go on living as if nothing had happened at all."
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones address the criticism that intimate spiritual experiences are merely "mysticism"?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones acknowledges there is a "false mysticism" that can be "morbid, introspective, purely selfish, impractical and useless." However, he argues that the answer to false mysticism is not the absence of mysticism but "true mysticism" - the kind taught in Scripture. He points to Paul's statements like "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" and "To me to live is Christ" as examples of genuine Christian mysticism that is biblical and healthy.
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones say about the relationship between experiencing Christ's love and Christian service?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones strongly refutes the idea that those who focus on experiencing Christ's love become impractical or inactive Christians. He states: "The men who have been most busy in the service of their Lord and master in the long history of the church have always been those who have known Him best and who have rejoiced most of all in his love." He cites examples including Christ himself, the apostles Peter and Paul, Count Zinzendorf, and George Whitefield, showing how their intimate knowledge of Christ's love was precisely what drove their extraordinary service.
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones identify as a great danger facing the church today?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones warns against making Christian activity an end in itself: "Instead of realizing that the supreme need at the moment is this knowledge of the love of Christ we forgetting that are organizing activities. We have made activity an end in itself." He criticizes systems that train Christians to work without first developing the proper motive of Christ's love, noting that "a man who knows this [love] can do more in an hour than the other type of busy men can do in a century."
What biblical evidence does Dr. Lloyd-Jones provide for the possibility of direct, experiential knowledge of Christ?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones points to Jesus' own words in John 14 and 16, particularly Christ's statement that "it is expedient for you that I go away" so the Holy Spirit could come. He explains that after Pentecost, the disciples knew Christ "much better" than they did during His physical presence. He also cites 1 John where the apostle writes about having "fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" that would make their "joy full."
What question does Dr. Lloyd-Jones challenge his congregation with at the end of the sermon?
At the end of the sermon, Dr. Lloyd-Jones challenges his congregation with the question: "Which of the circles do you belong to?" He asks if they are pressing into the innermost circle, seeking Christ's face and coveting this knowledge of His love. He states it's "a tragedy that we should be living in a kind of spiritual doldrums or as paupers on the cold street while the banqueting chamber is prepared and opened."
The Book of Ephesians
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.