Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

The Fullness of Christ-is it for You?

• Colossians 1:9-10 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
• Colossians 1:11 “Strengthened with all power, according to the might of His Glory, UNTO all patience and longsuffering with joy.”

The Proof of Fullness

The evidence of power (and therefore fullness) is always endurance in the face of trials or hardship or tests of faith. The ability to endure under continuous or intermittent pressure that tests our faith in His Word is the foremost proof of spiritual power and the “fullness of Christ”.

This was the lesson of the Book of Joshua as embodied in the person of Caleb. Caleb was one who possessed the Fullness of God, as evidenced in his strength, passion and victory of possessions. He gained everything that God wanted Him to have, and had more to give away to his children. Fullness will always reveal itself in victory in the face of trials, and will always result in an abundance of blessing, so much so that your family will benefit and inherit!

• The fullness of Christ will reveal itself in our life through joy in the face of hardship or even suffering. The fullness of Christ is never meant to be for an individual, but is always meant to be shared to bring others into His inheritance.

The Limits of being Filled with the Fullness of Christ

Even though we are made in the image of God, we are not God, so our experience of God’s fullness does have limits.  A. B. Simpson[1] used the following analogy to illustrate the limits of being filled:

Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with the Christian.

We can be filled with the fullness of God when we immerse ourselves in his love and in his ways and in his Spirit and in his word; however “we cannot contain all of God because God contains us;  . . . we can have all of God that we can contain. If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we go on with God.” A. W. Tozer.[2]

Our Christian walk should be a journey towards spiritual maturity that allows us to experience more and more of Christ’s fullness and enable us to share Him with others.

1. Fullness comes from Proximity

• There can be no fullness apart from a daily abiding and depending upon Jesus Christ

2. From His Fullness we receive Grace upon Grace

• Jesus illustrates the principle of grace as the means to fullness. From the fullness of Jesus we receive His grace, so that we might be filled to overflowing, thus allowing His grace to pass on to others.

3. His Fullness gives you Blessing

• Paul experienced the fullness of blessing – Romans 15:29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
• We are already blessed in Christ – Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

4. His Fullness reflects the Fullness of the Earth

1 Corinthians 10:26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

• We are to know the height, depth, breadth and length of Christ, for He is our inheritance.

5. The Church is the means of gaining the Fullness of Christ

• The Church is His fullness – Ephesians 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 4:10-13 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

6. The church must be built up to the Fullness of Christ

• Eph 4:12 “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”
• 1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

7. Love is the Key to being Built up into the Fullness of Christ

• Being built up in Christ requires us to be fully aware of our calling, our blessing and our inheritance, so that we might clearly see the breadth, length, height and depth of what Christ wants us to possess.
• When we see that which we stand to gain, it should draw us deeper into love with Jesus Christ.

To continually experience Christ’s fullness we need to spend time nurturing our union with him.  We nurture our relationship with Jesus by becoming more aware of his Spirit within us, by being filled with his word (Eph 5:18b; Col 3:16a), and by being obedient to his word. But it begins with love.  Jesus promised, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  John 14:23

8. Dependence upon Christ through yoking and learning is essential for Fullness

• If there is no decision to yoke completely our will and flesh, there can be no fullness.
• If there is no continued decision to focus on Christ and learn of Him, there can be no sustained fullness.

Nurturing a close relationship with Jesus is easier said than done in our busy and materialistic world.  As we yoke ourselves to Christ, we must also weed out the thorns and thistles of life: the cares of this world, that may hinder our spiritual growth and prevent us from experiencing Christ’s fullness.  

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught that, “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear [the word of God], but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” Luke 8:14-15 (NIV). We must allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate the soil of our hearts to enable God’s word to flourish and be fruitful and multiply in and through* (see discussion of Ephesians 3:16-21 following)

9. The Fullness of Christ is measured in the unity of faith and knowledge of Christ in the church.

• Fullness in Christ is Body related, not individually attained
• Ephesians 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ[3],
• Colossians 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
• Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

From His Fullness We Have Already Received

Just as God clearly marked the promised land to Joshua and the Israelites, all that we have in Christ is already been given us. Ephesians 1-3 provides every blessed boundary line of what we have in Christ. Just as Joshua knew what God had given them, it became the calling of the Israelites to GAIN all that land. This is where Ephesians 4-6 comes into view. After the calling comes the WALKING! We have the fullness of Christ, now we must learn to WALK in the fullness of Christ!

We will never walk in the fullness of Christ unless we realize that our very walk depends upon Him. If we have received Him, let us put on Him! Joshua did not have the strength of weapons and soldiers to take the land promised to him. But the Captain of the Host did! Joshua and his leaders had to learn to always “enquire of the Lord”! They had to follow the Captain if they were going to achieve victory and fullness! As Charles Spurgeon preached:

“There was not in John any good thing but what he received from his Master. There was not in the noble martyr Stephen one grain of courage but what he received from Christ. Paul, Apollos, or Cephas—these had nothing but what they took from Him. If they received everything, why should we hesitate to do the same? Of ourselves it is also true that all our Graces came from Jesus. This is true of the greatest saint and true of the least.”

Fullness of Christ is the Basis of True Ministry

Our ministry and service for the Lord is measured by the degree of Christ that we have to minister. A minister of Christ is one who ministers Christ, who is able to minister Christ because he has Christ to give, has the Holy Spirit of Christ to impart Christ. Ministry is not meant to be in an “official capacity.” Ministry is never on the basis of “office” or “position” or “degree.” Ministry is because of Christ having you and you having Christ.

Remember the Shunammite woman’s son who died in the days of the Elisha the prophet? In her distress she sent for Elisha. The prophet sent his servant Gehazi, and Gehazi went with the prophet’s rod in a professional or “official” capacity. “I am the servant of the great prophet, and I have his rod, the symbol of his office.” And Gehazi went in this “official capacity” and put the rod on the young man; but nothing happened. There is no power in what is merely “professional.”

The woman was not to be satisfied with this official effort. She clung to Elisha, and would have nothing second-hand but only himself, and when he came in what did he do? He spread himself upon the young man, hands to his hands, feet to his feet, lips to his lips, in an utter identification of himself with that death, himself being in life, and he literally, by reason of the life in him, lifted that lad, so to speak, out of the grip of death. It was life by the living, and there is no other way. “Fullness begets fullness, life begets life, grace begets grace”

The church is that which comes into contact with conditions of spiritual death and, because it has the living, risen Lord in it, breaks the power of that death, and delivers there from, and proves the testimony of Jesus, that He it is who lives, and Who became dead, but is alive for evermore. That is the testimony of Jesus.[4]

God’s Purpose as to Fullness for His People

Biblical Pictures of the Way to Fullness:

The Levites in Joshua

• Fullness as to Sonship
• Fullness as to Worship (type of church)
• Fullness as to Heavenly Example (no possessions, cities of influence)

The Bronze Man in Ezekiel 40:3-4

1. The Linen Cord of Measurement (line of flax)

No measurement is given unto it. We are not told how long that line was, but we do know that it was used for the greater measurement. When we come later to the river in chapter forty-seven, it is not the rod but the line that is the instrument of measurement; and we find that that river becomes too deep for man.

This clearly corresponds to what Paul said in the Letter to the Ephesians. There he spoke of “the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.” We are here in the presence of something that is far greater than human measurement. Since the Bronze Man represents the Holy Spirit, there is no measuring the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is without measure.

2. The Rod of Measurement.

These are two ways of measuring. One is what we may call the “measureless measure”, the Measure that has no limit. That is the great fullness of the Spirit. The other is that which is brought down to things in everyday life. This rod was used to measure all the details of the House of God.

The Bronze Man shows us there is great fullness of Christ (measureless); He also shows us that this fullness is applied to the minute details of the House of God. The Son of Man is the Righteous One, and He is God’s standard of measurement. God measures everything by Him…This is why the letters to the seven churches in Revelations are not simply a “dispensational thing.” They are in reality the Letters to the churches throughout all the age whereby Jesus Christ is measuring them according to His Fullness, and showing them where they are failing to overcome and attain unto His Fullness! The letters apply to every church in every age, for we will all be measured by His Fullness and whether we have gained it!

3. The Lesson of the Corinthian Church and the Fullness of Christ

1 Corinthians is an example of the fullness of Christ being diminished within the church by the intrusion of the fleshly or carnal man. Paul held up the measuring rod against the church when He said: “I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul brought in this Righteous Man to correct the things that were unrighteous. By bringing in the Righteous Man, he put out the unrighteous man. By bringing in the Man of the Spirit, he put out the man of the flesh. That is exactly the meaning of this Man of brass with His measuring rod, so that first of all the object in view is Christ. He governs everything.

Fullness of Christ as the Bread of Life

• Gathered much – to give to others
• Gather just enough – had no lack
• Gather as much as you can eat, early and daily
• Do not leave it lying around, it is of no use
• This bread melted in the heat, but there is a bread that does not wither in the heat-The Word of Life

A Picture of Fullness is Measured by Reaction to the Heat of Life

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

• Fullness of Christ in our life always results in Cool Shade for others in the “heated times” of their life.
• This is illustrated in the application of the Manna to Grace Giving.

Fullness of Christ as the Waters of Life

• Christ is the Water of Life, and all those who abide in Him have Living Water flowing from His Fullness within.

• Fullness of His Living Water comes only to the hungry and thirsty

• The Living Water of Christ is never meant to be contained (filled), but to always flow outward as an eternal spring of life to others.

• The Word of God is the source of the water of Life. Jesus is the Logos!

• The Word of God will be the River of Life for all Eternity

• The Living Water always produces a fullness of life and fruit!

How to Gain the Fullness of Christ in your Life

1. Inner Strength of Spirit!

If you are to take the Word of God and the indwelling Spirit and grow into the fullness of God, it begins with inner strength. You must be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man. You must allow the Spirit to have control of your inner man.

Your inner man will be strengthened when the Holy Spirit has control of it, when you yield to Him, when you no longer are ruled by yourself, when you no longer do just what you want, but where you learn moment by moment, step by step, one day at a time, to yield control to the Holy Spirit.

If there is to be a change in your inner man it’s going to be by the strengthening of the inner man through the Holy Spirit. And that comes as you yield to the Spirit. Every time you yield to the Spirit a decision in your life, you strengthen the muscle of your inner man a little more and as you continue to do that your inner man gets stronger and stronger and stronger and it’s easier to say yes to the Spirit and no to sin.

Sin decreases as you yield to the Spirit because you strengthen the inner man and it becomes easier to say yes to the Holy Spirit.

2.  The Indwelling Christ

When you yield to the Holy Spirit, He controls your life then Christ settles down and becomes at home there. Verse 17; “That Christ may ‘katoikeesis’, settle down and be at home in your hearts by faith.” Christ wants to be at home in you. He wants to settle down. He wants to have a clean life. One that He doesn’t have to be running around cleaning and sweeping and chastising and chastening. The blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah, God Himself in human flesh wants to live within the believer in fullness. He’s there because you have been born again and declared “righteous” and “just.” Christ wants to give you His fullness, His righteousness, His peace, His strength, and His power. He wants to dominate you so that II Cor. 3:18 becomes a reality.

You are changed into His very image. Ephesians 4:13 becomes your reality.

You come to the full measure of the stature of Christ. In other words, Christ likeness, Christ permeating every part, every fiber, every ounce of your being with His wonderful person and presence. The “imprint” of Christ is upon you, just as the “imprint” of God was upon Jesus!

So, as you yield to the Spirit of God, your life is under His control. You mind is set upon the Holy Spirit.  You are walking after the Holy Spirit, and Christ can settle down and be at home. When Christ is at home in your life, it is because you have yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

3. Immersed in the Incomprehensible Love of Christ

a) Love is foundational

The third thing which must happen is revealed in verse 17: “In order that ye may be rooted and grounded in love.” Without being rooted and grounded in the Love of Christ, you cannot know His fullness. Love permeates all the Christ wants to do in your life. Selfishness and pride must be rooted out and replaced with His agape love.

When Christ fills us love fills us. Look what it says in verse 17; “When Christ dwells in our hearts, Christ settles down and is at home in our hearts, and so we are rooted and grounded in His love.

This is the foundation of the fullness of Christ, experiencing His love firmly in the core of your being. You can’t have a love experience unless His love is your foundation. As Christ fills your heart love rules. Love is the foundation. Love is the bottom line. Love is that which everything else is built upon.

According to Romans 5:5, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” The moment we’re saved God’s love comes in us. His love is there and it’s expected that we love. It’s the most normal thing in the world for a Christian to live a love life. In fact, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and said – “Nobody needs to teach you how to love, you are taught of God to love one another.”

If you don’t experience a total life of love, it is not because it isn’t there, it’s because you have never allowed it to function. Love is the most normal thing for a Christian to do. The Spirit of God comes into your life, He fills your life with love, He begins to rule your life, you yield to Him, Christ settles down, He is at home, His love permeates, and as it permeates your life you should be characterized thirdly, by incomprehensible love. And it should start by being the very root and the very foundation of your life. The very basis of your life.

b) His Love must become your own!

Not only is it the foundation, but verse 18 says you must be able to comprehend this love. In the Greek the verb comprehend is a compound verb “katalambano” which is an intense verb meaning to seize or grasp for your own. It pictures the brass ring from the old merry-go-rounds, that were there to be grabbed it you tried hard enough. For the love of Christ to be foundational in your life, you must desire it and grab hold of it! You literally seize love; you make it your own as a way of life!

The love of Christ is such a treasure because it is the gateway into the fullness of Christ. It is the most desired thing, something you want to seize, something you want to grasp. Something you want to cling to.

c) His Love can be Experienced in a miraculous way.

Paul says we can experientially know this love even though it surpasses our ability to know.

The knowledge here is the knowledge which is experienced. To live a life built on love, to live a life that grasps every possibility of love in every situation is only possible when you’re filled with the fullness of the Spirit of God who causes Christ to be at home in every dimension of your life, bringing the fullness of His own love.

If you claim to be a Christian but you don’t have love as the root and the ground of your life, the problem is not that the people around you are giving you trouble, the problem is clear back in verse 16, you have never yet yielded the control of your life to the Holy Spirit. The very first evidence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, Galatians 5:22.

The absence of love is the presence of sin. The absence of love is the presence of iniquity. The absence of love means you’re not walking in the Spirit.

The entirety of the Law is summed up in one thing—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And your what? “Neighbor as yourself.” That’s the whole law, right there.

Ephesians 5:2 Paul says to “Walk in love.” What kind of love? The kind of love that gives yourself as a sacrifice. Biblical love always involves sacrifice. Humble yourself at the Cross. Yield to the Spirit of God. Let Him have control of your life so that Christ can settle down and fill your life with His love.

d) Know the boundaries of His Love

We are able to grab this love in its fullness. This love extends in all directions and covers every situation.

• „ How long is this love? Eph 1:4; It began … “Before the foundation of the world.” Eph 2:7; “That in the ages to come He will show the exceeding riches of His grace…” How long is His love? From eternity past to eternity future.
• „ How deep is His love? Eph 2:1-3; Deep enough to reach us when we were dead in trespasses and sin.
• „ How high is His love? Eph 1:3; High enough to take us and bless us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. High enough, Ephesians 2:6, to raise us up together and make us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
• „ How broad is His love? Eph 3:12 – broad enough to build up the entire body of Christ through the ages.

Its breadth — it can reach anybody. Its length — it runs from eternity to eternity. Its depth — it reaches to the pit of sin. Its height — it takes us to the presence of God and sits us on His throne. That’s His love.

This is the kind of love we are to build our life on. This is the kind of love we are to comprehend and seize at every moment. This is the kind of love we are to experience and know. The kind of love that reaches to parties that hate each other. The kind of love that runs from one part of our life to the end of our life. The kind of love that reaches to the person in the deepest pit. The kind of love that can lift up a person to the very presence of God. That’s the kind of love we are to know. This is the kind of love which will bring us into the fullness of God.

4. Internal Fullness of God

As a Christian, if you follow this sequence you can be filled with all the fullness of God. It’s one thing for you to be filled with the Spirit in verse 16. Another thing for you to be filled with Christ in verse 17. But now to be filled with God, the eternal God, the almighty God, the creator God, the sustainer God, the God of the universe, the God who made it all, the God who fills it all can fill you?

Incredible…Incomprehensible…Inconceivable…Impossible? NO! Very Possible!

The word pleeroo, fullness, is a word that is used many times in the New Testament to speak of total fullness. That is its meaning. Picture a scale which reflects your life. There is to be no level balance, a little of you and a little of God. NO! The scale is to tilt totally in God’s favor. He wants all of you so He can fill all of you!

It isn’t a little bit of God and a little bit of us… it’s the fullness of God. It’s the fullness of Christ. It’s the fullness of the Holy Spirit. God wants, literally, Himself to fill us so that as Paul said to Titus, we adorn the doctrine of God. (Titus 2:10)

What Kind of God are we filled with? This is Amazing Truth!

• „ II Samuel 22
• „ Job 26
• „ Job 36

5. Internal Power is the Result

When all this happens the explosion takes place. The engine roars. Verse 20 is the great doxology. The great benediction. “Now unto him who is able,” …when a believer follows these paths, when you follow these sequences – “Now God is able.”

As powerful as God is you hold the trigger that determines whether He’s able in your life! You are the key to God accomplishing all that He would through you!

Now that you have inner strength, now that you have the indwelling Christ, now that there’s incomprehensible love, now that you’re filled with internal fullness, the fullness of God, now He is able to do what?

“Exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us.” That power doesn’t work in you until now. Verse 20 does not become reality until verses 16 to 19 have been fulfilled.

God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. Don’t ever say, Lord, I don’t know if You can use me in this situation. He can. Beyond your dreams, infinitely beyond. When the church gathers together, it gathers with the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when it separates every believer goes out of here able to do exceeding abundantly above all that he can ask or think, if he follows the pattern right here.

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman’s tells about a man who gave this testimony at one of his meetings:

Don’t ask your heavenly Father for a dime. Take all that He’s got to give. Don’t live as a beggar on a pittance when the resources are there to live as a king to His glory.