Doxology – God’s Glory

(Ephesians 3:20 – 21)

Introduction

In the middle of the 1400’s and 1500’s several intrepid European

explorers sailed to the New World in search of gold and riches, reach
out God to the peoples of these lands, and bring glory to themselves.
Christopher Columbus had so much belief in self and abilities. He had
faith in his idea of reaching the Indies and China by sailing West. He
had supreme abilities as a sailor. It was also said that he was lucky.
His belief in self and abilities— made him arrogant and cruel to crew
and natives. His faith in his idea of reaching the Indies and China by
sailing West—made him foolhardy in holding to the idea he’d reached
the Indies. His first voyage was about discovery. He had a crew of 87
made up of 84 Andalucian sailors. There are only 4 criminals seeking
pardons, a practice in those days in lieu of a prison term. He had
problems: superstitions of crew (sea monsters, fall off edge of world.
Columbus disciplined severely, minimized distances falsely so they
wouldn’t know how far they’d gone. He has had failures: didn’t really
find the Indies or China; didn’t find the riches expected. The successes
are: found new lands for Spain, found western and eastern routes that
took full advantage of prevailing currents and winds.
The Second Voyage was a Disaster. He had 17 ships with 1200 men
(6 of them priests to convert the “Indians”) set out to find Indies spices
and gold. 300 died of disease. A hurricane destroyed all of the ships.
Patching together two ships from the scraps, Columbus limped home
in disgrace.
The Third Voyage was another Disaster. With 6 Ships, few volunteers
and many convicts, Columbus set out to redeem himself. First hope—
Natives brought Columbus and his crew gold nuggets to trade at
Hispaniola. Natives turned unfriendly and forced them to leave. Ships
wormy and food rotten, but colonists wouldn’t help and Indians
refused them food. After word of Indian killings reached the
monarchs, Columbus and his brother were brought back to Spain in
chains.
Fourth Voyage was a Defeat. It was privately funded, not under the
patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus was still “Admiral,”

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but had no governing powers over colonists. Although he sailed along
the coast of South America, he found no riches, nor traces of the
Indies or China and returned to Spain defeated.
God, Gold, or Glory?
Ferdinand Magellan was inspired by a friend who was both astrologer
and cartographer. He was determined he could circumnavigate the
globe.. Spurned by his native Portugal, he gained funding and
patronage from Spain. He set out to accomplish Columbus’ goal, to
reach the Indies and China by sailing West.
Although the voyage is attributed to Magellan, he did not succeed in
the circumnavigating globe. He was killed on the island of Mactan.
The voyage had obstacles and problems to say the least. Magellan and
his crew suffered all of the following as he searched for a western sea
passage around South America:
• Finding many places along the coast that looked like sea passages
that were just bays and inlets
• Running out of food and supplies. He thought he had supplies for
two years. His suppliers in Spain fraudulently gave him six months
worth. (He and the crew ate fresh fish and game, rats and wormy
biscuits, even, ox hide bindings, and drank water contaminated with
rat urine.
• Combating the mutiny of three out of his five ships. To quell it, he
had to kill the captain of one of the ships, then block passage of the
other two.
• Meeting greedy natives who swarmed over his ships and took
everything that wasn’t nailed down.
• Navigating through one of the most treacherous passages of rock-
lined water in the world: the strait named for him.

Magellan’s Death
On an island in the Philippines, a native chieftain pretended to be
Christian to enlist Magellan’s aid to fight a neighbouring chieftain.
Once on the island, Magellan was attacked by the chief and his men.
He was repeatedly wounded by natives armed with poisoned arrows,
spears and scimitars. He could have retreated and saved himself, but
covered his fleeing men, fighting while the rest rowed back to the
ships.
One by one the ships fell apart. The Portuguese imprisoned some of
the men in islands near Spain Only 18 of the 250 men landed back at

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 Seville. The total time of the voyage was 12 days less than three years.
As penitence, the 18 survivors walked barefoot carrying candles to the
shrine of the Virgin Mary.
God, Gold, or Glory?
In contrast, the Apostle Paul went through 3 missionary journeys, 4 if
you include his last trip to Rome. He did not have the royal patronage
nor equipped with a crew and equipment. Paul suffered equally. He
was shipwrecked, beaten up, jailed, bitten by poisonous snakes. These
missionary journeys had one purpose, to bring glory to God. Paul was
not in search of riches nor was he looking for glory. His main goal
was to preach and teach salvation through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 3:20 – 21 is a doxology to the 1st part of this epistle. It is a
closing to the theological portion of this epistle. Compared to the self
centred exploits of Columbus and Magellan, Paul’s was selfless. None
of his efforts are for him, they are all for the glory of God.
What drove Paul to write this doxology? What inspired his
selflessness to give all glory to God.

Pre-eminence (v. 20)

The driving reason for Paul’s prayerful attitude is God’s pre-

eminence. This verse is a tribute to an Almighty God whose capacity
and capability is beyond understanding and imagination. It surpasses
the human mind. This is Paul’s emphasis, God’s infinite greatness for
what He is and what He can deliver.
Beyond Measure
Paul is a learned man. His studies and experience taught Him that God
is beyond measure. God is an infinite God that transcends all the
dimensions of time and space as we know it. God is able to do
immeasurable deeds because of His

• Immeasurable knowledge. Our God is an omniscient God, all-

knowing and infinitely intelligent. He knows every nook and
cranny of our lives. He knows our

• Thoughts and our deeds. (Psalm 139:2).

• Sorrows (Exodus 3:7)
• Needs (Matthew 6:32)
• Frailties (Psalm 103:14)

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• Immeasurable Presence. Our God is an omnipresent God. He
is present everywhere with his whole being at the same time.
Two aspects to keep in mind as we study God’s omnipresence:
1. Immanence – God is in the world, acting within
and through His creation. There are people out
there who thinks that after God created the
universe, He just left it to run by itself. Not so,
God is still clearly involved in our lives as we live
it. John 14:16 And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you
for ever;
proves that God is still involved in our lives

2. Transcendence – God is above and beyond His

creation. Psalm 139:7 – 12 7 Where can I go
from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your
presence?
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If I go up to the heavens, you are
there;
if I make my bed in the
depths, [a] you are there.
9
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the
sea,
10
even there your hand will guide
me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11
If I say, "Surely the darkness will
hide me
and the light become night
around me,"
12
even the darkness will not be dark
to you;

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 the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

We cannot contain God within the limits of physical space.

We cannot confine Him to specific places where we build
shrines as the heathens do to honour Him.

Beyond Comprehension
Our God is full of surprises. His nature and actions are beyond our
comprehension.

God’s Creation
The created universe is the most wonderful thing there is and is still
largely not well-understood even by the greatest minds on earth. Two
greatest questions that face mankind:
• Does God exist?
• If He does, what is His nature
Since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers which was the
prevalent thinking at the time of Apostle Paul, the answers to these
questions have been sought by examining the nature of the universe
and its life’s forms. In the 20th century more evidence accumulated to
answer these questions than any time in history, which coincided with
the rise of science and technology.

In Romans 1:20, Paul made a remarkable statement regarding the

relationship between our understanding of the universe and the
attributes of God. The attributes of God is evident in His creation and
his invisible attributes is discerned with an examination of creation.

By the turn of the 20th century, men thought that they already know
a lot about the universe and the laws of physics have been well
described and their remaining concern then were to fine tune the
accuracy of the physical constants to a few more decimal places. Isaac
Newton’s universal laws of motion and gravitation and James Clerk
Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism were so well defined that they
cornerstones of physical knowledge. The anomalies observed were
largely ignored. Then came Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
which shocked the physics community with a staggering new view of
space, time, matter and energy. Though he did not know it, Einstein’s
theories provided insights into the attributes of the Creator of the
universe.

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 For thousands of years scientists and philosophers believed that
time was nothing more than an abstract notion, conceived in the minds
of men, and used to describe changes seen in the physical world. Time
is only an idea and had nothing to do with the physical universe.
Einstein’s theory proved that time is a physical property of the
universe and that the rate of which time flows depends on the physical
conditions present at the measuring device.

Such is the complexity of the universe that God created which

proves that the understanding of God is beyond human imagination
and comprehension.

Hyperspace

The ancient Hebrew scholar Nachmonides, writing in the 12th century,

concluded from his studies of the text of Genesis that the universe has ten
dimensions: that four are knowable and six are beyond our knowing.

Particle physicists today have also concluded that we live in ten

dimensions. Three spatial dimensions and time are directly discernible
and measurable. The remaining six are "curled" in less than the Planck
length (10-33 centimeters) and thus are only inferable by indirect means.3

By His Power
Immeasurable Power. Our God is an omnipotent God. Genesis 18:14.
Abraham’s conversation with God. This verse is about God Himself
who told Abraham His powers. This power as the verse states works
in us. God’s immeasurable power is clearly seen
1. over nature
 Separates light from darkness (Gen 1:4)
 Measures oceans in his hands (Isaiah 40:12)
 Regards nations as a drop in the bucket
(Isaiah 40:15)
 Looks upon the islands as small particles of
dirt (Isaiah 40:15)
2. Over men Daniel 4:30 – 32. King
Nebuchadnezzar’s madness
3. Over angels. Psalm 103:20
4. Over Satan (Job 1:12)
5. Over death (Hebrews 2:14,15)

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 Application
Once we get to know God’s attributes there is only 1 thing that we can
do, be awed by His greatness. That is precisely Paul’s reaction when
He wrote this doxology. God’s greatness is beyond compare. There is
no other being like Him. His overwhelming pre-eminence and
greatness and our recognition of our own weaknesses and failings
drives us to praise Him. At times, I feel that I am not worthy to praise
an awesome God, but that is what He wants from us, to praise and
worship Him for what He is.

Praise (v 21)
Paul’s praises is a natural reaction to the God’s greatness. There is no
other way after we have glimpsed His greatness.
Bestow the Glory
The Greek word used in this verse is doxology which is broken down
in two words. Doxa for praise and logos for words. Words of praise.
That is precisely the action requested, to give praise to God. We need
to remember that God’s ultimate purpose in the earth and man is to
bring glory to His name. He wants to specially display to all His
creatures His most wonderful character and ways. You can give God
His glory by
• By Praise (Psalm 22:23)
• By Good Works (Matthew 5:16)
• By Fruit-bearing (John 15:8)
• By Spiritual Unity (Romans 15:6)
• By Entire Consecration (1 Corinthians 6:20)

Body of Christ
The church, the body of Christ, is emphasised in this verse. The
church is the vehicle of God’s glory because that is God’s
expectation. To be honoured and worshipped by His people. One of
the purposes of the church is in Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14 which stated
repeatedly the praise of God’s glory. As an extension to the ways that
we can glorify God raised in the previous point, other actions with
which to glorify God as a church through :
• Giving (Philippians 4:18)
• Acknowledging God’s Son (Philippians 2:9 – 11)
• Believing of God’s Word (Romans 4:20)
• Our suffering (John 21:18, 19)

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 • Our witnessing (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

This verse tells us that if want to see God glorified then we have to look
at the church as testimony.
Beyond Time
The last part of verse 21 is an affirmation of God’s eternity. What is
the point of giving eternal glory to God if God has a best before date?
God has no expiration date nor a manufactured date for He is eternal.
We have discussed an immeasurable God that transcends time and
space as we know it. Now this is the biggest transcendence of them
all, a God who sees the past, present and future. God does not view
time as we do. He has a completely different perspective of time. He is
before it and He is beyond it.

Praising God and giving Him the glory must endure forever for we are
worshipping an eternal God. Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God
is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying,
'Destroy him!' states two truths about God, His Eternity and His
Power.

The prophet Isaiah in 57:15 declares that God is the high and lofty one
who inhabits eternity. Such is the nature of the awesome God that is
beyond time, because He created time when He created the universe.

Application
There is no other course of action for us but to praise God in all His
glory. In the same manner that we admire sports stars, scientists,
political leaders and other great men for their accomplishments, it is
inevitable that we give God due praise.

Conclusion –Whose Glory?

Earlier, we have seen the early European explorers who ventured into
the then unknown world for their quest of God, Gold, and Glory. It is
apparent that their adventures is really meant for glory, glory to
themselves. God played a distant third in terms of priority or not at all.
Their quests were all about the gratification of their pride, their ego,
and to earn a place in history. Where does God fit in all these?
The Apostle Paul set an excellent example by focussing all the glory
to God and with good reason and justification. Our God is an
awesome God that deserves all the praise.

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Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body,
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.
As believers the action we do, the decisions we make, the lives that we
lead reflect Jesus in our lives. His glory must be visible in our lives for
we are His living witnesses and testimony . No matter what we do the
awesome and powerful God must be glorified. Any unpleasant action,
any devious behaviour, any sin for that matter reduces the glory that
we bring to Him. Our lives must be living doxologies to the great and
awesome God who deserves to be praised and worshipped. It is His
Glory, forevermore