"Jesus Changes Our Prayers & Power (Ephesians 1:15-23)", Will DuVal | 9/8/24
Ephesians 1:15-23 | 9/8/24 | Will DuVal
Recently I watched Oppenheimer, this year’s Best Picture winner which dramatically retells the story of our development of the atomic bomb. And the most mind-blowing part for me, that I NEVER remember learning about in A.P. U.S. history, was that the scientists leading the Manhattan Project weren’t ENTIRELY sure - until they actually DETONATED the thing - that the chain reaction STARTED by the bomb would ever END; it was theoretically POSSIBLE that it would continue until earth’s entire atmosphere was engulfed. So there’s this great scene just moments before the test where the general overseeing the project, Matt Damon, is just LEARNING about this for the first time and he confronts Oppenheimer and asks: “Wait, are we saying there’s a chance that when we push that button we destroy the WORLD?”
Oppenheimer replies: “Nothing in our research supports that conclusion, except as the most REMOTE possibility…”
Damon asks: “How REMOTE?”
Oppenheimer says: “The chances are near zero.”
“NEAR zero?!”
Oppenheimer says, “What do you want, from theory alone?”
Damon replies: “ZERO. Zero would be nice!”
Oppenheimer says, “Well, soon enough, we’ll KNOW.”
They didn’t yet KNOW, for CERTAIN, what magnitude of POWER they were DEALING with.
According to God’s word, if you are IN CHRIST JESUS this morning, there is a POWER at work within you right now that makes the atomic bomb look like a child’s firecracker by comparison.
Oppenheimer gave us the power to destroyworlds. Jesus Christ has the power to RESURRECT them. And according to Ephesians 1:15-23, which we’ll read together in just a moment, that same power that raised JESUS from the dead, the same power that once created the universe with just a WORD, and will onedaydestroy and remake the whole universe anew with but a word, that same power now lives in ME… and YOU. If you are in Christ.
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And the apostle Paul’s deep PRAYER and LONGING for every one of us here, is that we would KNOW it. NOT to be like General Damon before the bomb was tested, agnostic to its power, UN-knowing. Paul doesn’t even want us to be like OPPENHEIMER - pretty sure he knew the extent of the bomb’s power, because he’s researched it, theoretically. Some of you here this morning - I could ask you QUESTIONS about the power at work in those who are in Christ, and you’d know all the right answers… theoretically. Cuz you’ve already READ Ephesians 1.
“How powerful?” – “IMMEASURABLE greatness”
“What KIND of power?” – “RESURRECTION power; the kind that raised Jesus from the dead… SUPREME, PREEMINENT power; Christ’s power is “far above ALL rule and authority and power and dominion”.
That’s great: you can READ. The Bible says the demons know all about God’s power, and they TREMBLE.
The question is: “IS that power at work… within YOU?”
And if SO, do you KNOW it?
Elijah asked me the other day: “Dad, how FAST can your car go?”
I said, “Well, the speedometer goes up to 160 mph, but I’ve never actually DRIVEN that fast, so I’m not exactly SURE. I don’t KNOW.”
No, brothers and sisters; Paul - writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit… so really GOD - GOD wants us to KNOW just how powerful the “working of HIS great might” is, toward US who believe; who are in Christ. Look at what he’s gonna say, in v18; he prays that you may “hav[e] the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know”.
How do you KNOW? Well, they say, “Seeing is believing.”
When I SEE the needle hit 160, I’ll know.
When we SEE the bomb detonate, WITHOUT destroying the whole world, then we’ll know for sure.
And God wants us to SEE - have the “eyes of our hearts opened” - to SEE his power at work, EXPERIENTIALLY, in our own lives.
Not the eyes of our HEADS, but the eyes of our HEARTS.
Some of you BELIEVE - in your HEADS - that God is more powerful than your addiction. But you haven’t SEEN it yet, in your HEART, your life.
Some of you BELIEVE that God has the power - can give YOU the power - to finally forgive your ex… your spouse… your parent. But you haven’t SEEN it yet.
And this morning, God is inviting you OUT of the classroom, OUT of the research laboratory, and onto the bombing range. Onto the racetrack. To SEE with your heart, that you might KNOW his power, PERSONALLY.
I invite you to STAND… Ephesians 1:15-23. Vv3-14 were all one long sentence, remember, in the Greek; well, so too are vv15-21 here, most of this passage for this morning - 169 words! - all one sentence, one connected train of thought. Hear the word…
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
Now, the overarching theme of Ephesians is that Jesus changes EVERYTHING. We saw in Week 1 how, first and foremost, Jesus changes our IDENTITY; we are now “sons [and daughters of God] through Jesus Christ” (1:5). And BECAUSE we are children, we are also HEIRS; we saw LAST week how Jesus changes our inheritance; we inherit redemption, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”!
And now in vv19-23, Paul highlights ONE of those glorious spiritual blessings in particular: the new POWER we have now in Christ. But before he gets there, we’re first gonna see, in vv15-18, how Jesus has changed his PRAYERS. That is the CONTEXT for Paul’s explication of our new POWER in Christ; we hear about it through Paul’s PRAYERS in Christ.
HOW does Jesus change our prayers? At least THREE ways, we observe right off the bat, in vv15 & 16; consider these SUB-points underneath the bigger bullet point that I’ll go ahead and give you:
1) In Christ, we offer prayers of GRATITUDE for others. (vv15-16)
Now here are the SUB-points:
1a) Our prayers are Gratitude-filled
1b) Other-focused, and
1c) Salvation-fixated
[Repeat]
Let’s look at all 3, and with each, I’ll invite us to take a look in the mirror at our OWN prayers, to consider how God might want to GROW us this morning in our Christ-empowered prayer life.
V15 consists of 2 dependent clauses, so it’s best to start in v16, with Paul’s declaration that “I do not cease to give THANKS.” Paul’s prayers, his transformed-by-CHRIST prayers, were FILLED with GRATITUDE.
Elsewhere, Paul exhorts us to “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Ths 5:18)
Later here in Ephesians, ch5, he will spur us to “giv[e] thanks always and for everything to God the Father”.
So the first question we ought to ask ourselves this morning is: “Are my prayers MOSTLY filled with gratitude? Or are they mostly filled with “give me this, give me that”s? More PRAISES, or more PETITIONS?
Now, please don’t mishear me: God INVITES our petitions too. We don’t stop ASKING God for stuff when we become his children. But we DO start THANKING him a whole lot more for what he has ALREADY done for us. It’s one of the marks of Christian prayer.
Look: EVERYONE asks God for stuff. The most hard-hearted atheist you know, when she receives that diagnosis, I can PROMISE you she’s gonna be throwing up a prayer or two, hedging her bets, just in case she was wrong all along and God IS real and listening. She’ll ASK. But she NEVER thanks.
God invites us to THANK him. And by the way, God’s so GOOD, that he has wired us in such a way that our GRATITUDE is directly proportional to our HAPPINESS. All the data from even the secular sociological studies bears this out: the #1 predictor of a person’s HAPPINESS is their gratitude. You wanna be GLAD? Be GRATEFUL. Wanna please GOD? “Give thanks in ALL circumstances”.
And specifically, here in Ephesians 1, what is Paul grateful FOR? Not a WHAT, but a WHO: “I do not cease to give thanks… for YOU”, Ephesian believers. I “remember YOU in my prayers”. His gratitude is OTHER-focused.
First, Jesus changes our prayers from being exclusively PETITIONING to being - more and more, over time - prayers of PRAISE and thanks. But there IS a kind of gratitude that is still mostly SELF-absorbed, isn’t there?
Sometimes we play the “Gratitude Game” with our kids. Real simple: you just go in a circle, naming things you’re THANKFUL for. Typically Elijah, our 4-year old’s, list goes something like this:
“I’m thankful for my CRANE truck.
“I’m thankful for my GARBAGE truck.
“I’m thankful that I’m so FAST…”
And sometimes we’ll play LONG enough, just see how many ROUNDS it takes him, to remember that anyone ELSE in the world EXISTS. “I’m thankful for HUNTER. For my FRIENDS.” Ah, good.
How about YOU: Are your prayers more SELF-interested, or more OTHER-focused?
Once again: there’s no BAD answer to the question- “What are you thankful for?” “Giv[e] thanks always, for everything to God the Father”. It’s always GOOD to be grateful. But it’s even BETTER to be grateful and SELFLESS.
Elsewhere, Paul encourages us to “Do nothing out of selfishness… but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Ph2:3-4). And that of course applies to our PRAYERS as well.
I’ll confess that as your PASTOR, I don’t do this NEARLY enough. I try to pray through our membership directory pretty regularly, and often when I DO, I’ll TEXT you, and ask, “How can I be praying for you right now?” But really, I should start every single ONE of those prayers with: “God I THANK you for ______ and _____…”
“God I THANK you for ______ and _____…”
“God I THANK you for ______ and _____…”
I wanna resolve this morning, going forward, to thank God more often for EACH of you. And I wanna invite you to do the same. Would you do this - before you turn on the GAME this afternoon; first thing when you get home this afternoon, or even in the CAR, on the drive home, get the kids involved: play the “gratitude game”, but with the added stipulation that you have to thank God for SOMEONE ELSE.
And then I encourage you to go one step further, and don’t just pray and tell God you’re grateful, but call or text them, let THEM know as well: “I just want you to know how grateful I am that God put you in my life.”
But third, now, Paul isn’t just gratitude-filled. He isn’t just other-focused. He offers prayer, SPECIFICALLY, of gratitude for others’... SALVATION. THAT is what he’s thankful for; the SALVATION of these Ephesian believers.
Now we back up to v15, where Paul says: “For THIS reason”; WHAT reason? The phrase points us BOTH backwards AND forwards. We flip BACK and remind ourselves of where we left off LAST week in vv13 & 14, with Paul celebrating how “in CHRIST, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and BELIEVED in [Jesus], you were SEALED with the Holy Spirit”.
And what is the EVIDENCE that they truly heard and believed and were SAVED and SEALED?
Paul CONTINUES in v15: “For this reason, BECAUSE… of your FAITH in the Lord Jesus and your LOVE toward all the saints.”
Paul is GRATEFUL for the Ephesians’ SALVATION, and he is CONFIDENT of their salvation because they TRUST JESUS and they LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Those are THE two, central, defining marks of all those who are truly “in Christ” - they TRUST him, and they LOVE his own. 1 John 3:23 declares: “this is [God’s] commandment, that we believe in… his Son Jesus Christ [FAITH] and we love one another.” On these two commandments hang ALL the Law and Prophets: faith and love.
Notice: Paul doesn’t even KNOW the believers he’s writing to; not MOST of them anyway. Remember: it’s been 5-7 years since Paul left Ephesus, since he pastored there, but the church has been growing like gangbusters. So Paul writes, “I have heard of your faith… and your love”; your reputation PRECEDES you, and I thank GOD for it, for YOU; for his SAVING work in you. And for FILLING you with FAITH in Him and LOVE for others.
Bryan Chapell points out (61): “Their faith in Jesus SEPARATES them from the surrounding culture of paganism… [And] their love for all the saints UNITES them to each other in the midst of that culture.” Jesus saves us FROM our sin and INTO a new FAMILY.
So, last self-evaluation question now: “Are your prayers more THIS-worldly? Or more HEAVEN-minded? More temporal, or SPIRITUAL?”
It’s great to pray for physical healing for your grandpa. It’s BETTER to pray for his SPIRITUAL healing. Cuz even if he survives THIS ailment, NONE of us is making it out of THIS world alive, not physically anyway. Pray that God would give him new SPIRITUAL life!
It’s great to thank God for your MATERIAL blessings; it’s BETTER to thank him for your ETERNAL blessings, in Christ.
And it’s ESPECIALLY great to thank him for the faith and love of OTHERS in your life. Here’s another practical application for you: We just relaunched our life groups and discipleship groups here a couple weeks ago with Sign Up Sunday. One of the things I love doing as a leader at the start of every new year is to invite every person in the group to share their testimony. So the rest of us can hear it and give thanks to God for HIS work in this brother or sister’s life; for their FAITH in the Lord Jesus, and their LOVE for the Church.
But SECONDLY, now, we not only offer prayers of gratitude for others; we also pray FOR GIFTS for them as well. (vv17-19)
Paul continues his prayer in v17: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you…” - WHAT? FOUR gifts he lists, in vv17b and 18a, that are REALLY four ways of saying the same THING, I’ll argue:
1) “the Spirit of WISDOM”2) “the Spirit of REVELATION”
3) “the knowledge of HIM (GOD)”, and
4) “the ENLIGHTENMENT of your spiritual EYES”
Wisdom, revelation, knowledge, enlightenment… What’s Paul GETTING at here?
Do you know, according to the BIBLE, God’s word, what our #1 problem is, as a species (humanity)?
Buddhism says it’s our DESIRE, worldly ATTACHMENT.
Environmentalism says it’s our GREED, our plundering of the planet.
But according to God, our #1 problem is IGNORANCE.
Here’s how Ephesians 4:18 will put it, a few weeks from now: The GENTILES (i.e., unbelievers) suffer from “the futility (or FAULTINESS; the brokenness) of their minds” “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the IGNORANCE that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
God says, “They’re ALIENATED - SEPARATED from me - because of their IGNORANCE”; there’s something you gotta KNOW in order to be in RELATIONSHIP with me.
Every other religion says: “There are RULES you gotta FOLLOW in order to get to God”; GOD says: “There is TRUTH you gotta KNOW in order to be with me”. And that TRUTH has a NAME: JESUS. He is the Way (to God), the TRUTH (from God) and the LIFE (of God). And the solution to our problem of ignorance is knowing HIM - JESUS.
He told us so in John 17:3, when Jesus prayed - “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and [ME] Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
THAT is what Paul is praying for the EPHESIANS here.
The “Spirit of wisdom”? 1 Corinthians 1:24 says “Christ IS… the wisdom of God”
The “Spirit of REVELATION”? John 1:18 says Jesus came to “make God KNOWN” to us.
That’s why Paul prays for “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation IN the knowledge of HIM”, Jesus.
Now, you say, “Wait a minute; I thought you said Paul was writing to BELIEVERS… who already KNOW Jesus personally, as their Lord and Savior, and who therefore already HAVE eternal life and salvation… and who already have the HOLY SPIRIT as a sign and SEAL of their faith and inheritance. So why is Paul praying for THE SPIRIT, and for SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT for them?”
I like the way Warren Wiersbe puts it (589): “[Paul] did not ask God to give them what they did not have, but rather prayed that God would reveal to them what they already had”. Wiersbe tells the story of the wealthy 20th c newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who invested a FORTUNE collecting art for his massive estate. One day Hearst read about a prized painting he decided he HAD to have, so he sent his assistants all over the WORLD in search. Months go by. Finally they return and inform him they’ve found the painting, but Hearst cannot possibly BUY it. Indignant, he asks why NOT! And they tell him, “Because we found it in your WAREHOUSE.”
We’ve already RECEIVED God’s Spirit; the Spirit of WISDOM, revelation, knowledge, enlightenment. Paul’s just praying that we’d dig the treasure OUT of the warehouse, out of the recesses of our HEARTS, and hang it up where it DESERVES to be: on full display at the very CENTER of our lives.
The Bible refers to this as “LIVING UNTO the Spirit”, as opposed to living unto the FLESH. If we are in Christ, we HAVE His Spirit; the only question is: “Will we WALK in it?” And Paul’s gonna spend the entire SECOND half of this letter, chapters 4-6 of Ephesians, outlining the DIFFERENCE, between living unto the Spirit vs. the flesh.
But HERE, he’s praying that the Ephesians would enjoy a deeper FILLING with the Spirit. Paul uses an interesting word picture later in ch5, when he exhorts us not to “get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit” (v18). Both foreign substances, the more of which you let INTO you, the less YOU’RE in control and the more THEY take control. Paul says: “BAD idea with ALCOHOL; GREAT idea with the Holy SPIRIT! Be FILLED - get DRUNK in the Spirit!”
And when you ARE, God’s gonna reveal - through His Spirit - THREE truths to you; three ADDITIONAL GIFTS. Jesus is the gift that keeps on GIVING! Paul is PRAYING that God would GIVE these believers a greater manifestation of His Spirit which brings WITH it the gifts of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, spiritual enlightenment - and to the extent that God DOES fill them - fill US! - we receive the GIFT of KNOWING - v18: “that you may know”; again: not just intellectually, as theological abstractions; the original word in the Bible for “know” - yada - meant deep, personal, INTIMATE knowledge; it’s used as a euphemism for SEX (“Adam KNEW his wife Eve, and she conceived”) Paul says, “I want you to KNOW like THAT - intimately, personally, experientially - 3 truths:
The HOPE of God’s CALLING.
The VALUE of God’s INHERITANCE. And
The STRENGTH of God’s POWER.
Vv18b-19a:
The HOPE of God’s CALLING.
The VALUE of God’s INHERITANCE. And
The STRENGTH of God’s POWER.
Let’s look at EACH of those gifts, briefly (we could EASILY spend a whole SUNDAY on any ONE of these phrases here, much less a single VERSE of this passage, but I think it’s best to take it as Paul GIFTED it to us, as a whole, and simply be OVERWHELMED by the weight and GLORY of what he’s saying. We may only be scratching the surface, but I hope I’m giving you GLIMPSES, at least, of the DEPTH, the OCEAN that lies beneath.
So what IS the “hope of God’s calling”? Paul has used that word once already, last week in v12: “we who were the first to HOPE in Christ… have obtained an INHERITANCE, having been predestined,” or called. So God CALLS us to the HOPE of an INHERITANCE. What KIND of hope, what KIND of inheritance?
1 Peter 1 answers: “According to his great mercy, [God] has caused us [you gotta be CALLED to this hope; GOD caused us] to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”.
What kind of hope? A LIVING hope.
What kind of inheritance? An ETERNAL inheritance
Do you realize that MOST people alive today - and not just the ones halfway around the world who worship the wrong God - most of the people around YOU, who you interact with on a DAILY basis, who may even check “Christian” on a survey if they’re asked, but who worship the wrong GODS - Mammon (Money), Status, Work, Family, SELF - the vast MAJORITY of people out there have NO HOPE beyond the grave, no INHERITANCE in heaven. They are living for TODAY, for THIS life, living their “best life NOW”, because they have no HOPE for TOMORROW, for the life to COME.
Paul says: “...but not YOU. You HAVE hope, you HAVE an inheritance… in CHRIST.”
Paul says: “I want you to KNOW it.” Deeply, experientially. He prays elsewhere, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
Brothers and sisters: God is inviting us to live ALL of this life in LIGHT OF the HOPE that we now have in life to COME. To view every SORROW and SUFFERING in this life through the LENS of the HOPE that is waiting in STORE for us. Paul says, “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look NOT to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen… and eternal” (2 Cor 4:17). Paul says: Don’t LOOK at what’s right in FRONT of you; look at what’s just up AHEAD, on just the other SIDE. Most people are TERRIFIED of it! They have NO HOPE, no confidence of an INHERITANCE; they are mistakenly “HOPING” that IF there’s a God at ALL, he will deem them “good enough” for heaven, which is REALLY no hope AT ALL. Because what they FAIL to realize is that heaven is a perfect place reserved for perfect PEOPLE to enjoy perfect fellowship with a perfect God. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus said, “GOOD ENOUGH??” “You must be PERFECT, like GOD is perfect,” if you wanna live with Him forever.
But now listen to what Jesus DID for us, on the cross; Hebrews 10:14: “by a single offering [by offering up HIMSELF, as a SACRIFICE in our place - by dying the death that WE deserved because of OUR sin] Christ has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
We’re still BEING “sanctified”, made more and more HOLY and LIKE him every day, but ONE day, that life-long process will be OVER and we’ll be found PERFECT when we stand before our perfect heavenly Father, because we’ll be dressed in all the righteousness of CHRIST.
Jesus died the death that we deserved for us so that we might enjoy the LIFE, the HOPE, the INHERITANCE that only HE deserves.
Friends: THAT is the “hope of God’s calling”. And it can be YOUR hope - you might have walked in this morning with NO hope, NO inheritance; but you can walk OUT a child of God with a LIVING hope, an ETERNAL inheritance, if you will simply turn from your sin and trust in CHRIST by faith. Receive the RICHES of his glorious grace.
For all who DO, Paul prays a SECOND gift over us now: “that you may KNOW… (intimately) the RICHES of God’s INHERITANCE.”
You say, “Didn’t we just DISCUSS the hope of our inheritance?”
That was OUR inheritance. NOW Paul wants us to know the riches of GOD’S - v18 says “HIS glorious inheritance”.
Did you realize GOD has an inheritance as well? And what IS it? V18 answers: it is his inheritance “IN the SAINTS”.
Church: YOU are God’s inheritance! And as far as inheritances GO, God’s word declares that you are a TREASURE; he wants us to know what are the RICHES of his inheritance… in US.
Why? Because WE were so wonderful, that God sent his assistant to track us down, cuz he just HAD to have us for his priceless collection? Or because JESUS is so wonderful, that he took a bunch of JUNK art like us - my 20 month old’s crayon scribblings on the kids menu at lunch - but JESUS is such a masterful art RESTORER that by the time HE gets done with us we look like a REMBRANDT, a DA VINCI.
Church: JESUS is the reason we are now a RICH inheritance unto the Lord; it is all to the praise of HIS glorious grace.
The hope of God’s calling… the riches of God’s inheritance… and thirdly, Paul prays in v19, that we would know the GREATNESS - the IMMEASURABLE greatness - of God’s POWER.
And the very FIRST thing Paul wants us to know ABOUT God’s great power, is where it is DIRECTED: his power is “TOWARD US who believe”.
Have you ever LOST power to your house - just YOURS? Cuz it’s one thing if the whole neighborhood is down; you’re all kinda in it together. But when you can look across and see THEIR lights on, THEIR T.V. on… they’re enjoying a big bowl of ICE CREAM they were ABLE to get out of THEIR freezer… You think: “I wish some of that POWER was directed toward ME!”
Romans 1:16 declares that the GOSPEL - the “good news” of Jesus Christ; his life, death, and resurrection - “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”
And Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:19 is that those of us who are RECIPIENTS of that power, BECAUSE we believe, might know just how POWERFUL God’s power really IS.
HOW great? “IMMEASURABLE greatness… according to the working of his GREAT might”.
The power that God WORKED, v20, “in Christ when [God] raised him from the dead”.
Now we come to point #3: the GIFTS Paul was praying over us flow right into God’s POWER at work within us, because KNOWING that power was Paul’s third PRAYER. And the rest of the passage now, is really just a detailed description of that power.
But it’s the BEST part of the whole passage… even if I only saved 5 MINUTES for it. But it’s okay, because these glorious realities truly DEFY WORDS.
But like PAUL, let’s try and do our best. To TALK about things that TRANSCEND language.
What IS this “immeasurably great” POWER that God has worked TOWARD us, IN Christ? Three things; it is THREE powers.
First, we have RESURRECTION power.
(3) In Christ, we receive power over DEATH. (vv19-20)
Paul explains: It is God’s power toward US, who BELIEVE… and it’s the SAME power “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead”!
Christian: do you realize, do you APPRECIATE, can you GRASP, not FULLY of course, but even FRACTIONALLY, the kind of POWER that is now at work within you. The SAME power that brought JESUS back to life, after 3 days, now lives in YOU, in ME, in US!
Paul’s gonna spend most of NEXT week, in ch2, trying to help us get even the faintest GLIMPSE of the GREATNESS of the GLORY of this truth; that “even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, [God] made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up with him”.
Amazing grace; Lord, help me know
Your power at work in ME.
It breaks the chains of Sin and Death
And sets this prisoner FREE.
We no are no longer slaves of SIN, no longer destined for DEATH; we are children of God - HEIRS of eternal life, living hope - because of Christ’s resurrection power at work within us.
But don’t miss this: not ONLY did God RAISE Jesus from the dead - and raise US from death IN HIM - God’s power also “seated [Christ] at his right hand [the place of HONOR] in the heavenly places”.
Likewise, Paul will tell us next week in ch2 that God not ONLY “raised us up with [Christ]”; he also “seated us with him [in that SAME place of honor, at the Father’s right hand] in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6).
So not just resurrection power over sin, but reverential power over shame, as well. God promises - OVER and over again throughout his word - that He will “HUMBLE the proud, but he will EXALT the humbled” (Mt 23:12, et al).
Maybe you feel like in this life you’ve been forced to sit in one lousy seat of DISHONOR after the next. Don’t let the West County veneer fool you: we’ve got folks here at West Hills who have been HOMELESS, folks who are scrubbing other people’s TOILETS to make ends meet; some of you grew up being told you were WORTHLESS, or being TREATED that way, by the person whose opinion mattered MOST to you; some of you will get treated that way THIS AFTERNOON, when you get home from church, by your SPOUSE, your KIDS… or by your BOSS, tomorrow morning.
And it will have to be ENOUGH for you to know that if you could only see yourself with SPIRITUAL eyes - have the “eyes of your heart enlightened” - to see yourself the way that GOD now sees you, in CHRIST, you’d see that you are already seated WITH Christ in the seat of UTMOST honor: your heavenly Father’s right hand. And in HIS eyes, you are a PRICELESS treasure; the RICHES of his inheritance.
So in Christ we receive RESURRECTING power, REVERENTIAL power, and lastly: we receive REIGNING power. RULING power.
(4) …the power of DOMINION. (vv21-23)
God’s right hand is not ONLY the place of supreme HONOR; it is the place of supreme AUTHORITY as well. “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And [God] put all things under [Christ’s] feet”; Paul just keeps piling on the words now, trying in VAIN to encapsulate just how POWERFUL Christ is, the scope of his RULE and dominion. But it’s INEFFABLE!
And then Paul CONCLUDES with perhaps the most astounding truth of ALL; don’t you love a big, shocking, twist ending? But it’s not really a “twist” at all. Because Paul told us right at the BEGINNING of all this talk about God’s great power, that it is “toward US”, who believe. But then he got so ENRAPTURED reflecting on JESUS’ power - HIS “rule, authority, power, and dominion”... JESUS’ name which is above every other name… God putting all things under JESUS’ feet… that you almost thought for a minute that Paul was gonna forget all about US, didn’t you? And who could BLAME him? Who are WE, compared to JESUS?!
But that’s asking the wrong QUESTION, isn’t it? The question isn’t “Who are we, compared to Jesus?” but rather “Who are we now IN Christ Jesus?”
And Paul’s concluding and shocking answer to THAT question is: In Christ, we are RULERS of the entire UNIVERSE.
“WHAT?!”
YES. Follow his train of logic here:
V22a: God put ALL things under CHRIST’S feet. With him so far? Makes sense.
But then 22b: God “GAVE Christ as head over all things… TO the CHURCH, which is his BODY”!
That is one of the Bible’s driving METAPHORS for US, the CHURCH: we are Christ’s BODY; he is the HEAD of the CHURCH. That means Jesus is in authority OVER us.
But Paul says: THINK about it; you can’t separate the HEAD from the BODY. So if CHRIST is ruling over all things; if God has put everything under his FEET… well, who are the FEET?!
That’s US, Church! WE’RE the feet; we’re his BODY! That means God’s put it all under US, as well! If CHRIST - our “head” - has received all rule and authority and power and dominion, then so too have WE - his “body”.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:3, “we [the Church] will judge ANGELS”. In Revelation 3:21, Jesus promises us: “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne”, and RULE with me.
It may sound like some kind of far-fetched CULTISH theology when you hear that in the new heavens and new earth, every believer is gonna receive a planet… a solar system… a whole GALAXY to RULE over, as Christ’s VICE-regent, but guess what: that’s just biblical CHRISTIANITY. And if you are in CHRIST, that is your eternal DESTINY.
Paul goes so far here as to identify us, the Church, as “the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Remember v10? God’s PLAN for the “fullness of time”? “To unite ALL things - in heaven and on earth - in him”, in Christ. But since we are his BODY, to the extent that CHRIST fills all in all - the entire UNIVERSE can’t contain his GLORY - so too do WE fill all.
Did I mention yet that human words can’t EXPRESS these truths, and human minds can’t COMPREHEND them. But to the extent that your HEART does, that God gives you the spiritual eyes to SEE - see HIM, see CHRIST, see YOURSELF - you will be filled with God’s wisdom and revelation, His HOPE and his POWER. To the PRAISE of HIS glorious grace.
Amen.